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steves-strapcollection · 4 years

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On Tragedy vs. Bad Endings

[Image ID: user @frostyfrogz replied to your post “my mag171 #thots: I fully agree with. I love jonmartin I want nothing but the best for them. I know my answer today was an obvious twisting of dialogue but its just frustrating sometimes because it seems like people dont understand some sort of tragedy will indeed happen. I have never and will never suggest that something will happen to Jon and Martin’s relationship I’ve just been saying the shows not going to end well no matter what.]

So I have a lot of thoughts about this very subject, and too much for the replies on my post, so allow me to try to articulate what I mean, and what a lot of us mean when we say “it does not make sense for either Jon or Martin to turn evil in the end,” even in a show that has been advertised from day one as a tragedy.

First of all, no one thinks this is going to end happy. The few who do are usually unaware that this show is billed as a tragedy, and are quick to be corrected. I didn’t know it was a tragedy until I was on season 3 and someone told me. It’s overall just best to assume that the OP knows it’s not going to be a happy ending, because “reminding” people or “explaining” to people that the ending is going to be sad is a fast way from people to get annoyed and defensive.

Anyway! It appears, above all, that people have either fundamentally different ideas of what a tragedy is or accomplishes, or that people have a fundamentally flawed understanding of tragedy and it’s place as a narrative device/theme.

My thoughts are that tragedies hurt, and tragedies can be devastating, but they have to have a message and they should not be cruel to the audience.

A cruel ending would involve leading the audience to believe one thing for the entire book, show, movie, podcast, what have you, just to rip it away at the last minute like a big “fuck you” to the audience. Those sorts of endings are inherently mocking of the audience, and ultimately disrespectful. The only people in the audience that “benefit” from this sort of writing are the cynics who spent the entire show talking down to everyone for seeing the silver lining in the impending tragedy, even if, up until the finale, the silver lining was always part of the narrative. Like it took actual twisting and outright ignoring of the narrative as it’s written to be cynical and sceptical all the way until the end.

That is, plain and simple, bad writing. Jonny Sims is not a bad writer.

Now tragedies often have “happy endings,” they just also have an element of sadness colouring that ending. A good, tragic ending should, in my opinion, feel bittersweet. We should see it coming, we should know it will hurt, but it should be for the greater good and should further the narrative that has been told from the beginning.

I said a few weeks ago that a tragic ending without a silver lining is just torture porn, and I stand by it.

Now, if Jon or Martin are revealed to be Actually Evil in the end, where is the silver lining in that? What narrative has even possibly hinted at this outcome, without putting on cynic glasses?

Every single plot point and plot “twist” in TMA has been clearly detailed, never relegated to pure subtext that you would have to comb through a single interraction and analyzing the tone in which it was said (which could easily be actor shortcomings or error). They have always been obvious, at least in hindsight. This is why, for a while, I subscribed to the Web!Martin theory, but due to recent episodes I’m more inclined to believe those “obvious things” were red herrings.

Throughout The Magnus Archives, the common theme in every. Single. Season finale is that “we are stronger together.” What do I mean by that? Well, here’s the general idea:

Season 1: The one time someone gets separated by the group for any significant length of time, like I mean the main group, she gets killed by the NotThem and replaced.

Season 2: Jon is alone, due to his intense paranoia and his reluctance to reach out for help. This leads to a disastrous series of events that leaves him a suspect of murder, and his friends even more doubtful of his character.

Season 3: In the episode just before they deal with the Unknowing, Jon literally says that isolation was his downfall, and he was going to work on trusting his friends more. When they got separated during the Unknowing, things went to shit. When they found each other again, they were able to rally and they “succeeded.” Conversely, they are also teamed up with Melanie and Martin who hung back to bring down Elias. They were successful, working as teams on separate objectives, etc.

Season 4: This is, by far, their most “successful” feats while simultaneously their least. The whole season was again showing the downfalls of isolation. In the season finale, Jon has Basira and Daisy’s help, and while bolstering himself with their strength, and the strength in his conviction to save Martin to be with Martin, Jon was successful in stopping Peter Lukas and saving Martin. Conversely, Martin and Jon’s isolation in Scotland could be, theoretically, implicated in how Jonah Magnus was able to succeed in the end like that.

Now evidence of this same train of thought in season 5? Jon literally says it: Gertrude would not have done well in this post-apocalyptic world, because she had no friendships, no anchors, no reason to stay human. And then Jon says “you are my reason” to Martin.

