Відео

The complaints I've heard about Wuk Lamat have been more about her VA's delivery, which strikes me as odd because she's far from the worst. Do you think it's bigotry about her accent, or about her being trans?

"This is a peace-loving girl who knows how to **** **** up." I mean, she IS a warrior. (And I love her so much. <3 )

The people of Shaaloani speaking in these heavy American accents was definitely quite the whiplash. Especially considering the context. Going by the naming conventions of the people and the towns they live in, it's clear they're Shaaloani natives and not colonizers from another country. The sudden spike of technology and the designs the settlements being attributed to Koana bringing new toys from Sharlayan. But the fact that they act like stereotypical American settlers comes across as weird, especially when you consider that they've had all these changes for only a few years in-universe. It's as if the new tech not only changes their way of life, but also their way of speaking in just three years (If Namika and Koana are any indication, Xak Tural natives who led traditional lives speak with different accents). The doylist explanation for this is probably that the devs wanted to move away from colonialist themes when designing Tural, but they also really wanted a Cowboy themed zone, hence this conundrum.

I am firmly of the opinion that G'raha was added to the throng just because a proper healer option was needed for future trusts in the MSQ. Cause, gotta admit, he's a good addition if you're running DPS

My favorite part of Wuk saying 'let's smash the train into the fortress' is that it is so very her. It has the ignorant, impulsive, overly simplistic, smash Wuk approach we saw in the beginning, but with actual thought put into it. She knows better by now and still knows it's the best course of action. Level 90 Wuk we'd be "that's a dumb idea", now we're like "you're probably on to something".

Looking forward to seeing how you like Trial: 2.

A pet bugbear of mine is that Fantasy shows using (RP) British accents because the trope is so entrenched - historical fiction even more so, especially when in many ways several American accents have more accurately archaic features like rhoticity, so any time a fantasy series widens the English accents beyond the British Isles I'm overjoyed. WoT is one I bring up often. Shaaloani was a weird adjustment to me because under absolutely no circumstance would I have accepted any VAs that weren't American (S or N). But because I speak it myself and know a couple regional TX accents, I could hear that they weren't exactly my accent and some of the word choices threw me off. There's a couple distinct 'Rez' accents and a general SW/Western that I could tell they were aiming for, but another thing about said accents and those of Appalachia and TX is the heavy use of archaic English and phrase choices that sound old-fashioned and wacky to other forms of English. Just not the same that XIV uses like all the 'needs must' and 'succor'. I wish they had. It would have fit. So my question is, when we get to Meracydia, will you also feel weird if we don't get Aussie accents, and are there some regional dialects that would mix better with the EN localization style?

I think it's a pretty clever stealth joke that they put in, but the Titanium Gold armor set, aka the max max armor, feel like jokes because when you're wearing them you're going to go 'beyond the thunderdome.'

The "trouble pronouncing names" option made me laugh because I knew it was there for all the European/Eastern Hemisphere players as a fun lampshade (but did they do the same for Doma? *side-eye*). But also reminded me of how, okay x = sh isn't common common knowledge but I didn't know just how little tolerance I'd have for fellow Americans complaining about the Turali names when the state you live in is guaranteed to have a large percentage of native-based names until I saw the racism.

I personally enjoyed the downtime with Erenville. Though a lot of that may be attributed to me being an American with a love of our desert landscapes. (Tender Valley is an absolute love letter to the Sonoran desert region.) As an X-COM fan the attack on the capital struck me as quintessential terror bombing. Which fits right in with the story.

i like shaloni it feels like its plot would be the plot for a cowboy or machinist realm reborn style class quest but also i get pepole wanting to get to the fireworks factory during it.

The surprise fleet attacking did have big impact for me. Because beside the children topic in your last video, not a lot of dark stuff really happened so far. It was a rather chill vacation. So see people getting killed by unknown army was very "Oh shit! Oh no!" This is also around the point I did get very invested in the expansion.

I have to disagree with being grouped with Koana being the expected one. I expected us to be paired up with one of the "villainous" contestant and it leading to further drama.

Hey, uhh... As a Culinarian Crafting Main (Yes, I'm an Omnicrafter, I just like Making food the most), I do think it's been a bit too one-sided to CUL over ALC. We oughtta get some more Cool potion making stuff. I was kinda waiting for the Juice quests to be a bit more like "go and find this rare turali fruit and make an extract of it's active ingredient so I can add it to my next beverage", but alas.

love your videos, just need that out there. Also love Sena Bryer's acting as Wut Lamut. Also getting real sick and tired of right wing haters.

