iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 14h

I genuinely think that my greatest strengths in media analysis and criticism come from being a Doctor Who fan. Being a Doctor Who fan requires knowing that most of the show is, truly, terrible. We're here to see camp, high-concept nonsense; the fact the show is occasionally good is a side benefit.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I don't want to haunt the notifications of someone who doesn't know me, but there's a post going around about how FFXIV refuses to give details other franchises love, like birthdays, likes, dislikes, and all that. My hot take: That is a GOOD thing about FFXIV! Because those things don't matter.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I love so many 00s JRPGs, but damnit I wish so many of them didn't do 'optional bosses that require you to basically play an entirely different game'. Every Final Fantasy from X to XIII, every Atlus game after around Digital Devil Saga 2, they just jump off into the 'No-Life Freaks Only' Zone.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'd have probably actually bought Control Resonant to see for myself if its character action tendencies are actually a problem. (I suspect they are.) But replacing Jesse with Whiteguy McBeardsman? That's a dealbreaker. Replacing any female protag with a man is a step down, but Jesse was fantastic.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My best advice for Reality Fracture limited, from my own prerelease: Unless you open very specifically one of these two cards, do not build Azorius. It is not a real deck, and will do nothing no matter how robust the kit looks. (Blue Proft is an acceptable substitute, but not good.)

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The middle column accidentally turned into 'my inherent interest in hard sci-fi clawing to the surface despite everything else trying to convince me otherwise'.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Avoiding the possibility of gambling ads on Discord, because Discord still thinks I'm a child. I love when problems solve problems!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

To go along with my own prediction about Evercold yesterday, I want to share the theory I've heard that I hate the most... partly because it sounds so plausible, and holds together so well. According to theory: that Ysayle lookalike we got that exciting glimpse of? That's Halmarut.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Now that we're 7.56 embargo-free, here's the one bit of speculation I have. I thought it was a logical conclusion, but other people I talked to didn't: Halmarut has a brand. Therefore, she can't even go to most of the Fourth. After all, she is FROM the Fourth. Everyone has a brand there, right?

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My character is... not invited to Evercold, apparently, and therefore will not be there. So it's Shadowbringers 2; whole-ass expansion that the roleplayers don't get to have unless they set up and jump through hoops.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Emet-Selch is now balding. I just want to see how people would react if he was.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

So we all know the Arcadion is pro wrestling, but they drove it home with this one. The Tyrant is a traditionalist babyface turned heel, specifically out of rage at the audience themselves not respecting his skill and successes. That's DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON'S heel turn!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Fortnite is a bad game that you shouldn't play and probably shouldn't exist. But sometimes it is the funniest thing on the planet.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

'City Escape but it's because Godzilla is attacking' is maybe the best possible idea for how to do a Godzilla/Sonic crossover. God damnit that's SO GOOD.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Damnit, my enthusiasm to keep working on Beastmaster died at level 35 because I don't actually find the Crucible or doing dungeons as Beastmaster any fun... but it also killed the momentum I had in the Occult Crescent and I'm not having fun there either. You ruined everything, Beastmaster!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I want to love the Crucible, FFXIV should have content like this... but good god thst first board is the worst introduction you ever could've made. It doesn't teach you any of your tools or how to read the information in front of you, so that first board's just an obtuse game of trial-and-error.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I respect everyone's choices of Pokemon glams for Beastmaster, but as always, I refuse to do the thing everyone else does. I'm booting up the Demon Summoning Program and going full Shin Megami Tensei!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

As a lore fan, Nintendo franchises are hilarious as a sideshow for exactly this reason. No answers, ever, only questions and cobtradictions! Except for, weirdly, Mario. Mario doesn't care at all, and somehow it holds together.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Okay, THAT'S why the FF7 remake games have felt hollow, right there, clear as day. Either the people making it don't understand the original game, or refuse to recognize what it was saying. And both stupidity and malice are unacceptable with something like that.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I promise, this account is a safe space from any 7.56 spoilers. ...mostly because I have absolutely no thoughts about it at all. Those sure were quests.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

