Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 1)

[EirolOcarrol]

Main Scenario:

I guess it was too much to hope we'd see the being of light at Silvertear Lake in this part of this patch. I was really wanting to, though.

I'm glad, after so long, we're finally hearing more about Hydaelyn. I've been attached to Hydaelyn since 1.0. And not hearing from Hydaelyn feels like a gigantic elephant in the room that for some reason, no one was bringing up at all. I really want this to be a redemption arc of sorts of Hydaelyn after essentially being slandered by so many people during Shadowbringers at the revelation that she is a Primal. It really hurt when the news happened, it was a little heartbreaking for me. She's been such a supportive figure since the earliest. A comfort. And I really miss her. Say what you may about the shortcomings of A Ream Reborn. But they established our home, Eorzea, the leaders of the Grand Companies, and Hydaelyn as a supportive Motherland and home. Whether the prone to cheer and laughter, yet greatly troubled and exploited Nanamo, the stern and pragmatic, perhaps even harsh, yet reliable and strong Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, or the serene and pure Kan-E Senna. To the Goddess we are introduced to at the earliest of Final Fantasy XIV's outset, to Minfilia, leader of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn.

Eorzea was not wanting for any kind of maternal comfort. Which is a thing of personal taste, but something I personally really liked, and made me feel comfortable in Eorzea in 1.0 and A Realm Reborn. We already lost one of them in Minfilia. I personally don't want to lose another. It's already felt much lonelier without her on our journey. What felt like a backbone of support has been shaken and shaded. I'd rather her return be a triumphant one, and her character played "straight" and earnestly, and not the trope of betrayal and "your closest ally was your enemy all along". Hydaelyn has been a face of comfort from the beginning, and it's been sad enough to see her gone for so long, only to learn that she's the thing we've been fighting all along, a Primal.

This has personally been the highlight of the Patch MSQ for me so far. As she's been strangely absent for far too long. And it's nice and long overdue for characters to be addressing what has been for long a very very important figure. "The silence is deafening", as they say.

I'm still on edge and worried, as there's been a lot of bad news, so far. And she hasn't returned to voice the theme of Endwalker. Not yet, at least.


While Arenvald hasn't been one of my favourite characters, I'm sad to see him injured. Though giving him time in the infirmary looks positive, at least. I'm hopeful that he's okay. I can't really remove myself from myself to talk about these people like they're not real, or what's good or interesting for the sake of storytelling. When anyone good dies, it hurts. A lot of people are good at analyzing storytelling, or say "if this person dies, it would be interesting", but I'm not that kind of person and don't look forward to anyone dying. I've no taste and no idea what makes for good storytelling. So while he isn't a favourite of mine, or anything, I am always sad when Scions and other good people die.

There's a lot of places that are in expansions without being confirmed beforehand. The fact that Krile is going back to Old Sharlayan, or the Sharlayan homeland, gives the feeling that visiting Sharlayan may yet play a part in Endwalker. Which would be nice, but I don't know how much attention they can give to both Sharlayan and Thavnair. I'm honestly happy with Thavnair getting plenty of attention. And am super sad to see Krile go. I like having Lalafells by my side, and am sad I'll be without her for presumably a while. With very good and exciting reason, of course! More Sharlayan! I just hope she isn't absent for most of Endwalker.

Krile is adorable and has a great personality. And I want more Lalafells, not less, in my MSQ interactions. We already lost Papalymo.

And on that note, onto my true favourite part of the Patch. Namamo, my favourite character in all of Final Fantasy XIV, played a huge role in this page! More than I dared to hope! I saw the various leaders in the teaser, but never did I expect I would see so much of her Grace again! It was wonderful! It was serious times, but it made me so happy to see so much of Nanamo! Honestly, I want to watch the cutscenes many more times again, just because it has so much of her!

Did I mention she's my favourite character?

