3.5/4.0 Speculation & Discussion (Spoilers)

[Balipu]

I don't think the Griffin will die off. Almost certainly we are going to have to deal with extreme elements in the Ala Mhigan rebellion in Stormblood. Also as much as I would like to kick his ass or have Omega eat him, part of me really wants to see the old guy in Ala Mhigo put a spear in his gut for killing Wilred. There would be something Karmacly poetic about that.

I have long since had enough of Ilberd's crap. I want to punch Lolorito in the face for the stuff he did but at least he has been honest about being a manipulative and sleazy jerk. Ilberd is a traitor, even to his own cause. I could sympathise with him if he hadn't killed Wilred. Killing off the people he is supposed to be trying to win back Ala Mhigo for just makes him a hypocrite.

Call be stupid but I'm still not sold on the Griffin being Ilberd. Ilberd's voice is more scottish. At any rate I also hope I get the chance to kill him with some kind of very impractical weapon. As for extremist Ala Mhigans: There are several candiates. Ilberd, if he's not the Griffin, one of the fake Griffins, Ada Wong perhaps. If you think about it, it is a win win situation for the Griffin. If he wins he'll bring down the wall and liberate Gyr Abania literally on his own with his primal powers. If we is killed, he will become a martyr and galvanize every Ala Mhigan into a rebellion. From the perspective of Elidibus either a primal form of Rhalgr runs amok and causes a calamity or Omega Weapon eats Rhalgr and he gets to hijack a fully empowered Allagan superweapon the same way Lahabrea took control of Ultima. Whatever happens, the bad guys win.

We see a pair of humanoid legs in the middle of that magic seal so I think whatever the primal is, its humanoid.

I think those legs still belong to the Griffin. The Primal could look like anything at all. Then again, most primals are humanoid looking.

[Cilia]

I'm pretty sure the Griffin / Ilberd isn't going to be killed off - not before the tentative Primal Rhalgr is summoned. Yes, I still believe he will be the last boss on Baelsar's Wall, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to kill him - we're heroes, after all - or that he'll be killed later on. Personally, if what I'm reading into this is true, I would kill him in a heartbeat - betraying the Crystal Braves, dismembering my General, trying to kill my General, and now riling up trouble to lure Alliance soldiers to their deaths on Baelsar's Wall to empower himself. That's a bit much for me to forgive.

Anyway, now that I'm rested I've rethought things and tried to plot it out a bit more clearly. Remember they're trying to put the dungeons early into the MSQ now so people who don't care about the story don't have to worry about doing a bunch of story to get EX Roulette back up.

1. Baelsar's Wall
2. Primal Rhalgr(?)
3. White Dalamud
4. Lotus Stand
5. Cartenau (3.5 End)
6. Omega Restored (3.5.5 Begin)
7. White Dalamud Explodes
8. Wave Cannon
9. Final Showdown with Super Griffin(?)

The Masks make trouble up on Baelsar's Wall, necessitating intervention from the Alliance. The Griffin uses this to get lots of people killed and transform himself into a primal. Papalymo uses Tupsimati to seal the new primal into a White Dalamud, but knows it won't last forever and we need another, more permanent answer. Unsure of what to do, the Alliance calls a council at the Lotus Stand. Nero interrupts and suggests Omega. We go to Cartenau to reclaim it, but have to deal with the Garleans because they've flown in to get it for the same purpose (and future use). Nero and Cid, combining their expertise, get Omega operational again, and we fly in to stop the new primal. White Dalamud explodes, forcing us to blast the new Primal with Omega's Wave Cannon. The explosion of White Dalamud and/or Omega's Wave Cannon destroys Baelsar's Wall, opening a door into Gyr Abania. Before we can go to the region proper, we will have one final battle - the new primal, severely weakened from Wave Cannon, in 3.5.5. After that, 4.0.

[Balipu]

This seems to be the best theory so far, Cilia. What we need to figure out is what in the seven hells is Primal Griffin doing while we have the council and bring Omega online. I'd wager he plans to waltz into Ala Mhigo as a primal, but we don't cross the wall untill 4.0
Or will Papalymo cross on his own with us staying in Carteneau at the Omega control center? That could happen as we did see the cathedral in Ishgard before Heavensward. In that case we might go into Gyr Abania to get Papalymo out from behind enemy lines. With the Griffin dead or at least MIA his second in command Ada Wong takes over and helps us get to Rhgalgr's Reach and in exchange asks us to help the revolution. A request that is extra hard to deny considering she is Yda's sister.
Yes, this could work.

