Revelations from Patch 5.4

Neat, people like Vegeta as much as me or more. /o/

Supposition/Theory Regarding Valens Experiments

Someone here said he was a, "Hojo." That got me thinking... he says when they killed my twin in the pod test for Diamond's Oversoul perfecting, "I need an obedient servant, not a ravenous beast." What if all the experimenting he's doing with Zenos's data is going to attempt to make such a being... a loyal SOLDIER, if you will. Given that Goo Nael was all white, wouldn't Goo Zenos look even more like his supposed inspiration than usual? What if we get Goophiroth as the second phase to Diamond Weapon?

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Is Gaius the "only good" Legatus? Well, other than Gabranth (who's gotten very little screen time so far) he's the only one who's been shown to both live up to the Empire's promise of meritocracy and not indulge in petty racism. As far as I'm concerned he kind of is (especially given Gabranth isn't Garlean and only has his position thanks to nepotism).

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There's also Regula van Hydrus, Legatus of the VIth Legion. He didn't seem all that bad in The Warring Triad sidequests. The Garleans seem split down the middle based off the Legate we've seen: Gaius, Regula, and Gabranth seem pretty noble and loyal to the Empire while Valens, Zenos, and Nael were batshit crazy.

10 characters for Garlemald.

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Originally Posted by Beddict

There's also Regula van Hydrus, Legatus of the VIth Legion. He didn't seem all that bad in The Warring Triad sidequests. The Garleans seem split down the middle based off the Legate we've seen: Gaius, Regula, and Gabranth seem pretty noble and loyal to the Empire while Valens, Zenos, and Nael were batshit crazy.

10 characters for Garlemald.

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Regula does seem like he places more priority on being pragmatic than being demonstratively loyal. He is willing to work with us (ie Echo-users) when it becomes clear that his troops cannot handle the Warring Triad, and is clear enough of mind to acknowledge us as useful and necessary, without trying to test our strength (well, he knows the WoL is powerful, but Krile and Unukalhai were new to him).

It's just that he does all this while simultaneously being a completely arrogant jerk and treating us as particularly stupid barbarians, which he explicitly describes us as. So there's a certain interesting gap between what he says and what he does. I suspect it might partly be an issue of a compressed timeline between Regula enlisting our aid and his death, which might not have been as odd for players who were going through the Warring Triad questline when it was current.

Still, I agree that Regula is, if nothing else, not batshit crazy, which makes him exemplary for a Garlean Legatus. Even Gaius has his "nuh-uh I'm right" tantrums in the face of contradictory facts.

Ten characters of agreement.

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Originally Posted by Beddict

There's also Regula van Hydrus, Legatus of the VIth Legion. He didn't seem all that bad in The Warring Triad sidequests. The Garleans seem split down the middle based off the Legate we've seen: Gaius, Regula, and Gabranth seem pretty noble and loyal to the Empire while Valens, Zenos, and Nael were batshit crazy.

10 characters for Garlemald.

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>Gabranth
>noble and loyal to the Empire

Mmyes, reducing Rabanastre, a capital city, to rubble for rebellion is the height of nobility. Much like immediately jumping ship in an attempt to create his own nation is the height of loyalty. The guy's just a wannabe despot who dumped a bunch of points into charisma.

Gabranth's schtick, as I recall, is that he's an equal opportunity despot. There's no real malice or bigotry behind his actions—at least as far as we know—and his soldiers' loyalty to him is genuine. But he's still pretty awful overall. Kind of like Regula van Hydrus, in fact. Everyone remembers him for his sacrifice at the end of the Warring Triad questline, but few remember that this was done out of pragmatism. The WoL and to a lesser extent Unukalhai were the only ones present who could safely deal with Zurvan, and he'd given up on his goal of stealing the Allagans' containment technology because it was imperfect by design. It's also usually forgotten that he tried to wipe out the Vanu Vanu simply because they held the potential to summon a primal.

Gaius is the only "good one", if you ask me. And even then, it's in scare quotes for a reason. The biggest difference between him and Gabranth is that he walked away from the XIVth Legion rather than continue with his ambitions. And even then, it was both motivated by the decision to wipe out the Ascians and not entirely his choice to begin with.

