Other thing about how naming Ryne is poetic. Minfilia on the source was not originally named that. Her name was Ascilia, and after her dad died and Thancred took protection over her, he was concerned that her father's ties to the Garleans would come back to haunt her, so he gave her the name Minfilia. So all these girls, the oracles, have the name that Thancred himself gave to his "little sister". Now he gets to give a name again, but under happier circumstances.
Jesse takin notes on these videos for the eventual spoiler chat video with the boys and just screaming about whatever thing they both got right or wrong in the same way. There, that should be vague enough.
Aether is life force, not only the source of magic. Thancred has lost his ability to manipulate it in a form of magic, but it's still flowing through him. But thanks to that severed connection with it, he can force it to slow down or even stop in the case of perfect deception. He is not stopping his heart, he is literally stoping his soul/life force/existence. The fact that he is currently literally a manifestation of his own soul makes that even more metal.
Just imagine a candle's flame is your life force and you're holding your hand over it so someone can't see it. Of course you're also denying it fuel and snuffing it out.
@Red Kite unfortunately for him it took me until the last zone of EW for me to be like, "Thancred, you finally deserve my appreciation. And maybe an apology. Well done my dude, well done" And when the OP explains it like that, it makes it even more nice imo :)
I dunno, everyone always getting on Thancred's back to talk to little Minfilia and tell her it's okay to be herself, but I always sympathized with him. He loves both Minfilias like they were his family, and expecting him to have that particular talk with her is tantamount to asking him to choose one over the other. I'm glad that they gave that conversation to Urianger instead. Everyone knows that choice is coming, but putting that on Thancred would just be cruel. Once the choice is made without his input, he's free to love Ryne without have to feel like he's in some way responsible for Minfilia's death.
The conclusion of the dad battle is an extreme character growth moment for Thancred. Old Thancred wouldn't have held back, he would have sacrificed everything for his friends and for the greater good. New Thancred held back just a little so he could come back to Ryne.
I think the fact that I've seen SO MANY people really dislike Thancred's personality is a credit to the writer for making a realistic character with actual faults. In the first half of ShB Thancred is just not a fun person to have around. Grumpy, overly controlling, depressed, etc. But I think that the finale of Ahm Arang hit as hard as it did BECAUSE he was like this before and finally overcoming his negativity and even using his own weakness to finally cherish what is important to him is just *chef kiss*. And the best thing is that you can find this in each Scion, like how we wanted to yeet Alphinaud off a cliff for basically until the second half of Heavensward and now we are ready to die for him. It really makes the crew feel more nuanced, actual characters instead of walking tropes.
@@ArakDBlade In the Japanese version, you can hear the last second change from a scream of determination to a scream of "OH GODS WHAT HAVE I DON-" [splash]
Yup. My general definition of a Mary Sue directly references this: "A character who is or becomes integral to the plot, and whose flaws (if any) have no bearing on the overall plot."
Legit started to die laughing at the idea that Vauthry was riding around on his blimp after the sin eater attack not because of him wanting to mock the people of the Crystarium, but is actually still pissed he didn’t get his picture from Alphy!!!
I love Kyle pointing out that the aether isn't the only thing affected by stasis but also the people and how the WoL bringing "Darkness" back in their life made them move forward again.
A small note regarding Thancred and his Aether, it's not that he doesn't have any aether (every living thing has aether), it's that he can no longer manipulate it - like how Garleans can't manipulate aether
@@rabid_si Eh. I started from a Realm Reborn and he didn't really have that much. I know if you start in Gridania he's supposed to get a bit more, but I wouldn't count him as a main character death. Side character, sure.
@@SRFAA yeah somehow Haurchefant hit much harder. And Papalymo was a scion after all! I liked him but he needed more screentime I guess. And he had that Yda to deal with which deducted points, poor lala.
@@elenhin Yep. Of all the "main" character deaths (on the good side) it's pretty much just Haurchefant and Ysayle. 14 mostly just sticks to allowing lesser important characters die if they're on the side of good.
You're covering a main character death in this very video, I know it's drawn out but this is Minfilia's really actually dead moment and we shouldn't forget her.
The thing about Thancred is that his major flaw from ARR has been that he doesn’t tell people about his struggles, which is exactly what leads to him being so exhausted from trying too hard to do everything right that he gets possessed by Lahabrea. He’s always been a reticent person about his emotions, and in SHB it all comes to a head here, when he finally starts connecting to others and explaining how he feels-to Magnus, to the WoL, and finally to Ryne (in little baby steps at times, but still). His arc is sometimes agonizing to sit through but imo extremely worth it
Yeah, and because of that, the other characters were reading into his actions and criticizing him for things that weren't the case. Like, i'm pretty sure Thancred came to terms with the situation before you reunited with him, but it was Ryne's choice to make.
@@Redblaze27 Yeah, I think he had accepted that our Minfilia was basically gone for some time by the time we meet him again, and his silence if you ask how he wants things to turn out is bc it's still hard to basically condemn his own sister to death to keep his daughter alive. The way he talks to Magnus about her sounds more like long-held grief than recent acceptance to me, as well as his line about having had years to decide where he stands. Honestly, by the time we reach Twine especially, the only one clinging to the idea that Minfilia could come back is Ryne thanks to her lingering self-doubt and assumptions about what Thancred is feeling. Looking back through his dialogue indicates that he really wants Ryne to choose to live her own life--everything he says to Ran'jit in Il Mheg, how he wants the new spark in her to keep burning in Slitherbough, etc. I do think that despite this he still struggled with the idea of losing one to save the other (him telling her "don't" when she says they should go to Nabaath Areng to find the REAL minfilia is absolutely him panicking about losing Ryne, there's no other reason he would tell her NOT to go there. If he really just wanted Minfilia back, he would have had her go back there a long time ago.). I definitely feel that he had long-since accepted that Ryne was the one who needed to choose, and he was scared that telling her his thoughts on the matter would be swaying her decision and burdening her with his feelings, so he kept his thoughts to himself.....not realizing that his distance (and frustration-fueled harshness, bc he IS harsh to her unduly when he's frustrated or scared) was already swaying her opinions of herself and what she should do. SIGH.
A lot of praise has been given to the voice cast, Lyna in this video especially, but I genuinely feel Emma Ballantine (Ryne) is the most underappreciated VA in the whole game. It's incredibly difficult to make anxious young characters likeable and not come across as a narrative burden. Of course Ishikawa's writing helps a lot but her performance standing up to Ranjit is a personal highlight for me. That and thanking Thancred for her new name. If you didn't want to protect your new daughter with your life then and there, well I don't know what to tell you. anyway that's my thoughts, great vid from you guys!