It is in the text of the story that the only way to succeed, or win, or survive, is through trust, friendship, and love. One of the main factors in so many of the statements, on why the statement givers succumbed to the fear in their story, for even a moment, had to do with very little personal ties to anyone else. Many of the statements feature isolation and, as Jon put it, “lack of corroboration.” On the flipside, many of the statements that ended with the statement giver escaping successfully, and surviving long enough to be reached out to for follow-up questions, involved them having close personal ties to someone else that kept them safe, somehow. Like the girl from Italy; remembering her mom saved her from the Lonely. Or, more ridiculously, the guy and his dog that escaped the spiral because he was so distracted by his dog and had to be home for dinner. In MAG170, it was Martin’s love for Jon, and his trust in the love from Jon and his friends, that saved him from the Lonely again. Jon’s incredible amount of love, and respect, and trust in his friends is what’s kept him from becoming another Jared Hopworth or Jude Perry. In MAG155, Cost of Living, he expresses open disgust in how that particular avatar of The End justified her actions, killing and killing and killing again because she viewed herself as more worthy of life than that person. In that same episode, he talks of not blinding himself because he hopes to use his powers to protect his friends, that without them they’re too vulnerable. Honestly, this is the same reason Peter Lukas is unsuccessful, because Martin only helped him at all to protect his friends. The fact that he didn’t see his failure coming was hilarious.

Gerry said in Family Business that there is no “entities of love”, and that might be true, but love and trust is literally what saves you from fear. How many of us deal with things that are scary in our lives, if only because we have some level of trust in the people or things around us. How many of us have been brought out of a panic attack by someone we love and trust?

So all of this has been presented to us, over and over and over again, which is what I, and others, mean when we say “it does not make sense for one of them to be evil.” That’s what we mean when we say “it would be Bad Writing to make one of them evil in the end.” The entire show has driven home the message that we need love, we need personal connections to survive fear. To rip that away from the main characters at the last minute and call it “tragedy” would be a spit in the face of every single listener who took the story at face value, without picking it apart and reading lines out of context. And Jonny Sims and Alex J. Newall have both said they hate lazy writing.

Now, none of the JonMartin fans I follow are deluding themselves to think this show will have a happy ending outside of very self-indulgent fix-it au fanfics.

The way I see this going down is that Jon and Martin will figure out how to put the world back to the way it was, but Jon will not be able to be part of the new world with Martin. That’s the tragedy; that the world gets saved, and Jon helps save it, but he doesn’t get to benefit from his efforts in any way. The tragedy is Jon loves Martin so much, and they deserve their happy ending, but they don’t get it. But, they still saved the world so others can have their happy endings.

Idk about you, but between the “Jon turns evil in the end” and “Jon stays good and sacrifices himself to save the world” endings, only one of them has me in tears right now as I type this out, and it’s not the former.

I’m not against sad endings,I’m against bad endings that punish the audience for having even a bittersweet hope. I’m against sad endings that are just sad for the sake of being sad, with zero pay-off or reason to happen, especially when those endings throw out 5 years of hard work.

And hey, I might just be forced to eat my words in the end, but not before I fly all the way to England and make Jonny Sims eat a knuckle sandwich.

This was a lot longer than I meant for it to be, but I just have a lot of feelings.

#jonmartin #the magnus archives #tma #tma spoilers #THE POWER OF LOVE AND TRUST WILL SAVE THE WORLD #also idk the proper format of like image id's but i didn't want to NOT type out the reply #my mag thots #500 notes

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windfighter · 5 years

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@stony-week, day 5: Soulmates

Fandom: Marvel, Avengers Relationship: Tony Stark/Steve Rogers Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Wings, Hurt Tony

Summary:

In a world full of people, meeting your soulmate isn't a guarantee. Steve had hope when he was young, but as the years went by the hope disappeared.

Enter Tony Stark.

—

Steve used to dream about meeting his soulmate. He had been sure he would some day, that even someone like him – a scrawny kid from a poor home – had someone out there for them. When he laid eyes on Bucky the first time and instantly fell head over heels in love he thought it was real. They touched, a jolt ran through his body. Then nothing. No magic explosion of colours, no flight, no change in his white wings. Bucky laughed at him, white wings flapping happily behind him. It must have been so obvious what Steve had been hoping.