So having been thinking about the Ocarina of Time remake's visuals for a while, and seeing both this and @tbskyen.com's comparisons to rococo and mid-century fantasy illustrations, I love the IDEA of a Zelda with this aesthetic. The problem is doing it to Ocarina of Time specifically.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Logged on FFXIV to bite the bullet and do the 7.56 story... only to find out that emergency maintenance is gonna kick me off too fast to bother doing the MSQ. Thanks, Beastmasters. I assume this is your fault.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

You know, I hate when everybody bandwagons on the same joke. ...but this time it really was a layup.There is no other observation to make: Nintendo Hired That Man, and we are all suffering the consequences.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm realizing for the first time I'm pessimistically anxious about an FFXIV patch. Like I'm actually AFRAID of what they're going to do in 7.56, because I see so few good options and so many bad ones. Which means I need to decide: do I get it out of the way tonight or risk going to bed upset at it?

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

So do people still hate water levels? Or has 'water levels suck' died down as a belief now that we get less of the genres that tended to have water levels?

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I've realized why Kingdom Hearts has such uniquely weird, stupid, and convoluted lore. And I wanna talk about it, because I think it's really funny. It comes down to two things: A: An insistence that every part of its worldbuilding be 'active', And B: An inexplicable insistence on making prequels.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Every few months, I become this old Hard Drive headline because some mechanic or another just breaks me. Today, it's Final Fantasy XIII telling me 'your characters can now use all combat roles!' No, FFXIII, no they can't. That's a psyop designed to overwhelm and destroy me and I will not have it.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

So, remember 'DLSS5 Made Y'shtola White' from a few days ago? Sorry to say, y'all fell for a hoax. (Including Jason, no hard feelings to him.) I recorded this exact scene, completely vanilla, and it perfectly matches 'DLSS5 Y'shtola' here. They modded the game, and then called the original fake.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Recording all of Shadowbringers so I can review all of it has reminded me if a lot of gut feelings I have about that expansion. Feelings I forget, and don't like being led by without understanding them, but I can't deny them when they're there. Wow, I really, truly, VISCERALLY hate the Ascians.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The worst part about this is that out of any video game franchise, giving Tomb Raider a cooking mechanic does make some amount of sense! This girl's going on multi-day expeditions into the wilderness, packing and preparing food is a core part of that! But NOT LIKE THIS

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Star Wars ZCOM has reminded me how unfair it is Star Wars gets so many good games, and no other big western sci-fi gets anywhere near that rep. Star Trek should have just as many! Doctor Who's been starving for a real game for decades! A Stargate game would probably suck, but I wanna see it try!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My least favorite video production habit of mine is 'write a rapid-fire list into the script that's going to require me to source and cut together footage for every single entry, thereby devoting about an hour's work to fifteen seconds of video'. You'd think at some point I'd stop writing those in.

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Reposted by Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️

sara winters, looking for new opportunities @divisionten.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I am SO proud to share my piece for this year's Desert Bus! The signed Wandering Minstrel Deck Box! The box isn't signed, but the WM is! Entirely handmade, from PU leather, soft minky, cotton, vinyl, and chipboard. This box was designed, embroidered, and built by me! #mtg #ffxiv @desertbus.org

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Reposted by Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Welcome to Bluesky. Please familiarize yourself with the following accounts to understand the range of opinions it is acceptable to express

All the Star Trek characters played by Jeffrey Combs

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A tiny thing from the Rising: the Wuk Lamat minion's description might make a reference so niche someone had to point it out to me. This might be referencing sports merch being pre-printed for events and then getting donated to developing countries if/when the thing it's celebrating doesn't happen!

Wind-up Wuk Lamat
This automaton designed in the likeness of Wuk Lamat was commissioned by a certain member of the royal family to commemorate the anniversary of her father's ascension. When the celebrations were delayed due to the rite of succession, however, the units were exported to Eorzea instead.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I don't have a set thing for when the dungeon roulette hands me Amaurot, my hands go where my heart sends them, but right now it's "Welcome to Wizard Hitler's Extended Monologue About How It's Not His Fault".