I still love that talk Urianger has with Ryne where he opens up and reveals that the Really Really Bad thing he did during HW still bothers him. He has very good consistency that way.
As the lads note, Urianger's chat is a masterclass in that sort of conversation. He acknowledges the reality of her pain (and by extension Thancred's), while letting her know that she isn't responsible. he shows her his own pain and vulnerability, letting her know that you can move forward. He says "have faith, and all will be well", but never says what to have faith in, thus implying she can both have faith in her new friends and in herself. Shared vulnerability, acknowledged pain, and still never takes her agency from her.
I do find it super fascinating that the switch, starting in Heavensward, to this UK-based voice actors made such a huge difference. I think it comes down to the fact that a lot of them have a history in Stage and, more importantly, Radio Drama acting. It's something we don't really have here and is a different skill set than just dubbing. I think it's a different approach to doing voice over that ends up really infusing it with so much more emotion.
Honestly some of the original VAs have pretty good resumes. I think it has more to do with the fact that post ARR the VAs actually get direction on how to portray their lines.
Way I saw the ardbert thing was that it was basically character development. For all the terrible things he had gone through and the hundred years of isolation and wandering, for all his depression and fatalism he's still a hero at heart and hanging out with you has started to heal him. So again he still tries to help and protect instead of watching like he was doing previously.
Gukumatz is the name of his familiar. Creatures with it's name commonly appear as bosses in Final Fantasy games. It's also known in the real world as Q'uq'umatz or the Yucatec Maya creator deity.
What Thancred almost certainly whispered, judging from his mouth movements was "aishiteru" (pronounced "ISHE-teh-roo"), which translates to "I love you," which luckily has very similar mouth movements. I suspect it was chosen in part because of that. Aishiteru a far less common, but more serious and formal way, of saying "I love you" than "suki da yo" or "dai suki". Saying that as a goodbye to someone you will never be able to see again is fitting, and isn't strictly romantic, which is good since canonically Thancred is like an older brother to Minfilia. They met when he was 17 and she was 12 or so, after all. The similarity in the mouthing was likely intentional, and the phrase might have been chosen with help from Koji Fox, who is the head of English localization, second on the lore team, and also on the writing team. Why was it whispered? Because being that blunt would be considered a bit over-the-top in Japanese, or even cheesy, so just mouthing it comes off better culturally.
Commenting as I watch - Lyna ;~; - Baby nippleface?! - "We start to ask - as someone with a wonderful coat once said - the right questions" I love how much Emet is rubbing off on Garrett - I'm glad you guys enjoyed the trolley part so much because I freaking HATED it! If there's one thing a long story can do to get under my skin it's interrupt the pacing to focus on a newly introduced situation which won't have any meaningful bearing on the story besides solving the problem that was made by said introduced situation. - "Wha- wha- what about... stasis... what...? :)" Oh my god, you perfectly captured that feeling of being suddenly lost lmao. We'll... we'll blame sudden-transitionary Kyle - BATTLE 👏OF👏THE👏DADS👏and as we all know with anime, the magical parental ✨headpats✨which make everything better - I was also annoyed the Thancred's wayward dadly ways, but was also annoyed with everyone for even going along with a literal teenager going "hey maybe I should sacrifice myself so you can get your friend back?" and we're all IDK, UP TO YOU KID like piss offfff that's not our style - Kyle railing against emotionally unavailable Dadcred whilst praising the delivery of his inner monologue ;~; - Yeah you're gonna wanna do that tears tier list when you finish MSQ hahaha - Oh my god, full CG Flood? You could have it like gushing through streets, ricocheting off walls, showing the aftermath of people fleeing Pompeii style... - And Minfilia, always remember... live, laugh, love - BUCKET MANNNN. If you do this with NPCs, someone (I believe it's Thancred?) says "Is this meant to be some sort of joke?" I'm super ill today so thank you for distracting me from my aching everything with another wonderful video.
This was a literal rollercoaster of emotion. And yeah, the Arthurian-esque theme of the land and people being one is very strong in Shadowbringers. You "bring shadow" to the people, get them to move on with their lives and that in turn heals the land. Its one of the most clever things that Shadowbringers does with its story. They tied the metaphysics of the world to a story about human nature and how to deal with grief.
There is so much to love in this section. Lyna line delivery that just hits me every time, Ryne and Thancred's character developments, even the smaller stuff like the Magnus pain, and Urianger talk, it is all just so good. What probably surprised me the most though was Ran'jit. I took him to just be a pretty one note stoic military type and this section blew that apart and suddenly I'm going 'God damn it.... I actually sympathize with him now.' And it totally made sense too. It has been there for everyone to see the whole time as we knew what he'd been doing in the past, and inevitably what that would mean he'd witnessed, he'd just been keeping it close to the chest as it were. So to have it suddenly come to the forefront was potent. But, rightly, they didn't let us dwell on it, and had Thancred right there to act as a counterpoint, but regardless we can see where both have been coming from. You could easily have flipped this around and Thancred be the villain in a different version of this story. It is just... so great!
I absolutely love listening to you both talk about and disect the story as you encounter it, its great to listen to thoughts and ideas that i forgot I had while playing through for the first time myself. I've learned that xiv is great in that it doesnt always tell the story you want, but knows how to tell the story it wants and needs to tell.
Granted, Thancred and the oracle previously know as Minfilia (or Minifilia as I call her, now Ryne), were the center of the story of Amh Araeng and rightfully so, but I appreciate that mention of Urianger's moment. Of course, he says a lot of words for what he could have said in 30 or less (but would it be Urianger if he was brief and straightforward?), but the insight of what's been going in his mind it's something I find to be so precious. I love how they handled Thancred's "dadhood" and how he came around his "emotional constipation" (Yeah guys, I'm stealing that one), but that moment with Urianger was also quite special.
Regarding Thancred: they never tell us what it is he said in that final scene, but most believe he is saying “I love you” as he finally allows himself to express what he’s kept inside all this time.
Now you see why the head writer of Shadowbringers got a standing ovation when she was introduced at some meet and greet event - there's a video showing it
Welcome back to you guys ! Hope you've enjoyed your rest while you could >:D I'm glad that joke on Shorts about Vauthry shouting he wants his picture actually made it in the video ! But I for one, will always remember Garrett's words : "This is not Thancred's expansion..." Also one the thing I loved most about the dad's fight duty is about the Vulnerability Stacks the game FORCES you to take under the cover of Thancred's exhaustion, effectively playing on an actual game's fight mechanic to increase the tension... Just AMAZING ! OH AND YES PLEASE, make a Tears Tier list someday !
what's better than a headpat? a hug. a long, calming, deserving hug. and oh, we will get our wall of tears. you jest, but we trust you two enough that it will happen.
