story predictions for shadowbringers

[Cilia]

I get that we're going to Norvrandt to restore it to relative normalcy (by bringing back the night etc.), but I have no idea how that's supposed to help with the Garlemald situation back on the Source. Saving people, yadda yadda yadda, but... how does that fix the sitch back home?

Crackpot theory that Solus and Emet-selch are not one and the same, but Varis is actually Emet-selch (or possessed by him). There has to be some big twist in there somewhere after Stormblood's straightforward "go fight the Empire!" and I'm tired of such obvious plot points.

Solus is on the First, messing with stuff. If not [possessed by] Emet-selch, Varis is acting of his own volition. There are a number of reasons I'm not of the mind Varis is possessed by Solus / Emet-selch, mostly that he would have no reason to tell the Alliance leaders about the Empire's Ascian origins and Solus basically tells Varis "Bye! Prolly won't seeya again!" in their last cutscene together. The possibility is duly noted but that would be... boring.

I'm hoping for the sixth area / final dungeon to be a really eldritch place, like Memoria or Sin's innards.

[Guiballad]

So i have three preditions.

First if the CT at the First is the same as in the Source i believe cloning shenanigans might be involved to justify the Scions getting new bodies. If Crystal Hand planned to Call our friends he might have produced some clones in advance. The WoL might also use a simillar method (although i think the Throw Wide the Gates is gonna be a very literal event and go there with our body). Them (sans Minfillia) using different bodies might even be the reason they're getting job changes lorewise.

Second i think our first dungeon is gonna be on the Source and making our way to the first. Kinda like Sirensong Sea. Find our way through some unexplored part of the CT so that we can "open the gates". Yoshida said Thancred won't be available as a Trust in the first dungeon so that might be why.

And lastly i have some bets as what or who we fight as a final boss. See it seems that starting with 2.0 there has been a partern with final bosses: they're either named after a superboss from another FF game (Ultima Weapon, Shinryu) or based on a summon(Thordan being based on Knight of the Round). If we think they actually follow an internal patern with those things then it would make sense that the final boss for 5.0 would be based on a summon. And my bet for that would be either Madeen/Maduin as they're (at least in their FFIX incarnation) a light-aspected summon or Ultima as her design might feel quite at home as a Sin Eater. I also think Ragnarok from FFXIII (who is not a summon but is classified as an eidolon i believe) has a good chance.

However if they don't actually follow a pattern then we might get a superboss instead and for that i have two bets. Penance from FFX as his name would fit quite well as a Sin Eater (and let's face it fighting Penance would make for a badass final boss). And by chance we already have a main character named after a final boss who was really hellbent on killing us last time we saw him and might get mad enough at our journey to warrant finally fighting us in his full power: Elidibus

[Seraphor]

G’raha Tia awakens in the future, to a post-apocalyptic Eorzea. Having unlocked the full potential of the Syrcus Tower, he realises he can travel back in time and change the events that resulted in this apocalyptic calamity.
The tower itself can travel through time, but he can’t just go back to the present day, because then two towers would exist in the same space and time, and that would be a paradox. So he travels back in time, to the First, to where the calamity (or at least one of the 'twin dooms') first began.
The Syrcus Tower ‘appears’ on the first, seemingly from nowhere. But the barriers between worlds are still too strong to simply pass through back to the Source and warn the Scions. It take’s G’raha Tia some time to make contact to those with the echo. In this time, the denizens of Norvrandt establish a settlement around the base of this mysterious crystal tower.

[RopeDrink]

Now that you mention it, I'm curious if they will try to tie Darkness and Dark Knight together at all in Shadowbringers, or if DRK being the expansion's theme job was just the obvious choice artistically, but lore-wise irrelevant / incidental.

Just think back to the Stormblood trailer, or even the ShB trailer. In the SB trailer, the WoL (as a MNK) duels with Lyse. That exact moment happens in-game, with the WoL duelling Lyse via a cutscene and ending exactly the same way as the trailer - both lunging at each other with a smile on their face -- just like how the WoL duels Zenos in the ShB trailer and wins, yet he was represented as a SAM, yet we do it in-game with whatever class we choose. As such, the trailers often just depict the WoL with a suitable class/role that fits that moment, but when you play it, you do so as whatever class you desire.

It would be unfair to think X or Y class randomly gains some sort of relevance over another simply because it was shown in the trailer. It hasn't happened before and I see no reason why it would happen now, other than Dark Knight (in an expansion called Shadow Bringers) fits far more than pretty much all other alternatives. I have absolutely no intention of levelling or playing a Dark Knight, and I suspect those that do will not gain much (if any) difference than I would, say, levelling a White Mage.

[Seraph522]

Snip

I think the reasoning behind it has more to do with what happened with Dragoon for HW, where Estinien got promoted from a job quest character to an important supporting character during that expansion. If you complete the DRG questline before heading into some of the MSQ preceding HW, some of the dialogue will change to reflect the events therein.

That being said, an Estinien situation seems unlikely to me, as the only viable candidates for this would be Sid and Rielle (possible, I suppose, but it seems unlikely to me) or Fray (which would require lore explanations as to why he is present if you haven't completed the DRK questline).

[Iscah]

In the SB trailer, the WoL (as a MNK) duels with Lyse. That exact moment happens in-game, with the WoL duelling Lyse via a cutscene and ending exactly the same way as the trailer - both lunging at each other with a smile on their face

That scene doesn't really work with anything but monk, though. My summoner looked a bit silly rushing towards her with a book, and it occurs to me that attacking her with a bladed weapon is probably worse...

It was really just in there to go "yeah, it's the trailer scene!", but it wasn't really a good representation of the trailer scene because they didn't (couldn't) show the fight. Would have been better to leave it as just thematic and not try to wedge it in there just because.

[Mimilu]

Mimi's prediction

Our oldest and most evil enemy will come back for revenge...

THE WINE BOTTLE! It got Nanamo in ARR and it got us and did a fake out during our date with Aymeric in HW. It's been using SB to plot it's revenge!

[Mansion]

That scene doesn't really work with anything but monk, though. My summoner looked a bit silly rushing towards her with a book, and it occurs to me that attacking her with a bladed weapon is probably worse...

It was really just in there to go "yeah, it's the trailer scene!", but it wasn't really a good representation of the trailer scene because they didn't (couldn't) show the fight. Would have been better to leave it as just thematic and not try to wedge it in there just because.

In SMN defense, have you ever been hit on the nose by a large book? It's arguably as painful as being hit by a monk punch. We were nice enough not to take our Bahamut out and Akh Morn Lyse to oblivion.

[Kusanagi7]

im going to assume 5.x patches are included in this n say

real zenos will get his body back and kill varris

gaius will kill solus and gaius will become leader of garlemald

we find out zodiark isnt evil like hydaelyn has told us

we see atleast 1 of the remaining middays children

if i had to give a wild prediction id say either we will team up with a ascian or we find out that we were once an ascian before the events of 14.

[Bright-Flower]

That scene doesn't really work with anything but monk, though. My summoner looked a bit silly rushing towards her with a book, and it occurs to me that attacking her with a bladed weapon is probably worse...

It was really just in there to go "yeah, it's the trailer scene!", but it wasn't really a good representation of the trailer scene because they didn't (couldn't) show the fight. Would have been better to leave it as just thematic and not try to wedge it in there just because.

Or have us actually fight her in a solo instance duel.