Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 1)

[JeanneOrnitier]

Okay, here's my theory with the towers (specifically the big one in Garlemald)

As Urianger pointed out, being tempered to a nation instead of a primal is something we've never seen before. And then, we learned that the towers are summoning primals. My theory is Fandaniel and Zenos are trying to, or already have, use the biggest tower in the capital to summon the concept of Garlemald itself as a primal. A primal embodying the idea of Garlemald and what it stands for, explaining how people could become tempered by a nation. And then the beams coming from the smaller towers are broadcasting its tempering to other locations beyond its immediate vicinity.

I don't know how the Lunar Primals fit in, but that's what I think is going on in the imperial capital.

[Vyrerus]

More ruminations on 5.5, now that I have more time to write, and I'm not up past my bed time.

MSQ

I hope we get an Echo vision of Fordola carrying Arenvald back. Or them contending with Lunar Ifrit, unless it just gashed and dashed. Also talk about character development for Fordola. She was once willing to follow any order to climb the Garlean ladder, willing to fire on her own comrades that climbed said ladder with her, killing them all. For someone who was quick to push on Alphinaud for his idealism(which I loved btw), she did something very heroic and ideal. Instead of getting out of there by herself, she carried Arenvald back.

I feel like Estinien's commentary to Alphinaud is foreshadowing the ground punching scene from the trailer. It brought to mind the final slew of Trigun episodes, where Wolfwood tries to embrace Vash's ideals, and then dies for it. Followed up fairly quickly by Legato forcing Vash to choose between compromising on his ideals and killing him, or watching Milly and Meryl die to his horde of mind controlled minions. Ideals are nice to have, but you can't really uphold them 100% of the time unless you are omnipotent. I look forward to seeing the fire in Alphinaud's eyes in Endwalker. I suspect he will have a truly scathing, blistering condemnation of his homeland's isolationism, along with their hoarding of technology that could have been used to uphold his ideals. Mercy always has a cost. Estinien's perspective aligns very closely with my own.

I see a lot of people remarking surprise, or that they didn't really think Tiamat was tempered. Of course she was, and I rather think that its effects were weaker in her, because dragons aren't sundered. Plus, she is a powerful, elder dragon. Though it also calls to mind our fight against Isgebind in Stone Vigil. That's the only other time I can think of, where an Ascian roused and perverted a dragon's will. Though obviously that's a bit more grey, since Isgebind was harrying us earlier in the dungeon anyway.

It was odd to see Zenos care about losing the dragons. Perhaps their aesthetic truly pleased him, since he took control of a primal version of their forebear.

As for Fandaniel's nonchalance... I do not believe it is feigned. He wants to die, and he wants everything to die. Many died, and it does not prevent his overarching plan, but even if it did... even if we were to kill him, we would still satisfy him in some way. There are no stakes for Fandaniel, which contrasts against us nicely, where the stakes for us are ultimate. He is being setup to be a character who is undeserving of the idea that every life is precious, running directly counter to it even, in his actions and will.

Nier

The majority of my experience with the Nier series is with Drakengard(Drag on, Dragoon) 1, and then the soundtrack to the first Nier. I bought and played about 6 hours of Automata, but it wasn't for me.

I am rather pleased with the soundtrack integration for the raid though. The combination of the prelude into the final boss theme was simply divine. I won't understand any of the bosses without looking further into Nier, though.

My trouble with getting into Nier is that the ideas and concepts being explored with its narrative are concepts that I have already explored in other, earlier games. It's not that it holds no appeal to me, but it's not as profound to me, because I'm already familiar with such things.

More musings on Werlyt, and sort of responding to Cilia's take on the fight.

I found it interesting that the weapon changed into an Ifrit like shape. I'm looking forward to seeing what it does in Extreme. I assume that the shoulder pads breaking off completely with the "muscles" bulging and rippling happens in Extreme, as in the trailer.

Huh, I found it to be as exciting as the other fights. It's true that as with most end patch trials, it's easier mechanically, but I thought it was just as, if not more exciting. I mean, Goo Nael was pretty cool and definitely was expecting things like that in future weapons... but when Emerald Weapon used data on someone living, I knew it was only going to tone down again. Maybe I just had curbed my expectations heh. I thought it was really cool that Diamond Weapon could transform back and forth, and I also like that there was no holodeck tech this time, but it still controlled the battlefield, to an arguably greater extent, since it was fighting us in a situation that could not have been predicted by its designers.

[Rannie]

Okay, here's my theory with the towers (specifically the big one in Garlemald)

As Urianger pointed out, being tempered to a nation instead of a primal is something we've never seen before. And then, we learned that the towers are summoning primals. My theory is Fandaniel and Zenos are trying to, or already have, use the biggest tower in the capital to summon the concept of Garlemald itself as a primal. A primal embodying the idea of Garlemald and what it stands for, explaining how people could become tempered by a nation. And then the beams coming from the smaller towers are broadcasting its tempering to other locations beyond its immediate vicinity.