Thanks Square! This feels like personal fanservice to me and all other Nanamo fans out there.❤️
She was really cool and a great leader, too! I guess I should have expected her to get some time, since we're dealing with saving/untempering Beast Tribes. Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn was last time. Does this mean that Kan-E-Senna will get her turn, next? I can only assume so. This feels like a trend of wrapping up each nation state with the conflict with their Beast Tribes. I would be extremely surprised if we're not going to Gridania next to speak much with Kan-E Senna and deal with Ixal as a beast tribe. Though from the preview, it seems we're also going to Ala Mhigo, as Lyse is already dealing with tempered. Poor Gridania may get skipped over, and we may just get Lyse instead. Lord Hien will presumably show up as well eventually. He is in the banner, after all.

And may I just say that the inside of those towers are super creepy and organic looking!? The look gross! Demonic, even! It was really grotesque, and almost reminded me of Exdeath's Lair in some ways! Also known as Castle Exdeath, you know, once the facade spell is over, and you find out it's made out of the thousands of people he's killed! Fandaniel does seem a bit like Exdeath. Bizarre and bent on destruction for destruction's sake.

I would like some answers. Where Hydaelyn is and why we haven't heard from her. Is Fandaniel really that one dimensional? What are those towers? And we didn't really get any answers. We didn't even get to see Zenos' weapon! In terms of answers, it does feel like both this and the last chapter have been more just a tease of Endwalker, and given us questions. I only hope that we get a least a little more hints and clues before Shadowbringers post-game is all over. May can't get here soon enough.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Main Scenario:

I'm glad, after so long, we're finally hearing more about Hydaelyn. I've been attached to Hydaelyn since 1.0. And not hearing from Hydaelyn feels like a gigantic elephant in the room that for some reason, no one was bringing up at all. I really want this to be a redemption arc of sorts of Hydaelyn after essentially being slandered by so many people during Shadowbringers at the revelation that she is a Primal. It really hurt when the news happened, it was a little heartbreaking for me. She's been such a supportive figure since the earliest. A comfort. And I really miss her. Say what you may about the shortcomings of A Ream Reborn. But they established our home, Eorzea, the leaders of the Grand Companies, and Hydaelyn as a supportive Motherland and home. Whether the prone to cheer and laughter, yet greatly troubled and exploited Nanamo, the stern and pragmatic, perhaps even harsh, yet reliable and strong Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, or the serene and pure Kan-E Senna. To the Goddess we are introduced to at the earliest of Final Fantasy XIV's outset, to Minfilia, leader of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn.

Eorzea was not wanting for any kind of maternal comfort. Which is a thing of personal taste, but something I personally really liked, and made me feel comfortable in Eorzea in 1.0 and A Realm Reborn. We already lost one of them in Minfilia. I personally don't want to lose another. It's already felt much lonelier without her on our journey. What felt like a backbone of support has been shaken and shaded. I'd rather her return be a triumphant one, and her character played "straight" and earnestly, and not the trope of betrayal and "your closest ally was your enemy all along". Hydaelyn has been a face of comfort from the beginning, and it's been sad enough to see her gone for so long, only to learn that she's the thing we've been fighting all along, a Primal.

This has personally been the highlight of the Patch MSQ for me so far. As she's been strangely absent for far too long. And it's nice and long overdue for characters to be addressing what has been for long a very very important figure. "The silence is deafening", as they say.

I'm still on edge and worried, as there's been a lot of bad news, so far. And she hasn't returned to voice the theme of Endwalker. Not yet, at least.

Ah yeah i have to agree.

I'm really happy they're finally touching on Hydaelyn and questioning her finally, took the scions long enough to question her. After what we learned in ShB she is very shady and it's going to be interesting what we find out. Not going to be surprised if it turns out shes been a malevolent force this entire time and has just been using us but we'll see. Nice to see the edge being taken off of "Zodiark is evil" and that attention is finally being put towards Hydaelyn who's been eerily quiet.

[RyuDragnier]

Ah yeah i have to agree.

