Revelations from Patch 5.3

[Saix027]

The view of the Crystal Tower from Lakeland feels just a bit sadder than it used to, knowing that the Exarch is there frozen forever at the top. I know they played it for "a symbol of hope" and he's not really dead, but... if anything that makes it harder to know what to feel about it. At very least it's still a strange and solemn thing.

It feels actually questionable, we basically made a clone with his memorys, merged it with his old self, deleting or at least changing what he was to that point, while the one in the crystal could be still alive, just merged with the tower itself, only able to watch.

Dead or not it feels a bit out of place and, could just be me but feels also cheap, i mean the whole addon kind of seemed to tried to force some love relationship between us and him and now also forcing a happy end? Kind of? Even that it won't matter in the future anymore probably.

The whole dramatic seemed off if you just resolve it afterwards, it is like with Gosetsu, all that drama about his sacrifice and death, only to see him fine later. It feelsl ike it not goes anywhere, and jsut exist to have drama for the sake of drama, like Y'shtola cheating death twice already yet Square has forgotten the consequences they talked about.

I like this addon very much, don't get me wrong, but certain things feel way to forced into such but without real consequences.

[Iscah]

It feels actually questionable, we basically made a clone with his memorys, merged it with his old self, deleting or at least changing what he was to that point, while the one in the crystal could be still alive, just merged with the tower itself, only able to watch.

Actually we can be certain his soul left that body, because from the scene where the other Scions transfer themselves into the crystals, we can see that the white part of the crystal only starts to glow once their souls are inside it. This is exactly what we see in the last moments before the Exarch crystallises, so it seems clear that his soul "got away" and isn't trapped there. (I wrote earlier - I think this is the reason for having his soul transfer instead of just giving him a well-earned death at that point. It would be hard to be clear that his soul was free and not trapped forever.)

Further proof that his soul transferred over is that G'raha says his soul is similarly dense to ours, which would be accounted for by each of us holding a ninth fragment: ours from Ardbert, G'raha's from the additional rejoining that only the Exarch lived through.

As for the ethics of it? I agree I'm surprised they went that route, but given that they did, I have to assume it can be justified in this unique circumstance because the Exarch isn't making this decision on behalf of "someone else" or even a diverged version of himself on another timeline. He was the same person up until G'raha's last waking moment to date, and thus would be able to judge on behalf of his younger self that he would be happy to accept that soul transfer.

So anyway, on that assumption that all is well and it's only the Exarch's body that is there in the tower... it's a strange thing. He died and there's a body but at the same time he's not dead, so should it be mourned or not? His departure from the First might as well be death in some ways, and yet the people know he's alive but beyond their reach.

All of a sudden I am reminded of The Little Prince... there are shades of that story's ending here, I think, though of course it's not the same thing. But a bit of that mixed joy and sorrow.

[Saix027]

snip

True, tho, in his case he only transfered his memorys also, while the Scions had to transfer there memories AND soul/body in the shard. Maybe it just is explained poorly and got lost in translation also, for me it seemed it is just his memory we carry over so he can continue his own legacy. Feels awkard still, since i mean Ardbert not just merged or overwritten our memories after all as well.

One thing tho i need to mention here is, how awkward it feels that the Scions tooked there new jobs with honestly, esepcially in Y'shtola's case considering her aether should be weak already but *shrugs*, character development, even if done poorly in my eyes, especially Alisaie complaining they not evolved or so, i rolled my eyes at that and her anime jump from the balcony.

This patch had alot of Anime influence anyway is it? Eldibidus posing with the WoL like some photoshooting for his wipe attack, which was cool i admit, also goddamn gundam/evangelios, whatever, fight in Saphir Weapon. Normally i not like Anime cliches but i admit, those were kinda amazing and hilarious. Alisaie tho, was cringy as always. I honestly not can stand her, she became Lyse 2.0 since Stormblood.

[Iscah]

True, tho, in his case he only transfered his memorys also, while the Scions had to transfer there memories AND soul/body in the shard. Maybe it just is explained poorly and got lost in translation also, for me it seemed it is just his memory we carry over so he can continue his own legacy. Feels awkard still, since i mean Ardbert not just merged or overwritten our memories after all as well.

An important detail does seem to be getting lost in translation, as you say.

The Exarch didn't transfer only his memories. Both his soul and memories are in the crystal, just like the other Scions. The only difference is that he didn't put both in at once.

When the Scions transfer themselves into the crystals, first they transfer their memories and the red part begins to glow. Then their souls enter the crystals and the white part begins to glow.

Now look at the final scene with the Exarch - cutscene #5 of "Hope's Confluence".

When we first show him the crystal, only the red part is glowing from the memories he transferred into it earlier.

He tells us that his "mind and memories" will travel with us while his body remains here.

We hold it out to him, he looks at it, and it begins to glow white. This means his soul has gone into the crystal - but unlike the Scions, who simply vanish into aether, he has a physical body to leave behind.

If anything, it seems that his soul was holding back the complete transformation of his body, and it's only after he leaves it that the crystallisation takes over.



Also it doesn't seem like merging his two souls has "overwritten" the younger G'raha, just added to him. When you talk with him afterwards at the Rising Stones, he seems like a balance between the two. He has the Exarch's memories, of course, but he just seems younger and different. It will be interesting to see how he acts from here onwards.

