i loooved your thoughts about zenos, and THANK U for remembering that he himself is a victim in some ways! So many people, his detractors obvi but even quite a few that like him, dumb him down to this ontologically evil psycho man until alisaie taught him a better way to get dat good fight dick and it annoys me so much 😭
And... thanks? But I think I actually wrote exactly what you don't like...didn't I?
I struggle with analyzing Zenos because I personally despise him - I can never shake the feeling that I'm doing a "what about HIS pain?" for an FFXIV equivalent of a mass shooter.
Strangely enough I don't seem to struggle with that as much in thinking about Emet-Selch. Hmmmmm...
Nahhh, I love reading about the thoughts people have on Zenos so long as they give him a fair shake and don't dismiss his character. I've no qualms with people coming to the conclusion of "yeah fuck this guy" so long as they do that, and I don't believe everyone SHOULD come to the same style of "fuck that guy" conclusion as me lol
What a fantastic read. You and I share a lot of the very same feelings about EW. While I took away a bit more from the Zenos conflict at the end (I would have preferred an option to walk away but knew it was impossible), much of your points reflected my own thoughts.
ARR through EW has been the best entertainment experience of my life to date (almost 60) and I'm not kidding. Maybe it's age combined with life experience and my own atheism that made it so profound for me, maybe not. But it has literally shifted my perspectives on many, many things. Your essay is superb.
I'm trying so hard to focus on how flattered I am by this, but I'm just so thrilled that you're 60! (What a weird thing to write, lol.) Anyway, I'm nearing 50 myself so I'm always thrilled when I meet older players. I wonder, yes, if maybe that's why we're more struck by meaning in smaller moments as opposed to the kind of epic stories/grand narratives that seize our imaginations in our youth.
But, seriously, thanks for the compliment. I want to write these things because I forever hope I'm not the only person who really likes to chew on this fantastic story!
i loooved your thoughts about zenos, and THANK U for remembering that he himself is a victim in some ways! So many people, his detractors obvi but even quite a few that like him, dumb him down to this ontologically evil psycho man until alisaie taught him a better way to get dat good fight dick and it annoys me so much 😭
"dat good fight dick" is too, too good.
And... thanks? But I think I actually wrote exactly what you don't like...didn't I?
I struggle with analyzing Zenos because I personally despise him - I can never shake the feeling that I'm doing a "what about HIS pain?" for an FFXIV equivalent of a mass shooter.
Strangely enough I don't seem to struggle with that as much in thinking about Emet-Selch. Hmmmmm...
Nahhh, I love reading about the thoughts people have on Zenos so long as they give him a fair shake and don't dismiss his character. I've no qualms with people coming to the conclusion of "yeah fuck this guy" so long as they do that, and I don't believe everyone SHOULD come to the same style of "fuck that guy" conclusion as me lol
What a fantastic read. You and I share a lot of the very same feelings about EW. While I took away a bit more from the Zenos conflict at the end (I would have preferred an option to walk away but knew it was impossible), much of your points reflected my own thoughts.
ARR through EW has been the best entertainment experience of my life to date (almost 60) and I'm not kidding. Maybe it's age combined with life experience and my own atheism that made it so profound for me, maybe not. But it has literally shifted my perspectives on many, many things. Your essay is superb.
I'm trying so hard to focus on how flattered I am by this, but I'm just so thrilled that you're 60! (What a weird thing to write, lol.) Anyway, I'm nearing 50 myself so I'm always thrilled when I meet older players. I wonder, yes, if maybe that's why we're more struck by meaning in smaller moments as opposed to the kind of epic stories/grand narratives that seize our imaginations in our youth.
But, seriously, thanks for the compliment. I want to write these things because I forever hope I'm not the only person who really likes to chew on this fantastic story!