I'm really happy they're finally touching on Hydaelyn and questioning her finally, took the scions long enough to question her. After what we learned in ShB she is very shady and it's going to be interesting what we find out. Not going to be surprised if it turns out shes been a malevolent force this entire time and has just been using us but we'll see. Nice to see the edge being taken off of "Zodiark is evil" and that attention is finally being put towards Hydaelyn who's been eerily quiet.

I'm of a different mindset. Spoilers to a lot of the game's optional content below.

Hydaelyn is not evil. I'm of the theory that the crystal itself is a giant auracite crystal. Why? Because the Crystal Tower itself is made entirely of auracite, and has the same glow as her own crystal. This would explain why she hasn't been gaining power and has just been losing it. Just like with any auracite, there's a finite amount of power in it, and she has been expending it over the many Calamities, and it slowly being eaten over them as well via primal summonings. She hasn't spoken to us because of the constant primal summonings for the attempts at the 8th Calamity, she's been trying to conserve power as much as possible. Just think about it, Sephirot (Elder), Sophia (Elder), Zurvan (Elder), Bahamut (Elder), Phoenix (Elder), Alexander (Elder), Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, Ramuh, King Mog, Leviathan, Odin, Ravana, Bismarck, Knights of the Round, Susanoo, Lakshmi, Shinryu, Eureka (Elder), and finally Tsukuyomi. This run to the 8th Calamity alone has had so many primal summonings that she's being completely drained of her own power, and that's being added onto the Flood of Light and Eden. She's working on fumes at this point.

Which means us meeting with her probably in Patch 5.55 is the sign that this is indeed the end of the line, she probably is out of options at this point and can only push us forward one last time to where we need to go.

[EirolOcarrol]

Ah yeah i have to agree.

I'm really happy they're finally touching on Hydaelyn and questioning her finally, took the scions long enough to question her. After what we learned in ShB she is very shady and it's going to be interesting what we find out. Not going to be surprised if it turns out shes been a malevolent force this entire time and has just been using us but we'll see. Nice to see the edge being taken off of "Zodiark is evil" and that attention is finally being put towards Hydaelyn who's been eerily quiet.

I for one, haven't ever considered her very shady. And I'll be extremely disappointed if she turns out to be a malevolent force. More than a little heartbroken.

I don't need to spoiler this, do I? I'm not referencing a particular character outside of spoiler tags by name.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I for one, haven't ever considered her very shady. And I'll be extremely disappointed if she turns out to be a malevolent force. More than a little heartbroken.

I don't need to spoiler this, do I? I'm not referencing a particular character outside of spoiler tags by name.

hmmm, id have to partially disagree.

What we learned in 5.2 about her being on auto-pilot is very fishy, but beyond that theres been telling signs. From the heavensward art that portrayed Minfilia as chained to Hydaelyn to Ardbert questioning if he was tempered/if she was able to temper but all of a sudden just dropping the sbject. Now i dont think its 100% Hydaelyn, she is but a primal. A lot of the fault lies in Venat(her heart). However, i dont think something that was able to cause such a destructive act like the Sundering is very good.

[EirolOcarrol]

hmmm, id have to partially disagree.

What we learned in 5.2 about her being on auto-pilot is very fishy, but beyond that theres been telling signs. From the heavensward art that portrayed Minfilia as chained to Hydaelyn to Ardbert questioning if he was tempered/if she was able to temper but all of a sudden just dropping the sbject. Now i dont think its 100% Hydaelyn, she is but a primal. A lot of the fault lies in Venat(her heart). However, i dont think something that was able to cause such a destructive act like the Sundering is very good.

I not sure how you thought we were in agreement. When I was talking about how I was saddened that people were turning against and doubting

Hydaelyn

, I was talking about people such as yourself.

I personally in the camp of people think that Hydaelyn and Venat are good and heroic. And that we don't know the full story. Or, at the very least, am strongly holding on to hope.