I had long suspected the identity behind the Athena channel (I knew it was one of those trancers, and a dude larping as a woman, hence the AI female voice). However the "scottish accent" part now makes me certain beyond any shadow of a doubt just who is behind the channel:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160213021048/https://www.mmo-champion.com/members/1096882-Graeham
...and you would be completely incorrect. I will be generous enough, against my better judgement perhaps, to grace your latest conspiratorial rant a response as it is becoming quite tiresome at this point. I am not 'Athena'. I have no investment in Final Fantasy XIV these days and have not touched the game since Endwalker spiraled into an overly preachy and saccharine mess.
My criticism of the story, when I did hold investment in the game, was largely to counter the increasingly obvious subversion taking root both within the community and the development team itself. I was never and will never be a content creator. I simply enjoy posting on gaming forums and as a result of doing that, I happened to connect with a lot of similarly minded individuals. As well as some who turned out to be rather unreliable and deranged.
One of the main reasons I am choosing to respond to this, incidentally, is because the number of individuals who are randomly accused of being 'zOdIaRk TrAnCeRs' is becoming rather high. I really cannot stress enough how little interest I have in the game or its increasingly bizarre, outright crazy community. Perhaps if you ever bother to properly examine my posts you will see for yourself.
There was a time, especially early on in the game's lifespan, when I quite enjoyed posting about the story and theory-crafting about where each cliffhanger in the MSQ's would go next. Even prior to the tragic backstories that both the Garleans and Ascians received I found both to be rather entertaining and dare I say it 'pretty based'. I would have thought, prior to engaging with the FFXIV community, that it did not need to be stated that it is perfectly normal for some people to like the villains and antagonists over the protagonists in a make believe story.
Though in a community where a sizable chunk of the player-base consists of degenerate gooners and psychotic autogynephiles that inevitably led many of those two demographics to imprint hard on 'cRyStAl MoMmY'. Strongly enough, in fact, that even early on they took any criticism of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn or Hydaelyn as a personal attack. Thus began a rather strange one-sided war. If you check the lore sub-forum on the official site, you can probably find some of the posts where unhinged individuals accused various posters of being 'bigots', 'fascists' and all the usual buzzwords that have long since lost their weight and meaning.
Some of these posters, incidentally, were very insistent that no matter how sympathetic the reasoning, there would and could never be a 'good reason' for acts of genocide or the sabotage and destruction of entire races and nations. This escalated into creepy death threats, stalking and gossiping in an attempt to paint anyone who dared to like or dislike the 'wrong characters' as a Nazi. I would like to point out, once again, that many of the people suggesting as much actively mutilated their bodies and minds. The lore sub-forum on the official forum can readily be identified as a hot bed of autogynephiles.
Fast forward to Shadowbringers and a certain reveal, the arguments shifted abruptly and those same deluded individuals had egg on their face. Suddenly there was a 'good enough reason' for acts of genocide - a word they mysteriously began to loathe when it was wielded in such a way as to describe the deliberate snuffing out of the Ancients.
It was entertaining to stoke the flames and provide a counter, especially since it proved an effective way to draw attention to the game's growing list of problems, such as Koji Fox's nutty replacement. I had actually checked out of the game altogether when Sena Bryer rose to prominence and a decade of posting on the official forum without incident came to a timely end when I found myself permanently banned for calling out Wuk Lamat's voice actor as being bereft of tact, talent and professionalism.
Quite simply, at this point I consider the game to be a complete lost cause. It does not interest me, beyond gaining an occasional chuckle whenever someone tips me off to another scandal, trite story beat or dubious design decision. Or in this case, when I am made aware of attempts to tie me to unaffiliated individuals.
For the sake of transparency I will also admit to finding it rather loathsome to even have to come here. I will readily admit, as someone who prefers civil debate, that I generally gives sites like this a wide berth. With that in mind, I cannot promise additional responses and I rather hope that this will be the end of this unfortunate chapter and clear up the false, malicious rumours once and for all.
I genuinely despise the game's creepy community and equally subversive development team. As such, I have actively distanced myself from both altogether. I did not purchase or play Dawntrail as I saw the writing on the wall back in Stormblood, only for each subsequent expansion to reveal more and more attempts to pander directly to the mentally ill. Shadowbringers had enough to keep me relatively invested, though once both the story and game-play turned into infantile slop as of Endwalker I checked out and even let my in-game houses go so I could cut off the last remaining ball and chain altogether.
