Death unto Dawn page up

[RopeDrink]

Random thoughts after seeing a video (so forgive me if other things have been made obvious since then), but here were my initial thoughts:

Fordola will likely die as a redemption arc. It sounds like Arenvald is giving the "We arrived together, we'll leave together" dialogue - seeing as the two of them joined up at the end of Stormblood, so I'm just guessing Fordola is injured or dying after all this talk of 'heroes' and mentioning how 'at this rate, there'll be none left'. I can't see any of the city-state leaders dying and leaving a void. The only problem is -- Ala-Mhigo kinda has two -- Lyse and Raubhan -- and Lyse is part of 80 Monk class quest, so I really hope we aren't going to lose the one-armed wonder.

A lot of people suspect Alisae will die. I personally don't think that's the case -- but I will be absolutely heart broken if it happens. Giving her a new makeover just for the Endwalker trailer only to have her killed off would be very strange indeed. I assume the aether effects surrounding her are to do with the Scions obviously un-tempering people -- and it also sounds like Alphinaud's plan to turn the tide is to summon primals, seeing as tempering is no longer an issue. Alas, doing so means we would still need to defeat them afterwards, but it explains why we're fighting a lot of the classics. Either that, or the enemy do it instead to keep us busy.

[MoofiaBossVal]

It'd be really cool if Gabranth did manage to carve out his own kingdom in Dalmasca, but you have the problem that there is still a Dalmascan Princess hanging around, and she is leading a resistance. Only way to resolve that would be for Gabranth to marry her and agree to concessions to the resistance in how the new kingdom will be run, I think.

[Theodric]

I don't think Fordola necessarily needs to be 'redeemed'. As a young girl, she saw her own people form a lynch mob and stone her father to death in the streets. That's what caused her to take the path in life that she did and work to better her people's position on her own terms.

Let's not forget that the Eorzean Alliance is the aggressor as of Stormblood where Doma and Ala Mhigo are concerned. They pushed Fordola into a corner as a consequence of that aggression and she lashed out as a result. She's already performed a number of favours for the Scions and Ala Mhigans that she had no obligation to do.

If they're going to kill someone off, let it be someone who lacks any grit or meaningful depth. Variety makes things interesting and every major and minor character that doesn't think and act the same way meeting a tragic end is getting pretty tiresome.

I also don't think fictional characters need to be raked through the coals just because they made a mistake or two at some point during their lives. Especially when it's always one sided - Merwlyb did horrible things, though she wasn't forced to go down the 'redemption through death' route. (A shame, really - that smirking Midlander during the last batch of MSQ's would get my vote for Limsa's new leader!)

The likes of FFVII would not be nearly as memorable or as popular if they took the route of killing and punishing the Turks, Reeve and Rufus for the shadier things that they did. The writers for FFXIV would do well to remember that.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Random thoughts after seeing a video (so forgive me if other things have been made obvious since then), but here were my initial thoughts:

Fordola will likely die as a redemption arc. It sounds like Arenvald is giving the "We arrived together, we'll leave together" dialogue - seeing as the two of them joined up at the end of Stormblood, so I'm just guessing Fordola is injured or dying after all this talk of 'heroes' and mentioning how 'at this rate, there'll be none left'. I can't see any of the city-state leaders dying and leaving a void. The only problem is -- Ala-Mhigo kinda has two -- Lyse and Raubhan -- and Lyse is part of 80 Monk class quest, so I really hope we aren't going to lose the one-armed wonder.

A lot of people suspect Alisae will die. I personally don't think that's the case -- but I will be absolutely heart broken if it happens. Giving her a new makeover just for the Endwalker trailer only to have her killed off would be very strange indeed. I assume the aether effects surrounding her are to do with the Scions obviously un-tempering people -- and it also sounds like Alphinaud's plan to turn the tide is to summon primals, seeing as tempering is no longer an issue. Alas, doing so means we would still need to defeat them afterwards, but it explains why we're fighting a lot of the classics. Either that, or the enemy do it instead to keep us busy.

