Revelations from Patch 5.2

[YianKutku]

So anyone else notice about Gaia...

She was constantly having inner monologue towards herself like Squall does in FF8.

Gaia:

To be honest, my first impression was that she was basically being early-game Neku from The World Ends With You. And then I checked online after doing the Eden stuff to see that people were comparing her to Squall instead, and upon consideration it fits too.

Which makes me wonder if Nomura basically has one protagonist archetype he uses over and over again.

Beast Tribe:

Can't say I'm comfortable with deciding the Qitari's history based off of so little information and such subjective interpretations. And why can't we go talk to the Viis about it? Surely they might have some old story that could provide further insight. All in all it doesn't seem like the Qitari are very good at their job as historians. Surely the logical thing would be to at least wait until all the stelae are excavated before trying to piece together a narrative?

Qitari:

Yeah, same here. We had to make a decision based only on single accounts from father and son, secondhand sources. No corroborating information from anyone, even the stela itself; even if we couldn't access it, we could maybe get some drawings and impressions of it.

I went with the son's interpretation, partly because when we first visited the Viis part of Rak'tika in 5.0 MSQ, we used a symbol proclaiming us as Ronka's allies. The Allagan Empire had no allies, since they simply subjugated every other polity in existence at the time. Therefore, Ronka was at least not as ruthless as the Allagans, and saw the need to at least keep other polities around as allies.

Also, to take a more cynical view, even if the Ronkans had enslaved the Qitari, they probably wouldn't commission (or allow the creation of) a record stating as much. Hagiography would imply they'd portray it as "uplifting the savages", the same way colonialist-apologist arguments in RL do.

But honestly, I'd have much preferred to express the opinion that we do not know, and provide both (or more) interpretations for people who viewed the stelae to decide for themselves.

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MSQ:

It was kind of amusing that after the relatively chatty Emet-Selch, and the very monologue-y Lahabrea, Elidibus here is just "I'm not going to tell you".

I like that everyone acknowledges how the desire to help others is commendable and should be encouraged, but this time is more iffy entirely because an Ascian is involved, and prior history has proven that Ascians simply will not leave matters well enough alone. We see the effects on the Crystarium foremost, partly because the Crystarium is already full of people who are willing to work together for a better future, as opposed to Eulmore deciding to embrace the status quo under Vauthry, which only recently changed.

It's also kind of odd that apparently Elidibus (as Ardbert) has some sort of psionic dominion over everyone he talks to, since they apparently decided to drop everything and go off adventuring. It's implied that even non-combatants want to go and spread the Good Word as adventurers and Warriors of Light, causing severe manpower shortages in the Crystarium. Surely "helping others" would also include providing logistics support to those on the frontlines?

I personally believe that Elidibus hasn't actually planned out anything concrete other than "create lots of Echo-blessed WoLs", with possible plans for later that he can discard or modify as necessary depending on which leads seem more promising. So he could try to turn the First-WoLs against us, or he could try to inspire several of them to develop Crystals of Light and retry the Brink of Light situation, or he could be DDoSing Hydaelyn, or he could be causing chaos by depriving institutions of manpower and expertise, or he could be doing any or all combinations of the above and more. Improvise, adapt, overcome, and all that.

Ruby Weapon:

Reminder that Gaius adopted and raised Livia, then accepted her wanting to be lovers, albeit apparently in a "my quarters, one hour" sort of casual relationship. And then when Livia died in Castrum Meridianum, Gaius said not one word about her death in his monologues in the Praetorium.

So his apparent concern for his other adopted children rings a little hollow.

I agree with others that it's weird nobody talks about Nero. Gaius should at least acknowledge Nero's part in activating the Ultima Weapon, and Cid should at least mention that Nero owes him money.

Eden, E7N mechanics:

Did anyone else get baited by the birds mechanic? I mean, if there's a flock of white birds, and a flock of black birds, and we're supposed to assign them Light and Darkness, I would assume the white birds represent Light, and the black birds represent Darkness.

So when I see this debuff tooltip:



That states I have an Umbral (Light) Effect, and as it states, damage from umbrally charged (Light) attacks are increased, while damage from astrally charged (Darkness) attacks are decreased. So it implies that I should stand in front of the black birds, since that's Darkness.

But no, it's the other way around: the debuff is dark-coloured (as opposed to the opposite light-coloured debuff), so I have to stand in front of the white birds. Despite the white birds being logically the Light (Umbral) aspect, which the tooltip says I will get more damage from.

So either the white birds are Darkness and black birds are Light (hence being baited), or the tooltip is incorrect (cf the Kelpie back in Skalla before it got patched).