Revelations from the Shadowbringers E3 Trailer

[Cilia]

Functionally, while the stinger at the end is a big shock, it doesn't change much. As long as Hydaelyn remains in the aetherial realm, any aether drain she may have as a result of being a primal should be nonexistent. Her tempering also appears to be benign, insofar as it doesn't compel us to do anything the same way most primals' tempering makes others into slavish devotees (this may or may not be a consequence of the Ascian ritual used to summon most contemporary primals).

However, let's compile the hints we have so far to the true nature of the world.

Ramuh's conjecture: Light and darkness were once indistinguishable, but darkness came from the hearts of men.
Lahabrea's account: Hydaelyn is a parasite responsible for warping the natural and aetheric laws of the world, and must be burned out to repair potential damage to the world.
Hydaelyn's account: She and Zodiark once dwelt as one in the aetherial sea until Zodiark began to covet power, threatening the balance; in order to mitigate any damage he may have caused in seeking said power, Hydaelyn banished Zodiark as the moon, shattering his power into thirteen pieces which became the Reflections.
Varis: recreate the "original, perfect master race" from before the Sundering (to kill the Ascians).
Solus' (Emet-Selch's) account: Hydaelyn and Zodiark are both primals.
Cave painting inference: Hydaelyn and Zodiark are two halves of one twilight / dawn god(dess).

I think I get it, but... I'm not really sure how we're supposed to resolve all this.

[Lauront]

Probably just enchantments the Primals can confer - the Blessing of Light is more like a powerful shield/boost that helps protect the WoL against the likes of the Overlords and similarly powerful beings.

Also, given that Solus is playing the role of our Ascian frenemy in the trailer, I wonder if his actual intended use for the Black Rose is on the Sin Eaters, since that too would help tilt the world to darkness, rather than on its regular mortals. Whatever his final goal is. He’s acting out what I had hope would’ve been Elidibus’s role but I’m glad one of them is taking the time to explain things at least.

[Lauront]

Meant the above for Zohar re the blessings - apologies for the double post but damn phones won’t allow edits.

[dragoelete]

honestly i think its was as someone else stated earlier either here or another thread and that they butchered the cutscene to add a shock value... so while it seems solus is talking about hyde and zod he could be talking about the ascians instead or something else. which makes it more likely to be similar to a guess i had a while back of the wol actually being a primal created by hyde. perhaps the ascians are primals created by zod before the sundering and is why hyde sealed him.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Probably just enchantments the Primals can confer - the Blessing of Light is more like a powerful shield/boost that helps protect the WoL against the likes of the Overlords and similarly powerful beings.

Also, given that Solus is playing the role of our Ascian frenemy in the trailer, I wonder if his actual intended use for the Black Rose is on the Sin Eaters, since that too would help tilt the world to darkness, rather than on its regular mortals. Whatever his final goal is. He’s acting out what I had hope would’ve been Elidibus’s role but I’m glad one of them is taking the time to explain things at least.

Now that you mention it yeah, this is something I'd expect from Elidibus. I hope he doesn't become full on villain now that he's in Zenos, because I always liked his frenemy thing.

[YianKutku]

My completely unsupported guess is that the whole "Hydaelyn and Zodiark are Primals" line will be placed in context at the last cutscene of 5.0.

Meaning we'll have to wait until 5.1 or later to get any answers. Because I can absolutely believe the writers are troll-y enough to do that.

More plausibly, I think the "Estinien meets Gaius" scene is probably (also?) going to be in the ending cutscenes of 5.0, since it would probably involve the Garlean Empire part of the expansion story.