Tbh idk why people would think Alisaie is gonna die? She’s in the endwalkers trailer with a whole new outfit lmao they aren’t gonna kill her off.

[Bright-Flower]

Tbh idk why people would think Alisaie is gonna die? She’s in the endwalkers trailer with a whole new outfit lmao they aren’t gonna kill her off.

No idea, I haven't seen anyone claim that she's going to die myself but if there are people saying that it'd be weird.

[Theodric]

No idea, I haven't seen anyone claim that she's going to die myself but if there are people saying that it'd be weird.

It wouldn't bother me if it happened, though I also don't see it happening. The only characters who die in this game are included in the following categories:

- Outright villains.
- Sympathetic antagonists.
- Throwaway characters that die as quickly as they are introduced. (For example, Tesleen).
- Throwaway characters that are reintroduced into the story again just to kill them off. (Meffrid, as an example.)
- Secondary characters of minor importance that are temporarily given focus but simply haven't spent as much time with the player character as the more prominent figures have. (Such as Haurchefant)
- Background characters who are semi-important but have largely been delegated to 'background existence'. (Papalymo, Louisoix)
- Formerly important characters that left the story for long stretches of time and/or already 'died' as far as many of us were led to believe. (Ardbert, Minfilia).

The likes of Y'shtola and Alisae do not fit in any of those categories and so it's a safe bet that they'll be fine as they always are. I don't mean to sound overly callous, but at what point do we take a step back and just note that there's consistent trends where it's very easy to guess who is perpetually safe and who is not? Don't get me wrong, I'd be pleasantly surprised if the story moved away from its 'consequences for thee but not for me' style that it adopted after 3.0 but there's been so many fake outs since that point and zero actual deaths of major characters on the level of Alisae, Alphinaud, Merlwyb, Nanamo, Y'shtola and Raubahn that I can't help but be baffled by such concerns.

Granted, I am hoping - perhaps foolishly - that Endwalker will be a pleasant surprise on that front and actually have some major stakes and losses that aren't entirely predictable...but we'll see.

[Turethir]

If anyone is going to die in 5.5 my money would be on Arenvald for the following reasons:

• Minor enough not to cause outcry, but major enough for people to know who he is.
• A close tie with both Alphinaud and Fordola. We know Alphinaud is going to be working up to a big "character moment" as he's going to change class, so this would potentially spur him forward.
• He doesn't appear in the trailer at all, but we do hear him. This is... strange, and a little suspicious.
• They said they had trouble "cutting around the spoilers" for MSQ in this trailer, and his absence feels like they want his appearance to be a surprise.
• We see Alphinaud frustrated in the trailer at not being able to save someone (I don't think this is him, but it's definitely a theme), and he looks sad or apologetic toward an angry Fordola in the scene where she pushes him over. Maybe reaching a bit, but this scene would make perfect sense after his death/something happening to him.

Like I've said before, I personally am not the biggest fan of character death but in this case I could actually see it making sense to progress the plot (Alphinaud's character development, and also development for Fordola, who could possibly join us in Endwalker).

[myahele]

I thought Arenvald had deathflags since Stormblood. I'd rather he not die, but I would not be surprised if he did.

As for the Nerva topic. If he is young, I can see Gaius end up being his adviser/ right hand if they go that route. I wonder if Gaius was ordered to kill Nerva's older siblings assuming he had any? We know Gaius killed 9 "aspirants to the crown" and I guess it goes with the atonement-forgiveness theme.

[Lauront]

I am guessing Arenvald dying would be the sort of thing that would move Fordola to shift her perspective. Not my preference (in terms of deaths), but I could see it happening.

[Rosenstrauch]

Aren't Arenvald and Fordola both involved with the level 80 Summoner quest? I'm fairly confident that both of them have temporary plot armor because of that. I doubt they'll be dying before Endwalker.

EDIT: Having skipped over the trailer, I was not aware of this, but apparently Fordola is still wearing her slave collar from the short story. I wonder if that'll be a point of contention for any of the Scions, or if it'll go unnoticed. Source is here and here.