story predictions for shadowbringers

[Theodric]

Garlemald may be dealt with largely off-screen.

I'm not entirely unconvinced that Norvrandt isn't going to be grafted to the Source, somehow, at Solus' behest. He clearly doesn't care about Garlemald and referred to the Garleans as 'pawns' and stated that he would not meet Varis again. I could see Garlemald being the focus of 6.0, though to justify going there we'd need to see peace established or some terrible fate to befall the place. My bet is on the latter.

If Varis is unhinged, I'd put that down to him seeing his family and homeland brought to ruin by Ascian meddling as well as having lost his best friend - the one man we know he genuinely cared for and respected. Regula van Hydrus.

[YianKutku]

Completely unsupported prediction that will likely be wrong:

For a sidequest, we will meet a Sin Eater who has somehow managed to retain their consciousness and sanity, and who needs quite a lot of help. Everyone else avoids them due to their appearance, and they do have immense power that they are trying very hard not to abuse, but they are still quite cheerful upon meeting us and knowing that we are willing to help them.

Like all Sin Eaters, this NPC will have a grotesque appearance. Their most prominent feature would be their head, which is basically a sphere with two small round eyes and a creepy grin, and they will lead us to the 24-man raid series.

[Seraphor]

Completely unsupported prediction that will likely be wrong:

For a sidequest, we will meet a Sin Eater who has somehow managed to retain their consciousness and sanity, and who needs quite a lot of help. Everyone else avoids them due to their appearance, and they do have immense power that they are trying very hard not to abuse, but they are still quite cheerful upon meeting us and knowing that we are willing to help them.

Like all Sin Eaters, this NPC will have a grotesque appearance. Their most prominent feature would be their head, which is basically a sphere with two small round eyes and a creepy grin, and they will lead us to the 24-man raid series.

Would be a cool segue into the Nier raids, however... Yoko Taro said the Nier crossover would be canon in the Neir universe (because it's all alternate universes after all) and I don't believe Emil is canonically a Sineater.

[LineageRazor]

Would be a cool segue into the Nier raids, however... Yoko Taro said the Nier crossover would be canon in the Neir universe (because it's all alternate universes after all) and I don't believe Emil is canonically a Sineater.

If we're talking alternate universes, THIS Emil could be a Sin Eater. Remember, we're talking about an expanded multiverse that includes fantasy-rich worlds and sci-fi worlds. The YoRHa raids could be a purely fanstasy-based take on the Automata universe. The androids could be animated constructs rather than literal robots. YoRHa could be working to preserve the remnants of an isolated civilization, rather than humanity as a whole. Making Emil a Sin Eater isn't out of the question. It's too early to dismiss any possibilities.

I think it's too much to assume that Yoko Taro is implying that 2B, 9S, and whatever other characters make an appearance are literally the same characters we played in Automata. It's much more likely that these are alternate universe versions of those characters, with alternate backstories. Emil's new backstory could include being a renegade Sin Eater.

Even if we ARE using literally the same characters from the Automata game, it's worth mentioning that Nier's Emil is canonically human (originally). Sin Eaters were once human. So, there's no reason that even Automata's wacky clone skull-thing remnant Emil couldn't be converted into a Sin Eater, as well, by whatever processes convert a human into a Sin Eater.

[Grimr]

my opinion may be from left field and its more of a hope at this point, but outside the normal msq i wonder if by fighting these sineaters we will know more of there darker counter parts the void sent. I do expect somewhere there will be a mention of sineater part in the fifth astra era's war. Sineaters, voidsent, and faries don't just show up on the source for no reason ,but if they came only the aether that might explain some things.

Known Sineaters..

High Seraph
Statues in the same raid
holy cow in pagos lol
*Statues in lcoa
Some think they are rather not sineaters but statues based on sineaters

[EdwinLi]

I get a small glimps of the past world before the age of "Primals"

[Raikai]

Vegas Fanfest.

Holy bologne, I completely forgot that they showed this screen.

It really doesn't make any sense! This suggests that half of the xpac is happening at the First, then the content patches we fight Garlemald? Kind of a bummer if it is, because the Empire incursion deserves its own xpac...

[ObsidianFire]

That screenshot is taken from the Las Vegas Fan Fest which happened before 4.5. At the time of the Las Vagas Fan Fest, no one had any idea the 1st Shard was where we were going. The Scions still hadn't been called yet even.

So I think it was just a red herring until 4.5 dropped and it became obvious something weird was going on. That we were going to the 1st Shard was only really revealed and confirmed for good at the Tokyo Fan Fest which was right before 4.56.

[RopeDrink]

That screenshot smells like a veiled nod to the MSQ leadup to the brief war vs the Empire // the Negotiation // Lead-up to the unveiling of Black Rose, which will no doubt be an instigator for the next expansion, likely a return to Empire roots.

Either way -- while Solus/WoL are away, Varis will come out to play. Gaius and Estinien will serve as our MSQ 'meanwhile, back on the ranch' characters, likely infiltrating the empire. After all, Gaius is not only familiar with the cloning, but also Black Rose, AND he has a solid idea about who is wearing who's body. He's still got his Ascian score to settle, which is actually problematic now for the OPPOSITE reason than before. When he returned initially and we figured out who he was, it was: "We've got unfinished business"... but called a slightly uneasy truce due to a shared hate for Ascians. Now, with more focus on the 'balance' in ShB, Gaius casually strolling around massacring Ascians on the Source will actually not do us any huge favours, less so when the WoL and Scions have had their fill dealing with a shard drowned in light that had no darkness to balance it.

Between Black Rose, potential death of the Empire founder (giving Varis more freedom to persue his perfect master-race shenanigans), Zenos on the prowl for Elidibus, and Gaius/Estinien poking their noses in Source-business while we're off enjoying our new sun-tan, there's plenty of ways they can setup a whopping source-disaster for us to clean up when the First has been dealt with.

[Mansion]

Holy bologne, I completely forgot that they showed this screen.

It really doesn't make any sense! This suggests that half of the xpac is happening at the First, then the content patches we fight Garlemald? Kind of a bummer if it is, because the Empire incursion deserves its own xpac...

I think this is willingly blurry, because so far nothing we seem to do in 5.0 seems to be dealing with Garlemald. Our only link is during that 4.5 cutscene where Solus seemingly leaves for the First telling, Varis that they won't meet again (although the formulation is weird, maybe he's talking about his current body and implying he'll need another clone when he is back?). Solus explicitly says the excess of Light is fertile ground for the use of the Black Rose, so I'm assuming he's trying to rush things on the First to make it even more light aspected on the Source.
I guess saving the First and fighting Solus will weaken Garlemald somehow, although Varis is another element to watch over because he seems so unstable.