Actually they were very close, overlooking the battlefield from the hills. At 1.26 / 1.27 on the End of an Era video.
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Well we're not exactly talking about a run-of-the-mill fantasy occurrence here though, are we? It's the end of an age, and the end of a game, in the form of a widespread destructive apocalypse that no one can stop. The fantasy genre isn't exactly one to avoid character deaths in major moments like this, so I wouldn't write it off as an impossibility.
That being said, I don't believe it's likely that the GC leaders or the Circle of Knowing members have perished, because fantasy like this is more likely to spend moments with a character when they perish to create emotional impact, as was done with Louisoix.
The second comment you quoted was about the circle of knowing members, who were clearly shown praying in the major cities.
Cid is alive.
A FF without Cid is not possible.
I'm fairly certain Y'da and Paplymo at least are alive since they were praying at the Matron's stone in front of the Conjurer's guild, and that still exists in ARR so we can safely assume that area was not hit.
(Although it certainly looks like quite a lot of aether was drained from it since the stone has gone dull and the trees surrounding it and the trunk holding it up are dead.)
well i think thancred , yshtola, yda and papalymo survived.. because have you seen where they prayed? right. Within the main cities. so they most probably have survived that. because we all know that the main cities havent received any damage in this catastrophe.
Cid statue lol^^
Guys it's quite simple, if you die in a cutscene then no Raise for you!
I didn't actually show any of these guys' official deaths, so there is hope. However with Bahamut's rage and Gigaflare I'm sure there are many that died along with those that survived (someone had to rebuild while we're in the void).
there would be so much player rage if even one of them died.