Bucky introduced him to lot of dames over the years, sometimes the occassional bloke, but nothing ever happened. For every person he touched, for every time his wings didn't change colours, he kept losing hope.

He met Peggy. It was the second time he fell head over heels in love and maybe, just maybe, she would be the one. She was a respectable dame, never let her skin touch anyone and Steve kept his distance. Then he ended up getting the serum. Peggy eyed him, looked at his new muscles. She let her bare hand trace over his bare chest.

Nothing. Maybe Steve was cursed. He smiled at her, then chaos errupted around him and his life got too busy to even think about soulmates. When he crashed into the ice he said a quiet prayer for whoever was his soulmate.

Please, don't let them ever feel lonely.

Steve opened his eyes to a completely new world. People looked different, sounds were different, the skyline was different, the houses different and even smells were different. The first person that touched him was a man named Phil Coulson. Coulson's wings were already coloured, glittering in the lights of the jet they were in. Steve wanted to say something, didn't know what, and looked away again. His own soulmate was probably long since dead.

He didn't touch people after that. Took clues from Peggy – only shook people's hands when he wore gloves, stood far enough away that they wouldn't accidentally touch each other, stuff like that. It was easier than he thought, people in the new world were reserved. He was introduced to Natasha, to Bruce, to Thor and to Tony Stark. Only Bruce's wings had colours – two shades of brown and some green – the rest of them had white wings just like him, except for Thor who didn't have wings. He observed them, the way they interracted. Tony touched everyone. Occassionally a pat on the shoulder, a pat on the back, a firm handshake. Natasha's touches were reserved, careful, planned. Thor's were strong, abundant, friendly. Bruce's were shy, quick to disappear, as if he was afraid to hurt them.

Clint joined their group, his wings the same colours as Coulson's and Steve smiled, nodded at him. Clint was almost as touchy as Stark, but in a different way, a more natural way.

Once Steve tried to pat Tony's shoulder. Tony flinched, pushed his hand away and then patted Steve's shoulder instead. Steve made note of it but didn't know how to take it.

Tony Stark fascinated him, but their interactions left a lot of room for improvement. Half of the times it ended in shouting matches, the other half in cold shoulders and one of them leaving the room. Tony tried to introduce him to the new world's technology, Steve turned right around and asked Clint instead. Steve tried to teach Tony to draw, Tony turned right around and designed him a new suit to get him to stop.

”I can draw, I just draw different things than you do”, he had said when he gave it to Steve.

They all moved into the newly renovated Avengers Tower. Thor on the upper floor, then Steve, Clint, Tony, Bruce and Natasha. One floor for each of them. There was a communal floor between Tony and Clint where they could all gather. Most nights they did, all of them except Tony who was in his workshop.

Occassionally they would sit in the communal floor and take care of each others' wings. Thor would watch them as they worked, fascinated by the midgardian tradition. Tony never joined for that and yet his wings were always spotless, not a feather out of place. Clint laughed and joked about Tony going to professional groomers but the way Tony had flinched under Steve's touch made him doubt it.

”I can't have a soulmate”, Natasha confessed to Steve one day. ”It's easier to be a spy when your wings are clean.”

”But Clint and Coulson?”

”They don't use Clint for spywork any longer. He's still great when they need an assassin.”

”My wife hates that though. She'd prefer if I retired.”

Steve blinked and looked at the vent Clint's voice was coming from.

”Wife?”

”Yeah, man. Coulson's great and all but I'm a married man. Plus, I love her.”

”But...”

Steve shook his head and decided it wasn't his place to pry. The new world had its own rules and he had tried to learn them, but when you hadn't lived them it was hard.

Steve started feeling comfortable about touching his team mates after a few months. All except Tony, who now that he looked closer was equally careful when touching people as Steve was. Except the occassionally firm handshake of course and Steve just couldn't understand it. He came to understand it when he was going to the workshop after a mission to talk with Tony.

Tony stripped out of the armor, stretched. Steve stopped outside and watched him move. He felt a weird warmness in his chest whenever he watched Tony. Tony put a t-shirt and sweatpants on over the undersuit he wore for the suit. He blinked when he saw Steve outside the door, gestured for him to come in.

”Hey”, Steve smiled. ”That was... You did good during the mission.”

Tony picked a pair of gloves up from the desk, smiled at Steve.

”Well, we have a pretty great leader.”

