Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

[Alleo]

About Hydaelyn Zodiark and Varis

Its a bit ironic, when some of us pointed out that Varis was a bad person (including all the stuff he has already done in the MSQ and now including that he would have created the eight calamity) some came out and said that we should wait, that there will be nuance and that he will surely work together with us. Yet in the end thanks to his death he will stay just a bad guy that would have gone over worlds and the lives of millions of people to get to the "perfect" new world. Even though its quite certain that the Ascians would not have let him be there.

Now in this expansion we learn about more about Zodiark and Hydaelyn and that she might not have been completely truthful towards us. Yes she came afterwards and they did not exist together for some time (as far as we know) but other than that we also got the answer that Zodiark was needing huge amounts of sacrifices and who knows if he truly would have given them back the people. And there was someone that did not want this to happen, that grew tired of all this sacrifice (and I bet it was our old self) and together with others summoned Hydaelyn to give reign back to those that will be born again. And this is exactly the will Hydaelyn seems to follow. She is trying her best to help us survive, she has not done anything else badly (and maybe she does believe that this is how the story happens) and in times of peace she let people do their own thing.

Unlike Varis who has shown countless of crimes and has shown the will to use a horrible chemical weapon on the people and who was fine with worlds being destroyed as long as he reached his end goal, her only crime was telling us not the true full story. Any other action was done to protect us or the people living on this planet. Heck we even have the song "Answer" that is in some part from her point of view. And unlike Varis she also had not a single scene where she was alone and showing her true colors..

Of course that does not mean that she cant turn bad towards the ends. That she only played nice until the Ascians and Zodiark are dealt with. But until then maybe some of you should really try to stop making those of us that still believe in a good Hydaelyn out as someone that does not understand the story or that wont accept it..especially if you are someone that talks about nuance a lot and went down on us because of Varis..yet seemingly Hydaelyn is not allowed to have some nuance but still be good? No she has to be bad..even if right now she showed to be mostly good and was not even the one that started the flood. But of course the Ascians are telling their version of the story and suddenly everything is wrong that she has shown us and we 100% have to kill her now....

About the Ascians, their life and their plan

I do feel bad for the old people living on the planet and the tragedy that has befallen them. (Which kinda hints that they did this through themselves because of their actions) I also did feel a bit sad for dear Emet. (He was an interesting enemy) Finally an Ascian with more feelings, that outright told us their motives...sadly its even worse than I thought. Not only do they want to destroy the shards but also sacrifice everyone that is left on the source...just for the hope that Zodiark will even be able to bring back the people..No matter the past, this alone is enough to never truly side with them. I also wonder if its even possible to do that? I mean one world is destroyed thanks to the Ascians messing it up..can everything even be back to how it was? What will be left of the planet after so many calamities? (Also it shows that even they are not truly perfect and made mistakes)

I also wonder if we are the 14th member of the council and just like now, we wont just accept sacrifice of countless of people as a solution and fought against that. Heck we might just have been the one that summoned Hydaelyn as the last result against Zodiark, thus we are the first and only true WoL that in turn got split in 14 parts and reborn again and again over the times but never strong enough because of our split soul until now.

Its also a bit strange how Emet said that the world was perfect and completely peaceful at that time..yet he also says that they have all the emotions we have so I kinda doubt if everything was as perfect as he wants it to be..maybe we will find out more about this. Conflict at least can exist, otherwise one member would not have left the team..and Lahabrea is not exactly someone that I would count as peaceful..This all could have changed over the years but unlike him the other two remaining Ascians never seemed to have truly enjoyed the destruction they caused, they just saw it as the necessary thing that has to happen to bring back whats, in their view, the best world for everyone. Lahabrea seems to enjoy causing death on the other hand...so I wonder if they all were truly that perfect..

About the stuff I did not like

I did not like the explanation for the time difference..I know they probably did that so that the shard can rebuilt after the flood of light. But was it really necessary to make it so complicated? Why not simply say that time flew the same until the flood of Light nearly destroyed the shard thus messed up time..thus it only started 100 years ago. This could have been used as a perfect reason on why we should not worry about our world because time does not fly there so fast. (But it would have made it more difficult to explain the stuff that happens on the source while we are gone) I am not sure if we truly needed an explanation on why we are able to change between the realms..just say that we in canon are not leaving and the rest is just pure gameplay.

I am also not a fan on how stuff are named the same as on the source..and how similiar the dress code is..but I can atleast accept that as an restriction in the MMO because they would need to create too many new things.

The one part that I really disliked was the character Ranjit..I really hope that this was the last time we will get a character out of nowhere, that somehow is able to not only defeat us but the whole group of us..only to be nearly defeated later by Thancred in Solo content (who has such a low amount of skills..no wonder that they need us to do their things..) and then solo by us towards the end. I just dont like such kind of enemies and I am not sure if he was truly necessary in this expansion.