Bakool Ja Ja post reveal got really interesting and even compelling... I just wish they had set him up as a bit less cartoonishly evil Dick Dastardly type beforehand, with some hints that there is actually more to him than just being a jerk.

So Yak T'el is basically the Yucatan. 66 million years ago when the meteor that wiped the Dinosaurs hit earth, it crash landed where the Yucatan (Chicxulub crater) is and even today the Yucatan is known for it's Cenotes. Xibruq Pibil is basically Cochinita Pibil, a native Yucatan pork dish (FFXIV MSQ uses Black Ibruq, which is a catfish from spear fishing; although there is a boar-like beastkin known as a Ibruq just outside the quest area which is closer to the irl dish) that is marinated in spices, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in the ground. And of course the the Yok Huy activity within the area before the Mamool ja, the Yok Huy act almost like the Olmecs which irl existed around 1200 B.C.E - 400 B.C.E. The Olmec's cultural disappearance are attributed with tectonic upheaval and the rerouting of rivers that had caused the low lands of their heartland to become uninhabitable. In the days of the Actecs, they referred to a certain group of people as "Rubber people" which is what Olmec means in Nahuatl. Both the Mayans and the Aztecs have a record of revering and reusing certain Olmec artifacts throughout history.

The dungeon boss isnt unique its a reskinned Phase 2 Titan from E4S even using some of the same attacks. Though curiously has Aries symbols on its face

I think Bakool Ja Ja's VA (Javier Prusky) absolutely sold it. The reveals here really were' like that missing puzzle piece of his entire character. Everything just slid into place so neatly Also as a Roegadyn player, I was real excited every time Ketenramm showed up. Since he's the only Roe around on this side of the world.

You know how there are tons of Mamool Ja children and happy parents in Tuliyollal? There are no children in Mamook.

I think its important to remember with Wuk, the main thing we see her struggle with early on is a dislike of water, not being in control of her physical movements, and heights. This to me makes a lot of sense for a girl that as a child was kicked down a well.

Enjoying the videos! 33:20 "Indigenous futurism" is a term people use sometimes I believe.

I'm glad you seem to be enjoying DT. I have some issues with it but I genuinely enjoyed it. Some people are ripping it a new one but almost all of their points are either not true or trash but I guess opinions are subjective right. I do agree with some of the writing and pacing opinions though.

I can't wait to see your theorycrafting for Tender Valley.

I’ll state my thoughts on Bakool Ja Ja later but I do like how we at least call him out for using his siblings as an excuse. To him going from basically setting off a nuke in the mountains to this? Yeah someone had to tell him that what he’s doing won’t make his siblings proud.

An interesting parallel imo is that Wuk Lamat's attempted assassin tried to drown her (the hope of the tribe) in the same way thousands of attempted "hopes" for the Mamool Ja were buried in the Skydeep Cenote.

Since I didn't pick up on the hints leading up to Ketenramm's reveal, my initial reaction when he appeared was "Ketenramm the Blue came out of the blue!" I feel like I should apologize for that pun, but I won't. One world-building detail that stood out to me in Yak T'el was the names of the Turali Hrothgar. There is a lot of repeating names that are combined in various ways, and it doesn't seem they are determined by clan or parentage. I suspect that their names are based on their namedays (like if you're born on March 7th, your name would be March 7th). Hopefully this will be explained in the future, because I've been thinking of creating a Turali Hrothgar as an Alt char.

Whewwwww Skydeep. As a mom who's dealt with a loss in the past, that had me feeling all sort of ways when the reveal happened. And even though BJJ told us how long it was going on, it wasn't until that first cinematic that you go "oh. Oh shit. THAT long."

So. Even before the split second shot of the jars in Bakool Ja Ja's freak out, I was very tense about Blessed Siblings and wondering throughout all of DT just how *dark* was SE going to go with a plot point of an entrenched tradition that depended on arranged marriages producing special children. Because that called for unhappy mothers in forced marriages and a bunch of rejected siblings. I thought that was BJJ's angst going from his taco scene intro - that he had a bunch of one-headed siblings and knew that he could have been rejected and neglected and thus his desperation, facade bigotry, and drive to uplift their status. Then the jars. And I already knew about the connection to human - specifically young child - sacrifices and cenotes. (If at any point a rain god would have been mentioned I would have started screaming). So after that, I was crying. I was crying enough to make myself sick when they introduced the Autarch and there was a female Mamool Ja behind him because I *knew* . All that was going through my head was questioning SE on how dark were they willing to go, whether it would go to wide-scale infanticide or pick the slightly softer option of stillbirth. They went with that softer option but I still needed a few hours break before continuing the MSQ and the dungeon was hard. Had ANY of those ghost mobs started doing the Ga Bu Titan thing and talking, I would have quit. The palpable relief when the boss and rest of the dungeon switched enemies was Immense. Also was initially surprised that Wuk Lamat wasn't paired with a Mamool Ja for the reality show cooking contest- and definitely suspect tribal bias was helping her w/ the villagers' willingness to drop hints.

