Revelations from Patch 5.2

[QT_Melon]

Okay at this point it's too old to be a spoiler but regarding Livia, I also felt this one was really one sided.

I thought she was starting to become more unhinged after the death of Rhitahtyn so Gaius probably was trying to talk with Livia one last time. Given ARR's lack of direction in voice acting and characters (I mean look at the confusion with Nael). I'm not surprised on how the scene could have been interpreted by the team/audience as "We'll bang okay"

It's funny too because looking at his VA he definitely had the chops but the voice acting in Prae is pretty goofy, so you can tell they lacked real direction at the time. Sometimes I wish they would redub those scenes if they're gonna make us watch them over and over. :P

That said, I am not really a supporter or defender of Gaius per say. Just think that particular scene is just unintentionally memeworthy.

[HamiltonCalder]

On Severa, Gaius' blue-haired lieutenant:

What race is she? In cutscenes we see she has the Garlean third eye, but all the pureblooded Garlean women (Livia, Eula, and Lucia) are all rigged onto Elezen bodies. I'd say maybe she's half-Garlean, but we know from Arenvald that the third eye only grows in purebloods and even then she'd probably be rigged as a Highlander. Super curious about her.

[myahele]

On Severa, Gaius' blue-haired lieutenant:

What race is she? In cutscenes we see she has the Garlean third eye, but all the pureblooded Garlean women (Livia, Eula, and Lucia) are all rigged onto Elezen bodies. I'd say maybe she's half-Garlean, but we know from Arenvald that the third eye only grows in purebloods and even then she'd probably be rigged as a Highlander. Super curious about her.

I'll copy what I posted

Ruby Weapon

I noticed that one of Gaius companion had something on her forehead. I 1st dismissed it as some weird pearl forehead piece, but upon closer examination, it almost looks like a black Garlean 3rd Eye or a black hole. Unless its a weird glitch on my end. Makes me wonder if its due to Garlean experimentation?

I am also curious about her

[YianKutku]

On Severa, Gaius' blue-haired lieutenant:

What race is she? In cutscenes we see she has the Garlean third eye, but all the pureblooded Garlean women (Livia, Eula, and Lucia) are all rigged onto Elezen bodies. I'd say maybe she's half-Garlean, but we know from Arenvald that the third eye only grows in purebloods and even then she'd probably be rigged as a Highlander. Super curious about her.

Regarding Severa:

I remember spotting that third eye in previous patches (I forget if it was in 4.x or 5.0), so I just assumed from then on that she was a Pureblood Garlean. I also used her as an example of the variety of body types Pureblood Garleans can have, rather than just "Elezen body with custom head".

I vaguely recall some of the Prima Vista occupants also having the Garlean third eye but with different base models; I think there was a Highlander female example. I can't be absolutely certain, though, since it's been a while.

In any case, I don't think the base model is that important with regards to whether a character is Pureblood Garlean, and using Elezen bodies (and Elezen emotes) is just for convenience. It would be weird if every Pureblood Garlean woman used the Elezen base rigging, while the men have all sorts of variety, ranging from the Elezen models of most, to custom monster frameworks (Varis and Zenos), to basically Hyur (Jenomis, Solus), to Hyur with custom biceps (Cid).

[KageTokage]

On a subject relating to the 5.2 MSQ...

Could it be assumed that Elidibus awakened that Sahagin priest's Echo in the same way he seemingly did for the people of the Crystarium?

That's something that's been rather vague for a long time, so finally having a proper explanation for it is rather nice.

I'm still curious as to how they go about "raising up" individuals to become Ascians though, as Emet Selch mentioned only overlords like him were capable of such, and it obviously involves more then simply awakening one's Echo.

It honestly would not surprise me if our new mystery Ascian who's helping Zenos is someone familiar who was given that treatment after their presumed demise.

[Erendis]

so basically they ruined a staele forever for no reason whatsoever instead of just waiting. Awesome. I guess that's what we get when devs try to give us choices but do it sloppily

/10charsmore

They did not ruin it. It was too big to bring outside so they build a new one.

/10 characters.

[Crushnight]

One other thing about Eden

Did Urianger say Gaia was originally from the Thirteenth? I know she said she was from Eulmore, but there seemed to be a connection to the Thirteenth.

