Though he had already gained a great deal of renown taking part in Anthony Bridgerton in Bridgerton and for his steamy queer function reverse Matt Bomer in Fellow Vacationers, Jonathan Bailey shot up in consciousness for lots of people this previous weekend as Wicked whisked its way into the box office, charming his manner into ours and Oz’s hearts because the dashing Fiyero. However now we have a advice for the newly transformed: what if he had cat ears, a tail, and an enormous magic workers?
Sure, Bailey’s secret greatest function can’t be discovered on the silver display or on TV—however as an alternative within the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV as maybe one of many online game franchise’s most universally adored supporting characters full cease, G’raha Tia.
A red-haired member of the sport’s feline species, the Miqo’te, G’raha was launched as a part of a supporting endgame questline within the base model of XIV‘s reboot in 2013, A Realm Reborn, an keen researcher of a mysterious construction often called the Crystal Tower, with hyperlinks to its historical historical past revealed as gamers journeyed by way of a collection of raids set inside its flooring. The character wouldn’t be voiced nonetheless till 2018, when G’raha was elevated to develop into a serious determine within the then-upcoming enlargement, Shadowbringers. There, he turns into a serious character within the sport’s major narrative, requesting the help of the participant’s Warrior of Gentle, and their allies to assist one other world in XIV‘s multiverse from a cataclysmic menace, earlier than becoming a member of these allies as a daily supporting character within the following expansions, 2021’s Endwalker and this yr’s Dawntrail.
G’Raha is the kind of character nearly laser-designed to be glommed onto by Last Fantasy‘s fanbase. Deeply enamored with the participant character, his steadfast religion of their skills and his adventurous curiosities—on high of his frequent expressed need to not simply see the world, however see it by your aspect—have made him one of many sport’s hottest characters, and the topic of reams upon reams of fanfiction which are devoted making even the slightest inkling of romantic subtext throughout the sport as textual as doable (of some 40,000 Last Fantasy XIV-related works on Archive of Our Personal, over 5,000 feature G’raha amongst their affiliated tags).
Nevertheless it’s extra than simply G’raha being the participant’s largest fanboy that makes him charming, or the heady mixture of eager-eyed good friend and world-weary mentor his wild Shadowbringers storyline takes him on, that makes him so standard. Loads of it’s all the way down to Bailey’s voice work, instilling the character with an earnest playfulness that in a single flip makes XIV‘s poetically Shakespearean dialogue fashion really feel clean and pure, and within the subsequent charmingly grandiose. G’raha is each bigger than life, an all-knowing magister who’s helped save the world occasions over, and likewise your affably goofy greatest good friend who’s more likely to present as a lot pleasure biting right into a burger the scale of his head as he’s being whisked away in your subsequent journey. Bailey performs that steadiness with a resolute appeal that isn’t simply straightforward to make you weak on the knees, if catboys are your factor, however displays the kind of bright-eyed, hopeful wanderlust that sits at the heart of Last Fantasy XIV‘s grand narrative.
In a sport about mild’s conquer darkish, about eternal religion within the face of despair, there’s few characters who fairly embody it like G’raha does, and Bailey nails that in each line you get to listen to him. And it’s one thing he will get about G’raha’s enchantment, too. Though the actor has not often spoken about his efficiency in XIV, earlier this yr he opened up in an interview with BAFTA about how conscious he’s that the character has develop into beloved by its fanbase—and the way, in making an attempt to not step again from the function whereas balancing his stage and display profession, he managed to inflame his tongue leaping between recording for Last Fantasy XIV and performing in Firm. And is that type of dedication not charming in and of itself?
Hopefully it’s one thing Bailey will keep as his Hollywood star is about to shine even brighter (past Depraved‘s sequel, he’s co-leading the subsequent Jurassic World film with Scarlett Johansson subsequent yr), and we’ll get to go on adventures with G’raha for a few years to come back, wherever Last Fantasy XIV takes us subsequent. However whereas we do wait to see Depraved Half Two, there’s by no means been a greater second to get your Bailey repair by hopping into FFXIV. I imply, you sat by way of an almost three-hour film musical. What’s one other few hundred hours of gaming on high of that?
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