MSQ,

I'll use my ten characters to say that I wish it were longer.

I really liked the brevity and return to Eorzea. Being able to save Ga Bu was really heartwarming. It did seem a bit more downtime and slice of life than the trailer made it seem, though. It was nice to have some brevity after how heavy 5.3 was. The time in Ishgard, Azys Lla, and Dravania, were all fairly lighthearted. And we still got a major development in the way of finding a cure for tempering. Which was long written off as impossible. And very exciting!

I honestly thought we would never find a cure for tempering. And this was definitely the main development and feature of this Patch. This finally solves one of the major problems of A Realm Reborn, and it's hardly possible to understate how much of an achievement this is.

And while I'm glad we had something slice of life and less tense for a chance in comparison to world ending schemes at all times. The fact we didn't learn much of anything about the world ending scheme until the very end of the Patch, and it wasn't much of anything we didn't see in the trailer, left me wanting more.

Considering we're only in the last two patches from the next expansion, and there's only one more MSQ Patch of Shadowbringers left, I expected us to learn more about Fandaniel and his schemes. We basically didn't learn anything new other than he basically wants to end the world, or at least claims to, and we have the name telophoroi now.

Fandaniel seems so cliché that I can only assume that both he and the writers are baiting us into believing the obvious so they can have a big reveal for their real motivations later. I don't think we should take it at face value, it seems like they're setting up some kind of plot twist, or at least deeper plot.

That doesn't make Fandaniel's appearance here much more compelling, though. Because while I think the chances they're playing his character completely straight and making a cliché villain is low, we didn't really learn anything other than he's baiting us with nasty and evil words so we can come fight Zenos.

Legatuses

I specifically said "actually practices the meritocracy the Empire preaches" and "does not indulge in petty racism." Anyone who ran the ARF for tomestones back during 3.X's relic weapon grind would know Regula absolutely indulges in petty racism; nearly every single time he appears on screen he takes the opportunity to denigrate the Eorzeans as "savages." It's so bad that it's even part of the combat data loaded into Sapphire Weapon! I'm not asking that he be a saint, nor am I saying the protagonists are, but if the guy does not respect people different from him can you really call him "one of the good ones?"

Him being besties with Varis is... beside the point, and at the end of the day it's not as if Varis was a good person either (even taking his difficult situation into account).

Gabranth is... difficult to figure out based on what we know. On the one hand, his soldiers are genuinely loyal to him, he wants to make a nation of equals, and he does not indulge in the aforementioned petty racism (to the point of including a Seeq in his ranks). On the other he employs the military brutality so prevalent in the Empire, is implied to have his position only (or at least due) to nepotism, and intends to make said nation of equality by brainwashing people (or at least those who refuse to bend the knee) with a primal. He's not a depraved scumbag (like say Valens) but I have a hard time seeing him as "good."

Gaius, while not initially good, does change as the story goes on. He has learned from his mistakes and is trying to make up for them - in his own violent way, but it's not as if either the Ascians or Garleans leave us a non-violent method of dealing with them. Every single Ascian has been deaf to reason (save Loghrif / Gaia, and that's just because she's an amnesiac reincarnation; if the Loghrif persona were to fully take hold she'd be just as bad if E12S is any indication) while the Weapons we're dealing with in Werlyt are not exactly designed for teachers.

Further, the only Imperial ambassador we've had the (dis)pleasure of meeting turned out to be an obvious snake, and while the (now-dead) Emperor himself did agree to meet the Eorzeans in negotiation his goal was never to hammer out any sort of compromise or armistice.

Werlyt Specifically

All I know is the G-Warrior is very likely to have some part to play in the last battle with Diamond. Gaius piloting against Diamond while we take on Valens mano-e-mano? Couldn't say, but we can't exactly pilot if it's going to be a Trial like Ruby and Emerald. G-Warrior is too huge for that.

Off-topic: Vegeta has been my favorite Dragon Ball character since I really started watching the series; I could go on for a while about why but suffice to say he's the most dynamic character, which makes him very interesting to me.

