Revelations from Patch 5.3

[Alleluia]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned yet but...

But Zenos’ companion, the sundered Ascian, was very happy Elidibus is no more. Another poster in this thread mentioned that things could actually be worse now because there are no Unsundered left to control all the lesser Ascians, which are still powerful enough to wreak considerable havoc on the star. But neither Zenos or his companion seem all that interested in rejoinings. Not sure if they even have the power if they wanted to.

So does that mean no more Calamities? Are we just going to be fighting chaos itself? Zenos’ hunt?

.

Yeah, Fandaniel is clearly oocoo for cocoa puffs. They don't have the power of the Unsundered, but he's still clearly gonna be a problem. What I don't get is that he's encouraging Zenos to get strong enough to eat Zodiark and Hydaelyn, right? Or is that fan speculation only? Cus he should still be tempered by Zodiark from everything we know, thus should still be working towards reuniting the shards. So it'd be odd for him to have designs on Zodiark.

The most biggest fangirl sqee-ing inside. This patch made me feel young again. So very, stupidly young.

I've watched too much anime because as far as I know he basically proposed based on his wording and that ear perk Ah! /swoon I want to take him everywhere

Girl, same.

[Alleluia]

I have seen people say Y'shtola theorized Emet-Selch's last words were also meant for Elidibus. I don't remember that. Is it in a cutscene that I missed or is it something she says if you talk to her at a certain point?

Don't know if she's said anything about his final words, but...

I know she speculates him showing up in the final trial was a plan by Hades to ensure his last unsundered friend died and moved on from everything. Basically, him helping us was as much for Elidibus as it was for us, maybe more so.

Hey, can anyone list where all the involved characters are, post-5.3? I can't find anyone outside those actually in the Rising Stones, Lyna, and Matoya; and I assume there's dialogue I'm missing?

EDIT: Nevermind, found it.

So a lot of Npcs have updated

-Scions in Rising stones and extra room
-Unikalhai
-Role quest Npcs (Culpa included)
-Crysterium named Npcs
-anyone you say bye to
-Viera sisters who govern Fanow(Whm one is leaving to go to Crysterium)
-Bae Lugg is in Cabinet of Curiosity
-Master Matoya
-Rammbroes click crumpled report option

-Magnai hasn't but what he says with what we know just makes me want to rub it in XD

There may be others I couldn't find Lyse, City leaders still barred from seeing

[Jandor]

I'll agree that Elidibus did seem a tad out of character compared to before but

it makes sense in a way. As the last one left the guy had got to be under a lot of pressure, and the calm & collected manipulator shtick he was doing before just kept backfiring horribly.

Random unrelated thought:

Seeing as most (all?) of us are reincarnations of sundered ancients, does that mean Emet will have been shredded up and chucked into the lifestream when he died?
Would he even get sundered at this point?
When the WoL eventually dies, hopefully of old age after a comfy retirement, will the lifestream slice Ardbert off and send his soul back to the First, or will Azem of the source always be 8/14 from now on?

I get the impression that the sundering was a one time deal and Hydaelyn can't re-sunder so to speak, whenever Emets soul gets recycled is he going to be a full 14/14 stuck in the body of a mortal?
Maybe his growth spurt in puberty will see him end up 14ft tall and oddly fascinated with long robes and masks.

[Hikari_Kishimoto]

Seeing as most (all?) of us are reincarnations of sundered ancients, does that mean Emet will have been shredded up and chucked into the lifestream when he died?
Would he even get sundered at this point?

I'm afraid not. As I understand it, when you pierce an ascians soul with light, it fades out of existence.
It doesn't return to the lifestream, because the soul itself has been destroyed.

[Fenral]

YoRHa: Dark 10chars

Some stuff holds up in 2P's characterization (if it can be called that). I was forced to replay the Copied Factory the other day, and she does actually sound concerned that the machine lifeforms are being controlled. But she wasn't that interesting. Basically Mide with even vaguer motivations. Surprised she didn't have a scar under that mask...

But why bomb the dwarfs? And why show up in black at all? Sure, it's dramatic, and not totally unprecedented for 24-man characters to undergo personality replacement surgery between patches, but come on. It's momentary shock value at best, but now that we have that precedent, further speculation feels almost meaningless. Why bother laying out a rug that's just going to get pulled? Wait, what if the P-units are actually purple?

I mentioned before that part of the fun of twists is being able to guess them, at least in part. I suppose I haven't lost all my emotional investment, but I'm getting there. Knowing Yoko Taro's reputation for "oh it's just so sad" endings isn't really helping. I also have no prior attachment to 2B or her panties, so her arrival is just another reminder that "this wasn't made for me."

But honestly, I've carried a bit of prejudice against the NieR series ever since I found out Replicant was a thing and someone had made the call that we westerners would only want Gestalt. (I'll take a pretty-boy lead over a hypermasculine escapist avatar any day.) Anyway...

[Vyrerus]

I fear not. As I understand it, when you pierce an ascians soul with light, it fades out of existence.
It doesn't return to the lifestream, because the soul itself has been destroyed.

To expound on this, if you pierce any soul with a pure aether blade, then the soul will be destroyed rather than return to the lifestream. This is part of what made Haurchefant's death so poignant. That javelin of light, "Spear of The Fury" was meant to kill and destroy an immortal Echo user(the WoL). Instead it kills Haurchefant, body and soul.

