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rarsneezesanyway a chart is not what i made, but i wrote a 2000 word essay on the matter instead, it's a little rambly and stream of consciousness but, it's an exploration in why and how she's different from them
or, the conclusion: wol!anna is not fueled by spite nor does she have a bitter outlook on life. here's my rambling thoughts as to how i came to that conclusion
----
so like. okay. Anna irving. Wol anna is notably different than the other annas in that she is not , exactly, -- WHICH IS WILD TO SAY GIVEN HER WHOLE BACKSTORY IS THAT HER DADS IMMIGRATED TO AVOID THE GARLEAN TAKEOVER OF DOMA, -- born into a world of conflict. Lmao. Wol anna despite everything is the most sheltered from war etc AT LEAST IN HER CHILDHOOD. Ywkon anna is well aware of it because she lost her entire town to the war AND the blade class struggle is kind of a permanent feature of that planet, and canon anna like. desians. Gestures a lot at the desians.
Ywkon anna is affected because 1) lost her only family at age 10, spend three years on the streets, had to steal to survive 2) her entire family is comprised of blades and so once again the blade class struggle is kind of something she’s intimately familiar with – she has a perfectly happy life from 13 on! But also. The blade class struggle.
Tos canon anna is. Grew up surrounded by the threat of the desians and then at some point gets captured and experimented on. Even when she’s out she’s constantly on the run because they want her back. Like.
Ywkon anna is very “I am aware the ways that my people have wronged, I am aware that humans suck and I am human—if I don’t do something about this, who will?”
Canon anna is very “fuck you fuck you I live on spite alone fuck you fuck you” even before getting experimented on, because – at least as far as I view her – she grew up with luin at a somewhat active war against the desians. Having her home torched and rebuilding it, refusing to get knocked down.... that’s how tos anna lived. Fueled by spite and fury and trauma (fury for how she was hurt, specifically)
((ywkon anna fueled by love and fury for how her loved ones were wronged, mainly))
Wol anna meanwhile grew up in a perfectly normal family in a perfectly normal city under perfectly normal circumstances, too young to process the garlean threat or the refugee situation, especially because it would not have been obvious in a way that would have been obvious to her as it would have been in tos canon—garleans weren’t regularly attacking ul’dah, all of the war was happening in the politics, which a child has no way of really seeing...
WHICH LIKE, I guess doesn’t necessarily preclude ppl talking about it in gossip etc but idk how much of that gossip a kid bumming around the streets of uldah whose main interests include 1) pugilist guild 2) parkour...... well
Grnated main interest 3 was “sneaking into ul’dah’s palace and hiding somewhere until raubahn dragged her out” but I don’t genuinely think she got close enough to overhear any politics............ then again maybet hat’s the boring answer
And the idea that her dads never talked about it is also..... unlikely
So maybe im going about this the wrong way
Maybe I should go about it in the fact that: wol anna is the insert character of a mmo who by nature of the plot must be 1) the protagonist 2) pretty op
Like. there is not a single challenge presented in ffxiv that the wol would struggle with I think. Other than political struggles. But that’s... the political struggle anna would be exposed to is mostly vs the garleans which 20 years pre 1.0 is not nearly of a harrowing experience as the desians given the distance that wol anna has that canon anna did not, even IF wol anna’s dads are kind of lowkey kind of worried about it and sad that they had to leave their home to come somewhere safe. Their life in ul’dah is great the threat isn’t immediate and hearing ur dads whisper about it (and also minfilia’s family sometimes) is way different than Your Homes Are Actively Getting Torched Every Six Months or whatever
And the blade class struggle that ywkon has is.... not something xiv has, exactly. Like there’s the racism towards the beast tribes but it’s probably not that bad (DID YOU KNOW THERE’S LORE BITS THAT IMPLY UL’DAH USED TO TRADE PRETTY REGULARLY WITH THE AMALJA PRE 2.0?) and its definitely not something that would affect anna directly (seeing as she’s not living in ishgard lmao) (poor sidurgu)
AND. Okay, back to the wol being the wol being the protag
Tos canon anna is obviously not the hero she is a victim and as much as I can headcanon to fill the holes in her life she is very much the dead mom of the protag so like. she’s only so much you know. She can only ever be so much. ...........and also tos canon anna between the trauma and the lack of time to develop even tho she COULD have developed abilities to be on par with the theoretical god to beat up she 1) was not allowed that chance 2) sure as hell wasn’t born with those powers 3) never got to utilize those powers. Due to being dead. so she... you know. She can fight with everything in her, be fueld with spite, but it’s a losing battle. Surviving is all she can ever hope for. Surviving is winning. ((unless she manages to sweettalk kratos into doing something but lol lmao etc))
YWKON anna is... actually a political powerhouse lmao but the problems presented to her, the problems she cares most about... politics is the only way she can affect them and she is also not the hero of this story. She is the absent mom who is bullying the countries to stop their war and declare peace which is badass af but isn’t . anything on what ffxiv wol has you know? Anna is not the hero of that story
But ffxiv? Anna is the hero of this story, and not only is she the hero, she’s a hero in such a way that she is, in many ways, the Only Person qualified to handle the threats they’re facing. WHICH WILDLY IS ONLY TRUE OF 1.0 AND NOT ANYTHING AFTER BECAUSE >ALMOND BUT. being a hero and beign treated as not just a hero but also the expected hero to save the world really does things to your psyche that creates a slightly different person you know????? Your attitude is different
