Revelations from Patch 5.3

[Alleluia]

I just finished 3.0 again, and decided to watch the cutscene following our victory over Thoradin. Might want to watch it again. Before his body dissoves int aether, he reverts back into the Archbishop. He looks up at you while wondering how even with the power of Nidhogg's Right Eye and a millennium of prayer behind him, you still defeated him. He looked at you, and your form darkened.....shadowed in the same manner as the ascians whenever they are shown in post-story cutscenes back then. To which he exclaims the following :

"Who....what are you?"

He recognized us as an Ascian. I want to say this was clever foreshadowing by the writers.

Thoughts?

I'd say it was, especially with the visual effect that accompanied it. But you'll have people swearing up and down it wasn't, so. /shrug

[Iscah]

I'd say it was, especially with the visual effect that accompanied it. But you'll have people swearing up and down it wasn't, so. /shrug

Well, the writers swear up and down that it wasn't supposed to mean anything and they just wanted to be dramatic, so...

[WarzonePrez]

Well, the writers swear up and down that it wasn't supposed to mean anything and they just wanted to be dramatic, so...

When did the writers say the effect didnt mean anything? I wasn't aware they were ever asked about it.


And I'm actually a bit taken aback by how many people here believe the contrary. Honestly, if they wanted it to be just a dying old man's vision being skewed, they could have gone many ways, such as blurryness or first person shaky-cam. But they purposely went with the same effect the Ascians were shown in.

And to the person who chastized me for using the term "Ascian" over "Ancient", perhaps my use of the term was incorrect. I tend to use it to describe any post-sundering ancient who's soul has become as dense as this, or whom may be nearly or completely unsundered. Forgive me that inaccuracy.

[Berethos]

When did the writers say the effect didnt mean anything? I wasn't aware they were ever asked about it.


And I'm actually a bit taken aback by how many people here believe the contrary. Honestly, if they wanted it to be just a dying old man's vision being skewed, they could have gone many ways, such as blurryness or first person shaky-cam. But they purposely went with the same effect the Ascians were shown in.

Most of us believe to the contrary - that the death of Thordan scene wasn't created to foreshadow the connections we have to the Ascians and the Ancients and all that - because of things where the writers have talked about how they have an sort of weekend retreat (that's really just renting an office space for a weekend) to hash out the story for the next expansion, and how they use that opportunity to both flesh out the general focus and direction as well as begin the process of taking previous events and seeing if they can be connected. From the Gamescon 2019 interview with Yosh-P and Banri Oda they talk about how they get the "topline detail" stuff together right after the most recent expansion has launched (so 2017 for Shadowbringers) and then get together the following year to go much deeper with the story elements and figure out what those are going to be (2018 for Shadowbringers).

The likelihood that a dramatic lighting effect from a scene from 2015 (that was almost certainly decided upon in like 2014) was intended (at the time of its creation) to seed the foundations of story details that wouldn't be created until 2017 at the earliest is simply not there. That it works as a foreshadower now is good for the story, but just based on what we know about how they create the story, it being intended to foreshadow that we are one of the Ancients and connected to the Ascians at the time it was created is just not believable...

And that's without the actual answering of what it was meant to represent, which I too remember was a question they answered but is proving to be a real bear to track down at the moment.

[YianKutku]

When did the writers say the effect didnt mean anything? I wasn't aware they were ever asked about it.

I think I remember them saying in an interview when asked about the Thordan scene that they specifically didn't have any idea what it meant back then. Does anyone else remember that?

It works really really well with where the story is at now, but it wasn't foreshadowing anything at the time.

Gamer Escape Lorecast 9 interview with Koji Fox, PAX 2017.

Gamer Escape: At the end of Heavensward, the Warrior of Light saw themselves through Thordan’s eyes as he asked, "What are you?" The moment looked downright sinister. Should we be worried?

Koji Fox: This was a combination of things. First, the cutscene team wanted to do something really dramatic. You see that a lot in anime—that dramatic perspective. The other half is that you’re literally seeing it through his eyes. He’s convinced himself that the way he was doing things was the correct way and that he was in the supreme right. Then you come in and you break all of that down. In his mind’s eye, you’re the evil one—and the last thing he sees is you in that evil image.

As a caveat, the writers of FFXIV have a tendency of taking things that didn't really mean anything that special at the time, and retconning them (in Moose's terms, "additive retcon") to be something different and more meaningful in future expansions.