the ostensible reason Joshua stayed away, as i understand it, was "oh no if i got close to you Ultima might try to take control or... something"? (this was related during some lore-y infodump that i was only barely paying attention to, so, uh, subtleties escape me.) and even if that were the reason, (1) why was joshua there for that brief encounter the first time then, and (2) couldn't joshua, y'know. send a fucking letter. send one of his stewards to communicate on his behalf. anything. (like, that could've been an interesting source of tension—joshua's like "i'm fine but please don't follow me," clive decides to disregard joshua's stay-away warning and something tragic happens as a result, etc... but that's not anywhere close to what the game gave us lol)
in this particular case i didn't mind the fake-out death because it just seemed... so obvious to me that Joshua had to be alive, lol. bro is a PHOENIX. their whole THING is coming back. would've been more surprising to me if he'd actually stayed dead (and, you're totally right—that could've been pretty interesting! BUT ALAS)
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Date: 2024-05-21 11:18 pm (UTC)in this particular case i didn't mind the fake-out death because it just seemed... so obvious to me that Joshua had to be alive, lol. bro is a PHOENIX. their whole THING is coming back. would've been more surprising to me if he'd actually stayed dead (and, you're totally right—that could've been pretty interesting! BUT ALAS)