Predictions for 5.3?

[Anonymoose]

it would take a heck of a scheme to turn people against us after we saved their world.

Would it? I harbor some hesitation to have that kind of faith.

Elidibus
At but a word from me, you raise your hands in answer like the puppets you are. Naught has changed. You fail and you fail and you learn nothing─allow that which is most important to slip through your fumbling fingers like so many grains of sand. Again and again and again.

There was a day Ysayle tried to put an icicle through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
There was a day Midgardsormr tried to put a spike through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
Gods save us from half the people who think they're doing the gods' work.

[KageTokage]

Would it? I harbor some hesitation to have that kind of faith.

There was a day Ysayle tried to put an icicle through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
There was a day Midgardsormr tried to put a spike through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
Gods save us from half the people who think they're doing the gods' work.

I suppose the newly awakened WoLs could legitimately be dumb enough to try to off us just because "Ardbert" says so. The revelation that he and his friends were partly responsible for halting the Flood of Light on top of their prior heroics already puts him on a pedestal of a height comparable to our own.

I just struggle to think of any kind of argument he could make to suddenly frame us as the villains after everything we've done though considering the illusion he was able to conjure at the Crystarium, more smoke and mirrors could also be a factor.

[Vulcwen]

I suppose the newly awakened WoLs ...

Never underestimate xenophobia I guess, we're still essentially aliens to them. If they can't frame us as villain directly, maybe they can frame the Exarch as villain and then by extension us when we stand on his side.

[Theodric]

Never underestimate xenophobia I guess, we're still essentially aliens to them. If they can't frame us as villain directly, maybe they can frame the Exarch as villain and then by extension us when we stand on his side.

That wouldn't necessarily be a case of xenophobia so much as a lesson in just how silly it is for so many characters to keep secrets from the masses. The Crystal Exarch really should have informed his people about his and the player character's circumstances, especially when faced with what was essentially the apocalypse.

It makes even less sense when you look at how the truth of Ishgard's founding was revealed, paving the way to reform across Coerthas. Any criticism aimed at the Archbishop for hiding the truth from the masses is now negated, since the Warrior of Light and many of his companions resort to the exact same tactic.

It'll be interesting to see if they're bold enough to actually reveal some of the secrets they keep close to their chests on a grand scale - such as the nature of the fractured worlds, the former state of existence and that both Hydaelyn and Zodiark are Primals.

[Morningstar1337]

Never underestimate xenophobia I guess, we're still essentially aliens to them. If they can't frame us as villain directly, maybe they can frame the Exarch as villain and then by extension us when we stand on his side.

Would make sense, especially if the newly awakened included Eulmorans who preferred Valthey's rule over the new Status quo.

[Lauront]

Would it? I harbor some hesitation to have that kind of faith.

There was a day Ysayle tried to put an icicle through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
There was a day Midgardsormr tried to put a spike through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
Gods save us from half the people who think they're doing the gods' work.

Which is potentially why he won't be the end boss for 5.3 - especially if he is the original Elidibus.

The problem here is the Flood of Light wouldn't do anything for Elidibus at the moment because without Black Rose there is no pending calamity that we are aware of to allow a Rejoining to take place. That would be counterproductive for Elidibus to do to say the least. My guess goes back to his speech about wanting to 'keep us mired in the first', it seems to be an action more to disrupt our progress specifically. But how he intends to do so? That's still a hard thing to determine, as he basically creating a bunch of people with hero complexes.

My theory he intends to mislead these heroes against us somehow, maybe by creating an illusion of some kind of threat, though I must say trying to pin anything on the "Warrior of Darkness" normally would be difficult. Then again, get enough people who think they're doing the right thing and I wouldn't be surprised on what they could do.

At the same time, who's to say he's not working on the Source in parallel? I find it hard to believe that a meticulous planner like him would truly leave Zenos as a "wildcard", not to mention any other number of avenues he could be keeping an eye on, both within the Empire and outside it.

That said, for now it does seem like the focus is dealing with the primary obstacle to his plans, but I am sure he's more than adept at multitasking.

I'm honestly believing that the Elidibus that we are dealing with is Zodiark, just from the way he worded how we could see him as. I mean he straight up tells our character and the scions that he is there to fulfill the will of the convocation and that if we wanted to think of him as another Ascian then we could. (Not the exact quote from when we confronted him in Rak Tika but pretty much the gist of it). So yeah I think that would be a revelation sometime in the future.

He's almost inviting them to underestimate him.

[Draginhikari]

At the same time, who's to say he's not working on the Source in parallel? I find it hard to believe that a meticulous planner like him would truly leave Zenos as a "wildcard", not to mention any other number of avenues he could be keeping an eye on, both within the Empire and outside it.

That said, for now it does seem like the focus is dealing with the primary obstacle to his plans, but I am sure he's more than adept at multitasking.

That's why I said in my point 'Is no pending calamity that we are aware of to allow a Rejoining to take place'. Generally, the story tends to let us as the Players know that some element is going to be important by bringing it up long before it becomes story relevant like how Black Rose was. At this stage, all we know is that Zenos is traveling with a white robed figure that seems different from Elidibus somehow who seems to know about the past. If there is a potential option for another calamity, it's not currently apparent.

[Lauront]

That's why I said in my point 'Is no pending calamity that we are aware of to allow a Rejoining to take place'. Generally, the story tends to let us as the Players know that some element is going to be important by bringing it up long before it becomes story relevant like how Black Rose was. At this stage, all we know is that Zenos is traveling with a white robed figure that seems different from Elidibus somehow who seems to know about the past. If there is a potential option for another calamity, it's not currently apparent.

I agree, it's not readily apparent. Nonetheless, there is something odd about a cautious planner like Elidibus not having a plan to make use of Zenos and just leaving it to the wind. Especially since this new "guest" has knowledge of a plan we've only seen Zenos articulate in front of a dying Varis - a plan a forward-thinker like Elidibus would anticipate from Zenos once he revealed to him the nature of Hydaelyn and Zodiark. So I think it is likely that Elidibus is still guiding Zenos in some manner or other, and that the choice of Asahi is no less intentional than how he used Zenos's form to goad Asahi into doing his bidding. In fact, I would go as far to say that Elidibus knows enough about Zenos's psychology to avoid giving him a fight worth remembering (in which case he'd just become a pest obsessed with him) and has imparted this knowledge to this new person to better manipulate him. Particularly if Elidibus is the original and thus the same as Zodiark.

So far, his stated aim is to use the newly minted WoLs on the First to hinder the main character (with the exact details being unclear for now), so assuming he's the one pulling Zenos's strings, it suggests he has some other use for him. If he intends to just wait until the WoL is dead before putting all the pieces in place, then maybe he has no use of a Source-based calamity right now - in that case his plan could even include throwing Zenos at you. On the other hand, if the goal is to ready the First (and possibly the 13th, too) to be rejoined and at the same time put the Source into a rejoining-ready state, and distract the WoL whilst this is happening, the use for Zenos could be to cause enough devastation in pursuing his goal that it all slots into place and happens too fast to be hindered.

Of course this could all mean nothing if it's Venat or one of her minions (or someone else entirely) who's manipulating Zenos, which would be interesting in its own right, but in my estimation all the signs so far point to it being Elidibus. I could be wrong but I would find it very out of character for him to do nothing with Zenos.