Why i think "Flames of Truth" was a weak way to explain the world's survival

[ObsidianFire]

Lol. And now you have me watching the 1.0 cutscenes again to make sure I didn't mix up what cut-scenes were in what patches...

[CaesarCV]

I think it can't really be underestimated just how little plot there was before Yoshida and crew came on to take over the production of FFXIV 1.X. Back when it came out, there were huge complaints in reviews and the like about how the plot pretty much went nowhere. Rather than a linear plot like the rest of FFXIV, 1.0 was meant more as a purely sandbox, gameplay oriented experience. It's big ticket feature was levequests after all, rather than FFXIV 2.0 and onward which markets itself more heavily on bossfights and story. If you look at the Encyclopedia Eorzea for example, 90% of the 1.0 section is actually from the post Yoshida patches. There really just wasn't very much. Amusingly the period before the end of 1.X was apparently especially fun for the lore/story teams, since they could do more or less whatever they wanted given that the whole world was going to blow up, hence all of the kooky cults and other high strangeness.

[Jonnycbad]

Do Astral/Umbral eras don't just occur in Eorzea. It's planet-wide.

Also I suspect the Ascians have been banking on Hydaelyn stopping eachh cataclysm by re-balancing the depleted aether by absorbing a shard. In fact, they force her hand. I think the original cataclysm was meant to just be Dalamud falling.

[ObsidianFire]

Astral/Umbral Ears are probably planet-wide. The Umbral Eras definetly are. You don't get disasters on the scale they are described in the Lore Book and have them only be local.

Here's a write-up I did of all the Umbral Era effects earlier: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4824364

[YianKutku]

Astral/Umbral Ears are probably planet-wide. The Umbral Eras definetly are. You don't get disasters on the scale they are described in the Lore Book and have them only be local.

Here's a write-up I did of all the Umbral Era effects earlier: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4824364

It does create the odd effect of the entire world being stuck in a disaster just because Eorzea screwed up. People in Othard or Meracydia or the New World were probably going "all right, what did those Eorzean idiots do this time".

The Seventh Umbral Calamity/Era really was weird, though. The actual Calamity was very localized, even if the pre-Calamity effects (eg aether drain) was presumably global. So to everyone outside Eorzea, everything continued more or less as per normal, minus one moon in the night skies.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Also I suspect the Ascians have been banking on Hydaelyn stopping eachh cataclysm by re-balancing the depleted aether by absorbing a shard. In fact, they force her hand. I think the original cataclysm was meant to just be Dalamud falling.

I'm curious why so many people continue to think Hydaelyn is replenishing aether by re-absorbing a Shard. As far as I'm aware, there is no actual basis for this fan theory. The Ascians work towards a Calamity in order to break down the barrier between the Source and a Shard. The outcome may be the same, but the purported motive for the means is not. At least, not based on what I understand about Calamities.

[ObsidianFire]

People keep expecting Hydaelyn to follow the "benevolent diety/god was hiding something bad all along" trope when there still hasn't been any set-up for it.

We also don't know the mechanics of how a Calamity actually works. So there's much speculation about what is really happening in a Calamity and how it is really happening. And inevitably people wonder if that might be the thing Hydaleyn is hiding the makes her out to be not so great.

[Brightamethyst]

People keep expecting Hydaelyn to follow the "benevolent diety/god was hiding something bad all along" trope when there still hasn't been any set-up for it.

To be fair, SE loves that trope. The church/god almost always ends up being, if not actively evil, at least not as benevolent as it appears (we already saw it play out that way in Ishgard.)

While I agree that that's probably not the direction the story is heading in this case, I also wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being true.

[Anonymoose]

I'm curious why so many people continue to think Hydaelyn is replenishing aether by re-absorbing a Shard.

YouTube / Reddit speculation being repackaged as fact.

[SannaR]

Yet for me the Hydaelyn/zodiark thing is following the Altana/Promethus story from XI with differences. As when Altana did her I'm sorry but I can't withstand your actions anymore she didn't create other copies and he did what he did post imprisonment because he was lonely, still a little mad, but also just wanted to hear her voice again. Creating the empty also took him a very long time and I can't remember if he started working on it right away or until he fell into a depression. Moose would be better at explaining and correcting anything.

Also it was said after she saved our bacon during our fight with ultima weapon she was weaker than she had been and that she wasn't getting much aether back like either A) something was clogging up the flow B ) something or someone was creating a blockage or C ) a little bit of both has been happening. That's one of the few things that got mentioned but hasn't been been brought up again. I want to say we learned this around when we went to the Anti tower. Hydaelyn comes off to me like a horse with blinders on where she's not aware of a lot of things just that she keeps on getting attacked. Like with the 1st shard to me if she knew that her champions were doing that great I'd like to think she'd of been like whoa you're going to screw up your world please slow down because I don't want you guys to end up dying just because you were that good at doing your job.