Wol anna isn’t fueled by spite and while she’s arguably fueled by love her mindset is extremely not “if I don’t, no one will” – it is extremely fundamentally “I don’t care if someone else can, I can, and if I sit here and do nothing I wouldn’t be able to live with myself after” which is I think the most marked difference between wol anna and other annas
Other than she’s not married to kratos LSKJDFLSJFSLMDFDSKFMDSFM god rip kratos but sometimes anna deserves better than you
((and even tho she doesn’t’ get to flex it much in ffxiv au because >dating almond instead, it’s honestly hilarious to me how much anna is a flirt without kratos in the picture LKSJDFLJSDF she’s notorious in space au for it)) ((space au short version is it’s guardians of the galaxy except tos cast sort of kind of but it falls apart real fast; inspired but not a 1:1; anna’s barely relevant in the main swathes of the au which ofc follow lloyd; meanwhile anna is at home on alien tindr just hooking up with every alien possible for freaky sex and runs a blog about it; she’s so valid))
Wol anna is also markedly younger than other annas I write for like ywkon anna is herself something of an outlier because she’s physically 28 but chronologically 50+, but tos anna is just 28 flat, ((and even 24.8 anna and all other incarnations of anna that lived throughout ywkon are... all around 30 years old, I think 24.8 anna is like 35 but my default anna in my head is 28 min))
But wol anna starts at 22 in 1.0 and is 23 for arr and gains a year per patch, but, 23 is pretty young you know
And she’s—I shouldn’t say happier, and I really shouldn’t say more confident, but tfw ur life mostly consists of punching gods in the face and you are uniquely equipped to do that? very different vibe than [on the run from the people who tortured you] and also different vibe from [living constalty aware of a class struggle that you have no choice to be a part of and watch your loved ones struggle under]; even politically anna isn’t the spearhead of convincing Eorzea to listen to common sense, and Eorzea is, all things considered, pretty levelheaded about it and willing to back her/the scions in about everything lol like heavensward is the only one where she didn’t just default have the political backing (when it mattered. you don't default have it in ARR, either, but by the time you need it in ARR it's not hard to convicne them you feel?) – EITHER WAY THIS, YOU KNOW, IS A DIFFERENT VIBE
wol anna doesn't necessarily have a different personality (other than she’s less mature and a bit more openly a flirt – even after she and almond start dating she and almond I think are more obnoxious than anna and kratos would ever be because kratos does not have the libido to match anna LMAO) (anyway anyway)
wol anna doesn’t necessarily have a different personality, but she does have a fundamentally different outlook on life
honestly I think its safe to say that both tos canon anna and ywkon anna have been broken by the world just enough to make them kind of bitter; like, it’s not gonna stop her, but canon anna is very bitter and vindictive thanks to the trauma. And ywkon anna is like, while her outlook has changed now that the system has changed,, pre system reset she obviously had a bitter blade’s outlook on life. she’s not a blade but all of her family is and all of her family has been hurt by the blade system in some way which was a fundamental and unchangeable feature of their world (as far as they were aware) (system reset was kind of a surprise to everyone!) that like. of course anna sat and looked at the world like well. We are stuck like this and I do not trust humanity to be better. But by god, am I going to try with the people I can reach.
Both of those annas live mostly out of spite
But wol anna? The only think she’s broken under is the weight of her own expectations in herself; being the only person who can save the world is hard!!!!!!!! But 1) she has almond before it becomes too much of a real problem 2) theres’ a difference between being stressed because “if you don’t do it, literally no one else can” and being bitter because you feel like you’re fighting—at BEST—an uphill battle!!!!! You know!!!!!!
wol anna is not fueled by spite
and while she is arguably fueled by love—why fight if not to protect those you love!!! If not to make their lives better and right their wrongs with your own hands!!! (dark knight noises)—I do think even that is like. fundamentally. Somewhat different
like. genuinely I keep making the funny comparison that super mario :handshake: wol!anna but also................... I do mean it 100% sincerely, I think their mindset on their role of being a hero and why they save the world is the same. Of course they’re doing it to protect those they love, etc, and you can’t say they don’t’ love anyone, but. 1) the world expects it of them, so they feel like they have to step up and 2) once again even if someone else could do it they could not live with themselves if they sat by and did nothing,
((which, being objectively the most or one of the most qualified for the job? Yeah, it does things to you))
So while most other annas are like. an exercise in standing tall and refusing to let yourself be broken by the world/your adversaries, or by doing all the good you can in a world where it seems impossible or fruitless to try................ wol!anna is more of an exploration in. well. I wouldn’t call it a hero complex exactly , but still an exploration in what being The Designated Savior Of The World does to your psyche a little bit. And also adventures in punching gods together with your very cool gf
Not necessarily lower, but definitely vastly different personal stakes
And I think finally hitting it at “wol anna is not bitter, nor is she fueled by spite” is probably the like, the most succinct way to sum up her differences with her counterparts in other aus. I think she only shares this with space au anna LMAO.