We haven't just been killing Ascians, we've been erasing them completely. At least, that's how it goes in the writing of the NA version.

[Crushnight]

So about 5.4 and 5.5

So either we are going to have imaginary not talked about conflict that'll come out of nowhere either on the 1st or Source or We are dealing with Zenos, Flandaniel and/or the Garleans in the next 2 patches because nothing has been set up yet besides them in MSQ, perhaps that is why Yoshi P mentions to get a refresher on HW so things aren't so outta nowhere but he can't expect everyone to do that or be like us in the lore forums.

It is concerning if that is the case but will withhold judgement until 5.4 at least.

Nier raid theory

Like typical Yoko Taro he has got my mind racing on how things are connected.

This time I think we are continuing on from ending E, there are a few things that make ending D less probable now, 21O's data is the original not a machine Lifeform this would make the Bunker, THE Bunker from Nier Automata, which can only happen going for ending C,D and E, this then begs the question for ending D why was pieces of the destroyed bunker taken into space and dropped down and placed on top of an alien spaceship?

I don't think they did, I think that piece of the Bunker landed on top of the spaceship when it fell to Earth, which would make Norvandt part of Earth but hundreds of thousands of years later after Automata (their are boars, fish and deers in Automata and we know time is different fluctuates different on Shards and Source).

The other thing that makes me question ending D is 2B and 9S, 2B show distinct concern for others but still want to fight machine lifeforms(2B never learned anything leading up to ending C,D and E and ending D has 9S with the machine lifeforms so it feels off atm), 9S is also distinctly not bat crazy about 2B but has a room full of her bodies in the factory.

Yoko Taro's work is definitely up to the individual to process whether they like it or not, Automata has ending B as a gate wall to a lot of people, but it does create a disconnect, someone complaining how nothing makes sense by ending B will get people who have done ending C,D and E to chime in, but if said same person complained about gameplay they could have a lot more support by anyone no matter where in story they are, basically I'm saying it is best to wait for full picture, but I don't hold it against people who clock out early because it stopped being interesting before it ramps up.

FFXIV itself isn't immune to withholding information until much later, Alexander Gordias has this problem, takes to end of Midas to go oh Alexander has time powers. Mikoto's echo is something not once built upon in Ivalice 24 man nor does it change any context there now that we know she has it(Yoko Taro tends to have things for a reason and nothing is outta place with new information).

Lastly some things I think we might get next Nier raid tier
-Evil Twins (Yoko Taro staple)
-Emil (basically Yoko Taro's icon)
-Maker's Ruin mashup

[Enkidoh]

To expound on this, if you pierce any soul with a pure aether blade, then the soul will be destroyed rather than return to the lifestream. This is part of what made Haurchefant's death so poignant. That javelin of light, "Spear of The Fury" was meant to kill and destroy an immortal Echo user(the WoL). Instead it kills Haurchefant, body and soul.

Except it didn't - Haurchefant came back after all in the climax of the Final Steps of Faith in spirit alongside Ysayle who helped the WoL, Aymeric and Alphinaud pull the Eyes of Nidhogg from Estinien's armour, after they succeed in removing the Eyes and freeing Estinien from Nidhogg's control and banished Nidhogg's spirit forever, they're last seen doing an 'Aerith and Zack' from Advent Children when they smile, and then walk into the light and disappear. So their spirits are most definetely not destroyed aetherically like what befell the Ascians (presumedly they returned to the Lifestream after that).

[Draginhikari]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned yet but...

But Zenos’ companion, the sundered Ascian, was very happy Elidibus is no more. Another poster in this thread mentioned that things could actually be worse now because there are no Unsundered left to control all the lesser Ascians, which are still powerful enough to wreak considerable havoc on the star. But neither Zenos or his companion seem all that interested in rejoinings. Not sure if they even have the power if they wanted to.

So does that mean no more Calamities? Are we just going to be fighting chaos itself? Zenos’ hunt?

.

I did have a thought on that:

My thoughts are perhaps the calamities aren't the ONLY solution to the Ascian's intentions. There were other ways to accomplish their goals all along, but those other options were so dangerous and were such a risk to the star that the Unsundered would never allow them to be used. If the Sundered lack that context, this apocalypse that was spoken of could be related to something like this. To create enough calamities now require too much time for everything to be settled in one more expansion, so there must be something else about this plan of the two.

[Alleo]

It is most likely because he is a actual fragment of our original soul why he still exists as part of our being. With Ryne she was a new soul and not a fragment of Minfillia's soul.

I guess this could be true if Ryne was not a soul part of Minfilia (which I guess was never stated ingame?). But shouldnt every single person on the source then have a big amount of voices in their head? Everyone on the source is rejoined with soul parts x amount of times. Why would Ardbert be special?

Also even though I really like Arcbert it kinda feels a little creepy, especially if you are a female. So that guy can just see what we see? And if he does exist why does he not comment more on stuff? He is his own person with his own dreams now caged in a body not his. I really liked the implications more that he was finally able to rest. Maybe..maybe it was just the crystal? Maybe it gave one last chance for him to talk?