Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

[Lauront]

On this...

The problem with your theory....

is that you're assuming that no matter what a Calamity MUST happen for all Shards to fuse into one Planet. However, I am saying that it maybe possible that later in the story we find a way to fuse all shards into one world without a Calamity thus creating this new world where the lands of the remain shards become part of this world without overlapping one another's existance.

Of course the different shards will bring with them the countless different cultures and conflict will appear but that is part of the cost just like discovering a new Continent that has its own Civilization with their own belief and cultures.

This is very much a possibility. The Ascians devised a reliable method of rejoining the worlds, that works for them given that they don't really consider the lives on these worlds to be true lives, and also because they see it as necessary to undo what Hydaelyn had wrought. Their plan is to both unmake and then remake the world as they consider it necessary to be.

However, that does not mean their method is the only one by which such a rejoining could be effected. Especially if much of Eorzea is just water, you could see new landmasses being placed in such areas.

And...

About Hydaelyn

Imo, I don't think Hydaelyn has evil intentions despite being possibly a primal. We know from the Gobu storyline that the primals will take on the emotions of their summoner. If the summoner has pure intention, then it's possible for a primal to be born with just good intentions. Ramuh is one example, he was self conscious that he would be threatening the very land he was summoned into to protect.

True - conversely, it also means Zodiark does not need to have been evil simply due to being aligned to darkness (it's not innately evil) and could, in principle, be re-summoned so as not to be. I think the big issue the Ascians have with Hydaelyn is that she disrupted their plans to bring back all those who were lost in order to summon Zodiark and restore their world, as she would have taken half the aether up. That would not have sat well with them, especially if her summoning was performed against their wishes. Obviously, the Rejoinings as they wish to undertake them are not compatible with our characters' desires, thus they remain firmly opposed to one another.

And...

A NPC says that it felt like the planet was giving up on living. So at least for me it feels like the Ascians were not completely without fault for this. Of course we need to learn more to truly understand it.

The thing is, it sounded as though it crept up on them and forced their hand into desperate measures. Especially given that the ancients possessed great fonts of innate aetheric reserves, I think it is quite unlikely that what was happening to the planet was due to them drawing on it in any way, unlike the case of Mhach and Amdapor, where the war was messing up the aether in their environments. If they bore any fault, it is probably due to ignorance more so than malice, but the description we were given is suggestive of some manner of parasite. I agree we need a bit more to draw any firm conclusions as it's too vague, as things stand. These could have just been extra-planetary parasites, after all, or maybe even ones that had lain dormant until beings with sufficient power drew their attention. It could also have been ancients who did not regulate their powers with the same self-control as the Amaurotines did. Hard to say given how many possible things this could be.

[Rannie]

I realized from the msq is that my wol is a pig... and Selch is a Gremlin

[Elecrom]

On Zenos...

I don't get the people who complain about him coming back only now, because this is a long time in the making. If I remember correctly we saw that mysterious Katana-wielding Resistance fighter in the post-credits scene of Stormblood which means this was going to happen since 2 years ago.
Also Zenos will most likely stay for a long time, because Elidibus implied that Zenos has the Ability to absorb him and take his powers and Zenos wishes to do so to kill of all of our distractions so that he can have another fight with us.
If I had to guess, Zenos will either succeed become an Ascian in Elidibus place and wreaks havoc on Hydealyn or some shards for the lulz, he will become an Ascian but get's taken over by Zodiark, or he dies while trying to absorb Elidibus.

[Bright-Flower]

Fantastic expansion. My favorite main villain in the game's history, some moments that really hit me in the feels, and great music as always.

There are a few things that have me scratching my head a bit though. MSQ and paladin job quest spoilers.

Eulmore is supposed to have a big army, boggles me that Alph and WOL could insult its leader and walk out without anyone trying to stop them, even if it took him a moment to realize he'd been insulted.

I'm a bit disapointed that being the Warrior of Darkness just meant using our blessing of LIGHT to kill the lightwardens. I mean I figured nothing would change except we were fighting light aligned baddies but I thought there might be some flavor lore to it beyond using the blessing of light.

Job quests were a disapointment, I thought I read that they would be substantial but the PLD one at least was super short, and once again, more a GLADIATOR story than a PLD story. I'm never going to get to do any knight erranting as a free paladin in the job quests am I?

Was there ever an explanation for why Yshtola was going by Matoya for a while? Because it REALLY feels like they threw that in just so they could mess with peoples heads in the trailer.

If the Exarch being Graha Tia was the reveal they shouldn't have sat on it for as long as they did building up the mystery if it was going to be the obvious answer that they even let you guess at early on by asking about Graha Tia.

[MrThinker]

Fantastic expansion. My favorite main villain in the game's history, some moments that really hit me in the feels, and great music as always.

There are a few things that have me scratching my head a bit though. MSQ and paladin job quest spoilers.

Eulmore is supposed to have a big army, boggles me that Alph and WOL could insult its leader and walk out without anyone trying to stop them, even if it took him a moment to realize he'd been insulted.

I'm a bit disapointed that being the Warrior of Darkness just meant using our blessing of LIGHT to kill the lightwardens. I mean I figured nothing would change except we were fighting light aligned baddies but I thought there might be some flavor lore to it beyond using the blessing of light.