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I keep finding myself talking AROUND it instead of ABOUT it, so I want to do a small thread about why I genuinely, REALLY hate Calyx's 'squirrel' design. I've got more to say about it, but it amounts to 'his human design makes such strong promises that this one takes joy in destroying'.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Maybe the greatest sign of the Elder Scrolls being full of missed potential lore-wise is that its elemental system functions as if 'Meat' is an element, that can be manipulated in the same way as something like fire. And it's only used for two enemies ever.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I was planning to give PAX Aus a skip this year just for budget and energy reasons. But I GUESS FATE HAS OTHER IDEAS! Look forward to a summary video of whatever this guy's here for, everyone!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Inspired by yesterday's 'favorite characters from every expansion' trend, a #wolqotd for the players: Who is your favorite EXTREMELY minor/obscure NPC? Like, we're talking 'might not even have a wiki page' level obscure; someone so minor that you're gonna need to remind us they even exist.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Favorite characters by expansion, why not! ARR: Hard pick but Merlwyb HW: Ysayle StB: Fordola, also Omega if it counts ShB: You'll think I'm joking, but Vauthry EW: Amon/Fandaniel; runner up is Athena DT: Gulool Ja Ja; runner up to Wuk Lamat, and Calyx but only until the end of 7.3

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

My journey through TV shows I missed when they were new has brought me to Stargate SG-1. I really hope it starts getting good soon, because early season 1 feels like a bad '90s Conservatives do Star Trek', and the main positive is Christopher Judge's jawline. In fairness, it is a GREAT jawline.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

FFXIV loves its 'everyone turns up to help' scenes, but I'm realizing that the best ones were still Stormblood's. All the others either feel overly convoluted or spend way too long going 'look, it's That Guy', but Stormblood's are all really smooth and natural. They don't make a meal of it.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So the rewards for this REALLY interest me. Matoya's Cave and Eternal Wind are two songs that we rather famously have versions of, and characters heavily associated with them. They're natural picks for any commemoration event. ...But -Zanarkand?- Of all the songs? That's an... interesting pick.

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Reposted by Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️

sara winters, looking for new opportunities @divisionten.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Surprise #mtg fans and #ffxiv fans- it’s a Wandering Minstrel deck box with the commander signed by Yoshi P himself. Not sure if it’ll be a giveaway or an auction, but it’s for charity. @desertbus.org @childsplaycharity.bsky.social

Computerized design of the gods symbols in Final Fantasy 14 for embroidery.

A copy of the Magic the Gathering card Wandering Minstrel. Signed by Naoki Yoshida, director of FFXIV.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

You NEED to understand what a single mechanic or design decision is doing to the greater whole. Some of the worst games I've ever played were ruined by thoughtlessly removing a 'bad' mechanic or shoehorning in a 'good' one. You want a name for me to shame for this? Clair Obscur's fucking parrying.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I want a JRPG to include the kind of person who just by sheer coincidence looks exactly like some unrelated celebrity. FFVII Revelation should include a random shop NPC that happens to look exactly like Sephiroth, and he's trying to grow a beard because it's started to get REALLY awkward.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Star Trek but it's only doctor episodes. That's right, we're doing SPACE E.R.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Since this one slightly blew up, I wanted to talk about why I think Y'shtola IS the most popular commander in Magic now. Because yes, she's strong. Yes, she's semi-generic advantage. Yes, she's recognizable. But I think one thing truly carried her to the top: She's Esper Spellslinger.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I keep seeing Magic players decry Y'shtola after she became the most popular commander, saying that she's 'bad card design' and 'easy advantage', and I'm sorry, but y'all are just mad a card design with ANY sauce is actually popular. The card Y'shtola unseated as #1 is literally 'Ctrl-F Dragon'!

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