Revelations from the Announcement Showcase

[Alleo]

I am a bit disappointed that someone like Zenos might be our endboss...I really hope that they do a bit more with him otherwise he is just boring. (At the same time they once said that he existed as one of those pure evil unlikeable characters so I doubt we will get more...)

I loved that the twins finally got a spot in a CGI trailer even if the english Alisaie seemingly was way more aggressive towards her brother than the japanese version. Its nice that the WoL is a paladin even though I still wished that he would finally turn towards the magic jobs too. I did love the symbolics with the WoL walking in something that look like Ancient gear towards the sun. I wonder if that means that maybe we get more information on Azem?

Them stating that Light and Darkness is not good or bad is funny when we get a picture with Hydaelyn and Zodiark where the latter definitely does not look like a nice guy. And since a lot of the Darkness users especially the Ascians have done some really horrible stuff in the name of Zodiark I kinda wonder if that holds true...If he has tempered them why does he not stop them from doing that? I really hope that they make a good story on why Zodiark should not be seen as a bad guy..maybe he is not able to do something and we find that out? Also if none of them are good or bad then that also means that Hydealyn is definitely not evil either.

I also wonder how they will do the final days. Will they only destroy new zones?

Since the story arc will end in 6.0 I hope that this does not make it feel rushed. We do have to uncover quite a bit of stuff, have to travel to new regions and so on which will all need some reasons to be here and will have to finally deal with Zodiark. Quite much especially if the 6.1 starts completely new. I also feel a bit bad for all of those that wanted to go to Garlemald. I never liked the look of the city much but I know that it will suck for all of those that wanted to see it in its glory only to have it destroyed by someone like Zenos...

[Vulcwen]

Them stating that Light and Darkness is not good or bad is funny when we get a picture with Hydaelyn and Zodiark where the latter definitely does not look like a nice guy. And since a lot of the Darkness users especially the Ascians have done some really horrible stuff in the name of Zodiark I kinda wonder if that holds true...If he has tempered them why does he not stop them from doing that? I really hope that they make a good story on why Zodiark should not be seen as a bad guy..maybe he is not able to do something and we find that out? Also if none of them are good or bad then that also means that Hydealyn is definitely not evil either.

Looks can be deceiving. If you flip it so Zodiark is on top, you can see he has a facial expression that indicates fear or pain, he leans back and reaches out to the viewer. His gaze is towards Hydealyn, but Hydealyn doesn't look at Zodiark, she looks a bit ashamed.

[Lauront]

Looks can be deceiving. If you flip it so Zodiark is on top, you can see he has a facial expression that indicates fear or pain, he leans back and reaches out to the viewer. His gaze is towards Hydealyn, but Hydealyn doesn't look at Zodiark, she looks a bit ashamed.

I mean putting aside what the Ascians have done (and they have their reasons and perspective to explain why this isn't mere villainy, whether people disagree with it or not), he was summoned to save the world, which he did. In order to check his power and over a disagreement over the final stage of sacrifices, Hydaelyn was then grafted onto him by the looks of things, and the world sundered. There's bound to be even more we don't understand, and I believe something or someone may have deliberately instigated their conflict for their own benefit. I expect we will learn more of this with 6.0, and that it will tie in with Fandaniel's story in some way.

Zodiark was imprisoned and as far as we can tell, silent. So we have Elidibus guiding the Ascians on an oath he swore to "someone" (we can guess who that might be; their escape from the Sundering remains a mystery), and the rest labouring to restore their world, their people and their civilisation; it is plainly clear from all of Emet-Selch's POV writings that he saw the sundered as aberrations, existing at the expense of the original ancients. The other two suffered some loss of their sense of identity, but Elidibus still laboured towards fulfilling his oath. Their silent god isn't going to intervene and if he is conscious, he's not exactly going to see what Hydaelyn did as a good thing, especially since it came out of nowhere as far as the primal is concerned. From that perspective, she was a threat to the world he was tasked to save and protect and there was probably a sense of dread in him that she'd succeed.

I think by now it should be clear that light =/= good and darkness =/= bad. They are merely types of energy. Sineaters are mindless and voracious; lightwardens, even if fair to look upon, are not necessarily benign. Voidsent share the voracious appetites of sineaters, but have a bit more personality to them. Darkness just goes with characteristics typical of creatures of the night, whereas light with more "angelic" features, but even so it can produce some monstrosities, and darkness some beings fair to look upon. Looked at another way, I would see Zodiark as a fierce protector of the world.

I'm beginning to wonder if the Anima trial is in fact what is left of Zodiark's anguished consciousness, such as it is, rather than anything specific to Fandaniel. It's bound in chains, aether coming out from its maw - what if the lower part is his jailer? The theme of pain would fit his sense of anguish that we see in the picture.

[Alleo]

Looks can be deceiving. If you flip it so Zodiark is on top, you can see he has a facial expression that indicates fear or pain, he leans back and reaches out to the viewer. His gaze is towards Hydealyn, but Hydealyn doesn't look at Zodiark, she looks a bit ashamed.

Of course the picture can be seen that way but honestly it could also be that he is afraid that he might lose his power. Others on reddit have said that it looks like he is grabbing at the moon. I also dont see Hydealyn as looking like she is ashamed but that is bias talking of course.

I am just not sure why he decided to really make him look like the devil especially since ingame their pictures always show the same kind of figure.

We will see however what they have in store with him. My problem is more that he seemingly did not stop his tempered followers before the summoning of Hydealyn with their plans of sacrifices. He also seemingly does not command Elidibus who was his heart to stop the rest of the Ascians with their plan. Was it because he simply could not? Or does he not want to? Both could happen and honestly I would be fine with him being a nicer being and maybe having him and Hydealyn living in harmony at the end but its just funny that he still shown that way.