[Erendis]

An important detail does seem to be getting lost in translation, as you say.

The Exarch didn't transfer only his memories. Both his soul and memories are in the crystal, just like the other Scions. The only difference is that he didn't put both in at once.

Tbh, it is really weird that this info is in missable dialog. I missed this one dialog and story outcome was totally different. Also, everyone else needed porxie to transfer souls and there was no porxie with Exarch...

On another missable dialog, it was really sweet of Urianger to miss Emet-Selch in Ocular too (he better make his minion >.> ).

I've been thinking about Rising event and while the minstrel's song is about past, perhaps his words about balance of elements and facing new dawn have something to do with the future.
For a while now I've been thinking about Minfilia's words (even before 5.3):

And in light of Azem they gain some importance.

Could ancient city/country across the pond where calamity began be in current Meracydia? What if Azem was counted as deserter because they went there to help?

On unrelated note, we get submarines to travel to Polynesia, what's the counterpart here?

[Iscah]

Tbh, it is really weird that this info is in missable dialog. I missed this one dialog and story outcome was totally different. Also, everyone else needed porxie to transfer souls and there was no porxie with Exarch...

What do you mean, "missable dialogue"? The line about his mind and memories was fairly clear in the scene. The rest of what I explained about the glowing colours of the crystal wasn't dialogue at all - it's my observation of what is shown on the screen. The camera focuses on the crystals as these things happen.

The thing with the porxie was explained sometime earlier in 5.1/5.2, I think, but I'll have to go over that explanation again. It was something about the Scions' aether.

[Alleo]

The thing with the porxie was explained sometime earlier in 5.1/5.2, I think, but I'll have to go over that explanation again. It was something about the Scions' aether.

I think the porxie was only needed for the scions because they were only souls that seemingly changed so much that they needed that spell to get out of their built shells? (Not remembering the exact way they explained it) The exarch of course had no such restrictions since he had his body with him.

[Fenral]

So anyway, on that assumption that all is well and it's only the Exarch's body that is there in the tower... it's a strange thing. He died and there's a body but at the same time he's not dead, so should it be mourned or not? His departure from the First might as well be death in some ways, and yet the people know he's alive but beyond their reach.

All of a sudden I am reminded of The Little Prince... there are shades of that story's ending here, I think, though of course it's not the same thing. But a bit of that mixed joy and sorrow.

In the major arcana of the Tarot, "death" is used less to mean "oh emm jeebers you gon die" like you see in fiction, but to symbolize an end necessary for a new beginning. Even when the Tarot aren't invoked, I still consider it a useful lens to view situations like this through. He did actually die as the Exarch, but rather than simply reverting to the old G'raha, he was reborn as a combination of the two.

(For aspiring writers out there, the tl;dr is that it is perfectly okay to bring dead characters back, as long as they are changed by the experience in some way, not necessarily the Pet Sematary kind of way...)

The Exarch ended up being this weird mashup of Desch and Xande (FFIII editions), I wrote up something a bit after he was revealed (speculative, so I got some stuff wrong), so I imagine this was probably the best way they had to reconcile those polar opposites.

Also yeah, Le Petit Prince is exactly the tone they were going for. Doing something that will definitely kill you, on the belief, with no concrete evidence, that it won't be the end. In that case, I think it's okay to mourn.

[Iscah]

The Exarch ended up being this weird mashup of Desch and Xande (FFIII editions), I wrote up something a bit after he was revealed (speculative, so I got some stuff wrong), so I imagine this was probably the best way they had to reconcile those polar opposites.

Having played FFIII now (minus actually defeating the Cloud of Darkness and getting to the ending) I don't see much parallel between the Exarch and Xande but I do think he's taking some degree of inspiration from the original Doga - at a superficial level, he's the old mentor-mage in a red cloak, but also the penultimate "gather heroes to help you in your moment of need" thing stuck out to me as parallel to the Exarch calling up heroes to help us fight Hades.

[Fenral]

Having played FFIII now (minus actually defeating the Cloud of Darkness and getting to the ending) I don't see much parallel between the Exarch and Xande but I do think he's taking some degree of inspiration from the original Doga - at a superficial level, he's the old mentor-mage in a red cloak, but also the penultimate "gather heroes to help you in your moment of need" thing stuck out to me as parallel to the Exarch calling up heroes to help us fight Hades.

Actually, yeah. I was seeing the Xande parallel as "going to great lengths to extend his lifespan in the face of an inevitable end," with "acceptance" as the most probable resolution to his arc with what little we had to go on (see also, Kuja), but he ended up crossing the Minwu threshold into anti-nihilism and then everything went really off the rails. But the way he "sacrificed" himself (in 2.5), went unremarked on for most of the story's runtime (until late 4.X), and then returned dramatically to save us is definitely the crowning Desch moment people (mostly JP) believed he was being set up for.

But now that you've met FFIII Desch, I think you can agree it's fitting that his "Salina" is actually the Warrior of Light (though I guess that's an ending spoiler kinda). I was admittedly worried they would lean too hard into the source material again and award that role to the literal, 2000-years-ago Salina (in a bid to stabilize the time loop).


Also, farm Eureka! The EXP is good, and having a large stack of Shuriken makes the adds on the remake's Cloud of Darkness a lot more manageable.