So about that Eden

I believe that Gaia is the Oracle of darkness from the 1st, which would mean there is one of each on every shard or it was specifically for the 1st because Minfilia was there. No way to find out unless new information gets brought in about it

[Aeliott]

Edens Verse:

Was anyone else.....extremely disappointed with E8's setup? It felt completely contrived to me. I don't understand why Ryne getting possessed by Shiva couldn't have been an unintended side effect of our memories of Ysayle forming the summoning. Because I don't believe for a second that anyone, let alone Urianger of all people, would allow Ryne to do this. Just because she's a strong independent girl yadda yadda doesn't mean you have to let her do every little idea she gets...especially, you know, willingly letting the [Oracle of Light] succumb to a primal. That's a fantastic idea...potentially cause another Flood as we see in the fight. Her reasoning felt so vague too...she wanted to do it to guide Eden? Well she immediately failed to control Shiva anyway. So if they don't bring up this "guiding Eden" thing ever again - if it's so important as to risk the entire shard and everything we've worked for - I'm going to be extremely unimpressed. I'm fine with suspending disbelief, I was fine with us bringing the primals back from similarly vague notions, but holy hell this one completely soured that last fight for me. I just couldn't get into the emotions because it broke everything I expected of our characters.

I know that might sound melodramatic, and I love this game to bits, but by simply making Ryne's possession unintentional it would've been far more believable. I just can't buy it at all.

[QT_Melon]

Edens Verse:

Was anyone else.....extremely disappointed with E8's setup? It felt completely contrived to me. I don't understand why Ryne getting possessed by Shiva couldn't have been an unintended side effect of our memories of Ysayle forming the summoning.

I know that might sound melodramatic, and I love this game to bits, but by simply making Ryne's possession unintentional it would've been far more believable. I just can't buy it at all.

About Ryne

I feel like this is Ryne's coming of age story with E8 as I mentioned in the Open Letter thread. We can't keep coddling over her, she's gonna become a woman sometime soon. 3D model limitations aside

[Alleo]

On a subject relating to the 5.2 MSQ...

Could it be assumed that Elidibus awakened that Sahagin priest's Echo in the same way he seemingly did for the people of the Crystarium?

That's something that's been rather vague for a long time, so finally having a proper explanation for it is rather nice.

I'm still curious as to how they go about "raising up" individuals to become Ascians though, as Emet Selch mentioned only overlords like him were capable of such, and it obviously involves more then simply awakening one's Echo.

It honestly would not surprise me if our new mystery Ascian who's helping Zenos is someone familiar who was given that treatment after their presumed demise.

About your points

Hm I always thought that the other sundered main acians are just the souls of the past ones? Like if one soul shard is destroyed they just go to the other shards and wait until that soul is reborn...I do wonder though if they are still tempered then or if they need to be tempered again.

It could be that the lesser Ascians are echo users who sided with them.

Edens Verse:

Was anyone else.....extremely disappointed with E8's setup? It felt completely contrived to me. I don't understand why Ryne getting possessed by Shiva couldn't have been an unintended side effect of our memories of Ysayle forming the summoning. Because I don't believe for a second that anyone, let alone Urianger of all people, would allow Ryne to do this. Just because she's a strong independent girl yadda yadda doesn't mean you have to let her do every little idea she gets...especially, you know, willingly letting the [Oracle of Light] succumb to a primal. That's a fantastic idea...potentially cause another Flood as we see in the fight. Her reasoning felt so vague too...she wanted to do it to guide Eden? Well she immediately failed to control Shiva anyway. So if they don't bring up this "guiding Eden" thing ever again - if it's so important as to risk the entire shard and everything we've worked for - I'm going to be extremely unimpressed. I'm fine with suspending disbelief, I was fine with us bringing the primals back from similarly vague notions, but holy hell this one completely soured that last fight for me. I just couldn't get into the emotions because it broke everything I expected of our characters.

I know that might sound melodramatic, and I love this game to bits, but by simply making Ryne's possession unintentional it would've been far more believable. I just can't buy it at all.

About Eden

I agree with your view. I also did not understand why it was necessary for her to do that. (And do they really want to leave Eden behind and let him do its own thing?) Especially since we do know that such a summon can end in death..it would have made more sense if it was an accident..she already lost it right after the transformation and this in turn should have made Eden trust her less..yet that seemingly is no problem. At least Thancred had something against it, Urianger seems to be quite fine with a lot of dangerous stuff..like us fighting two primals at once.

I am also not a fan that we needed Gaias help here..and that at the end we only had the chance to say: Ryne you did great, it was all thanks to Gaia and oh I suck at thinking about primals...what? Yes Ryne did a good job at it and Gaia was a help at the end but most of it was again done by us..its sad that we could not just say: Each one of us played an important part in it..