[4.5 Spoilers] Regarding Aulus mal Asina

So, Aulus mal Asina is an interesting character.
In his boss battle, he is seen as being physically connected to his chair through wires, similar to a cyborg, The wires come from the chair and go into his back.
https://i.imgur.com/7ckaQES.jpg

He is presumed to have died in this encounter, according to the lore book and the lore panel. However, the lore panel kind of skirted around the question (saying things like he is dead FOR NOW and other Garlean figures had come back after being 'dead')

Recently, he got his own minion, with quite an interesting description.

https://i.imgur.com/ePxMJyL.png
https://i.gyazo.com/e520a3d6b9cba387...2b5cec0f76.png

Implying that the automaton is easily capable of being easily void possessed. While this might just be referring to the minion itself, usually minion descriptions have something to do with the character themselves.

The Nero tol Scavea minion also came out a patch or two before his return to the scene, so it is interesting that the Aulus minion was added just now.

At the end of the most recent Ivalice raid, we see a brief scene of some Garleans exploring the site, and the main architectus that speaks looks very, very similar to Aulus. Almost like a younger version of him. For comparison, here is Aulus:

https://i.imgur.com/jFziNWA.png

And here is the unnamed Architectus.

https://i.imgur.com/3ZhxPeD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/p3yQMTf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iPSIwxr.jpg[

Now these characters share a number of similartities. Their hair colour is both purple with pink highlights. The pink highlight is the same color among both of them, though the purple differs a bit.
They have different faces and hairstyles, but they have the exact same lip colour (which is odd, since most NPCs do not seem to be given lipgloss, so I think this is deliberate).

Aulus' eyes are red, while unnamed Architectus' eyes are a brownish-red. Perhaps Aulus had been void possessed?

All the other architectus in the background have rather bland haircolours and features, so the purple and pink really stands out.

So, I suppose my theory is, either this is a younger Aulus mal Asina through cloning or other shenanigans, or perhaps a relative.
The features of the architectus would point to a younger, smaller, less void-corrupt Aulus. Considering that Aulus had done work on artificial echo (Which has been shown in the past to allow for a soul to transfer from vessel to vessel) along with soul extraction, I find it hard to believe a character well versed in such research would just die so easily. Perhaps he had transferred bodies.

I am curious your thoughts on the matter.

While I normally am not a fan of 'dead' characters coming back, I feel like there's a lot of wasted potential with him, so I actually wouldn't mind if he turned out to not be dead. I was suprirsed that he was considered dead, I always assumed he was knocked out or something during the dungeon fight.

God forbid the WoL learns how to double tap their enemies.

INITIWATE SOWL EXTWACTSHUN! lol

Hands off my soul! It's mine!

DA SOWL WEBELS!?!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titor

They have different faces and hairstyles, but they have the exact same lip colour (which is odd, since most NPCs do not seem to be given lipgloss, so I think this is deliberate).

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From messing around in the character data pages on Garland Tools, it's actually not that unusual for NPCs to be given subtle lip colours (usually close to their skin colour, sometimes odd), and they also use 'eyeshadow' to give more variety to face shapes. (Usually in black, eg. for Estinien, so it's probably meant to be actual shadow - although a few characters get other colours. Coincidentally Aulus is one of them.)

For reference: character data for Aulus mal Asina and the Imperial Architectus.

I hope he's dead to be honest, while the character had potential I'm getting a bit tired of no one actually dying.