Predictions for 5.3?

[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.