Revelations from Patch 5.2

[JeanneOrnitier]

Nomura didn't write Squall or Lightning. He was only the character designer for 8 and 13, just like he's only the designer for Gaia.

I agree I'm not much of a fan of Gaia though, at least not beyond how Ryne interacts with her.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Ruby Weapon:

Bit annoyed with how easily Gaius's "family" turned their backs on him. Gaius, whatever his crimes, whatever his faults is EXTREMELY stubborn, loyal, and devoted to his cause. His "children", if they know him at all, really ought to know that for someone like him to turn his back on Garlemald, it's time to ask some serious questions. Not just stalk off all butthurt that daddy abandoned them. In fairness to them, I suppose, he WAS standing as a comrade-in-arms to the one who just killed their sister - but that death was in the combat of warfare, in a sortie initiated by their sister no less. It wasn't like the WoL cornered her in a back alley or something.

In the cutscene after the orphans return to their base one of them makes a comment that implies that they are not fully willing to pilot the Weapons and that they are piloting them under duress. It is quite possible that other members of Gaius' orphan family are being held hostage to force the ones we've met to fight.

I agree I'm not much of a fan of Gaia though, at least not beyond how Ryne interacts with her.

The Gaia/Ryne relationship seems to be based around the concept of balancing "community focused selflessness" (Ryne) versus "individually focused selfishness" (Gaia). It takes Ryne acting Selfish to get Gaia to act Selfless.

[Cilia]

Nomura didn't write Squall or Lightning. He was only the character designer for 8 and 13, just like he's only the designer for Gaia.

I agree I'm not much of a fan of Gaia though, at least not beyond how Ryne interacts with her.

To be a bit more comprehensive, Nomura did creature designs for pre-VII games. When the series jumped to 3D Amano's designs were considered impractical to render, so they went to Nomura for character designs and his reputation really took off. Nomura did character / creature designs for VII, VIII, X, and XIII; he also serves as the director of the Kingdom Hearts series, and has directed some of VII's compilation materials (Advent Children, Crisis Core (I believe), and the upcoming remake) and other stuff.

To my knowledge he is not much of a writer, so any complaints about Gaia's character should be directed at the writers of the Eden storyline. To my memory Nomura contributed character / creature designs and that's it.

Moving on!

Gaius

I'm not sure what direction they intend to go with him, but I agree that using the Sorrow of Werlyt arc as some kind of redemption arc for him is... a bit misplaced?

People tend to gloss over the fact he's responsible for 1.0's pre-Meteor conflict, the Meteor Project's conception, and tried to use Ultima Weapon to force the Eorzeans into submission. He is better than most Imperials in the sense that he has standards, but that's not saying a whole lot.

To wit, he wanted to conquer, not destroy. Thus, wanton destruction and slaughter have never been part of his agenda; he decommissioned Black Rose for leaving nobody alive and covertly condemned and opposed the use of Meteor to annihilate Eorzea in its entirety for the same reason. That said his reasons for doing so are not altruistic - it's not out of concern for the lives of those affected by his actions, but because killing people prevents the Empire from exploiting their talents. (Literally his own words.)

He may have turned a new leaf following his defeat in the Praetorium, but I'm still not willing to be buddy-buddy with Gaius. I'm willing to forgive, but I do not forget - but his unwillingness to forgive himself for becoming an Ascian pawn and the self-awareness to acknowledge his actions as hubris means I'm willing to deal with Gaius in an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" sort of way. I'll still hold him at arm's length, but for now we are on the same side.

Really wish they wouldn't drag us into his "family" drama though.

[Lauront]

On Elidibus...

I'm wondering whether Urianger is actually correct. In the end, we don't have a scooby about how these "hearts" function, and the only plot-relevant thing that comes to mind is the Heart of Sabik. The funny thing is, looking at the Wikipedia page on it, there is this little interesting tidbit, relevant part highlighted:

It bore the traditional name Sabik, from the Arabic السابق al-sābiq "the preceding one", of uncertain reference.

They said they were going to pick up on the Heart of Sabik in a future plot, and it looks like an obvious way to resolve that loose end.

Still, with Zodiark "dormant" and divided, it's not a foregone conclusion that the Heart would be, too. Venat apparently would not fade from the world by becoming Hydaelyn, and this "Elidibus" we're seeing thus could be the original. The wrinkle with that is that he does refer to Zodiark's will as that of a third person, e.g. when speaking to Lahabrea, but that can be explained away by saying that once he is in that form, it is effectively another entity altogether, like all the other Primal with a vessel transformations we've seen. It'd be consistent with Elidibus's affinity to Zodiark.

Another layer to this is that, if the original was somehow destroyed through the Sundering, perhaps it would fall to this "Elidibus" to sacrifice himself too, to become the revived Zodiark... and that is where Zenos and "Asahi" may fit into it. If Elidibus - original or otherwise - should perish or otherwise forego his agenda, this third party may be baiting Zenos into becoming the Heart of Zodiark, with the goal of both him and Hydaelyn being destroyed. I certainly think it could be a fragment of the 14th, who spent some time with the Ascians.

Either way, I hope they write him well and avoid having him killed off for silly reasons/in stupid ways.