There are no "translation mistakes" in this game's script; the English script is just as primary as the Japanese, they are written at the same time, with any differences due to intentional localization choices. Thal's Balls man definitely wanted to use Forgiven Venery.
@@DifunctedReble omg yes. Yoshi-P got mad at Koji on a discussion panel when that got brought up because Japanese was just "Left" and "Right" and that made that fight harder in English than any other language unintentionally.
It was SO MUCH FUN being there watching you two experience these beats in real time during the stream. This was a great recap, and I'm glad that you two are just so reflective in these recap episodes. You really do need to let SHB just sit for a bit before you start processing it and discussing it.
I actually loved that Thancred couldn't talk to Minifillia. He is paralised in his own feelings. He knows he is going to lose someone he cares for deeply and he doesn't want to be the reason why. If he tells Minifillia he wants Minfilia back and she sacrifices herself to resurect her he will carry that guilt. If he tells Minifilla that he wants her to survive then he is killing Minfilla who he essentially helped raise. It's a lose-lose situation for him. But once the act is done he can move forward and we see that right away with his smile and his happyness to rename Minifillia.
30:54 Awesome vid. And yeah, you guys want to wait on releasing your Tear List for this game. There's plenty more of those to come from ShB, its post patches as well as the entirety of EW and beyond. Puns aside, there are just so many scenes in this game that really hits different depending on where you are in your life at that moment - like for example almost all of both Ryne's and Thancred's scenes just doesn't hit the same feels if you yourself haven't experienced both the sorrows and joys of being a parent.
The best part of watching these guys play the MSQ is how they keep amending things with "Best XXXXX So FAR!" And then delighting in the fact that it just keeps getting better. Personally, after the 4th or 5th time I said to myself "there's no way they can top that", I just gave up and accepted that I would forever be in awe of how easily this game could turn me into an emotional wreck.
28:30 The Warrior of Light can go back and forth because of MMO reasons, but that doesn't mean any of the more "normal" people can. I suppose we'll just have to keep playing to see how they do it. :)
14:26 While on the surface the classic trolley problem is a numbers game, under the surface it's really a morality question on responsibility, consequences, and the idea of 'the greater good'.
Annnnnnnd we’re back🎉 You two are out of control😂 I lost count of the noteworthy edits, transitions, voice overs. Better and better!! The game audio sounded a bit hollow in places BUT I’m so impressed with y’all pushing your skills and creativity to new levels. Let’s goooooo❤
Ah, that cliffhanger at the end of the video was so good, the editing gets better and better each Wednesday. Good job guys, definitely will tune in for next MSQ stream!
Going into Endwalker, I suspected Ranjit was somehow going to be the Reaper trainer and teach us Gugumantz (spelling). Great video, ya'll are in the thick now!
Purple is just the color of darkness on this game. It's used by Ascians and Dark Knights because surprise, both are associated with darkness. It is also used by voidsents and such
Purple tends to be used as the colour for darkness in a good bit of media, if only because it is easier to work with than black in regards to stuff like shading.
Tbf, the hexagon shape is proven to be a very tessellate shape that even the Allagans would employ it in barriers. If you want a very strong barrier, use triangles. If you want a barrier that gets deployed in an instant, use hexagons.
You know that spot where the door is on the trolley track? That's anagalous to where Horizon is in the Source. Where you meet Minfilia (the Oracle)? Basically, where Vesper Bay is. You had to return to the Waking Sands. She gets you one. Last. TIME.
Dadcred and Uncle Orange are very interesting foils with regards to Minifilia, and Ran'jit is ... what Thancred could have become had he continued to think of Minifilia/Ryne as Minfilia, rather than her own person. With regards to the cinematic cutscenes, Coils was a special case: as I understand it, the Louisoix cutscene was a.) using some partly-completed stuff from the trailer for ARR, and b.) a reward/closure to 1.0, and c.) somewhat experimental at the time, because they were still testing how to build raids at that point. Minfilia's line to Ryne is definitely one I go back to frequently, for many reasons. Being able to endure that doubt and despair, especially right now, is important. Kyle's headcanon is the accepted one: Minfilia says she's acting much like an Ascian at this point, possessing appropriate bodies, and Ryne is one who has the capacity to handle the amount of aether, etc., that Minfilia requires, but she's not a *reincarnation* of Minfilia as such. (Also, I *definitely* thought Thancred was dead at this point when playing through two days after release.) The voice actors REALLY hit their strides in ShB: Lyna's line will always make me tear up. Bethan Walker (Alisaie) and Colin Ryan (Alphinaud) do AMAZING things with the twins, and Peter Bramhill (Thancred) is just so good here.
Vauthry is a very simple villain. But in an expansion with many other complicated, emotional villains, its nice to have someone who is just "The bad guy who does bad things."
Excellent commentary, excellent edits. A great start to a new Grinding Gear year. Also, yes to Tears Tier List and the Vauthry picture blimp call back. 🤣
man, i'm so glad you guys are having such a good time. still love your takes on things in this game, and your both insightful and humorous commentary. others are probably giving more in depth comments, so thought i'd share one thing i saw online that broke me: apparently, the tunnel leading down to the fight with ran'jit is supposed to parallel/be a mirror of the one leading out of horizon when you go to vesper bay and the waking sands back in the source. so on both a funny and melancholy note...you're returning to minfilia one last time.
One of the joys of playing an MMO is seeing the characters we know evolve and well, grow up. We saw it with basically all the Scions, but I swear Thancred must have had the most changes over the entire series. Glad you guys enjoyed it. P.S. Gundam Heavy Arms reference is gold in my book.
I believe the words Thancred mouth at the end of that sequence are his last words for Minfilia. Having it be silent opens it to be whatever the player might project thancred might've said to Minfilia at the end, but I also think it keeps it more personal like those words are for Minfilia alone. Its one of the most beautiful moments of Shadowbringers, and ffxiv as a whole.
I have a weird habit of getting grabbed by the shock factor of certain character deaths or fake deaths. Like, I'm emotionally following along, then BAM! I'm in tears because I didn't see it coming. That was my reaction to the Thancred moment and I totally thought he'd died. But I was also okay with it, because he'd really gone through that whole arc and I was like, "If this is how he goes out, then it was good." It was a pleasure to watch you guys go through the whole thing and really talk about your reactions, what you liked and disliked and why, and try to predict the future. I love how Garrett keeps saying that "This is the most I've loved Shadowbringers" because it really does just keep getting better and better. And you're not done yet :D
That smash cut at 4:25 to the "Welcome to Lakeland" sign looking like an EPA Superfund site with all the black mold tells you every single thing you need to know about Lakeland, FL.
