Nothing useful to add to this, just something it made me think about in terms of relativity of symbolism - Haurchefant's shield (Ishgard and House Fortemps) failed to protect him but it also failed to protect YOU. He did that himself. The shield failed you both but he was still there for you. - ThreadSky

voidgates.bsky.social • 3 days ago

Nothing useful to add to this, just something it made me think about in terms of relativity of symbolism -

Haurchefant's shield (Ishgard and House Fortemps) failed to protect him but it also failed to protect YOU. He did that himself. The shield failed you both but he was still there for you.

Reposted from chesca playing Final Fantasy

Also I really don't like the broken shield as a symbol of him. The shield is a symbol of Ishgard. A symbol of House Fortemps. Both failed him one final, painful time in that moment. He is not the one who failed. His arm did not falter.

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claracatte.etheirys.social•2 days ago

I don't view it as him failing to protect Clara.
I view it as him knowing damn well that shield wouldn't be enough, but he still took the risk without hesitation to protect the woman he loved. A symbol of his sacrifice, bravery, and love for Clara. House Fortemps became a second family for her too.

voidgates.bsky.social•2 days ago

Agreed! Like I mentioned, I think Haurchefant is the one who DOES protect you, and it's the shield (symbolic of Ishgard and House Fortemps per the quoted post) that fails where he succeeds.

claracatte.etheirys.social•2 days ago

Exactly. That's why Clara, when she's a PLD, uses the Fortemps Shield in his honor, to protect those as he would have.

voidgates.bsky.social•3 days ago

To be clear, I don't disagree with the points made in the quoted thread about Haurchefant in any way - I also am pretty tired of Haurchefant being reduced down just to his death and agree with a lot of the criticisms raised.

voidgates.bsky.social•3 days ago

The angle that's grabbed me is just, I wish Haurchefant's death was portrayed more as just one facet of how his character was ALWAYS the one who supported you as the WOL, particularly when Ishgard and House Fortemps didn't necessarily want to. He, the person, did that.

voidgates.bsky.social•3 days ago

"The shield broke but his arm didn't falter" has me thinking about, y'know, being put on trial by the Heaven's Ward within .003 seconds of existing in Ishgard, or how even Aymeric withheld help from the Scions until he got something out of it at first - all these little ways Ishgard lets you down.

voidgates.bsky.social•3 days ago

I genuinely don't have a lot of memories of Haurchefant from canon and I think that's a failure of the storytelling to remind me about more of him than just dying tragically atop the Vault. How about showing up LITERALLY AFTER DEATH to help you rip the Eyes off Estinien? Where's THAT memory?

kylenne.etheirys.social•2 days ago

this breaks my heart (I think I have every one of his scenes seared to memory lmao) but it’s something very common and I agree with you that it’s absolutely a failure of the writers. there’s really good stuff deeply buried in side material too: his short story, Firmament quests.

voidgates.bsky.social•2 days ago

TO BE FAIR the first and only time I played Heavensward I was still pretty new to MMORPGs in general and not engaging well with subtler storytelling because I was hyperfocused on major plot beats and gameplay, so some of that is on me and I own it. The other problem is that I felt like his death -

dragoness.etheirys.social•2 days ago

That moment has been continuously the reason I started writing character stuff for Kas-andra. Without it I never would have felt inspired to write how she felt, finally turning her into a character rather than an avatar.

Literally my favorite moment of Heavensward

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