anyway this has been 2am fordola thoughts with Alice, thank you for your time

But perhaps it could also be a comforting/healing thing too...? If she accepted the gesture and the other person actually stayed with her rather than leaving to get themselves killed afterwards. 🤔

"Live, Fordola," she said, laying a soothing hand on her hair. "Find some hope to hold on to." <-Yda's last words/gesture to her.

Yeah that's going to be a hell of a trauma association for her, probably even to the present day. Do not attempt headpats without extreme caution, haha.

Yeah, it's unclear what exactly Yda's facial tattoo looked like. The short story specifies it's a traditional Ala Mhigan design, so it's not just her Archon tattoos.

It being similar or even identical to Fordola's seems quite plausible! (I should probably decide if it was in my own canon...)

I know by early endwalker the point was to tell the reader something dystopian was going on, but I want to think about how this BOOK FOR CHILDREN with a colorful cover may have directly affected characters we know, like Lyse and Alphinaud. bsky.app/profile/call...

It’s probably never going to be mentioned but it’s interesting to think about in the context of Lyse’s life specifically. She was born in a town right down the mountain from the ark, and grew up mostly in Sharlayan - where children’s books lamented the unsalvageable warlike people nyunkrepf left.

And yeah, that is a such a good (and sad) point about Lyse. I think a lot about how so much was stacked against her as a refugee kid in Sharlayan, and how her experiences of feeling unwanted - in ways both in big and small - probably influenced her to hide behind Yda's mask and identity for so long.

This! Every time the Nyunkrepf story came up in Sharlayan, I desperately wanted to know the Ala Mhigan side of the story.

Wow, yeah, the way you lay it all out, I'm quite on board with this pick!

Heck, it would fix a minor point that bugged me about StB: that we HEAR there are other resistance factions besides Conrad/Lyse's one, but we never see them or get a contrasting POV on the main faction after Ilberd is gone.

Also you are so right about her and Lyse kissing.

If we ever go back to Garlemald, I hope they're both still there and are giving Sadu and Cirina a run for their money on making every other lesbian in the contingent jealous. 😌

Yep, chiming in that this aspect is what made Fordola stand out to me too! There's no one else who has her level of (very deserved and well written) friction with the WoL and even with Scions like Alphinaud. It makes all of her scenes that much more interesting!

Gosh everything about this still just tickles my brain in the best way. More Cyella. More Zero. Pretty please, FFXIV devs....!

Thank goodness for lovely fan art commissions to fill the void. (hehe)