He put the gloves on, pressed a button on them. They formed themselves after his hands, their colour changing to match Tony's skin and Steve let out a small ”oh”. Tony gestured to Steve's hands.

”I can make you a pair as well. I've noticed your habit of wearing gloves.”

”It's fine, thanks anyway.”

Tony nodded, brought up some holograms and started making notes. Steve decided not to risk another shouting match and left him alone.

They kept working together, kept living together. They became more and more of a family over the eight months they had shared lives. Tony was a little outside, spending more time in the workshop then on the couch with the rest of them, but he came up one afternoon when they had another grooming session. Steve put the finishing touches on Natasha's wings, then patted the stool Natasha left and smiled at Tony.

”Come on, let me do you next!”

Tony and Clint both burst out laughing and Steve blushed.

”Not... not like that, come on guys.”

The laughter died out. Tony looked at Steve, sipped a cup of coffee. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. After half a minute he held up a finger, then went to the elevator.

”Jarvis?” Steve asked, uncertain about what had happened.

He could feel the others exchange glances as well, Jarvis stayed suspiciously quiet. Then Tony returned with a bag, placed it next to Steve and sat down.

”Use those. And be careful.”

”I know how to groom.”

The others sat down around the room, their eyes all locked to the two. Steve was nervous. He opened the bag, pulled out the tools. The brush was the softest he had ever held and he placed it against his cheek just to feel it.

”Impressed?”

”Definately. These must have cost a fortune.”

”They did.”

Months ago Steve would have thought Tony was just flaunting his riches in their faces, but they had grown closer since then. He placed the brush against Tony's wing and Tony pulled away.

”Tony...”

”Sorry, sorry. Just... You need to tell me what you're doing.”

”Okay”, Steve laughed. ”I'll start brushing your left wing now, okay?”

Tony nodded. Steve gently pulled the brush through the feathers, used his fingers to make sure they ended up correctly. Tony flinched again. They all had their problems and Steve knew that even if he hadn't learned what Tony's were yet.

”I'm using my fingers as well”, he said. ”Does it feel okay?”

”Mm...”

Tony sounded relaxed and Steve continued. The others were still staring, Clint perched on the kitchen table, Natasha in the couch leaning against the back of it, Bruce on a chair sipping on tea and Thor sitting on the floor next to them.

”I'm stretching your wing now so I can get to all the feathers.”

Tony flinched, pulled away and fell of the stool as Steve grabbed the wing. It slipped out of Steve's hand and Steve stared at Tony.

”Sorry, shit, ow. Sorry I flinched. Don't... ow.”

Tony's wings pulled back and Tony turned around so he was between Steve and them. Steve blinked, stared at his hand and stared at Tony again. Now that he thought about it he had never seen Tony fly like everyone else did, he only flew in his Iron Man-suit. Was there a problem with his wings?

”Did I grip too hard? I tried being gentle.”

”They're just...” Tony hung his head. ”They're very sensitive.”

”I'll be more careful.”

Steve patted the stool again. Tony hesitated, then sat up again. He stretched the wings himself and Steve noticed how they didn't quite reached their full lenght. He decided not to comment on it.

Tony's armor broke during one of their battles. That's when Steve learned what was wrong with Tony's wings. The armor fell off him and he fell towards the ground, stretched his wings to slow his descent. He crashed to the ground, cursed loudly. Steve ran over to him, he was lying on his stomach, one of his wings was bent, bone sticking out and feathers ripped off and spread over the ground around them. Steve crouched, placed a hand on Tony's shoulder. Tony hid his face in his arms and groaned.

”Again. Always the wings. Shit.”

”You stay there, I'll protect you and then we'll get you to medical, okay?”

Tony turned his head to glance at Steve, a frustrated smile on his face.

”At least it wasn't kidnappers that destroyed it this time. Should heal better now.”

Steve wanted to ask but it was neither the time nor place. He smiled at Tony, warmth spreading through him when he realized Tony hadn't waved him off, had actually agreed to let him play the knight in shining armor. He gripped his shield and went to work.

Clint had said he loved his wife even though Coulson was his soulmate. Steve hadn't understood it, but maybe soulmates wasn't always about getting married and living happily together ever after. The world was full of people after all, it should be statistically impossible to find one soulmate among all of them. Steve stared at Tony over the breakfast table. Tony was flipping through his tablet, working on new arrows for Clint. They had touched each other so many times, were always so close. There was no way Tony was his soulmate, statistically their skin must have touched sometime during the year they had worked together.