About the scions ,the WoD of the shard and our WoL

I really liked that for the first time they all finally helped. And that I truly got the feeling that they are caring for us. The twins are still the best of them and I pray that nothing will ever happen to them. I did not like all the fake death scenes..but at the same time I am also happy that we start with the expansion with all of them still alive..yet at the same time the story felt great, you could feel the tragedy and the hardship that the shard had gone through and I finally felt like we are truly part of this again. Not forced into a war that we have no real stakes in it. No this time its truly only us that can do something and we are also nearly paying it with our own life and it just made me hooked. I also liked Ryne quite a bit. Not long into the story and I already enjoyed her more than I ever did the original. The character development and the relationship between the scions was also great, even if I would still only count the twins as true friends for my character but I am still fine with the rest of them.

My heart also goes out for Ardbert and his group of friends. After HW I always felt that it was not enough and thankfully they are part of this story. I really came to like Ardbert and I hope that this was not the last time we have seen him...maybe we find out that his soul still in some way exists in us and is not completely absorbed. Would have been funny to also have a scene in the game where the WoL talks to him and the scions come in and think we are going a bit crazy.

And poor WoL, having to suffer such a huge burden again and on top of that not being told until its kinda too late..why do so many feel like not telling us stuff that is about ourself? At least we got out of this and the scions tried their best to help. Great to see us suffer a bit for that and to imagine that all we saw was white towards the end is really shocking. But of course because its our own playable character it still took some suspense out of it because we know that we cant die. But of course I still worried about my two favorite characters. Still hope that the story goes more in that direction where there is tragedy but not mass death of our known NPC friends..

[Kusanagi7]

so quick question was the events of the and leading up to the ending suggesting our character is a amaurotian?

[EdwinLi]

So about the Lore between Gunbreaker's Gunblade and Garlean's Gunblade...

It seems lore wise they are considered two different weapons with gunbreaker's gunblade being the ORIGINAL Gunblades while Garlean's Gunblades are more of copies of the original Gunblades designs with separate combat use designs.

Gunbreaker Gunblades function as Squall's Gunblade, designed to use Magic Ammo for causing the Explosions on melee hit and focus purely to performing Melee Attacks. These Gunblades do not have a Gun Barrel as the Magic Ammo focus on empowering the Blade on the Gunblade.

Garlean Gunblades function as Lightning's Gunblade, designed to use the Magic Ammo for releasing Magical attacks from the Gun Barrel as Range Attacks with the Blade for Melee Attacks. This Gunblade does have a Gun Barrel and utilize it for their Melee Attacks as we have seen in the past battles with Garleans that fully utilize the Gun Barrel to release Magic abilities.

This can lead to some very interesting creativity if SE decides to expand more on this Lore in both Gameplay, potential new Job, and differences in combat styles.

[Alleo]

so quick question was the events of the and leading up to the ending suggesting our character is a amaurotian?

Answers in spoilers

Yes it seems to be hinted that we were once part of the immortal race and maybe even one of the 14 important ones. (Seeing how our Aura is special and we were a friend of Emet) Heck depending on how this goes we might even be one of those that created Hydealyn.

[EdwinLi]

Answers in spoilers

Yes it seems to be hinted that we were once part of the immortal race and maybe even one of the 14 important ones. (Seeing how our Aura is special and we were a friend of Emet) Heck depending on how this goes we might even be one of those that created Hydealyn.

Well..........

A part of me suspect we may not be a member of the people who created Hydealyn but still was someone against the creation of Zodiark and probably also against Hydealyn summon as well due to also costing countless souls to create her.

If there is one thing we learn about the Original Soul of WoL is that he or she was still driven to do Heroic deeds no matter his or her reason behind the action which lead Emet to suddenly see a image of WoL's original self since at that moment WoL was very close to the Original Soul's personality.

I suspect WoL's original self wanted to prevent the Calamity without the need to sacrifice people to create Zodiark and Hydealyn but failed to do so because he or she could not find the source of the Calamity.

Still this opens up a higher Antagonist to the storyline once the Ascions and Zodiark are finally defeated, which is soon now since we have broken them down to only one leader now.

The only question is now what will happen to the world once the Ascions and Zodiark, and probably Hydealyn as well since her nature to be the counter to Zodiark may cost her life to defeat Zodiark, are all defeated and who is or are the beings that caused the Calamity in the Original World along with what is their goal for planning to destroy all life on the Planet.

Then there is the question about what may become of the remaining shards and the Source but my theory is that near the end we may find a way or events of Zodiakr and Hydealyn's defeat may cause all shards to fuse with the Source and create a new World without causing a Calamity.

[Alleo]

Well..........

