[spoilers]3.2 MSQ Discussion/Reaction thread

[CyrilLucifer]

I genuinely, 100% do not see how Unukalhai cannot be associated with Elidibus. It's in his name. SE isn't even trying to hide it. It's more of an issue if he's actually Elidibus, or just one of Elidibus' servants. If it's the latter, we might be in for some really interesting developments regarding sympathetic Ascians. If it's the former, yay, more Second Best Ascian.

Forgive me for going all squealy fangirl on you, but I need to post this (and I'm doing a 180 on my serious topic above and I apologize, but I need to get it out sooner rather than later so I don't derail another thread about it):

Unukalhai is adorable.

You can tell he's just completely and utterly baffled by the way you trust him, even when we have absolutely no reason to. You've even been directly warned against it. Yet the WoL (rather foolishly) ignores those warnings, even as Krile probes into his intentions. He's just all awkward and doesn't know how to respond to your trust despite your suspicions.

I genuinely don't think it could be cuter. Maybe if he was a minion that followed me around. . .

[Theodric]

Completely unrelated but...Calcabrina didn't seem to 'die' after being defeated. We simply dispersed them - which makes me suspect and hope that they'll show up again in a future dungeon. They did that with the Kraken boss, after all.

[Gaiussenpai]

I'm happy that some things happen to your character and felt less doll like this time around in terms of doing stuff.

[Riardon]

Completely unrelated but...Calcabrina didn't seem to 'die' after being defeated. We simply dispersed them - which makes me suspect and hope that they'll show up again in a future dungeon. They did that with the Kraken boss, after all.

Yap also the last boss of Amdapor City (the angel statue) could also make a comeback. It didn't shutter or disappear just went into "sleep" again.

I also started confusing about Hydaelyn. The way she forced Minfilia to an unnecessary sacrifice it just didn't let a good taste in my mouth. I'm a bit upset and angry with mother crystal. She could have speak to us at any time but she didn't. Instead she decided to make Minfilia an empty vessel for her likes for "reasons". The whole cutscene felt really wrong in away. Something wasn't right. I'm starting questioning about her motives and goals. 3.2 had a really good story which created many feelings and doubts. In the end it left me with a bitter taste.

[Grayve]

The way she forced Minfilia to an unnecessary sacrifice it just didn't let a good taste in my mouth. I'm a bit upset and angry with mother crystal. She could have speak to us at any time but she didn't. Instead she decided to make Minfilia an empty vessel for her likes for "reasons".

I'm not convinced it was unnecessary. She told us she's lost the last seven rejoining, and she was so weak she had to hijack Y'shtola's 'Flow' to even get Minfilia to her. Either she's conning us all, or she's basically about to shatter, though the conversation left more questions then answers. Seek what? I assume she meant to have a longer conversation with us, but didn't have the energy. And I am hopeful that perhaps returning Matoya's Eye might return Minfilia to her true self. Right before she 'shattered', her eyes seemed to change from their vacant, doll like expression to her more human one. And of course Midgarsomer is absent again. I feel he could have given us some answers. Just feels like no one is telling us anything...

Or maybe we can now summon a Minfilia-Primal.

[Eisen-Zorn]

To be honest, I feel as if Hydaelen isn't being completely honest with us. The story she told may very well explain Zodiark, but what she said before Minfilia shattered was somewhat troubling.

Hydaelen told us that The Ascians can be suffered no longer, so the supposedly benevolent, life giving Mother Crystal has just told the Warrior of Light that we need to outright destroy The Ascians. The way this message is given seems wrong, and I think that Alphinaud recognized that.

As for Minfilia being used as a vessel? She was the perfect candidate. Minfilia has, if you've been paying attention, acted more like some tempered follower than a voluntary believer. Also, Hydaelen's story about Zodiark placed a lot more of the blame on him than her. If Light and Darkness used to be one, why would Hydaelen be so opposed to becoming whole again? It seems to me that Hydaelen is trying to maintain her autonomy rather than rejoin with Zodiark and become whole again.

[Nalien]

She could have speak to us at any time but she didn't.

Didn't the Word of the Mother specifically mention how Hydaelyn had grown so weak that she couldn't really communicate with us anymore? The whole thing felt like it was staged to get us to directly seek out Hydaelyn after Ultima had weakened her. She directly intervened at Val to save Krile, since Krile had the knowledge to figure half this stuff out. Sent Minfilia back to get sucked up in Y'shtola's Flow so Minfilia could brought before her, knowing full well that we'd eventually try to find Minfilia and find our way there.

Not that effectively sacrificing Minifilia is a good thing, but what other options were there? It was sacrifice Minfilia, or let her (and thus the Scions) bumble around in the dark unable to even hear Hydaelyn anymore... Not that 3.2 has really changed any of that... We got an abridged cosmic-history lesson and she cut off before the most important part... Guess we can just go question old Middy for the rest... I'm not really left questioning her goals though, just her methods... I might wonder why she didn't just tell us all this back when she was powerful enough to do so (like at the start of the game...), but by her own account she has failed to prevent the Rejoining several times before... I can imagine a situation where one group of Warriors of Light got the whole info dump at the start of their quest, and it eventually panned out badly, so Hydaelyn refrained from telling us too much at once...

Actually, my money is on exactly that having happened... Perfect back story for the Warriors of Darkness, really...

I mean when it really comes down to it... Hydaelyn doesn't come across as the cosmic good guy... She banished Zodiark to the moon (just once, can a moon just be a moon?) and messed up reality in the process... Would be kind of hard to sell that as a good thing, were it not for the fact that we're essentially a product of that... It would be like "aliens" visiting us and going "Hey, sorry to bother you, but your universe was meant to be a single dense mass, everything after the Big Bang was a mistake... We need to rejoin it, you understand right?", I mean sure I'd understand, but like hell would I just bend over and let existence as I know it end...

[Fenral]

In the end it left me with a bitter taste.

For me it made the bitter taste go away. Up until now, we never questioned the "cost," even when it seemingly came out of nowhere and didn't actually buy anything. "We" always told ourselves it was "the only way," even at times when it very clearly wasn't. I'm really glad someone besides me has decided to call BS, because (as a silent protagonist) I was never going to be able to on my own.

[Theodric]

Do we know what actually happened to Val? Much like Doma it was destroyed off screen and details are few and far between. That Krile alone survived is...dubious. The Scions claim to have lost much but in reality they're very lucky - which makes their push towards extremism rather unsettling. Aymeric's motivation for the 'unity' of Ishgard is questionable as well. If war against Garlemald breaks out he'll be throwing Ishgardian lives away in the name of 'Ishgardian glory' purely to stop his people from rising up to question the status quo. The poor are still downtrodden. The nobility are still calling the shots. It makes me wonder why Hilda is so keen to work alongside him given that the people of the Brume are still starving and freezing to death whilst the luckier Ishgardians continue on as normal.

[Ayuhra]

Hydaelyn may not be all good. She IS Mother but where there is life there is death and where there is light there is darkness. That is why the crystals were once one.

I am wondering if the Ascians are attempting a Rejoining because they think it will create balance where there currently is none. They may not be all evil in their ultimate agenda. I mean Mr. Laughing-Bad (Lahabrea) was clearly evil and loved it, I respect him for that, but Elidibus seems willing to actually engage people in real conversations. He strikes me as someone who knows a whole lot about what's actually happening behind the curtain.

Which may be why Urianger is willing to listen to him