Still, he was certain he was in love with Tony. Not as head over heel as he had been with Bucky or Peggy. No, this love had built slower, started with laying a foundation. Friendship. When did friendship turn into love? Steve bit his lip, still staring at Tony. Tony's lips twitched and formed a smile but he didn't say anything. Steve kept poking at his breakfast.

”What is love?” he asked his cereal, not expecting Tony to listen.

”Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more”, Tony answered with a smile and Steve raised an eyebrow.

Maybe love was just stupid jokes shared over the table.

Tony used to dream about meeting his soulmate. Then Howard took that dream from him. Stark men are made from iron, they have no need for silly things like soulmates. He didn't need a soulmate, he kept himself happy with one night-stands and alcohol and stupid jokes. Kept himself busy with building weapons. Then Afghanistan had happened and his wings had been destroyed. After that he didn't even want to meet his soulmate. He stopped touching people, kept more to himself. Built himself a suit to be able to fly again.

Then he had met Steve freaking Rogers. Captain America. Who could in no way at all be his soulmate. More like his soul nemesis. They argued, fought, argued, helped each other and shared another shouting match. But with each game they played, each time they evaded each other, shouted at each other, praised each other, they got closer. Steve's wings were white as snow, beautiful, and sometimes Tony tried to imagine them with blue and brown feathers. Then he'd blush and hurry away from Steve.

They had worked together for eight months when Tony realized he was desperately in love with Steve freaking Rogers. He hid the fact deep in his heart.

Steve was there to help him when his wing broke during battle and Tony's walls crumbled hard. He let the truth slip out, the truth he had promised to never let anyone other then Pepper and Rhodey know. Had told Steve all about what happened when he was kidnapped.

They had worked together for one year when he realized Steve freaking Rogers was desperately in love with him.

”What is love?” Steve blurted out and Tony knew he wasn't supposed to react to it but he couldn't help himself.

”Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.”

He smiled, but didn't look at Steve. Steve finally returned to eating his breakfast. Tony didn't need a soulmate, didn't need love. He had his inventions, his company, his robots and his found family. But when Steve got up from the table Tony did as well. He grabbed Steve's hand. He never made those gloves for him.

”Steve”, he whispered.

His courage was gone, he fell quiet. Steve looked at him, tilted his head. Warmth spread through Tony's body as he met Steve's eyes, made him feel a little more couragous. There was nothing to fear. Steve Rogers was in love with him. He was in love with Steve Rogers. He took a deep breath.

”I love you.”

Steve took a shaky breath. Tony didn't expect an answer. He pressed the button on his gloves, pulled them off. His hands were shaking. He had only ever allowed Pepper and Rhodey to touch him since then, had only ever touched them this intimately.

”I love you”, he whispered again.

The gloves fell to the floor. Steve wasn't wearing his, he didn't do so in the tower any longer. Nothing was going to happen, there was no way Steve Rogers was Tony Stark's soulmate, and Tony grabbed Steve's hand.

The world exploded in colours only for them. A jolt ran through Tony's body, through his wings. His eyes got wet when Steve's white wings slowly turned blue and brown and he could see Steve's eyes getting equally wet. The colours around them calmed down again, returned to normal. Tony was breathing heavily, hadn't gathered himself, when Steve pulled him closer, pressed his lips against Tony's, and they were warm, perfect, soft and Tony melted even though the kiss in itself was lacking, panicked and greedy.

”I thought I wouldn't find you”, Steve breathed out as he pulled back.

”I didn't want to find you”, Tony whispered, ”but I'm happy I did.”

They shared another kiss, less panicked, softer, full of promise of a lot more to come. They had both dreamed about finding their soulmates.

They didn't need to dream any longer.

#stonyweek #avengers #tony stark #Steve Rogers #stony #fanfic #My writing #that turned longer than I planned #but so does most of my stories #I'm not very good at soulmate AUs #nor pining #you can probably tell #was a bit fun to write though #I used this type of soulmate AU for an SSSS-story once #I dunno I like it #there are so many different soulmate-AUs out there

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paintingraves · 5 years

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do you have any ilvermorny graves headcanons + advice on his characterization? i want to write a fic but i've never written hp fanfic before... (im asking you because you're the official percival graves authority)

hiii ok first of all the words “official percival graves authority” made me smile so hard omg that’s such a cute thing to say :DDD

I haven’t thought too hard about it but I feel like most of my Illvermony headcanons for him have become fanon at this point :

He comes from a very influential family so obviously his name was quite well-known; a little star before he was even sorted into the right house.

