Warrior of Darkness: alter ego or something completely different?

[Cilia]

I spotted precisely one FFIX reference, and it was rather forcefully proven to be a pure coincidence arising from both characters being references to the same FFIII character. Did they really have to give him a tail, though...? Eh, I've said all this before and nobody wants to hear it. (Leaving this here, since it matters to discussion, but doesn't need to be dissected further, so please don't fight me on this.)

Someone said something tangentially related to G'raha and Waffles dutifully appeared?

(I want to call shenanigans, but in the interest of respecting your wishes I shall refrain from doing so.)

[Fenral]

Oh, look, first post after mine is Cilia contributing absolutely nothing.

Point is, if you take time to look at how the individual elements combine, there's a lot of overlap between games besides the ones handily labeled for your convenience. Not every reference to past FF games needs to come with a trademarked label and an appropriately numbered Legatus.

[Cilia]

Oh, look, first post after mine is Cilia contributing absolutely nothing.

Humor isn't constructive? /trolling

Point is, if you take time to look at how the individual elements combine, there's a lot of overlap between games besides the ones handily labeled for your convenience. Not every reference to past FF games needs to come with a trademarked label and an appropriately numbered Legatus.

And if you take a look at individual elements instead of the whole, you can construe anything into a reference to something, like how Lolorito could be construed into a more shrewd President Shinra (self-made man with virtual control over Ul'dah, owns a private army, deals in ceruleum (mako), very professional and courteous despite being an absolute douchebag, etc), or if he actually usurps overt control of the city-state he's a President Shinra in the making. It's true that not everything needs a flashing neon sign to be a reference, but if you pick apart things into minutiae anything and everything is a reference. Nothing new under the sun, y'know.

Since we have to be constructive, here is one of my hypotheses:

The reality we live in is one that "should not exist," and only exists because Hydaelyn's blessing is forcing the world down a path that "should not exist." Basically, Hydaelyn's blessing is allowing us to override the flow of fate and break reality. According to Lahabrea the Echo is the power to "break down the barriers of existence," and its Japanese term, the "power to overcome," is extremely nebulous. In other words, as Pope Thordan notes our ability to overcome King Thordan and the Knights Twelve should be literally impossible, but the Echo, Hydaelyn's Blessing, and our own combat prowess allow us to break reality and overcome impossibilities.

We're basically overriding causality; instead of defeating Thordan and the Knights with sheer power, we change fate so that we can't lose. If there's even the faintest chance we can win, we override whatever chance that may be and make it 100% so we can't possibly lose. And if there is no chance we can win, we make such a thing possible, no matter how improbable.

Put in terms of Schrodinger's cat, we remove the radiation source so the hammer cannot possibly break the poison bottle. We literally cannot lose, and the effects of this are... not good. Aside from Hydaelyn never getting time to rest through a proper Umbral Era, as I posited earlier we are in a reality "that should not exist," and that's going to have negative effects down the road. According to Lahabrea Hydaelyn's activities are going to break down aetheric and physical laws, which sounds an awful lot like breaking reality... regrettably this sounds an awful lot like XI: Wings of the Goddess, or so I've heard, but that's the best I can come up with right now.

By my theory on this, the Warriors of Darkness are "us," or people like us "as we should be," pulled over from the reality "that should exist" to set things right. The most interesting thing is that Derplander changed to DRG, but Darklander is apparently still a WAR...

Well, we'll see. Done being the constructive straight man for now. Can I go back to being the jester?

[Fenral]

regrettably this sounds an awful lot like XI: Wings of the Goddess, or so I've heard, but that's the best I can come up with right now.

How dare you reflect on other Final Fantasy games when talking about Final Fantasy XIV. Seriously, shame on you.　(Not easy, is it? Trying to keep the rest of the series out of it.)

I'll raise you with my own wack-job theory and say that in order for the world to course correct, the Warrior of Light has to die. While in the most literal sense this would be impossible, as the story must be able to continue with the current PC, there may end up being a way for the "Warrior of Light" as an abstract to die without actually killing the player character.

This would, conveniently, create a new "starting point" for new players while also retaining the existing playerbase. Which is something they seem keen on doing with the next expansion...

Done being the constructive straight man for now. Can I go back to being the jester?

No. You're fired. Find me someone who's actually funny.

[Echofalls]

*Waits for Fenral to put his claws away and for Cilia to pack up the jester stuff in a mouldy cardboard box....*
... did anyone else hear that cat hissing?

Ok I'm going to assume that this going to be a case of WoD and Friends start out against us, but after clashes and encounters we slowly begin to understand that we're Not So Different.
Meanwhile Elidibus is off pulling strings and being mysterious, inevitably ending up getting possessed or transforming, if not into Zodiark, but some nasything in need of being put down...
Just to speculate.


