Urianger and Y'shtola are - not a lot of dialogue is spent on their relationship, but they way they can silently communicate in such small motions here is. it's good.
much like how the people of the Crystarium trusted the Exarch with his mysteries because he had never once let them down, we continue to trust Urianger and roll our eyes at worst when he's being shady because he, too, has never let us down
and also Ardbert's party was only on the Source causing trouble for us because the First was fucked up, so it was addressing the immediate issue as well
like even I, who does crave glory eternal, have given up on worrying by the "a geologic age is HOW long, exactly?" mark, let alone after the sun has exploded
feelings about Y'shtola thinking about this problem up to the end, and also about her taking her last minute to tell us even though she doesn't want us to do it
yeah, and that's both a boon and a drawback? because if, say, you can't/don't connect to like. Emet-Selch, the whole of ShB is gonna fall kinda short because the writing thrives on that connection to character
and frankly her tenure on MSQ has done a great job reconciling a lot of the awkward crufty backstory that comes from, being an MMO that had to burn down and relaunch,
comes in late but I've always been mad about Urianger blaming himself for the Minfilia thing because like. buddy. she chose to go. she had agency in that and she did make an informed decision that she probably wasn't ever going to get to come back or see anyone on the Source side again.
Thancred's feels the weakest because it's just so sudden (it's the only one that really has shock value imo) but Estinien's is so strong when you. contextualize it, in terms of this being a man who lived his entire life for war against dragons
and now he's here. the war is over and he hasn't put down his spear. but he's making it clear that that's his choice. that he understands that there is life after war, that after everything - after a war that lasted ages that are literally incomprehensible to the normal human mindset! - that the time after the war is still worth hoping for
because the most Character of this whole thing is that you can't Manifest something you don't really feel, he could theoretically have just been Saying Words to Tiamat and Vrtra but that's not possible here
ohY'shtola: I know not what mischief you are plotting, Urianger...but I trust you have our best interests at heart.yet