I like to think that Illvermony hesitated before finally sorting him in Wampus, and Percival was stressed out but he hid it well;

and then he became livid when he saw that a new girl was sorted into all four houses

seriously whats up with that?!

(he has a bit of a competitive streak, our Percy; it stems from himself but also from his education. He has expectations to answer to.)

he’s a good student. he has a bit of a hard time socializing, struggling a bit with understanding the codes of how to interract with other people his age. he prefers talking with his teachers. they love him - he is very clever, and very, very powerful.

that’s something that becomes pretty obvious early on - magic is almost like breathing to him. where other students struggle he usually masters a spell very quickly.

he avidly wants to learn and will devour any book he gets his hands on.

after a while he becomes bored, because following classes is too easy. that’s when he actually starts to interract with Seraphina.

perhaps they’re forced to pair together in potions class and they both make a sour face but hey, can’t let the grades go down because of a stupid rivalry

anyway after that they surprisingly become super close; she’s his first real friend and he is hers. though seraphina is much more social than him and her ambitions frighten him sometimes. but he promises to stay by her side.

maybe they date at some point, i don’t know

Percy !!!! has !!!! long !!! hair !!!!!

fith, sixth year are like the best because he’s still very academically talented but he’s also got a group of friends now and he’s starting to fool around a bit.

girls at school vote him the prettiest boy of their year and he doesn’t let seraphina hear the end of it for weeks

i like to think that he’d be a bit of a hearthrob, realizing quite early on that he’s been gifted with good looks and that he can use those to get his way;

i’ll stop there but gOD I COULD GO ON FOREVER !!!!!!!!! I LOVE HIM !!!!!!!!

As for advice with his characterization.... well the good thing with Percival (the sad thing as well lol) is that you can do anything you want with/to him !!! the world is your oyster !!!! All we canonically know of him is :

His name

What he looks like

What his job is

The name of his ancestor, Gondolphus and by connection;

that he comes from a no doubt wealthy and influential family.

That’s it. everything else is up to our own interpretation and it’s wonderful. i’ve never written Percival the same way twice in a fic, and it’s always been so interesting to see what he ended up like. so i say just go for it and have fun - you will be surprised by the results !! :DDD

#percival graves #ask #Anonymous

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vhellius · 7 years

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Long post.

My entire issues with Summoner, the complaints/demands and the direction they're taking the class in. A sleepless night and desperation to cap your tomes can set you to thinking.

So, let's start at the beginning. Summoners, a “class” I've adored since I first saw Summons. Which was in Final Fantasy VII, yes. I am one of those, VII was my first Final Fantasy. Cut me some slack, I'm from a European country, specifically the Netherlands. The previous games were not that easily accessible and SNES games were region-locked, compared to the system I “actually” started with, the Playstation 1. It goes without saying, yes. Ours was modified so you didn't need official game disks, and thanks to my older brother, I got exposed to the game. He later bought Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX and the love for the series started, so this part is kind of a thank you to my brother.

In almost all Final Fantasies, both Summoners and Summons were side things. Extra options you tacked onto your character, sometimes forced by the game as they gave vital skills or stats. The class never really had anything that set it apart as it usually got combined with either White of Black Magic. There are some cases where it didn't happen, for example, III. But that is where Summoner got introduced. This is a main game example, but the Tactics series had it as it's own job. While it is understandable people are disagreeing over the choice of spells in regards of Final Fantasy XIV's Summoner, I personally find this a breath of fresh air. Yes, it is more themed for Scholar, but! Carbuncle has always been a Summon itself. So the intent of Summoner was already there the moment Carbuncle had shown it's face. Summoners always have been a bit mixed, just a bit. If it isn't in the magical kit they have been assigned, it has been their Summons. However, Final Fantasy XIV's Summoner, has been assigned what we can essentially call the “Greem Mage”'s magical kit. Green magic? What is that? It's something that got introduced in The Ivalice Alliance. Bio, Shell and ectra have finally been given a proper classification while Faith and Brave were introduced as well. Green magic had the trait of mostly aiding the party in either strengthening it or weakening the enemy. Sounds a bit like Arcanist and Summoner/Scholar's relationship in XIV, right? Let us also not forget Carbuncle providing Shell/Protect in IX with the right gem-stone equipped to it's Summoner, and Final Fantasy III's Summon mechanics. Which could be beneficial as well, though through RNG.