I don't know how the Lunar Primals fit in, but that's what I think is going on in the imperial capital.

that.... is something i didn't even think of and it doesn't seem completely irrational given the past with the Ascians... You'd think the Scions would have thought of that knowing what they know.

[Vyrerus]

Okay, here's my theory with the towers (specifically the big one in Garlemald)

As Urianger pointed out, being tempered to a nation instead of a primal is something we've never seen before. And then, we learned that the towers are summoning primals. My theory is Fandaniel and Zenos are trying to, or already have, use the biggest tower in the capital to summon the concept of Garlemald itself as a primal. A primal embodying the idea of Garlemald and what it stands for, explaining how people could become tempered by a nation. And then the beams coming from the smaller towers are broadcasting its tempering to other locations beyond its immediate vicinity.

I don't know how the Lunar Primals fit in, but that's what I think is going on in the imperial capital.

Here's my take on that.

There's a lot we don't know about the ancient world. But what we do know is that they created life a lot, through their creation magic. To me, it seems as though the towers are doing that. The Lunar Primals are a more accurate modern day engendered creations than they are primals. I also have this pet theory that in the days of Amaurot, order within the city may have been upheld through a process akin to tempering, but rather than religious zeal, it's patriotic zeal. Magically enforced nationalism.

I would say that in the Ancients' days it was used only for severe dissidents. Can't have a civil war, if you just temper the other side, right?

It's all just speculation, obvs, but I like to think of it.

[KageTokage]

I also had a theory that there was some kind of "Garlemald" primal that was broadcasting its influence to the towers, but I'm not so sure anymore.

I do find it a touch curious that Nerva and the third legion were mentioned as having mysteriously vanished without a trace, though. Perhaps he could actually be what's powering the towers as Fandaniel was specifically supporting his war effort, perhaps with the intent of creating a dominant figure in the civil war that the people of Garlemald would be channeling their patriotic fervor towards instead of it being divided amongst the factions involved.

[Rannie]

I also had a theory that there was some kind of "Garlemald" primal that was broadcasting its influence to the towers, but I'm not so sure anymore.

I do find it a touch curious that Nerva and the third legion were mentioned as having mysteriously vanished without a trace, though. Perhaps he could actually be what's powering the towers as Fandaniel was specifically supporting his war effort, perhaps with the intent of creating a dominant figure in the civil war that the people of Garlemald would be channeling their patriotic fervor towards instead of it being divided amongst the factions involved.

I wonder if we will find out that Nerva is the Heart of the matter

[Vyrerus]

He could also be, being saved for the later half of the Bozja questline, maybe?

[Mansion]

Okay, here's my theory with the towers (specifically the big one in Garlemald)

As Urianger pointed out, being tempered to a nation instead of a primal is something we've never seen before. And then, we learned that the towers are summoning primals. My theory is Fandaniel and Zenos are trying to, or already have, use the biggest tower in the capital to summon the concept of Garlemald itself as a primal. A primal embodying the idea of Garlemald and what it stands for, explaining how people could become tempered by a nation. And then the beams coming from the smaller towers are broadcasting its tempering to other locations beyond its immediate vicinity.

I don't know how the Lunar Primals fit in, but that's what I think is going on in the imperial capital.

I really like that theory!
My two cents on this:

Perhaps summoning a Garlemald omnipotent primal would be the way Fandaniel could bring the end of the world, given how much aether this super-primal would consume to be brought to life, and then by sustaining its appearance.
I don't think there has been a great focus on the Lunar primals (or at least, not now that we have seen we can dispatch of them "easily"), for me they are more a way of causing damage and keeping us busy, while the greater scheme is unfolding all the way back in Garlemald

[Anonymoose]

I'm not sure where this fits into a reply or if anybody's mentioned it but as far as remote-tempering goes

Lore-wise, Bahamut remote-tempered Nael and Midas through the coincidentally(?) named Lunar Transmitter in like 2012, so there's that, lol. I think we're just seeing what happens when an Ascian has all the toys and no interest in balanced, controlled escalation for a Calamity that requires hyperspecific conditions.

[Yasminou]

Sorrow of Werlyt

Sorrow of Werlyt - EDIT: Keep your hands and feet inside the cockpit at all times

The story acknowledges that the current events make it hard to justify the Werlyt stuff. It's a bit harder to take seriously with the end of the world being in play elsewhere. C'est la vie.

Hey, is that M'naago? I'm only asking because I can see she is, but the game doesn't seem to think so. Still, I'll take it. She's an unexpected sight—I'd have figured it would be Cid or Gaius.

… ah, it's a repeat of the "WoL forgets people" gag. And now I'm being accused of having forgotten her. Listen, Naago, I've already completed your crafting stuff. There's this new NPC now...

I might be misunderstanding you but when she appeared, although I don't think she was named, the first option that I had was "It is good to see you, M'naago" (or something like that in French). I assumed that I had this option because I was rank 5 in her custom delivery quests.
Do you have her last achievement unlocked? Maybe it is the prerequisite for this option.