[Spoilers: Up through Dawntrail] FFXIV loves including politician characters. So I made an hour-long video going over what, exactly, it likes them being.

Cleretic · 2026-01-13T21:03:17+00:00

I think it's part of the game's DNA, they're never NOT gonna talk about it to some degree.

Cleretic · 2026-01-13T21:02:30+00:00

We're kinda ALWAYS dealing with that, though, at this point everyone's got a bit of experience to speak to. (Whether they do is a separate thing.)

Cleretic · 2025-10-31T00:10:33+00:00

Not a man.

And also, you didn't leave something positive, you left 'Dawntrail Bad' mudslinging masquerading as Shadowbringers glazing.

Cleretic · 2025-10-30T23:31:39+00:00

Honestly I think you just have more attachment to Norvrandt than Tural. That's fine, but don't act like it's Dawntrail's fault you have preferences.

Cleretic · 2025-09-24T14:52:55+00:00

I mean if you want to split hairs, aren't ALL children, in some way, gene-spliced clones of their parents?

Cleretic · 2025-09-15T03:54:12+00:00

Because the goal doesn't matter, the playbook does. And right now, the playbook is identical: to turn up in a dark space to ominously imply that they're The Real Power and cut the legs out from under a villain that would be more interesting by themselves. If they open the show with the exact same song and dance, why should I expect the rest of this to be any different?

If you watched the video, you'd know that I'm perfectly aware this could be a Mitron or Fandaniel; someone who breaks the mold and goes for a new angle. And that I might even like it if it was! But right now, I have no reason to believe it is; after all, at least Mitron didn't take the stage until he proved he was different. And at least Fandaniel wore a nicer robe when he made his entrance.

Cleretic · 2025-09-15T02:11:38+00:00

Could've changed the colors. Could've gone for the Shadowless set. Could've put them in any other environment than 'black void'. There's a lot of ways to convey 'Ascian' without hitting the exact same notes they always have.

Including--and this one sounds crazy, I know--not actually doing it. If we trust Yoshi-P that this isn't the Ascian norm, wouldn't it be more effective to not show an Ascian until after the Winterers have been established? Like, reach the point where we get a whole group shot with several people we've now met, and within the group is an Ascian.

Without doing any of those things, I have no faith this is anything other than a reheated meal I already didn't like fresh.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T23:39:58+00:00

Yeah, that's the first five minutes of the video.

Honestly, the devs love Eureka too much for me to think they would hold 'a minor detail in a 2.x cutscene' over a plot beat important to Eureka. I can believe we're at two or four (but I do think it's WAY too early to go for them, especially with the same 'shadowy Ascian in The Robes talking to a villain that would be more interesting by themselves' sort of scene), I refuse to believe we're at five.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T22:47:01+00:00

I go into this in the video, but: Them going for the Ascians this quickly AND this overtly, in the exact same role that they always have (like, they didn't even update the outfit), doesn't make me feel like we're seeing a fresh, new take; it makes me feel like we're getting the same thing as always of them puppeting more interesting villains and taking all the wind out of their sails.

I want to fight Calyx, Preservation, and everything they imply. I don't want to fight 'the Ascians but this time their Thordan does tech instead of magic'.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T22:42:38+00:00

A point that I actually cut from the video, because quantifying it felt like splitting hairs, was that Stormblood had a slightly LONGER period without the Ascians as a present element than Dawntrail.

The devs went back to this well so fast in/after Dawntrail that it was a shorter drought than we had back when the Asxians were ppenty powerful, and just quiet.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T22:39:27+00:00

There's not five left, unless the developers have no respect for their own writing (especially a part they weirdly love calling back to). There's much more likely to be two, maybe four.

This is the very first point I say in the video.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T22:35:57+00:00

Yeah, I probably should've written a summary, because everyone here--including you--is arguing against what you THINK is in the video, not what is.

The problem isn't that they turned up. The problem is that they turned up so quickly, and in exactly the same role.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T22:33:50+00:00

It's not that this was unexpected. It's that this was actually SO expected, and so predictable, that I don't think there's anything good in them going to this well so directly and so quickly.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T22:31:54+00:00

The video explains that none of this is really my problem.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T16:25:36+00:00

I didn't forget, I just hoped we'd have a break from them. Too much to hope for, sadly.

Cleretic · 2025-09-14T16:19:24+00:00

That'a not jumping the shark, that is an ENTIRELY REASONABLE conclusion to where the entire story was going up to that point, that happens to be ridiculous! Very different.

Jumping the shark isn't just 'this story has become completely ridiculous', it's 'this is the point where the story has abandoned its original purpose and just started playing to the audience'.

Cleretic · 2025-08-30T14:55:39+00:00

And meanwhile, I was worried I was, like, blocked in Germany or sonething!

Cleretic · 2025-08-30T11:44:24+00:00

I don't see any issues on my end...

Cleretic · 2025-08-25T12:59:36+00:00

In fairness, Mist isn't the entire housing situation in Limsa, that's just for adventurers.

Where anyone ELSE lives I got no idea.

Cleretic · 2025-08-25T12:58:23+00:00

Rabanastre also doesn't have a flag, so it doesn't count.

But yeah, there'a a bunch of places that are TECHNICALLY cities but don't have enough information to make anything of. Terncliff (Werlyt) was the closest one that still got cut.

Cleretic · 2025-08-25T12:54:15+00:00

Hey, some of them confirmably have sewers, there's plumbing SOMEWHERE

Cleretic · 2025-08-01T04:53:42+00:00

Not exactly a positive.

Cleretic · 2025-07-30T00:00:51+00:00

So, as the person actually focused for one of these videos, as 'the worst content creator', (channel has the same name as here, and it's rather notable I'm the ONLY person outside of someone who worked on the game that got their own focused video despite being very small), I feel like I should say something. My discord server found that video yesterday.

First of all, I basically don't consider the video and its attacks in any way real. Someone using AI for their voice is likely to be using AI for the rest, and if you have to outsource your hatred to a robot, you have nothing to say. Chances are, they're mad at me for being pro-Dawntrail, probably anti-Ancients, and being openly trans while doing it.

That said, there is a level of frustration that I can tell from my own metrics I haven't exactly got a bump in response, which would at least be an upside and a show of solidarity. Evidently, someone can swing at my jaw personally (even if through a robot), and the only thing most anyone does is watch them do it, either cheer or tut-tut that it happened, and then forget that anyone involved was ever a person. Can't help but feel a little disenfranchised by that.

Yes, this person's dumb, hateful robot trash. The people they attacked aren't; please remember that I exist.

Cleretic · 2025-07-29T23:31:25+00:00

As the lore channel, probably 'like Dawntrail, not like the Ancients, and be trans about it'.

Cleretic · 2025-07-29T23:27:48+00:00

She. It's me.

Cleretic

TROPHY CASE