Revelations from Patch 5.3

[Morningstar1337]

Tobe fairness, there are other parts of the game that seems tonally different to the point where its canonical is a little debatable, namely the more comedic Hildibrand storylines.

Also I get the feeling that how the Automata stuff wound up in the Frist will be crux of the 3rd Raid tier and will likely be one of three possibilities

• The Result of Rift crossing that had be precedented by Omega on the XIV side (as well as Gilgamesh) and Caim (IIRC Nier spun off from one of Drakengard's endings) on the Drakengard/Nier side. After all there is evidence of a omniverse beyond Hydaelyn's multiverse of 5-6 dimensions and the Void
• A side effect of a past rejoining, Like an attempt by the Ascians to rejoin led to some parts of the world winding upon the First without being disintegrated into Aether. However this does raise further question as the world in question is that of Nier.
  • Another possibility is that the robots were like aumarot, a recreating of a rejoined world, but that also begs the question of "why would an Ascian (especially if we're left to assume only the Unsundered are capable of such a feat, OTOH Lahabrea was in charge of weapons IIRC, so I can see him having an interest in killer robots) want to recreate YoHRa...twice over?"
• A dream. The most cliched cop-out but also likely the other viable way of reconciling the lore with the raid series. And that has the issue of "why does the WoL and two unrelated dwarves have the exact same dream of advanced robots in Kholusa?"

[Lium]

Tobe fairness, there are other parts of the game that seems tonally different to the point where its canonical is a little debatable, namely the more comedic Hildibrand storylines.

Also I get the feeling that how the Automata stuff wound up in the Frist will be crux of the 3rd Raid tier and will likely be one of three possibilities

• The Result of Rift crossing that had be precedented by Omega on the XIV side (as well as Gilgamesh) and Caim (IIRC Nier spun off from one of Drakengard's endings) on the Drakengard/Nier side. After all there is evidence of a omniverse beyond Hydaelyn's multiverse of 5-6 dimensions and the Void
• A side effect of a past rejoining, Like an attempt by the Ascians to rejoin led to some parts of the world winding upon the First without being disintegrated into Aether. However this does raise further question as the world in question is that of Nier.
  • Another possibility is that the robots were like aumarot, a recreating of a rejoined world, but that also begs the question of "why would an Ascian (especially if we're left to assume only the Unsundered are capable of such a feat, OTOH Lahabrea was in charge of weapons IIRC, so I can see him having an interest in killer robots) want to recreate YoHRa...twice over?"
• A dream. The most cliched cop-out but also likely the other viable way of reconciling the lore with the raid series. And that has the issue of "why does the WoL and two unrelated dwarves have the exact same dream of advanced robots in Kholusa?"

As I understand it, Hildebrand is canon because the stories are being told by someone's point of view, and that person is greatly exaggerating the events. But I remember when I first started the Hildy quests and wondered how it was Hildebrand and his dad could run faster than a speeding bullet, jump tall buildings in a single bound, and were more powerful than a locomotive. They even put that Superman reference in the game.

It's definitely for comedy but I think the shenanigans have been exaggerated.