Job quests were a disapointment, I thought I read that they would be substantial but the PLD one at least was super short, and once again, more a GLADIATOR story than a PLD story. I'm never going to get to do any knight erranting as a free paladin in the job quests am I?

Was there ever an explanation for why Yshtola was going by Matoya for a while? Because it REALLY feels like they threw that in just so they could mess with peoples heads in the trailer.

If the Exarch being Graha Tia was the reveal they shouldn't have sat on it for as long as they did building up the mystery if it was going to be the obvious answer that they even let you guess at early on by asking about Graha Tia.

in regards to Y'shtola:

Urianger explains before hand that the Night's Blessed believe that identifying one's self by their given name is some kind of bad, and so they instead use the names of their predecessors, whether they parents, ancestors or teachers, to protect themselves. In order to observe their beliefs, Y'shtola took the name of her teacher, and all the Night's Blessed refer to her as such

[Arannon]

On Zenos...

I don't get the people who complain about him coming back only now, because this is a long time in the making. If I remember correctly we saw that mysterious Katana-wielding Resistance fighter in the post-credits scene of Stormblood which means this was going to happen since 2 years ago.
Also Zenos will most likely stay for a long time, because Elidibus implied that Zenos has the Ability to absorb him and take his powers and Zenos wishes to do so to kill of all of our distractions so that he can have another fight with us.
If I had to guess, Zenos will either succeed become an Ascian in Elidibus place and wreaks havoc on Hydealyn or some shards for the lulz, he will become an Ascian but get's taken over by Zodiark, or he dies while trying to absorb Elidibus.

This isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from here...

I think Zenos has cemented himself as our Endgame for this story...and he's done so with the most FF villain plot that has ever FF Villained a villain plot! He seeks to devour a god...and not just because power, but because he wants US to devour a god TOO...so that THEN, only after we've both devoured a god's power, can we truly fight how he wants. I fully expect Elidibus is gonna succeed in freeing Zodiark just long enough to be hoisted by his own petard and Zenos kills him and eats the Zodiark...at which point we're in a full on "World of Ruin" situation unless we devour a Hydaelyn, which we probably won't do because it would be just that much worse...will be likely complete with a flesh tower, a Zenos worshipping cult of nihilism, and a very bored Zenos constantly throwing tantrums because we won't "play" with him how he wants...

[JeanneOrnitier]

more Zenos talk

It's not that I'm surprised Zenos is prominent, it's that I think he's one-note and boring, and I also really don't like the frenemy thing he keeps pushing. Especially after how good Emet-Selch was, I really really don't want to deal with someone I actively dislike as a character again. Especially not if he's going to be the endboss of the patch cycle.

I really think he should have stayed dead after 4.0.

[Bright-Flower]

Zenos thoughts.

Hated him in SB. He was a dull one note character, and his disinterest in the war kind of cheapened both liberation stories for me, making it feel like they were only possible because the guy in charge didn't give a crap. And his first two boss fights were not imposing or intimidating. They were tedious. Giving a boss massive hp to whittle down a fraction of while giving him easy to deal with mechanics and then a scripted 'you lose' ending does not make a boss feel powerful, it makes them feel annoying.

In SB's patches I thought the direction Zenos was going in was potentially interesting but he's just reclaimed his body already now? It felt a bit rushed and if it's now just back to hunting the WOL for him I think they'll struggle to make him interesting, especially post Emet-Selch.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Actually you know what the Ascians remind me of now?

The Great Beings from Bionicle. Both were immortal sage rulers of their world, created many lifeforms, and when their planet was about to be destroyed they made a godlike being who could save it.

[BillCipher]

I have a question, pertaining to lore.

I really didn't like this expansion. I think maybe it's because of two primary reasons- one, I watched too many videos from the devs, got my expectations up for what they were going to deliver, only to have those perceptions dashed at the door.

And two, maybe it's because I don't understand a key portion of the lore. From what I understood from the conversation with Urianger, he was simply stating that the names of Umbral and Astral were changed to Light and Dark.

In Thancred's subsequent interjection, he stated that the source focuses on the effects these aetherial types have on things, and not the generation of these energies. Which, when he said 'perhaps we got it backwards', I believed he meant 'Got the focus backwards- instead of focusing on effect, we should have focused on generation.' Because those are the words he literally just said, and it would make sense for his topic to follow them. Unless I MISSED something.

I'm trying to find things to help me like the expansion--I was so hyped for it, and I felt so disappointed. Someone pointed out that the' elements were flipped,' meaning Light is darkness here, and Darkness is light. But from the conversation, that's not what I gathered, probably due to the contrite method of dialogue delivery.

If that's the case, then my initial disappointment and broken promise feeling of' being the warrior of darkness' which only felt like a TITLE people handed out, would technically be not entirely correct. But, at the same time, even with this new information, we're still not the warrior of darkness. Just because the titles and beliefs are different in Norvrandt, unless there's some outstanding evidence to prove we're actually entwined in 'darkness,' we're still the Warrior of light. We didn't embrace the darkness at all. The point of the entire expansion is moot.

Maybe you guys can help me out, I REALLY want to love the expansion like everyone else does. Am I just genuinely not understanding? Or am I stuck in a plot hole I was supposed to ignore?