Final Fantasy 14's new feline momma has quickly become a fan favorite, as is tradition with new FF14 characters, mainly because she channels her inner crying cat meme.
Final Fantasy 14 recently introduced its first story-centric female Hrothgar in patch 6.55 to prepare for the character's hugely important role in the upcoming Dawntrail expansion. Newbie Wuk Lamat is set to summon our Warrior of Light over to the expansion's new region, thus kickstarting the MMO’s next nig arc, but her contributions to the plot pale in comparison to her memetastic introduction
As you can see in one cutscene, Wuk Lamat seems nonchalant at the sight of spicy food when eating out with some other big-eared friendos. "It's not like we don’t have spicy food in Tural too!" she says, right before scooping up some red-hot stew and fading into an internal oblivion due to the heat.
She even disturbs some very important, very businessy exposition to convince us that "it's nothing," while still visibly shaking. Maybe she's more loveable goofball, less feline momma after all. Watch below, it's a laugh.
As expected, or maybe, as designed, the character quickly became a community sensation with Wuk Lamat memes and fan art sweeping across the fandom. Social media surfers quickly pointed out the similarities between Wuk Lamat and the teary cat meme that’s been a mainstay on the interwebs for a decade.
(6.55) i fully believe the character writers based wuk lamat entirely off this meme but i may be wrong by the time dawntrail rolls around #FFXIV pic.twitter.com/06wXUwXNGTJanuary 18, 2024
Other fans photoshopped the character next to Sean Evans (the Hot Wings, Hotter Questions man) who often sits opposite sweaty strangers going through internal crises. Here are a couple more fun and funny fan posts for any fellow Wuk Lamat lovers.
pic.twitter.com/USz0mxjD77January 18, 2024
pic.twitter.com/8fvqd5uARxJanuary 18, 2024
IF WUK LAMAT HAS A MILLION FANS, I'M ONE OF THEMIF WUK LAMAT HAS 5 FANS, I'M ONE OF THEMIF WUK LAMAT HAS 1 FAN, THAT ONE IS MEIF WUK LAMAT HAS NO FANS, I'M NO LONGER ALIVEIF THE WORLD IS AGAINST WUK LAMAT, I'M AGAINST THE WHOLE WORLDTILL MY LAST BREATH I'LL SUPPORT WUK LAMAT pic.twitter.com/3Q0R5QQkCzJanuary 16, 2024
Sena Bryer, the English voice actor behind the character, actually has a pretty fun story about how she landed the role. Bryer was an active Final Fantasy 14 player for over a decade, and even (unsuccessfully) interviewed to become a community representative at one point. Things worked out in the end since the character is now the face of a thousand community fancams.