Which in itself leads me to a particularly earnest request. Please do stop involving me in this bitterly tiresome drama. It's just sad at this point, not in the least because myself and the other players that were branded 'Zodiark Trancers' have cut off ties with the game altogether. I cannot stress enough how weird and unhinged it is. I just had to check the exact release date, but Dawntrail came out on July 2, 2024. We are now closing in on 2026 and I ceased engaging with the game prior to the launch of the expansion.
I certainly cannot stop you if you, yourself, continue to cling to the game. By all means, feel free to do just that. Just please leave me out of it. I am being entirely honest here, I genuinely find individuals such as Kate Cwynar and Sena Bryer to be utterly repulsive, reprehensible individuals. Let alone the numerous degenerates who threaten to kill and sexually assault anyone who disagrees with them over a video game of all things, or those who regularly seek to spin grand conspiracies insinuating that despite the game being in dire straits, anyone who criticises it is just an alt of one or two specific individuals.
I was genuine in my attempt to point out the growing number of problems with the game which go far beyond the story at this point and in hindsight, if I knew where it would all lead, I would have washed my hands of the game much earlier - so consider this your 'victory'. Your badge of honour, if you will. The scary players who criticised your poorly and inconsistently written waifu have long since took their leave of the game. At this point, I have to even wonder why you are even still desperately trying to stir the pot. You have the game that you seemingly want after all. You are arguing with ghosts, echoes of the past. A falsified image you have put together of a manufactured enemy based on a rather elaborate game of Chinese Whispers.
I think the most baffling thing of all is how disingenuous your framing of the entire situation actually is. As in, you have clearly read enough of my posts to deduce that I hold personal and political beliefs that are overwhelmingly but not exclusively nestled snugly in the 'Right Wing' side of the political spectrum. So with that in mind, I can only scratch my head in confusion to find that your ilk repeatedly seem to struggle to grasp the idea that some concepts, such as the deliberate sabotage and destruction of one's species and society are grotesque concepts. To spell it out more clearly, it was, in fact, less about Venat as a character and more a matter of recognising that the game is being written and translated by subversives. The sort who are less interested in making a game with a genuinely compelling and nuanced story and more about flooding it with propaganda. Which can easily be seen to be the case by performing even the most cursory of glances into the sort of statements put out there by the likes of Sena and Kate as well as the rot infesting Square Enix's Board of Directors in the form of Tracy Fullerton. Another compromised and utterly insane influence upon the company at large.
If I may be bold, I really would suggest being more worried about that sort of thing as it has an actual impact upon the game itself. Constantly whipping yourself up into a frenzy over the mixed reception to Endwalker simply cannot be healthy, especially when those you are attempting to denigrate have no remaining connection to the game. No desire to play it.
A bit of a wall of text, all of this, though aside from wanting to provide some much needed clarity those who actually bothered to read my posts will likely be well aware that I can be rather 'wordy'. Consider that, in itself, another bit of proof that I am who I say I am. As well as hopefully negating the need to come back to elaborate on any of the points raised.
I sincerely hope that this unpleasant matter is put to rest once and for all. If other people want to take up the fight and try to get Square Enix to see reason and course correct against all odds, then they have my blessing. Though it is my firm belief that both the game and the company are too heavily compromised to truly recover and that it will be a downward spiral from here on out.
I certainly cannot stop you from going after this 'Athena' figure but if you are going to do as much then please at least get the most basic of facts correct and recognise that we are different, unrelated individuals. It was not so long ago that the controversy surrounding Kate and Sena breached containment and reached a much wider audience, so if some people have decided to cash in on that then that is their responsibility, not mine. I simply want nothing to do with it either directly or indirectly.
Really, the most prominent reason as to why I am even responding is because - like clockwork - every couple of months someone tips me off to the fact that you or someone else is posting either here or over on 4chan in a desperate bid to try and beat the dead horse that is the 'Zodiark Trancer' boogeyman. I really do have no affiliation with the game or its community at this point nor do I have any desire to be dragged into the mess all over again.
I had my fill of providing polite, civil feedback in the vain hope that the game would improve. It did not and so I checked out. It really is that simple.
![Brandy [◉'']](http://uploads.embed.kiwifarms.st/data/avatars/l/184/184149.jpg?1762172560){kind=avatar}