(Yes, I will carry around that signature, it's like carrying about a great big sign with "DON'T" on it whnever the two clash again)

[Cilia]

How dare you reflect on other Final Fantasy games when talking about Final Fantasy XIV. Seriously, shame on you.　(Not easy, is it? Trying to keep the rest of the series out of it.)

It's not so much that I'm looking back on the franchise, but that the franchise has done so much it's almost impossible to do anything without it referencing something that came before it in one way or another (or: Lolorito is a better President Shinra). The difference is I'm not looking at it to see nostalgic elements, that's just something bound to happen due to Final Fantasy's rather lengthy history. (And for the record, I have not played XI; though I bought it I never could log in and the help I got trying to do so was rather... lackluster.)

I'll raise you with my own wack-job theory and say that in order for the world to course correct, the Warrior of Light has to die. While in the most literal sense this would be impossible, as the story must be able to continue with the current PC, there may end up being a way for the "Warrior of Light" as an abstract to die without actually killing the player character.

Possible. As the Warrior of Light is far and away the most powerful of Hydaelyn's chosen, if s/he is the source of a continuum distortion killing him / her will correct things, or at least make it possible to do so (as s/he will continue to wander about doing things "that should not happen," and we've already caused a great deal of continuum shift). It's my personal conjecture that Hydaelyn is intended to be an observer, but she directly intervened in our fight with the Ultima Weapon and saved our lives. Since then everything we've done has been something "that should not happen," since we are someone who should technically be dead. Thus to set things right, we have to die...

... but we have the Echo, the "power to overcome." Even if we were to be killed, or reality rewritten into its proper course so that we were dead, we might be able to overcome that and retain our existence as a causal impossibility. When you remove the word "impossible" from the dictionary, anything goes. After all, we exist to make the impossible possible... even if the world forgets our existence and everything we've done.

No. You're fired. Find me someone who's actually funny.

D'aww, and here I thought my sophisticated internet humor was good... guess I was right to be lazy and not write up a script for Digimon: Our War Game Abridged...

Ok I'm going to assume that this going to be a case of WoD and Friends start out against us, but after clashes and encounters we slowly begin to understand that we're Not So Different.
Meanwhile Elidibus is off pulling strings and being mysterious, inevitably ending up getting possessed or transforming, if not into Zodiark, but some nasything in need of being put down...
Just to speculate.

While that's a distinct possibility based on the Warriors of Darkness from previous games, what we've seen of them here is rather... antagonistic, to put it lightly. Also I hope they pull it in a new direction and have the Warriors of Darkness be actually antagonistic instead of the yang to our yin, and if we do become allies I'd rather have it happen slowly. As in 3.1 - 4.0 (at the earliest) slowly, as our ideals come closer and we learn more about who and what Hydaelyn and Zodiark actually are.

Elidibus? I'll worry about him later.

[Nalien]

Possible. As the Warrior of Light is far and away the most powerful of Hydaelyn's chosen, if s/he is the source of a continuum distortion killing him / her will correct things, or at least make it possible to do so (as s/he will continue to wander about doing things "that should not happen," and we've already caused a great deal of continuum shift). It's my personal conjecture that Hydaelyn is intended to be an observer, but she directly intervened in our fight with the Ultima Weapon and saved our lives. Since then everything we've done has been something "that should not happen," since we are someone who should technically be dead. Thus to set things right, we have to die...

This is sounding suspiciously like the final plot in Life is Strange... Does this mean Hydaelyn is Max? Christ, Elidibus was right, I'm in full agreement with the Ascians now... Might even have an idea what Hydaelyn said, that made Minfilia run off now... I'd certainly want to run off if my god said that...

Hmmm... I wonder if a continuum distortion kinda thing could result in Thordan VII seeing multiple realities... There probably isn't really anything to his vision at the end, but it would be kinda neat if the first sighting of any of the Warriors of Darkness was not on the moon, but through Thordan VIIs eyes... I don't really want a repeat of the Spitewarden plot though, can't help but feel it's coming though...

[Morningstar1337]

This is sounding suspiciously like the final plot in Life is Strange...

Well Einhander and Lord of Vermillion also got referenced in XIV and SE did make all three games. Not to mention the Dragon Quest events that is closer to a reference than a crossover. Though now I want to know if there are Tomb Raider or Deus Ex games

[Anonymoose]

Though now I want to know if there are Tomb Raider or Deus Ex games

A small reference, I know, but there's Tomb Raider mobs in Qarn HM. I figure the name was chosen just to celebrate the fact that SE can say it without terrifying Groundskeeper Willie. Don't have to have the shinning to glean that one.

[myahele]

I wonder if the derplander of Darkness is fighting Ravana so that he/ they could get a __element crystal of darkness? Once he completes the set then he'll get the "blessing of darkness?"

For one thing, we don't necessarily need to fight a Primal to get the corresponding crystal of light. We fought Siren, the Dragon, found one in our beginner city-state quests, and the leader of the Sylphs get us one.

Maybe that's what they've been doing? Going around Eorzea and collecting the Crystals of Darkness?