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Doesn't everything in the last GC quest "Living on a Prayer" basically answer this question? If we hadn't destroyed the transmitter/defeated Nael van Darnus, if we hadn't done all that praying to summon the Twelve, Eorzea would now be completely devoid of all life. The world of A Realm Reborn would not exist if it weren't for us. As Gaius van Baelsar says, "leave me something worth conquering."
If we had succeeded, the current world (ver 1) would still be around (no ARR).
If we had done nothing, Eorzea would be empty and void of life for all time (no ARR).
We tried and failed, but did enough to stop total annihilation (the world changes drastically but lives on aka ARR).
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Good thoughts all, thanks for your comments. :D
It seems at this stage we are oscillating between two theories--
A) Our actions had no 'real' significance to the plot--the point of the plot (from a metagaming perspective) is to wipe away 1.0 for ARR's release, and so that 'had' to happen. However, we may say that our struggle had a 'symbolic' value, in that human struggle always has value, whether it succeeds or not.
B) Our actions did at least two things of note: 1) We contributed to the reformation of the Grand Companies, which are still around after the events of the trailer, however devastated, and will be key to the reformation of the damaged parts of the nations and for the continued resistance of whatever action Garlemald takes against Eorzea (probably again now in the person of Gaius van Baelsar and the XIVth Legion). 2) Our actions stopped Nael van Darnus from somehow controlling or directing Dalamud and Bahamut against specific targets. This supposition goes that, had we not attacked the transmission tower or killed Van Darnus, Bahamut would have been much more powerful, or targeted somehow specifically against the Eorzean Alliance, rather than the general bursts of destruction we see in the trailer.
That second supposition is, naturally, speculation, but it seems right to me. Darnus + Dalamud must have been a greater threat than Bahamut alone. It seems that we, as adventurers, made something of an error in fighting Ifrit and Garuda. Even though they were causing destruction around the realm, the destruction each of them could cause seems minuscule compared with Bahamut. When we defeated each one, it gave massive amounts of aetherial energy to Bahamut in Dalamud--perhaps strengthening his power or actually hastening his descent. But I agree that we have to say that Darnus + Bahamut, Darnus either as an avatar or a puppetmaster or something, would have been much worse than just Bahamut.
What I'm still struggling to see is, a) in all of Eorzea's prayers to the Twelve to stop Bahamut--the attempt to re-seal him 'channeled' or 'orchestrated' by Louisoix, and whatever debilitating effect it may have had on Bahamut, even though it failed to re-imprison him--how we were relevant at all in that; and b) why we are special--why Louisoix chose to send us into the future.
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We killed Nael. A difference right there.