Trolley problems aren't necessarily one-or-the-many. Divinity Original Sin has a nice trolley problem in it where you choose to save a recently retired soldier or a young recruit. Age instead of quantity as a factor makes the trolley problem apply to minifilia.
So here's the deal with Thancred's ability: Thancred is originally a rogue. All Rogues have the "Hide" ability, it's one of the first things you learn. Thancred has "multiclassed" into Gunbreaker. As such, he still retains all his Rogue abilities. Here's the kicker, the "Hide" ability requires the ability to manipulate aether. Thancred has lost his ability to control the aether in his body due to the "Flow" spell from ARR. It's not that Thancred doesn't have aether, it's just he cannot control it easily like other humans can (for some reason, all races in this game are referred to as "mankind" so human is all encompassing here). Thancred using his more refined "Deception" ability several times shows that he had no other choice but to use it, bc if he uses it incorrectly, he will kill himself. To use all of his "Hide" abilities, Thancred must use aether, which is like trying to force water through sealed pipes. Too much for toolong will cause the pipes burst, which means Thancred will die. Thancred is one of the greatest Rogues/Survivalists in the world, so his "Hide" has evolved to "Perfect Deception", which ofc he cannot use anymore without great risk to himself. That's why one of the tooltips reads "Thancred will be KO'd once the timer on the debuff expires". He will literally die if he uses his hide ability, that's why he never uses it anymore unless absolutely necessary. This is the reason behind Thancred's special ability in the RP duty.
To answer your question at the end, you should know it. When you mention the hair to her (I believe it's a choice dialogue) she says she thinks it's a parting gift from Minfilia.
You can always tell which way a boss is facing by looking at circle on ground around it. It will have an arrow pointing out where the head of the creature is facing and a break in the circle where the rear is. If the circle is not broken and there is no arrow, that means there is no 'head', no front or back to the creature and thus no positionals.
+1 for the Tears tier list! Super happy to hear that you're also loving the voice acting, they really upped the ante in ShB for me. I'm just super hyped for you two, seriously like **does happy hand flailing gestures** AAAAAAAAA!
The big thing people don't seem to realize is that Thancred isn't talking to her because he wants the choice to be completely hers. He is worried that if he says anything, it will affect how the Minfilia situation plays out. He doesn't want either one of them to go but ultimately believes it's Minifilia's choice to make. As with all communications, both of them are a little silly about properly understanding one another. It's true Thancred is difficult, but so is Ryne in her own way. She draws conclusions about how Thancred feels without ever asking him about the situation. It's a realistic depiction of the issues poor communication cause between parent and child.
I think there is an undercurrent of your found family throughout Shadowbringers too. We never really got to travel with most of the main Scions, and the Thancred calling Ryne family, also feels like it extends to the WoL and the Scions. They're family. Even the lead-up to Shadowbringers, losing them one by one to the call, was the tee-up, you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone, and thus finding them, and being all together feels good.
For the record, I think that the more plot-relevant part of Urianger's magic-aspect-nerd-lecture is the concept that light aether in the First represents the same things as dark aether in the Source, and thus is essentially dark aether when it gets to the Source. The point of which being that this is the first time that Urianger makes a concrete connection between the rejoicings and calamities in the Source; the idea being that converting one of the reflections into one pure aspect of magical energy and hurling it into the Source is what supercharges all of these disasters in ways that correlate to how that aspect is perceived. No doubt the idea that Vauthry is trying to poison the First with ideas of indolence & stasis is definitely an intentional metaphor for the death of the First & all, but the way the character Urianger sees that conversation (I think) is that it's about the mechanics of these calamities, and why a surge of light aether would cause such death in the Source.
can confirm, Ryne looks now how she would've by normal, non-oracle of light birth of her parents. also that Amphibious Talos (bucket head) boss in Malikah's well is hands down the literal best boss in the whole game
There's a lot of 1.0 Thancred/Minfilia stuff that we all missed out on that gives the interactions on the first a huge bunch of context that ARR simply doesn't provide.
Other thing about how naming Ryne is poetic. Minfilia on the source was not originally named that. Her name was Ascilia, and after her dad died and Thancred took protection over her, he was concerned that her father's ties to the Garleans would come back to haunt her, so he gave her the name Minfilia. So all these girls, the oracles, have the name that Thancred himself gave to his "little sister". Now he gets to give a name again, but under happier circumstances.
Just realizing "min filia" could be stretched to translate to "little sister"
well well well
Jesse takin notes on these videos for the eventual spoiler chat video with the boys and just screaming about whatever thing they both got right or wrong in the same way.
There, that should be vague enough.
EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE! EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE!
Aether is life force, not only the source of magic. Thancred has lost his ability to manipulate it in a form of magic, but it's still flowing through him. But thanks to that severed connection with it, he can force it to slow down or even stop in the case of perfect deception. He is not stopping his heart, he is literally stoping his soul/life force/existence. The fact that he is currently literally a manifestation of his own soul makes that even more metal.
Aether is more than just life force. It makes up everything. It's matter and energy. And then some.
Just imagine a candle's flame is your life force and you're holding your hand over it so someone can't see it. Of course you're also denying it fuel and snuffing it out.
@@AuspexAO I REALLY like that analogy.
Thancred is the the chad-est dad
@Red Kite unfortunately for him it took me until the last zone of EW for me to be like, "Thancred, you finally deserve my appreciation. And maybe an apology. Well done my dude, well done"
And when the OP explains it like that, it makes it even more nice imo :)
I dunno, everyone always getting on Thancred's back to talk to little Minfilia and tell her it's okay to be herself, but I always sympathized with him. He loves both Minfilias like they were his family, and expecting him to have that particular talk with her is tantamount to asking him to choose one over the other. I'm glad that they gave that conversation to Urianger instead. Everyone knows that choice is coming, but putting that on Thancred would just be cruel. Once the choice is made without his input, he's free to love Ryne without have to feel like he's in some way responsible for Minfilia's death.
I agree. He already blamed himself for enough already. Give the poor man a break.
The conclusion of the dad battle is an extreme character growth moment for Thancred. Old Thancred wouldn't have held back, he would have sacrificed everything for his friends and for the greater good. New Thancred held back just a little so he could come back to Ryne.
I think the fact that I've seen SO MANY people really dislike Thancred's personality is a credit to the writer for making a realistic character with actual faults. In the first half of ShB Thancred is just not a fun person to have around. Grumpy, overly controlling, depressed, etc. But I think that the finale of Ahm Arang hit as hard as it did BECAUSE he was like this before and finally overcoming his negativity and even using his own weakness to finally cherish what is important to him is just *chef kiss*.