EDIT
Further VIII references in E12S

Now that some videos of it are out:

Gaia, in her "Loghrif / Oracle of Darkness" persona, has access to Ultimecia Final Form's two iconic spells: Hell's Judgment and Apocalypse, as well as Griever's Shockwave Pulsar. Her time magic returns as well, with one ability even stating "time is compressing."

The remix of The Extreme is... not as great as I was expecting. It's not bad by any measure, but it's not very different and the differences aren't an improvement IMO.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Gabranth is... difficult to figure out based on what we know. On the one hand, his soldiers are genuinely loyal to him, he wants to make a nation of equals, and he does not indulge in the aforementioned petty racism (to the point of including a Seeq in his ranks). On the other he employs the military brutality so prevalent in the Empire, is implied to have his position only (or at least due) to nepotism, and intends to make said nation of equality by brainwashing people (or at least those who refuse to bend the knee) with a primal. He's not a depraved scumbag (like say Valens) but I have a hard time seeing him as "good."

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Gabranth feels like what the WoL could be if they were willing to do whatever it took to create such a world. The WoL however is unwilling to force the view on others, seemingly preferring people to change on their own accord. This makes Gabranth an interesting character, as its possible we could find out that he even has the Echo, if they wanted to throw a twist at us and possibly reuse him in the future as a recurring frenemy to the WoL, helping us with actual threats when they get in the way of his plans, while also actively plotting against us. He seems savvy enough to manipulate us and others, and could possibly make a good opponent for us on the battlefield, and for Alphinaud in the political world.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Werlyt Specifically

All I know is the G-Warrior is very likely to have some part to play in the last battle with Diamond. Gaius piloting against Diamond while we take on Valens mano-e-mano? Couldn't say, but we can't exactly pilot if it's going to be a Trial like Ruby and Emerald. G-Warrior is too huge for that.

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I'm pretty sure they're not going to do it like that.

I think it's far more likely they'll pull a double fight on us. First a solo instance fight against the Diamond Weapon in the G-Warrior to weaken it and force it down, probably destroying/damaging the G-Warrior in the process. Then the actual trial where we take it down once and for all on foot.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

Neat, people like Vegeta as much as me or more. /o/

Supposition/Theory Regarding Valens Experiments

Someone here said he was a, "Hojo." That got me thinking... he says when they killed my twin in the pod test for Diamond's Oversoul perfecting, "I need an obedient servant, not a ravenous beast." What if all the experimenting he's doing with Zenos's data is going to attempt to make such a being... a loyal SOLDIER, if you will. Given that Goo Nael was all white, wouldn't Goo Zenos look even more like his supposed inspiration than usual? What if we get Goophiroth as the second phase to Diamond Weapon?

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Ooo That would be a pretty awesome way to finish! Maybe get the music too?

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Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

Gabranth's schtick, as I recall, is that he's an equal opportunity despot. There's no real malice or bigotry behind his actions—at least as far as we know—and his soldiers' loyalty to him is genuine. But he's still pretty awful overall. Kind of like Regula van Hydrus, in fact. Everyone remembers him for his sacrifice at the end of the Warring Triad questline, but few remember that this was done out of pragmatism. The WoL and to a lesser extent Unukalhai were the only ones present who could safely deal with Zurvan, and he'd given up on his goal of stealing the Allagans' containment technology because it was imperfect by design. It's also usually forgotten that he tried to wipe out the Vanu Vanu simply because they held the potential to summon a primal.

Gaius is the only "good one", if you ask me. And even then, it's in scare quotes for a reason. The biggest difference between him and Gabranth is that he walked away from the XIVth Legion rather than continue with his ambitions. And even then, it was both motivated by the decision to wipe out the Ascians and not entirely his choice to begin with.

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Frankly, a lot of the issues with Regula and Gabranth can probably be attributed to Varis instead. Varis was there at the head of the attack on the Vanu Vanu, and it's very doubtful that Gabranth decided to bomb Rabanastre simply of his own volition when it's purpose was to send a message to provences across the empire and did nothing but hamper his own local operations. Outside of that, Regula's worst sins are some weak insults and Gabranth's is his willingness to use a Primal, though we've yet to see where that actually goes.