the whole betrayal, im thinking about how the pc is bound but raubahn and the scions are not, and then teledji just says the quiet part out loud and raubahn also realizes this, and we get some fun cutscene design with cool angles and shot composition, the all red frames on raubahn snapping

the crew had been talking about which grand company leader they liked the most and everybody was in on raubahn, and now it makes sense. hes the cool guy who gets to be plot relevant the most so far, and in the most satisfying ways

its a little frustrating that multiple characters talk about paying super close attention and investigating the source of crystal braves funding, and then the core of the plot is that the armys been bought out. not even by like, a mystery person, by a member of the syndicate we knew was funding it!

very funny that midgardsormr went from "why are you in my house, ill kill you", to "hey fuck your crystals", to "im not gonna kill you but im tagging along to watch somebody else do it" this guy is attempting fraud detection so hard and then we fuck up his kids vanguard

intrigued by the implication icehearts primal presents, uninterested in her moralizing at me about doing a genocide being good because its less suffering than war

finished the post expac patches and really enjoyed it! The first bite of a story they wrote on purpose with time instead of while panicking over a dead mmo was good and im excited for more. We really jam Every Thread into 2.55, shit has to Move

And literally the same day I make this joke aloud, the next plot beat is alphinaud expanding the scions into a bespoke military force, Named Crystal Braves. the diamond dogs are here, and its alphinauds fault.

We move the scions to mor dhona to get out of direct national influence, and at first its like, ok, adventurers guild out in the woods, sure. but then we take in the doman refugees, and now our extranational organization has a population, and im thinking a lot about outer heaven

But then we get ramuh, which is a really fun spin because diplomacy just works, we convince him to pull away from the 'humanity is a disease that causes all evil' beat he was on as we try to find actual solutions

We spend a lot of time on "the beast tribes are summoning a primal you gotta go kill!" with between zero and two characters going "but could this be our fault??" And being completely ignored. it feels a little hamfisted the first time, and then we do it 3 more times.

I wish we got more time with the garlean squad as characters, the fight with rhitahtyn was a stellar character beat and we just don't get any of that until the finale. Once we do, it's great. Gaius is a lot of fun, i love nero as cid's jealous ex

We don't have any direct relation to the plot until around 80%, where the garleans who've been showing up in cutscenes to vaguely menace the player from clifftops raid our house and kidnap our pals, which rules as a way to kickstart actual engagement