And the best thing is that you can find this in each Scion, like how we wanted to yeet Alphinaud off a cliff for basically until the second half of Heavensward and now we are ready to die for him. It really makes the crew feel more nuanced, actual characters instead of walking tropes.
It's because of their imperfections that we love them.
Then Alphinaud yeeted himself off a cliff instead. Okay it was a pier but still, "YahhhhHHHH!" *belly flop*
@@ArakDBlade In the Japanese version, you can hear the last second change from a scream of determination to a scream of "OH GODS WHAT HAVE I DON-" [splash]
yop, having a perfect character that does no wrong is boring, flaws and making mistakes make a character feel more relatable and human.
Yup. My general definition of a Mary Sue directly references this: "A character who is or becomes integral to the plot, and whose flaws (if any) have no bearing on the overall plot."
Legit started to die laughing at the idea that Vauthry was riding around on his blimp after the sin eater attack not because of him wanting to mock the people of the Crystarium, but is actually still pissed he didn’t get his picture from Alphy!!!
Finally, finally, you upload the next video! And new videos warrant honest upvotes...
I love Kyle pointing out that the aether isn't the only thing affected by stasis but also the people and how the WoL bringing "Darkness" back in their life made them move forward again.
A small note regarding Thancred and his Aether, it's not that he doesn't have any aether (every living thing has aether), it's that he can no longer manipulate it - like how Garleans can't manipulate aether
He's got the aetherial diabetes.
"I'm gonna need a main character death in FF pretty soon"
I knew it. You're evil.
😭
Poor Papalymo. Gone, and also forgotten.
@@rabid_si Eh. I started from a Realm Reborn and he didn't really have that much. I know if you start in Gridania he's supposed to get a bit more, but I wouldn't count him as a main character death. Side character, sure.
@@SRFAA yeah somehow Haurchefant hit much harder. And Papalymo was a scion after all! I liked him but he needed more screentime I guess. And he had that Yda to deal with which deducted points, poor lala.
@@elenhin Yep. Of all the "main" character deaths (on the good side) it's pretty much just Haurchefant and Ysayle. 14 mostly just sticks to allowing lesser important characters die if they're on the side of good.
You're covering a main character death in this very video, I know it's drawn out but this is Minfilia's really actually dead moment and we shouldn't forget her.
The thing about Thancred is that his major flaw from ARR has been that he doesn’t tell people about his struggles, which is exactly what leads to him being so exhausted from trying too hard to do everything right that he gets possessed by Lahabrea. He’s always been a reticent person about his emotions, and in SHB it all comes to a head here, when he finally starts connecting to others and explaining how he feels-to Magnus, to the WoL, and finally to Ryne (in little baby steps at times, but still). His arc is sometimes agonizing to sit through but imo extremely worth it
Yeah, and because of that, the other characters were reading into his actions and criticizing him for things that weren't the case.
Like, i'm pretty sure Thancred came to terms with the situation before you reunited with him, but it was Ryne's choice to make.
@@Redblaze27 Yeah, I think he had accepted that our Minfilia was basically gone for some time by the time we meet him again, and his silence if you ask how he wants things to turn out is bc it's still hard to basically condemn his own sister to death to keep his daughter alive. The way he talks to Magnus about her sounds more like long-held grief than recent acceptance to me, as well as his line about having had years to decide where he stands. Honestly, by the time we reach Twine especially, the only one clinging to the idea that Minfilia could come back is Ryne thanks to her lingering self-doubt and assumptions about what Thancred is feeling. Looking back through his dialogue indicates that he really wants Ryne to choose to live her own life--everything he says to Ran'jit in Il Mheg, how he wants the new spark in her to keep burning in Slitherbough, etc.
I do think that despite this he still struggled with the idea of losing one to save the other (him telling her "don't" when she says they should go to Nabaath Areng to find the REAL minfilia is absolutely him panicking about losing Ryne, there's no other reason he would tell her NOT to go there. If he really just wanted Minfilia back, he would have had her go back there a long time ago.). I definitely feel that he had long-since accepted that Ryne was the one who needed to choose, and he was scared that telling her his thoughts on the matter would be swaying her decision and burdening her with his feelings, so he kept his thoughts to himself.....not realizing that his distance (and frustration-fueled harshness, bc he IS harsh to her unduly when he's frustrated or scared) was already swaying her opinions of herself and what she should do. SIGH.
10:10 I love this edit, it feels like he's not even mad about the dead lightwardens. Man just wants his damn painting
A lot of praise has been given to the voice cast, Lyna in this video especially, but I genuinely feel Emma Ballantine (Ryne) is the most underappreciated VA in the whole game. It's incredibly difficult to make anxious young characters likeable and not come across as a narrative burden. Of course Ishikawa's writing helps a lot but her performance standing up to Ranjit is a personal highlight for me. That and thanking Thancred for her new name. If you didn't want to protect your new daughter with your life then and there, well I don't know what to tell you.
anyway that's my thoughts, great vid from you guys!
GET IN THERE, THANCRED! YOU'RE IN HUGGING RANGE!
*your lips to their animator's ears!*
7:10, your guys finest editing work yet
I still love that talk Urianger has with Ryne where he opens up and reveals that the Really Really Bad thing he did during HW still bothers him. He has very good consistency that way.
As the lads note, Urianger's chat is a masterclass in that sort of conversation. He acknowledges the reality of her pain (and by extension Thancred's), while letting her know that she isn't responsible. he shows her his own pain and vulnerability, letting her know that you can move forward. He says "have faith, and all will be well", but never says what to have faith in, thus implying she can both have faith in her new friends and in herself. Shared vulnerability, acknowledged pain, and still never takes her agency from her.
I do find it super fascinating that the switch, starting in Heavensward, to this UK-based voice actors made such a huge difference. I think it comes down to the fact that a lot of them have a history in Stage and, more importantly, Radio Drama acting. It's something we don't really have here and is a different skill set than just dubbing. I think it's a different approach to doing voice over that ends up really infusing it with so much more emotion.
Honestly some of the original VAs have pretty good resumes. I think it has more to do with the fact that post ARR the VAs actually get direction on how to portray their lines.
@@elaine_of_shalott6587 Agreed! I love Richard Epcar's work, but I keep referring to ARR Gaius as "Batou Von Buckethead".
Way I saw the ardbert thing was that it was basically character development. For all the terrible things he had gone through and the hundred years of isolation and wandering, for all his depression and fatalism he's still a hero at heart and hanging out with you has started to heal him. So again he still tries to help and protect instead of watching like he was doing previously.