Definitely my favorite part of the expac. The music when we walk into the door that leads to another door had me in chills.

When Koana blasted his tablet to smithereens, dear reader, I cheered SO loud. Let's hear it for the boy!

wait, there a side quest that talks about Fantasias?

Vaguely related at best, but what are those glasses that Ein is wearing? I don't know if I've ever seen them before

Tidbits and nods that I loved: Inca Empire was while not as famously expansionist as the Aztecs, a relatively recent and very expansionist empire conquering far afield into the Amazon. Which makes the Yok Huy conquering into Tak T'el a nice nod I instantly noticed. The final death of memory - I think between Coco and the Book of Life this cornerstone of Mexican culture is well-known (and why I compared Living Memory to the world's most messed up and expensive perversion of an ofrenda). Disease! and the giant chasm stopping the GABI means that it makes sense. Also my favorite thing about the Golden City is how it ended up having multiple access locations if we include both gates to reflect how even though nowadays media adds it to "Mayaztec" El Dorado fantasies in a mishmash of Central America and the Amazon and combines it with the stories about the gold-filled lakes in Columbia, the actual El Dorado myth that the conquistadors searched for was the disaster expedition to the North Am Southwest in around the NM/AZ/Colorado area.

Having trust healer red mage had me feeling pretty upset given all of the talk of healers before launch. Granted the combat design in DT over all has been enough to make me not care about the strike since it addressed many of the concerns, but that doesn't kick in until dungeon 3. Also the fact that ex 2 is possible before crafted gear with 7 DPS and a paladin is a bit of a bummer.

Folks seeing the giant leader for the first time. - whoa, big! Me - hehe, garlic beard

for Valigarmanda to appear on Dawntrail's cover art, i was hoping he'd fill a larger role in the overall narrative instead of being the first instance boss

There are no extreme or savage dungeons. Not sure who told you that or if it's a joke that went right over my head lol.

I really loved the role quests this time around. The opening introduction is the exact kind of thing I have heard role players do in open bars, right down to staff quietly urging them to maybe not be so blatant. Thankfully though we are using older zones, it seems far more an excuse to not gate people who haven't finished msq, as opposed to ew's "this is about the place you're going." The tank quest in particular really worked for me because our leads were just fun. It's probably my favorite with melee coming in second.

I have been patiently waiting for a Cleretic-Dawntrail video. Solid gold.

Also, Crossing fingers you get to talk about the Two gathering side quests. The fishing quests were absolute gems, and the Mining botany quests makes the lore part of my brain go brrrr after the studium quests.

I was totally shocked when I heard the moblins it didn’t occur to for the longest time that the psssshock noises the goblin made were actually their respirators/gas mask noises. And not some sort of vocal tick!

This is super interesting. As a duskwight WoL, my sympathies for Gridania are...still in the negative over a decade later, but I've warmed to some of the characters. Elementals, to me, are basically a non-issue at this point. Don't like 'em, but whatever. They're there to stay. The people though...look no further than the two Wailers hassling a Duskwight kid in city limits, either outside of the Archer's guild or the Lancer's. ACAB, essentially.

Also- I thought of your CUL/ALC complaints while doing the juice quests- which I adore the main NPC- and I found it darkly funny that the underlying beat is that she wanted to be a healer and do more alchemical-esque crafts but due to the same problem as Cocobusi it's a juice/CUL questline

Agreed that the post-dungeon chats was where it sold me that Wuk Lamat was *clearly* the best and in fact only choice for leadership

Commented elsewhere on other points, but I have one for something you pointed out as a strength - the contest having seven clearly defined stops and how the path for the first half of the MSQ is so quickly established. I wonder if some of the negative reaction to the first half of DT is actually tied to that, as counterintuitive as it sounds. We know where we're going and what (roughly) to expect. I'm wondering if having that path actually bored some people, instead of the meandering mystery.

19:16 Yeah no I caught it as well, the Pellu Pellu section is just DS9's in the cards.

I was playing with my friend and sharing our reactions with each other, and I think that was the best decision I made about this expansion's story. Sharing ideas, wrong or right, with friends is so much fun!

I spent most of DT upset about where they do and don't recognize quest progress. Shaaloani was the big one, but it would have been nice here for alchemist as well.

love this, can't wait for you to get to the (spoiler) point and then (spoiler ...spoiler ... spoiler) bunny dance.