And before anyone comes in stating; “But Resurrection doesn't make sense for Summoner!”, actually... It does. While XIV isn't a traditional Final Fantasy, Phoenix has been a part of their arsenal in the traditional sense. What does Phoenix do? Well, since we're explaining Summoner in general, Phoenix does fire damage and ressurects fallen/death party Members. Though in some games, Phoenix does show up at random and resurrecting the party. However, it's appearance is limited to the Summoner's/Owner's presence in the party. Meaning that no Summoner/Owner, no Phoenix.

While we're on the object of Summons in general now, let me adress my main issue with the direction of Summoner. Bahamut may be the strongest Primal in XIV, he is not the strongest Summon a Summoner can actually obtain in the majority of the games. Bahamut is a High tier Summon, yes. But for example Alexander triumphs him. However, that is a given as it belongs to the “Holy” Element. Though, that's Alexander. He's an entirely different game so to say. We can't keep riding on the Bahamut train forever, eventually we will come to a point where we just can't get more skills out of him. The well's dried up. But, there's another issue with Bahamut with how we Summon him in XIV. Or rather, Demi-Bahamut. You got NO command over him except ONE single button. The King of Dragons, only having ONE single attack command that you have to have on your hotbar? And then we're not getting started on the issue that he has to move while we move. Yes, he does an auto-attack when we finish a Global Cooldown cast. But if we moved, he has to re-position himself. Even though our tooltip states he has a 100y freaking range. What is this, Square Enix? I get that you are forcing us to cast more Ruin and stuff, but we need to move eventually. Mechanics happen, whenether we like it or not. But it is very disappointing to control Demi-Bahamut with a single button press. We can't place him, he doesn't have anything else than Wyrmwave and Akh Morn. Which doesn't feel that good to use the majority of the time. To me, it feels like we have almost no interaction with what should be one of the high-tier Summons in Final Fantasy in general. Which is a complete letdown.

And then we're not getting started on the Ruin III and Ruin IV problems. I get it, it's obvious you want to punish us for using Ruin III outside of Dreadwyrm trance, but. The potencies make absolutely no sense. We're at the bottom of the caster tier, and many of us have sounded cries of desperation hoping that we'd be listened to. Ruin III being 150 potency makes no sense, at all. Especially when the RNG has 200 potency, which sometimes won't even proc for 2 minutes. Who thought it'd be a good idea to do that? You removed our crit proc, which was understandable, but replaced it with something that is just plain random chance. “After a Pet uses an action” and 15% chance, what is this even?

But what gives, right? We have Bahamut. Well, about that. We're supposed to be a Summoner right?

Then we shouldn't be able to Summon just a grand total of “Four” (Demi-Bahamut if you were better and had actual controllable actions and didn't have to follow me to cast. Learn from Garuda, please.), but more. The A Realm Reborn primals are all very iconic Summons in general. And while it pains me to bring up the TEASE that had been put out in the first Heavensward quest for our job, we never received our dear Ramuh. Ramuh in general has been quite important for the Job in terms of the people who were Summoners or could interract with Summons (NOT YOU YUNA, YOU'RE A SPECIAL CASE.), as he provided guidance and help. Ramuh is one of the more important Summons and we were basically refused any chance on being allowed to use him. Our pet choice should matter, but we shouldn't be switching out 24/7, the cast time and the mana costs are not sustainable. No Demi-Bahamut, you don't count. You have your special stacks. Yes, Summons (NOT YOU YUNA, NOR YOU FINAL FANTASY XIII.) do require a lot of mana in the Final Fantasy games, they would do a lot of damage. But, you could not interract with them. You would be a sitting duck while you wait for the animation to finish as you would be stuck in the Summoning process. Did you ever think about that? No, Dissidia doesn't count, that's a fighting game. Quick animations are important there. But in XIV, there's a big issue regarding animation locks. Hello, Dragoon. While MMO's are action packed as well, there's still quite the difference in how the both of them work.