Oooh, it also ties back into the whole stasis/giving up/complacency thing!
Geebus the edits in this video are top tier
Gukumatz is the name of his familiar. Creatures with it's name commonly appear as bosses in Final Fantasy games. It's also known in the real world as Q'uq'umatz or the Yucatec Maya creator deity.
Also an allegory to Reaper, as you must master the use of your familiar or possibly die in the process
What Thancred almost certainly whispered, judging from his mouth movements was "aishiteru" (pronounced "ISHE-teh-roo"), which translates to "I love you," which luckily has very similar mouth movements. I suspect it was chosen in part because of that.
Aishiteru a far less common, but more serious and formal way, of saying "I love you" than "suki da yo" or "dai suki". Saying that as a goodbye to someone you will never be able to see again is fitting, and isn't strictly romantic, which is good since canonically Thancred is like an older brother to Minfilia. They met when he was 17 and she was 12 or so, after all. The similarity in the mouthing was likely intentional, and the phrase might have been chosen with help from Koji Fox, who is the head of English localization, second on the lore team, and also on the writing team. Why was it whispered? Because being that blunt would be considered a bit over-the-top in Japanese, or even cheesy, so just mouthing it comes off better culturally.
Thancrad's Ryne's dad; Urianger is her mom.
We said we wanted more storage and YoshiP misheard us.
🤣 You live up to your name.
Commenting as I watch
- Lyna ;~;
- Baby nippleface?!
- "We start to ask - as someone with a wonderful coat once said - the right questions" I love how much Emet is rubbing off on Garrett
- I'm glad you guys enjoyed the trolley part so much because I freaking HATED it! If there's one thing a long story can do to get under my skin it's interrupt the pacing to focus on a newly introduced situation which won't have any meaningful bearing on the story besides solving the problem that was made by said introduced situation.
- "Wha- wha- what about... stasis... what...? :)" Oh my god, you perfectly captured that feeling of being suddenly lost lmao. We'll... we'll blame sudden-transitionary Kyle
- BATTLE 👏OF👏THE👏DADS👏and as we all know with anime, the magical parental ✨headpats✨which make everything better
- I was also annoyed the Thancred's wayward dadly ways, but was also annoyed with everyone for even going along with a literal teenager going "hey maybe I should sacrifice myself so you can get your friend back?" and we're all IDK, UP TO YOU KID like piss offfff that's not our style
- Kyle railing against emotionally unavailable Dadcred whilst praising the delivery of his inner monologue ;~;
- Yeah you're gonna wanna do that tears tier list when you finish MSQ hahaha
- Oh my god, full CG Flood? You could have it like gushing through streets, ricocheting off walls, showing the aftermath of people fleeing Pompeii style...
- And Minfilia, always remember... live, laugh, love
- BUCKET MANNNN. If you do this with NPCs, someone (I believe it's Thancred?) says "Is this meant to be some sort of joke?"
I'm super ill today so thank you for distracting me from my aching everything with another wonderful video.
That intro is beautiful.
"I TOLD YOU TO PAINT ME A PICTURE!!"
OK I am dead
This was a literal rollercoaster of emotion. And yeah, the Arthurian-esque theme of the land and people being one is very strong in Shadowbringers. You "bring shadow" to the people, get them to move on with their lives and that in turn heals the land. Its one of the most clever things that Shadowbringers does with its story. They tied the metaphysics of the world to a story about human nature and how to deal with grief.
Best intro yet. I'm a sucker for editing story beats to the beats of the music, and that worked great.
Oh boy. Endwalker's gonna slay these two poor dudes isn't it.
Hope everyone had a good patch day!
There is so much to love in this section. Lyna line delivery that just hits me every time, Ryne and Thancred's character developments, even the smaller stuff like the Magnus pain, and Urianger talk, it is all just so good. What probably surprised me the most though was Ran'jit. I took him to just be a pretty one note stoic military type and this section blew that apart and suddenly I'm going 'God damn it.... I actually sympathize with him now.' And it totally made sense too. It has been there for everyone to see the whole time as we knew what he'd been doing in the past, and inevitably what that would mean he'd witnessed, he'd just been keeping it close to the chest as it were. So to have it suddenly come to the forefront was potent. But, rightly, they didn't let us dwell on it, and had Thancred right there to act as a counterpoint, but regardless we can see where both have been coming from. You could easily have flipped this around and Thancred be the villain in a different version of this story. It is just... so great!
I absolutely love listening to you both talk about and disect the story as you encounter it, its great to listen to thoughts and ideas that i forgot I had while playing through for the first time myself.
I've learned that xiv is great in that it doesnt always tell the story you want, but knows how to tell the story it wants and needs to tell.
Something I love about Thancred’s monologue after the dad battle is that he mirrors what Minfillia says to him in the Antitower. Near word for word.
Granted, Thancred and the oracle previously know as Minfilia (or Minifilia as I call her, now Ryne), were the center of the story of Amh Araeng and rightfully so, but I appreciate that mention of Urianger's moment. Of course, he says a lot of words for what he could have said in 30 or less (but would it be Urianger if he was brief and straightforward?), but the insight of what's been going in his mind it's something I find to be so precious.
I love how they handled Thancred's "dadhood" and how he came around his "emotional constipation" (Yeah guys, I'm stealing that one), but that moment with Urianger was also quite special.
Regarding Thancred: they never tell us what it is he said in that final scene, but most believe he is saying “I love you” as he finally allows himself to express what he’s kept inside all this time.
Now you see why the head writer of Shadowbringers got a standing ovation when she was introduced at some meet and greet event - there's a video showing it
Your cut to dark knight vauthry killed me, well done! 😂
Welcome back to you guys ! Hope you've enjoyed your rest while you could >:D I'm glad that joke on Shorts about Vauthry shouting he wants his picture actually made it in the video !
But I for one, will always remember Garrett's words : "This is not Thancred's expansion..."
Also one the thing I loved most about the dad's fight duty is about the Vulnerability Stacks the game FORCES you to take under the cover of Thancred's exhaustion, effectively playing on an actual game's fight mechanic to increase the tension... Just AMAZING !
OH AND YES PLEASE, make a Tears Tier list someday !
what's better than a headpat? a hug. a long, calming, deserving hug.
and oh, we will get our wall of tears. you jest, but we trust you two enough that it will happen.
I guarantee that Forgiven Venery is not a bad translation mistake. Koji was probably chomping at the bit to get that name in there.
There are no "translation mistakes" in this game's script; the English script is just as primary as the Japanese, they are written at the same time, with any differences due to intentional localization choices. Thal's Balls man definitely wanted to use Forgiven Venery.
