Did Matoya just possess Y'shtola's body?

[Daniolaut]

Can people please try to refrain from spoilers in the thread titles?

It’s a simple request. No need to get bent out of shape. I’m not bent out of shape. Just would prefer if people didn’t. Not everyone watches the trailers for this very spoiler prevention purpose, but still might visit the forums.

[ChaoticCrimson]

I joked that there might be a sort of Piccolo and Kami situation going on where Matoya somehow merges her being with Y'shtola, although clearly the exact circumstances would be considerably different in the context of the latter two. Still, I don't think Matoya's outright possessing Y'shtola, and a sort of "fusion" would definitely not be out of the realm of possibility. Matoya may not be an Ascian overlord (well we hope not lol), but she's certainly knowledgeable enough to probably know how to do something akin to that if the need arose. Of course, even if that was the case, the next question would be why? The most likely answer I can think would be that Matoya gets fired up enough to want to fight too, but knows she's not at her prime and may not have much time left. This could also have to do with Y'shtola's soul being yoinked elsewhere, but we don't have much to indicate how those the Calling took end up returning, or how much longer that is down the road. Once again, a trailer brings up more questions than answers. But then I suppose that's the best way to go about it really.

[LineageRazor]

It's long been a theory of mine that the Scions' souls had been yoinked to the First Shard to lend a hand there, in a manner similar to the Warriors of Darkness. Unlike the Warriors (presumably), though, their bodies remain intact on the Source.

When I saw the trailer (kinda wish I hadn't; them's some weapons-grade spoilers, right there!), and I saw Y'shtola being referred to as Matoya, I immediately assumed that Matoya had taken possession of Y'shtola's empty body. She loves the girl like a daughter, of course, and so likely had a good reason for doing so. My primary suspicion was that she did so in order to keep the body from degrading, and that others (whom, exactly, as yet unknown) had done so for the other Scions, as well. I've little doubt that doing so was a one-way trip, and that Matoya intends for her soul to disperse to the lifestream once she hands the body back over to Y'shtola.

The fact that the other Scions are up and around makes the theory shaky, of course. Perhaps the others are possessed by similar volunteers - though, while it's easy to see why Matoya (she's already near the end of her life, and has a great deal of affection for Y'shtola) would make such a sacrifice, we haven't really been introduced to anyone who'd have that kind of devotion for the other Scions. Or, perhaps, the other Scions returned, but Y'shtola needed to remain on the First Shard a while longer for some reason. Or - and this is a long shot, as I seriously doubt SE plans for things to get this dark - Y'shtola perished on the First Shard; the others returned, and Matoya assumed control of Y'shtola's body because she knew Y'shtola would have wanted someone to fill her role in the Scions.

I tend to doubt that it's just a title. The creators clearly wanted Y'shtola-being-referred-to-as-Matoya to be shocking, strange, and interesting - and if it's something that mundane, it's going to be quite a letdown!

[Iscah]

When I saw the trailer (kinda wish I hadn't; them's some weapons-grade spoilers, right there!)

So very much!!! I normally avoid any sort of spoilers and trailers for things I'm already looking forward to.... but for this game, it just seems like it would be a nightmare trying to stay unspoiled all the way from now until July.

Shorter-term trailers are easier to resist. I didn't watch the 4.5 trailer since it was only a week or so before the patch came out.

[whiskeybravo]

My current guess is that Y'shtola is now going by the name Matoya, perhaps in the same way that Lyse went by Yda for 15 someodd years.

Wait.. Is that what happened? Must've missed a cutscene somewhere lmao

Can people please try to refrain from spoilers in the thread titles?

Is it really a spoiler when it's in the teaser trailer?

[QT_Melon]

In regards to people upset over trailer spoilers:

Kind of reminds me of when a certain Stormblood trailer came out and people were upset because they cut the scene to make it look like a major injury occurred during battle that had reaching damaging effects involving Y'shtola.

Course when we got to that part, it was much more ...mundane that the trailer made it out to be.

[fay2]

They don't have to be warriors of darkness per say: just helping the Shadowbringer can be a reason to change/hide their names

Assuming their souls where called to the 1st shard and the events are on the 1st shard, that makes the most sense to me too.

Y'shtola picked the name Matoya there

[Valenth]

I am pretty sure Matoya will sacrifice herself to save or give Y'shtola her life back and as a result Y'shtola, being alive thanks to Matoya's aether will call herself Matoya from that point on. The reasoning being "this is not my life anymore, the fuel that keeps it going it isn't mine and thus it's only appropriate we get to call it by it's rightful name, Matoya". Something like that I bet. xP

[Neophyte]

I think the body sharing is quite possible, esp. since

we saw pretty much the same thing happening in the four lords finale.

I mean, having Genbu back is all fine, but it kinda lacked purpose imo. Just so Soroban has a teacher? I don't think that's necessary with all the other auspices around.

But maybe, just maybe, they wanted to foreshadow something ...

[QT_Melon]

I think the body sharing is quite possible, esp. since

Well also don't forget

Zenos' body was taken over but Zenos appears to have spiritually hijacked a body of his own - which was one of the Elezen resistance fighters. I am still curious to that one since we haven't seen anything about it for a while

That's also why I'm starting to find the whole thing silly.