Rhio

People are RPing on Gilgamesh already? I am the last to know. I'm not sure how busy this weekend will end up being, so I'm just going to play this one by ear. I will definitely at least be checking out actual Rhio on Balmung, though, because it's been too long.

As you progress through the story a bit, this gets mentioned multiple times. So I think there are a couple of potential ways to look at this. By way of example, I'm going to use Ellaire Aldul, Rhio's mother and a resident of Ul'dah, because she exemplifies the problem perfectly. The obvious method is that you forget this person ever existed, left with just fuzzy memories of who they once were. This would work for casual acquaintances, but Ellaire has years of evidence to point to the existence of her daughter. If she completely forgot Rhio it would leave her completely insane, surrounded by a life with huge blanks that she can't possibly fill in. Even in more casual cases, it has issues. Deirdre knew Rhio, for example, and they had certain interactions that shaped one another. If Deirdre gave Rhio a gift, how does she explain the fact that one of her belongings has gone missing? She knows she gave it to someone, but who? Why? Instead, I favor a disconnect. Ellaire remembers her daughter, Rhio, and she remembers that Rhio went... somewhere. She can't remember where. She doesn't know where. And she should know, and it needles at her, but just like the year after Dalamud fell, everything gets hazy. She knows that there was a miqo'te at the battle, and it could have been Rhio, but... was that it? No, that couldn't have been. Sure, there's still a disconnect. Rhio could show up at Ellaire's door and Ellaire wouldn't fully recognize her daughter. But it at least allows the people to be remembered without violating lore.

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Phase 3 progress will be wiped at the end of phase 3. Phase 4 isn't planned to be wiped, but we've been told that it may happen as a result of some world-ended phenomena or something. You could look at this as an irritating restriction. Or you could look at this as your chance to experiment and screw around with stuff before you're locked into your poor choices for all eternity. I know which way I'm leaning.

Seeing familiar characters recreated in this thread... All the feels. Seriously. Every single feel.

Roeg ladies are win. Odds of me playing one would be about 100% if Rhio wasn't firmly established as a stupid damn cat.

A wild Gerik appeared earlier. He was there just chillin' in his smallclothes. It was awesome.

I should note at this point that if Rhio did perform contract killings, she would probably be quite discreet and spare your hypothetical loved ones any deep emotional trauma.

It'll probably be all papery and nasty. Flower petals don't last long; you should model that. I am amused that Granny Aysun is now a discussed character.

Looks like Gilgamesh has won the informal vote. All I can say is that I want to play Rhio again already, even if I have to just start from scratch in a strange place.

Well, Saint's Row IV comes out in August. Yeah, August is going to be fun.

It was more of an allusion than a quote, because boy, doing as thou wilt will harm lots of things. Especially levequest targets. I quote lots of people.

See, I'm in an odd place here. On the one hand, this trailer contained one new piece of real information (the new Legati) and a whole lot of prettiness, but that's about it. The voice acting was nowhere near what I've come to expect from Square and games in general, and it generally seemed to be aimed at people who weren't familiar with the game at launch. Also, Cid with his Jack Shepard-style failure beard is not nearly as cool as he seems to think he is. On the other hand, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssss.

My feeling about this is that this will definitely be the fifteenth numbered title in the Final Fantasy series.

Rhio can read, write, and speak multiple languages. Many of these languages are completely useless for her current environment and geographic circumstances. She is fluent in the Garlean tongue thanks to Deirdre and also can muddle through a little bit of the languages of beastmen.

Which seems perfectly in-character for him.

Lean Gerik is adorbs. And Manari looks so darn happy.

Roleplaying. That's not to say that I'm not excited about a lot of the mechanics on display or that I don't care about the changes to the game. I certainly do; given that I've played since launch it would be hard not to be. But I have a lot of memories with Rhio. I've played her and watched her go from her earliest incarnation to the woman who ended version 1.0. That was a miserably sad time in her life, alone and unloved, cut off from those she had called friends, left entirely isolated at what she thought was the end of the world. And when the time skip is over, she's coming back to a world that has moved on without her and quite possibly hasn't really remembered her, depending on the recollection of those who didn't skip. I want her to rebuild, to grow, to reconnect, to meet new people. I want the chance to slip back into the shoes of an old and dear friend. I want to explore her world again. As nice as everything else is, that's what makes me the most excited.

Ooh, I might actually be able to make this! I could bring 14-year-old Rhio or 12-year-old Rhio... both during periods of her life when she was somewhat shy and nervous. So not much like her normal self.

CJ's Art Thread: Where everyone can look and say "ugh, I wish I could draw." Even if they can.

Nah, needs to hit 7777. And yes, you should do more art. And then post it.

Don't worry, I'm sure there will be another Grandma Aysun drawing before too long.

Good stuff here! You should post more art.

I can't speak for others in the community, but I can speak for me, and I've been around here for a while. I have never, in my entire life, discriminated or been reluctant to roleplay with someone due to their level. Nor can I say that I've ever witnessed someone else in Final Fantasy XIV think less of another player due to their level, relative experience, or anything else. Several members of the RPC welcomed myself and my wife with open arms when we started playing Final Fantasy XI as miserably low-level characters post-Wings of the Goddess, with people going out of their way to help us get up to speed. People will generally raise an eyebrow if you're a level 1 mage claiming to be a master caster, but that is the absolute extent of it. While I can understand concerns about everything being set in stone by launch, the fact of the matter is that doesn't seem to be the case. Communities will be somewhat established, but a lot of the game's dynamics will be in flux because the game itself is in flux. Between level sync, new mechanics, and a completely different content flow, I don't think new players will be walking into a clubhouse with complete strangers. Designating a "new" server for people who don't want to play on Balmung honestly seems like the sort of thing more likely to cause issues than avoid them. It'll help people who are worried about the existing server community, but it'll make everything else more complicated, especially with establishing linkshells and setting up community events. It's splitting the community, and considering how hard the community has fought to stay together, it's a bad idea. Ultimately, I think the best approach is to stay the course. If something needs to change, we'll address it as it happens as a group.

Because it's a tightly written show with a lot of genuine laughter and sweetness to it. It sidesteps a lot of toxic practices when it comes to writing both children's shows and "girl shows", and it provides a lot of interesting storytelling that's neither pandering nor ridiculous. Not to say that it's perfect. And not to ignore the staggering number of people who take an animated children's show about talking horses far too seriously. It's depressing to see that a genuinely fun show has attracted a fandom that is sometimes just plain noxious, which is why I don't much like identifying with the subculture. (Material in this vein is literally everywhere and I'm not going to search for it for links.) But for most of the people who like it, it's much like the love of Adventure Time or Transformers Animated or Teen Titans. It's not aimed at you, but it's still fun. The fact that some people take disinterest in it to be a form of sacrilege and take that fun to absurd extremes doesn't compromise the enjoyment.