[Cilia]

Well... it could be that Papalymo will use Tupsimati to cast "White Dalamud" to imprison the new primal, but given he didn't have the time to prepare it won't last indefinitely and as we saw with Bahamut it's kind of a flawed move. Granted said primal will likely be less powerful than Bahamut so it'll be imprisoned longer, but we'll still be aware it won't last forever and we need another, more permanent answer. Enter Omega.

Explains the explosion (primal breaks free) and why we're still going after Omega. Also provides a handy cutoff for 3.5 before 3.5.5.

With what we have now, this is my best guess. I can't approximate the actions and purpose of every character, but...

[Balipu]

This was my innitial idea, but Yda's role had me reconsider. When se hits that button it seems like a desperate move on her part. Like a last resort to save Papalymo. Besides Papalymo is not seen with Yda inside the control room. Something had to happen to separate them. Maybe Papalymo fully intended it to be a sucidie mission "I'll go in and try to stop it on my with Tupsimati in case you can't get Omega fast enough". He probably wouldn't want anyone go with him into certain doom. Especially not Yda. Of course for all we know half of the Scions could be there with him. We see Cid, Yda, Derplander and Nero in the control room. The japanese tailer revealed that Alisae asked Yugiri to come along in case Nero does something funny to kill him, so chances are she is also nearby. That leaves us with a lot of Scions who could be there with Papalymo.

I really wonder what will happen to Omega though. I'm guessing 4.0 will continue immediately. Maybe if Papalymo does not get stuck inside, Omega will. And it wouldn't be too much fun for the Alliance if a fully operational Allagan superweapon would get lost somewhere in Garlean territory.

[Cilia]

Well, I'm not psychic. I can't make educated guesses without information - and I refrain from raw speculation, since dealing in possibilities is largely pointless. Like I said I can't guess the actions of any and every piece on the board - just what I see.

That said, we can be fairly assured that at least Thancred and Yda are safe. One of the flashing images is of them on an airship, looking down at what is implied to be the aftermath of the carnage on Baelsar's Wall. Other than that I can't say for sure what's happened to Papalymo that he's not with us inside Omega when Yda slams the button that implicitly fires his Wave Cannon.

Perhaps she's just extremely hesitant to fire it at all, since resorting to Omega is a desperation move in the first place and giant exploding death lasers should be avoided at all costs? We're going past my ability to analyze...

[Aerish]

If i recall well, The island with students have been vanish with Ultima's spell, since Omega is way powerfull what could happen to this part of eorzea ? giant hole ?

[Balipu]

If i recall well, The island with students have been vanish with Ultima's spell, since Omega is way powerfull what could happen to this part of eorzea ? giant hole ?

Nah. Ultima was used by Ultima Weapon at the end of the 2.0 main scenario. It blew up Castrum Meridianum. That's a pretty big boom, but not enogh to make the Island of Baldesion disappear. Which happened after Ultima Weapon was destroyed anyway. We never learned what happened to the Island. All we know that the Ascians attempted another rejoining. Or at the very least make everyone disappear before they figure out something the Ascians would rather keep hidden.

I don't know how powerful that wave cannon, but it probably hits like a truck.

One thing bothers me though. Omega seems small. As in relatively Ultima sized. Definitely large enough to have the party fight raids inside it like the Coil and Alexander. So how will the 8 man raid series work?

[Fenral]

In Omega's first appearance, it was ambling around the Cleft of Dimension as an optional boss you could fight on your way to Exdeath. We'll probably need to go inside something else to fight it (a Bend in Time?), rather than the current pattern of fighting a "heart" inside the larger being.

On the one hand, it's less "epic" scaled from the outside. On the other: something that (relatively) small took down the dragon Lousoix died (failing) to defeat. That was the size of a small moon. What iLv do you need to survive a hit from something like that?

[EdwinLi]

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From the looks of things they're using the model from FF Mobius which in size wasn't that big.