"Call him by his name"

"Call him by his name"

IT'S FINALLY DONE! This took me quite a while. More than I initially planned, to be honest. It's a very slow video this time, but it's cool to have this part of their story in animation format now.

I hope you enjoy this glimpse of their ARR relationship...plus some small additions to the ShB scene. :)

It was hard to convey everything I imagined for them in just this video, especially because I wanted to show it as a flashback/echo, so I decided to share more here to add a bit more detail:

During ARR and when they first met, Lizard was very quiet and lacked purpose. She felt used for her strength and didn't see herself as a hero, yet she wasn't motivated enough to challenge her situation. She simply went along with everyone's wishes. No one ever asked what she wanted to do or how she felt. She loved adventuring, but the "slayer of gods" label was heavy on her.

Then she met G'raha. He was thrilled by heroes and legends and genuinely loved adventure...and yes, she also found him very attractive. He was one of the few who spoke to her as a person, not as a weapon or someone to be intimidated by. She rarely smiled and was a bit shy, which was often mistook for unfriendliness - and she also wouldn't go out of her way to change things. G'raha saw her kindness instead of the stoic, intimidating warrior the rumors painted her to be.

At first, she only observed him from afar, unsure on how to speak to him directly. One day, he sensed her gaze and approached her, sparking a conversation that slowly evolved into a mutual crush neither of them acted on. This is a veeeery slow burn, y'all. (Their first kiss is in EW!!! From 5.1 up until the end of EW, they're just these dorks that make everyone around them internally scream "JUST DATE ALREADY!!!")

She wanted to invite him to travel with her after the expedition, ready to say goodbye to the Scions to follow him wherever he needed to go next... but she hesitated for too long. By the time she gathered her courage, he had locked himself in the tower, and she stayed silent.

After the door closed, she visited the Crystal Tower for weeks, hoping it would open again, or that he would hear her talking to him through the door.

Eventually, she had to move on with her adventures, forcing herself to let go of him and accept that she would never see him again (or would she?!?!?!?!), and that was the moment she decided to change. The last thing he said before sealing himself away was that the first thing he'd do after waking up was search for her name. That made her decide to become the hero he believed she could be— to make him remember her and to honor his sacrifice. She started opening up more, becoming confident and acting with purpose, hoping those stories would be the ones he'd read about in the future. She wanted to be deserving of his admiration. He was her inspiration just as much as she was his.

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Did I manage to tell some of it in there?

Thank you very much for those that were interested in her backstory, it made me really happy to know there's people interested in knowing more about her. I hope it was a little bit interesting. <3

And with that, I will immediately start working on the next one. Hopefully it will be done before Dawntrail!
Thank you for watching!