@@Tony_Chalmers Though not a mistake Starboard and Larboard over there eating popcorn.
@@DifunctedReble omg yes. Yoshi-P got mad at Koji on a discussion panel when that got brought up because Japanese was just "Left" and "Right" and that made that fight harder in English than any other language unintentionally.
They are back! Can't wait for more MSQ streams!
All the attention with the clever edits certainly doesn't go unnoticed! I love all the little editing gags in this episode.
It was SO MUCH FUN being there watching you two experience these beats in real time during the stream. This was a great recap, and I'm glad that you two are just so reflective in these recap episodes. You really do need to let SHB just sit for a bit before you start processing it and discussing it.
I actually loved that Thancred couldn't talk to Minifillia. He is paralised in his own feelings. He knows he is going to lose someone he cares for deeply and he doesn't want to be the reason why.
If he tells Minifillia he wants Minfilia back and she sacrifices herself to resurect her he will carry that guilt. If he tells Minifilla that he wants her to survive then he is killing Minfilla who he essentially helped raise. It's a lose-lose situation for him.
But once the act is done he can move forward and we see that right away with his smile and his happyness to rename Minifillia.
30:54 Awesome vid. And yeah, you guys want to wait on releasing your Tear List for this game. There's plenty more of those to come from ShB, its post patches as well as the entirety of EW and beyond.
Puns aside, there are just so many scenes in this game that really hits different depending on where you are in your life at that moment - like for example almost all of both Ryne's and Thancred's scenes just doesn't hit the same feels if you yourself haven't experienced both the sorrows and joys of being a parent.
I was about to say the same thing but you beat me to it. I immediately knew what your post was about as I've seen the time stamp :P
The best part of watching these guys play the MSQ is how they keep amending things with "Best XXXXX So FAR!"
And then delighting in the fact that it just keeps getting better.
Personally, after the 4th or 5th time I said to myself "there's no way they can top that", I just gave up and accepted that I would forever be in awe of how easily this game could turn me into an emotional wreck.
35:56 Ryne is a ginger because Minfilia took her soul.
28:30 The Warrior of Light can go back and forth because of MMO reasons, but that doesn't mean any of the more "normal" people can. I suppose we'll just have to keep playing to see how they do it. :)
Oh my gosh....the Intro is INSANE...brought together so much. Love it 💕
14:26
While on the surface the classic trolley problem is a numbers game, under the surface it's really a morality question on responsibility, consequences, and the idea of 'the greater good'.
Garret needs to realize that the answer is just "Ranjit knows kung fu."
Annnnnnnd we’re back🎉 You two are out of control😂 I lost count of the noteworthy edits, transitions, voice overs. Better and better!! The game audio sounded a bit hollow in places BUT I’m so impressed with y’all pushing your skills and creativity to new levels. Let’s goooooo❤
Ah, that cliffhanger at the end of the video was so good, the editing gets better and better each Wednesday. Good job guys, definitely will tune in for next MSQ stream!
Going into Endwalker, I suspected Ranjit was somehow going to be the Reaper trainer and teach us Gugumantz (spelling). Great video, ya'll are in the thick now!
Thancred is also rephrasing what Minfilia said to him when she was leaving at the end of HW. Ishikawa wrote HW Warriors of Darkness arc too iirc
Purple is just the color of darkness on this game. It's used by Ascians and Dark Knights because surprise, both are associated with darkness. It is also used by voidsents and such
Purple tends to be used as the colour for darkness in a good bit of media, if only because it is easier to work with than black in regards to stuff like shading.
Ryne's hair changing color is basically Bigfilia freeing her from the yolk of what came before- she's her own person now.
Pedantic, but it is yoke not yolk.
Hit this immediately. Cannot wait for more!
Tbf, the hexagon shape is proven to be a very tessellate shape that even the Allagans would employ it in barriers. If you want a very strong barrier, use triangles. If you want a barrier that gets deployed in an instant, use hexagons.
God damn it , another amazing video from you guys and another moment that catches me off-guard 10:12
You know that spot where the door is on the trolley track? That's anagalous to where Horizon is in the Source.
Where you meet Minfilia (the Oracle)? Basically, where Vesper Bay is.
You had to return to the Waking Sands.
She gets you one. Last. TIME.
Dadcred and Uncle Orange are very interesting foils with regards to Minifilia, and Ran'jit is ... what Thancred could have become had he continued to think of Minifilia/Ryne as Minfilia, rather than her own person. With regards to the cinematic cutscenes, Coils was a special case: as I understand it, the Louisoix cutscene was a.) using some partly-completed stuff from the trailer for ARR, and b.) a reward/closure to 1.0, and c.) somewhat experimental at the time, because they were still testing how to build raids at that point.
Minfilia's line to Ryne is definitely one I go back to frequently, for many reasons. Being able to endure that doubt and despair, especially right now, is important. Kyle's headcanon is the accepted one: Minfilia says she's acting much like an Ascian at this point, possessing appropriate bodies, and Ryne is one who has the capacity to handle the amount of aether, etc., that Minfilia requires, but she's not a *reincarnation* of Minfilia as such. (Also, I *definitely* thought Thancred was dead at this point when playing through two days after release.)
The voice actors REALLY hit their strides in ShB: Lyna's line will always make me tear up. Bethan Walker (Alisaie) and Colin Ryan (Alphinaud) do AMAZING things with the twins, and Peter Bramhill (Thancred) is just so good here.
Vauthry is a very simple villain. But in an expansion with many other complicated, emotional villains, its nice to have someone who is just "The bad guy who does bad things."
Excellent commentary, excellent edits. A great start to a new Grinding Gear year. Also, yes to Tears Tier List and the Vauthry picture blimp call back. 🤣
Damn! That intro is Lucron levels of good! 🔥
So, next movie tomorrow? :P
We're back!
Ah that thumbnail *chef's kiss*
Lyna's voice acting is so good after the battle. It absolutely fucking crushes me with her delivery.
So goddamned funny the way the opening bit is cut so Thancred goes 'Over my dead body!' and then falls down immediately
man, i'm so glad you guys are having such a good time. still love your takes on things in this game, and your both insightful and humorous commentary.
others are probably giving more in depth comments, so thought i'd share one thing i saw online that broke me: apparently, the tunnel leading down to the fight with ran'jit is supposed to parallel/be a mirror of the one leading out of horizon when you go to vesper bay and the waking sands back in the source. so on both a funny and melancholy note...you're returning to minfilia one last time.