[Rannie]

True and then you have someone like Elidibus that states in ARR that we would be on his side if we would know the truth, but never tells us the truth and now even tries to kill us because we endanger his balance. (Why would we want to exchange one primal with the other?) But if he wants to restore the world to how it was before and the story about the crystals is true..then why never tell us, the primal slayer, about this, especially at the beginning when we were still new to all of this and might not have had a strong connection to Hydaelyn? Why is he with the other Asicans if those want to bring their primal back, shouldnt they want both death if they want to change it back? Or does this show that there is a difference between him

Elidibus was of whom I was speaking about with him dangling a carrot in front of our noses. With him not telling us or giving more of an explanation on what he means tends to throw him in the category of ... "yeah, that's nice but I dont trust you still your an ascian." Meaning I dont know why he wont give us a full explanation. Think about it this way... your sitting there having a discussion with someone who believes in something different to you like example the earth's shape. You're on the side that believes and knows with evidence that it is round. Yet, the person you're talking to is of the flat earth society (this is all just an example) now as I was saying you are discussing with them on the subject and all you say is, "the earth isn't flat its round and if you knew what I knew you'd believe me and join my way of thinking" . The person who is of the flat earth view is going to look at you and say "pfft, your out of your flipping mind!" And walk away. This is what Elidibus did to us and with no more than what he said we dont need to believe him. We are now seeing that yes we need balance but again ascians suck and want zodiark back.

As to why Solus is telling us this I honestly couldn't say. One thing I can say however is, it's an ascians perogotive to sow discord and chaos. *shrugs* I still think it's better to just wait and see.

Though on a joking note if need be I can change the carrot to a slice of rolanberry cake cause ya know even fat chocobos will run and fly for that stuff.

One last edit I promise. What the hell is it with thancred and now alphinaud punch blocking us. Damn it I would very much like to see our WoL just sock someone .... but do we noooo in the cutscenes we get held back and or someone else does it for us... *grumbles*

[EdwinLi]

This kind of alternate timeline stuff works fine when you have a multiverse with nigh-infinite variations. Unfortunately, in this situation we have only fourteen variations. It's the whole infinite monkeys thing. With an infinite number of monkeys tapping random keys, one of them is bound to write the Complete Works of Shakespeare just by random chance. Now, try it with fourteen monkeys, and see how likely it is to happen. With infinite universes, sure there might be a sci-fi version of you, a fantasy elf version of you, etc, etc. But in just fourteen universes? Very unlikely.

As you say, it is not impossible. However, as RenewalXVII says, it's amazingly improbable. For events on two worlds which, while they might have started as identical, have done their own thing for twelve thousand years, to somehow assemble the same set of genes (or whatever this fantasy world has instead of genes) to create two copies of the same individual? Absolutely ludicrous to the point of shattering suspension of disbelief.

Anyway, the way the scene with the two Minfilias played out looked a lot to me like they were about to merge together. I'm guessing that Minifilia is a part of Minfilia that split off of the Emissary to act as an incarnate presence on the world, and when her task is done she will rejoin with her. Why such a presence was needed, remains to be seen...

We will actually see some of this happen in the First as, if I remember, there was mention of meeting the First counterparts for some characters during a interview. One example is given in the trailer already being how our WoL will meet the First counterpart of the Merchant we meet in our 2.0 intro during the intro of 5.0 once we arrive on the First.

[Lauront]

Have to say, I also quite like the theory I’ve seen floating around that Eden may be related to it all, if we go by Ramuh being correct and dark/light divide being the result of man’s actions, which would then later cause them to become primordial forces. Especially with Eden’s ties to the garden of the same name.

Whether that would involve it being summoned to deal with a threat only to become one, resulting in the crystals being split, or some other narrative, is intriguing. So perhaps the crystals were a singular entity, until something the original peoples of the time did - perhaps in response to a threat (of their own making?) led to all this. Either way, they’re definitely very different to all the Primals we’ve seen so far, what with their own innate power source.

I’m also betting the ‘originals’ amongst the Ascians - Emet-Selch, Elidibus and yes, probably Lahabrea - were amongst those original summoners. That may be what sets them apart from the other Overlords and be the reason as to why their echo is so powerful.

[MelodyCrystel]

Has anybody an idea, by the way, how little Minfilia's eyes looked in the trailer?
->My screen doesn't like the odd light of the video, so I can't tell that one for sure, but has she maybe not the same eyes as the Mother's word -- alias the cloaked Minfilia we have in the CGI-trailer/-video?

If she doesn't, then my theory would be, that she's a different Minfilia - or rather Ascilia - and later merges with ours, since Thancred in mentioned CGI said clearly, that he would protect her this time (hinting the girl must be the one he's familiar with) while her eyes definitely had this pale iris lacking visible pupils.