Predictions for Patch 4.4

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

"The Burn" and "Suzaku" are just tentative names for now, probably because they're mostly just describing what goes on in those instances, and they haven't figured out a suitably poetic name for the actual duty location yet.

I'm also wondering why we're going back into Saint Mocianne's Arboretum. More seeds? Violet seeds, maybe?

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Suzaku would be waiting on a title (since trials are named by location rather than opponent) but unless there's a more specific location name, "the Burn" seems in line with normal dungeon naming pattern. (Those two are labeled 'tentative' in the original article though, I'll correct that.)

I figure the Arboretum might just be a 'disconnected sidequest' like the original one was. I checked the quest script and we were originally going there to obtain seeds for the Idyllshire residents to grow crops. What could possibly go wrong - especially when it concludes with someone saying they have a feeling that "growing [the seeds] will make getting them seem easy"???

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I figure the Arboretum might just be a 'disconnected sidequest' like the original one was. I checked the quest script and we were originally going there to obtain seeds for the Idyllshire residents to grow crops. What could possibly go wrong - especially when it concludes with someone saying they have a feeling that "growing [the seeds] will make getting them seem easy"???

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They might have already paid off the seed quote a little bit(im doing this from memory, so it might not be 100% right). This happened during the stormblood botanist questline. Youre helping the botanists of idyllshire try to shore up their food supply, and at some point in that series you get told that some of what they already have growing is because of the seeds you helped get from the arboretum. And indeed, you had to jump through a few hoops to get everything going well, so growing them wasnt super easy.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

They might have already paid off the seed quote a little bit(im doing this from memory, so it might not be 100% right). This happened during the stormblood botanist questline. Youre helping the botanists of idyllshire try to shore up their food supply, and at some point in that series you get told that some of what they already have growing is because of the seeds you helped get from the arboretum. And indeed, you had to jump through a few hoops to get everything going well, so growing them wasnt super easy.

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Ah, that makes sense. I haven't got to the Stormblood gathering quests yet.

Um, alternate idea..... the Illuminati got in and are breeding new and dangerous(er) varieties of morbol or something.

On the topic of Fordola and her loyalty to Gaius...

I think it's pretty clear the Fordola's convictions have been severely shaken by many things. She's had her faith in the invincibility of her Garlean masters shaken by the defeats of both Gaius and Zenos. She's also had Zenos as an example of a tyrant who is ruthless not for pragmatic reasons (as Gaius was) but for selfish reasons. It's implied that her righteousness belief that the Ala Mhigans needed to be brought to heel was fueled in no small part by the death of her father at their hands - but now her Resonance has forced her to witness the suffering she's caused others, doubtless including many youth whose own fathers she'd personally taken from them.

I'm not sure what she'd do if presented with a still-living Gaius, but I think immediately taking up the Garlean cause once more is pretty low on the list of probabilities. Fortunately, it doesn't really seem like the Shadow Hunter is going to be a flag-waving Garlean poster-boy either; he's working for the betterment of Garlemand, but no longer by way of conquest and subjugation. Is this merely because he lacks the resources? Or because he no longer believes that to be the best way to advance Garlean interests?

It's possible that Gaius has had a change of heart, as well. His conviction was pretty clear that the strong must rule the weak, in order to prevent the weak from calling on higher powers (and deliberately or inadvertently unleashing eikons upon the land). He was confused and frustrated that someone as powerful as the Warrior of Light would follow leaders weak enough to have faith in eikons, and even moreso that the WoL themself worships the Twelve. And yet, the WoL proved themself to be the strongest of all. With his conviction that the strong should be calling the shots, wouldn't he then be forced to try to consider the WoL's point of view? Certainly, the Shadow-hunter did not display any of Gaius's bombastic preaching; he was pretty subdued, in fact. Perhaps Gaius's convictions have been shaken, as well.

It could be interesting to see how a changed Fordola and a changed Gaius would interact. It might be good for both of them, in fact, to compare notes.

My big takeaway from this other the issue with Gaius is the fact that we see an image of Solus sos Galvus in the artwork. Please correct me if im wrong but we have had nothing but an image in artwork and a name as far as he is concerned and what snipets we had before his demise. I am fully hoping and expecting we get some information into his relationship with his son, grandson and Gaius and how he factors into the current events. After around 4 to 5 years I am fully prepared and ready to dig in to the meat of Garlemald lore and backstory ( No pun intended ) I am also hoping and expecting for good things with Maxima!

Maybe Solus is on the artwork because we will go to the Burn and thus find out more about the region and why it went that way. Which could in any way involve the first emporer. (Still a bit skeptic how that dungeon will go...we should not have any living foe in there, next to garlean machines and soldiers and the view in this would certainly also offer only white sand and ruins.)

Just for the record, I never said Gaius was dead dead for sure. I did naaaht. What I said was, the possibility of him being a specific figure (The Griffin) was very low based on the available information, and I humored the idea partially out of possibility and partially for fun. Don't believe me...? Let's go get a Flashback Light...

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20171117033518

What were we talking about again? Oh, right. Uhh... well, I'm not sure Fordola still has loyalty to Garlemald maybe? She seemed to be turning a new leaf at the end of 4.1, but only just. That's why I said her character arc felt incomplete - she just started on the path to atonement, but hasn't fully committed to it. Whether she remains in Ala Mhigo, becomes a traveling companion as Estinien was, and/or meets up with Gaius again is all unknown... but I will be rather disappointed if they just leave her as she is.

As for the Burn... well, while it's said to be a lifeless wasteland and certainly appears that way when we played as Alphinaud in RP Mode, the artwork shows what looks like some sort of massive land worm's carcass. It would be pretty boring as a dungeon if there were no landmarks...

It's not related to 4.4, but I'm looking forward to the Monster Hunter event. I'd still have preferred something from God Eater, but that's just my personal preference... that cat is adorable anyway, so that's reason enough to do it.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Just for the record, I never said Gaius was dead dead for sure. I did naaaht.

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[Record scratch, Benny Hill Theme]

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Gaius officially dead.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Until it's revealed that Gaius is, in fact, alive (which would be a deus ex machina), he is in fact dead.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

So you demand a corpse tied to the bumper of your airship to confirm death?
... man, and I thought I was a sadist...

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Would you really argue that Henry Ducard / Ra's al Ghul could have survived at the end of Batman Begins? After the out-of-control train he was riding on crashed into a building? It's a very similar scenario.

Or could it just be that people are grasping at straws and trying to find some way Gaius could be not dead because he was a popular villain? I like him as a villain, but when we were stuck in an escape or die situation so was he; we escaped, he did not. Gotta learn when to let go...

Again, as long as people are admitting it's just wishful thinking...

https://i.imgur.com/7nPIzZg.jpg

...but there's not really any evidence to support Gaius still living except the fact we do not have his head on a pike. We shouldn't need it, for kupo's sake.

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I know, I know, you've softened up to the idea over the last year, but it was pretty clear how you felt in the past and I couldn't resist, lol.

First impressions are lasting impressions.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Perhaps they intended the scene as it's dead, but that scene was so clichè that was screaming, it's not over yet.
Let's just say they didn't know what to do with him yet and left it vague to left ppl wondering.
Maybe mid HW they decided where the story was going and added some hints here and there. The problem I see with Gaius is that supposedly they already know how the story would go and how it'll end as such I don't really buy that they didn't know about what to do with Gaius from the start.

Also there to say that they have always dodged the questions about Gaius' status ,from what I remember, with evasive answers and were never really clear on his status

The evidence was inconclusive but the story presented itself as if he was dead! I'm fallible, mmkay?

https://i.gifer.com/1DuM.gif