The only way how it would have worked, if for us to gain the Bard mechanic, but we'd lose control over our pets. Which would lead to more cases of Bahamut and screen-blocking. Big Summons are a hazard and the majority of the Summoners that I've seen speaking about it, keyword: I've and Seen, were already aware of the potential complications. Also, that would mean taking bard's entire unique sthick away, which isn't what the developer team wants if that is what we're supposed to believe, as we are denied a form of Iron Jaws, while we share the same amount of DoTs and are both DoT based classes, but there's this turd in the room called Tri-Bind that somehow managed to avoid the culling of abilities.

The current state of the class is not so good, a relatively easy class can achieve higher numbers, but Summoner has to push out extra work and go on the border on it's mana bar and it still wouldn't come up to the class's numbers. We're extremely selfish when it comes to our mana, something we weren't in Heavensward. To which I state it now, to get it out, I regret asking for Mana Shift to be implemented. As our Aetherflow got cut in half while it's re-use is still a minute. I would suggest fixes, but I am not someone who goes over balance, but what my main concern is also regarding the class is that it doesn't feel remotely fluid. What was fluid about it was pulled away. It is no longer a constant stream of having to pay attention, it's just spam ruin once you blew your load. (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

I truly love Summoner and Summons in general, and I make this no secret. And I want to tell people how I feel about the class and it's direction. For me, it's toolkit is good. As mentioned prior, for once it isn't Black or White magic that gets coupled to it. With the current issues the class is facing, it's becoming really discouraging again to play the class. Especially considering that during my time of 2.4 (I joined in 2.4) till 2.55, I got berrated for being a Summoner, I got kicked out in favor for Black Mages the moment I managed to finally gain access to the coveted Final Coil at that time. I will never forget the moment my Free Company leader asked; “Vell, are you certain you want to go Summoner?”, and when I got booted from nearly every Final Coil learning party on the basis of being a Summoner (Duty finder isn't reliable, you know that), I understood why my Free Company lead had asked me this question. The class was absolutely broken, in a bad way. It needed extra accuracy, pets were not responsive, generally the damage wasn't as high as a Black Mage's and while we had utility compared to Black Mage, not a single shit was given. Even being a third raiser wasn't enough to some people.

Though there was a group of kind souls that allowed me into Final Coil Turn 2/T11, who motivated me to carry on as they were willing to take me in.

Even though the Raid team I'm part of does provide me some motivation, I cannot help but feel like I will cause them wipes because of Bahamut's size alone. My poor machinist friend who is in the same boat in regards to our classes receiving little to no love at the moment (Though the last patch did have some adjustments for them), is considering switching to Bard. While it pains me to admit, I am in the process of leveling up and eventually learning Black Mage if my fears come true. As in, it taking till 5.0 for Summoner to get another needed fix. (3.0 was the Accuracy and food fix.)

English is absolutely not my native language, as I am Dutch.

Also, in regards to Grimoire's being used, sadly I have no real argument/case against this one. Though I'd rather have a book than use a staff. It's variation, I guess. Beats having another case of rod/staff user. Garments are almost perfectly fine though, just keep doing what you do SE and allow male and female Summoners to dress the same. Although I have one tiny complaint. Give us more back wings, that doesn't mean “GIVE BUTTWINGS”, but “GIVE BACKWINGS”.

To sum it up:

- Summoner has always been a mixture of beneficial/Weakening the enemy, which fits with it's current toolkit, and the raise as well.

- Summoners have no real weapon attributed to them.

- If we actually want to be Summoners, then we shouldn't just be getting demi-Bahamut. (No Phoenix or Alexander though, because lore.)

- Give us them little wings please.

- Thematically we're screwed

- In battle we're screwed

- Demi-Bahamut is basically candy to keep us distracted

- Potencies are whack

- Talking about that the Arcanist kit does actually fit well, compared to either Black or White magic. No, XIV's doesn't really count.

- While it is understandable why people want to play the Summoning aspect of Summoner more, what would happen is animation locks till we dropped dead, long cast times as seen with Summoning our pets.

- Tri-Bind needs to fuck off, Vell R'ius - 2017

- The class has a grim outlook considering the trackrecord of it's treatment in regards to patches

- It seems like Square Enix has no idea what direction they're taking the class in.

Thank you if you read this, honestly. It's something I wanted to get off my chest for a month now.

Really, it means a lot if you made it to the end and while I'm one of many voices shouting there's things wrong with Summoner, I care about the class. Not because it's my main on XIV and I raid on it, but because little Vell here just loves Summons and Summoners in general.

#LONG POST #Summoner #My thoughts and Feelings #Final Fantasy XIV

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