A part of me suspect we may not be a member of the people who created Hydealyn but still was someone against the creation of Zodiark and probably also against Hydealyn summon as well due to also costing countless souls to create her.

If there is one thing we learn about the Original Soul of WoL is that he or she was still driven to do Heroic deeds no matter his or her reason behind the action which lead Emet to suddenly see a image of WoL's original self since at that moment WoL was very close to the Original Soul's personality.

I suspect WoL's original self wanted to prevent the Calamity without the need to sacrifice people to create Zodiark and Hydealyn but failed to do so because he or she could not find the source of the Calamity.

Still this opens up a higher Antagonist to the storyline once the Ascions and Zodiark are finally defeated, which is soon now since we have broken them down to only one leader now.

The only question is now what will happen to the world once the Ascions and Zodiark, and probably Hydealyn as well since her nature to be the counter to Zodiark may cost her life to defeat Zodiark, are all defeated and who is or are the beings that caused the Calamity in the Original World along with what is their goal for planning to destroy all life on the Planet.

Then there is the question about what may become of the remaining shards and the Source but my theory is that near the end we may find a way or events of Zodiakr and Hydealyn's defeat may cause all shards to fuse with the Source and create a new World without causing a Calamity.

About Hydaelyn, Zodiark and us:

Of course it can be completely possible that we had nothing to do with Hydaelyn. Or it could be that she did not need that huge amount of sacrifice and the WoL and some of her friends sacrificed themselves for her so that others can live on. This could also greatly explain why we are the WoL. But all of this is just speculation.

I am also not sure if the catastrophe was not created by the Ascians themselves. Ysthola did say that the magic or aether needed to create all of it must have been huge. Maybe they misused it too much and the planet was dying thanks to that, and all the stuff happens. While we ran through the destroyed city Emet does say that fear creates more of them so maybe the fear of going to be killed created more and more of those creatures making it even worse. So it could be that there is no higher new enemy. (And in a way the Ascians would truly not be much different then us, which Alphinaud also pointed out)

Was it stated in the story that Hydaelyn as the enemy to Zodiark is connected to him in such a way? I honestly cant remember such a scene so I am not sure why she would need to die if we kill Zodiark.

Also how would those shards be fused without massive loss of life? And do people even want it to be fused. They might be similiar but those shards still had their own history/culture/belief. Also that huge amount of people from a couple of shards suddenly being all on the source? Where should they live?

Of course all is possible but I still doubt that this game will end with the world being whole again. I do believe that the message they try to give to us is, that its worth living a not perfect life and that the worlds as they are right now are fine. As long as there is nothing cosmic that will destroy the reality or the worlds if they are not combined I see not reason to do that.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Post-credits scene

Such an amazing last few hours and then that Garlemald bit had to go and ruin my good mood. God I do not want Zenos to ruin a second expansion for me like he did SB. He better not be the final boss at the end of the patches.

Very curious about Elidibus's plans though. Maybe bring in WoLs from yet another shard?

[Kaurhz]

Post-credits scene

Such an amazing last few hours and then that Garlemald bit had to go and ruin my good mood. God I do not want Zenos to ruin a second expansion for me like he did SB. He better not be the final boss at the end of the patches.

Very curious about Elidibus's plans though. Maybe bring in WoLs from yet another shard?

Not sure why it's complaining about char length.

My guess is that in the events of 5.1 and onwards Elidibus will be sending WoLs from the other shards after us, in an attempt to kill, or absorb(?) us, though I think it's going to end up the other way around and then we'll combine with the other fragments of our soul, and we'll eventually deal with the last Ascian, then finish it off with 1 final bout between us and Zenos, though going by his words, we are to kill Zodiark, and he is to kill Hydaelyn, something along those lines. Short of it expect Zenos to be around for a very long while, unfortunately.

[Sorimachi87]

This really seems like we are heading into our final addon.
I hope thats not the case...

[EdwinLi]

---

I am not saying.....

that the Ascions created the Calamity but something else that was beyond their knowledge. As Y'shtola said, the people of the original world had a large amount of aether to the point no matter how much they use they will never cause any Calamity for using it.

However, the Ascions created the plan to summon Zodiark due to not being able to find the source of this Calamity and without knowing the source they could not prevent it without a higher power.

The knowledge of what create this Calamity still eludes both the Ascions and ourselves but chances are it is a being of higher power with a set of followers.

As for the Complete world, it will most likely be made a much large sized planet if it happens since the spliting of the Source into 13 shards is like the splitting of the Soul where the Soul is basically cut into smaller pieces to create the 13 fragmented Souls.

Calamities are made to destroy the Shards into Aether so they can return to the Source but if the Shards are to fuse with the Source without a Calamity it may result in the Lands of those Shards becoming a part of the Source thus the Complete world becomes much bigger than the world we know now and potentially open up new Expansion areas for Post-Zodiark/Ascion storyline