One of the joys of playing an MMO is seeing the characters we know evolve and well, grow up. We saw it with basically all the Scions, but I swear Thancred must have had the most changes over the entire series. Glad you guys enjoyed it.
P.S. Gundam Heavy Arms reference is gold in my book.
I believe the words Thancred mouth at the end of that sequence are his last words for Minfilia. Having it be silent opens it to be whatever the player might project thancred might've said to Minfilia at the end, but I also think it keeps it more personal like those words are for Minfilia alone. Its one of the most beautiful moments of Shadowbringers, and ffxiv as a whole.
I have a weird habit of getting grabbed by the shock factor of certain character deaths or fake deaths. Like, I'm emotionally following along, then BAM! I'm in tears because I didn't see it coming. That was my reaction to the Thancred moment and I totally thought he'd died. But I was also okay with it, because he'd really gone through that whole arc and I was like, "If this is how he goes out, then it was good." It was a pleasure to watch you guys go through the whole thing and really talk about your reactions, what you liked and disliked and why, and try to predict the future. I love how Garrett keeps saying that "This is the most I've loved Shadowbringers" because it really does just keep getting better and better. And you're not done yet :D
I have been gone for a bit, but it’s nice to see Garrett’s dream of becoming 100% is coming along nicely.
Enjoy the journey gentlemen.
😭 oh that clip of Dadcred talking to Minfilia wasn't fair the feels
That smash cut at 4:25 to the "Welcome to Lakeland" sign looking like an EPA Superfund site with all the black mold tells you every single thing you need to know about Lakeland, FL.
Kyle got the statis thing and the fact that it is what the world is dieing to. That was the whole theme of trolley town (and ShB)! +10 points Kyle!
Trolley problems aren't necessarily one-or-the-many. Divinity Original Sin has a nice trolley problem in it where you choose to save a recently retired soldier or a young recruit. Age instead of quantity as a factor makes the trolley problem apply to minifilia.
That fucking Vauthry edit LMFAO
THERE'S SOMEONE MISSING FROM THE WALL OF TEARS
KYLE
KYLE DID YOU FORGET YSAYLE AGAIN?!
So here's the deal with Thancred's ability: Thancred is originally a rogue. All Rogues have the "Hide" ability, it's one of the first things you learn. Thancred has "multiclassed" into Gunbreaker. As such, he still retains all his Rogue abilities.
Here's the kicker, the "Hide" ability requires the ability to manipulate aether. Thancred has lost his ability to control the aether in his body due to the "Flow" spell from ARR. It's not that Thancred doesn't have aether, it's just he cannot control it easily like other humans can (for some reason, all races in this game are referred to as "mankind" so human is all encompassing here). Thancred using his more refined "Deception" ability several times shows that he had no other choice but to use it, bc if he uses it incorrectly, he will kill himself. To use all of his "Hide" abilities, Thancred must use aether, which is like trying to force water through sealed pipes. Too much for toolong will cause the pipes burst, which means Thancred will die.
Thancred is one of the greatest Rogues/Survivalists in the world, so his "Hide" has evolved to "Perfect Deception", which ofc he cannot use anymore without great risk to himself. That's why one of the tooltips reads "Thancred will be KO'd once the timer on the debuff expires". He will literally die if he uses his hide ability, that's why he never uses it anymore unless absolutely necessary. This is the reason behind Thancred's special ability in the RP duty.
“Fun fantasy” and “embedded in a wall” are two things I didn’t think went together in a sentence lol
Ah yes, nothing like enjoying some good ol’ shadow-bingers with a side of shadow-bing chilling
"So Garrett, what's our next dungeon?"
"Well, Kyle."
The tears tier list is a brilliant idea!
they'd have to wait till after endwalker though
To answer your question at the end, you should know it. When you mention the hair to her (I believe it's a choice dialogue) she says she thinks it's a parting gift from Minfilia.
You can always tell which way a boss is facing by looking at circle on ground around it. It will have an arrow pointing out where the head of the creature is facing and a break in the circle where the rear is. If the circle is not broken and there is no arrow, that means there is no 'head', no front or back to the creature and thus no positionals.
+1 for the Tears tier list! Super happy to hear that you're also loving the voice acting, they really upped the ante in ShB for me.
I'm just super hyped for you two, seriously like **does happy hand flailing gestures** AAAAAAAAA!
Missed opportunity in the thumbnail for Garrett to go for the head pat instead of the hand on the shoulder
There is an unused comp Kyle made with this exact treatment.
@@Amovetv Wall of unused thumbnails when? X)
The big thing people don't seem to realize is that Thancred isn't talking to her because he wants the choice to be completely hers. He is worried that if he says anything, it will affect how the Minfilia situation plays out. He doesn't want either one of them to go but ultimately believes it's Minifilia's choice to make. As with all communications, both of them are a little silly about properly understanding one another. It's true Thancred is difficult, but so is Ryne in her own way. She draws conclusions about how Thancred feels without ever asking him about the situation. It's a realistic depiction of the issues poor communication cause between parent and child.
That opening. Chef's kiss.
I think there is an undercurrent of your found family throughout Shadowbringers too. We never really got to travel with most of the main Scions, and the Thancred calling Ryne family, also feels like it extends to the WoL and the Scions. They're family. Even the lead-up to Shadowbringers, losing them one by one to the call, was the tee-up, you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone, and thus finding them, and being all together feels good.
38:08 I spy a dead Jesse Cox :D
ryne's hair colour is "a parting gift" from minfilia.
For the record, I think that the more plot-relevant part of Urianger's magic-aspect-nerd-lecture is the concept that light aether in the First represents the same things as dark aether in the Source, and thus is essentially dark aether when it gets to the Source. The point of which being that this is the first time that Urianger makes a concrete connection between the rejoicings and calamities in the Source; the idea being that converting one of the reflections into one pure aspect of magical energy and hurling it into the Source is what supercharges all of these disasters in ways that correlate to how that aspect is perceived.
No doubt the idea that Vauthry is trying to poison the First with ideas of indolence & stasis is definitely an intentional metaphor for the death of the First & all, but the way the character Urianger sees that conversation (I think) is that it's about the mechanics of these calamities, and why a surge of light aether would cause such death in the Source.
Fun fact if you were unaware: Magnus’ voice actor is also Barnabas/Odin from FF16 if you want a surprising example of his range.
Oh younger Garrett how far you have come.
can confirm, Ryne looks now how she would've by normal, non-oracle of light birth of her parents. also that Amphibious Talos (bucket head) boss in Malikah's well is hands down the literal best boss in the whole game
There's a lot of 1.0 Thancred/Minfilia stuff that we all missed out on that gives the interactions on the first a huge bunch of context that ARR simply doesn't provide.