The New Sage Icon, Thoughts?

[Kozh]

While I do think a story is more impactful it there is some real cost involved, and with such grand stories as in fantasy RPGs that often means a main character being killed off... I think G'raha was telegraphed for that role way too much, that it wouldn't have had any real impact. We all expected G'raha to die, so for him to survive was a more impactful conclusion. The result of which means we now have a new Scion, instead of the same old gang.

More impactful, yes, but I don't know if it's a positive thing or not. The thing that piss me off is that him surviving is clearly due to being the fan's favorite. Two things that I have problem with:

1) the Exarch merging his memories AND soul to young g'raha is morally questionable, and were it attempted by other npc people probably will riot.

2) why merging with the Exarch suddenly makes current g'raha to be super OP? Before sleeping, he was more of a Scholar than fighter and his weapon is a bow. Now he suddenly a caster? Since when did he got photographic memory that even able to remember the cure for freaking tempering in just seconds? As the Exarch he's able to fight only because he link himself to the crystal tower and also use Allagan tech.

Merging memories is the equivalent of the Echo, which never gave indication that it strengthen the echo user. Merging soul is the equivalent of rejoining, which again, doesn't mean you're stronger after that.

And speaking of Crystal Tower... Why did we wake g'raha now? The Eorzean still haven't reach a technological age where they can use the CT, it was the future time line who did. And now g'raha isn't asleep anymore, what if he died or his Allagan blood lost its effect? The CT will be unguarded and unusable to us.

[Seraphor]

More impactful, yes, but I don't know if it's a positive thing or not. The thing that piss me off is that him surviving is clearly due to being the fan's favorite. Two things that I have problem with:

1) the Exarch merging his memories AND soul to young g'raha is morally questionable, and were it attempted by other npc people probably will riot.

2) why merging with the Exarch suddenly makes current g'raha to be super OP? Before sleeping, he was more of a Scholar than fighter and his weapon is a bow. Now he suddenly a caster? Since when did he got photographic memory that even able to remember the cure for freaking tempering in just seconds? As the Exarch he's able to fight only because he link himself to the crystal tower and also use Allagan tech.

Merging memories is the equivalent of the Echo, which never gave indication that it strengthen the echo user. Merging soul is the equivalent of rejoining, which again, doesn't mean you're stronger after that.

And speaking of Crystal Tower... Why did we wake g'raha now? The Eorzean still haven't reach a technological age where they can use the CT, it was the future time line who did. And now g'raha isn't asleep anymore, what if he died or his Allagan blood lost its effect? The CT will be unguarded and unusable to us.

Who says he's super OP? He has a staff made out of a piece of the CT, that's his link to the same magic he used when he was the Crystal Exarch. In fact he's probably weaker now than he was for Shadowbringers.

But your final point is actually really good. G'raha sealed himself in the tower for a reason, and that reason still exists in this timeline.

[AnotherPerson]

More impactful, yes, but I don't know if it's a positive thing or not. The thing that piss me off is that him surviving is clearly due to being the fan's favorite. Two things that I have problem with:

1) the Exarch merging his memories AND soul to young g'raha is morally questionable, and were it attempted by other npc people probably will riot.

2) why merging with the Exarch suddenly makes current g'raha to be super OP? Before sleeping, he was more of a Scholar than fighter and his weapon is a bow. Now he suddenly a caster? Since when did he got photographic memory that even able to remember the cure for freaking tempering in just seconds? As the Exarch he's able to fight only because he link himself to the crystal tower and also use Allagan tech.

Merging memories is the equivalent of the Echo, which never gave indication that it strengthen the echo user. Merging soul is the equivalent of rejoining, which again, doesn't mean you're stronger after that.

And speaking of Crystal Tower... Why did we wake g'raha now? The Eorzean still haven't reach a technological age where they can use the CT, it was the future time line who did. And now g'raha isn't asleep anymore, what if he died or his Allagan blood lost its effect? The CT will be unguarded and unusable to us.

As Emet Selch mentioned in the storyline, when Hyadelyn strikes a target, she splits them apart. "Two individuals, identical in appearance, yet reduced in all aspects, strength, intelligence, the soul itself - all is halved."

The rejoining is meant to reverse this process, thus making people "whole".

As you can tell, when Hydaelyn split the world into 14 parts, we were 1/14 strong. The rejoining 7 times meant the WoL is 8/14 whole since ARR. By the end of Shadowbringers, we become 9/14 with Ardbert's soul and thus can contain the light. In fact, Emet thought he have seen a glimpse of us as when we were an ancient when we were 9/14.

Thancred also still not being able to use aether in The First indicates the soul (and not the body) is directly related to the control of aether/ abundance of aether as only their souls have been transferred over, but only Thancred still has to rely on others to imbue his cartridges.

As for G'raha, he was already 9/14 when Shadowbringers began - due to being from the distant future when the First was rejoined to the Source. By the end of ShB 5.3, he merged with his soul in the source. It's been said that if the souls rejects each other, then Exarch would've died, but they merged without an issue. This implies young G'raha accepted the Exarch's soul and merged with them. In fact, G'raha mentions in his dialogue it's like he's recalling the events and life he lived as an Exarch as memories from the past, so it's not like Exarch overwrote G'raha's personality, rather G'raha was 'awake' while he slept, as if everything that happened was a dream, and he's just recalling the events that happened.

If we count his fragments joining together, he'd be actually 17/14, stronger than when he was an ancient - the only difference being that his fragments are from the same source as opposed to 14 different fragments, so he's not 'whole'.
As for why he became A white mage, paladin, and Black mage when he was an archer back in the First? Well, he DOES have 100 years of experience in learning the other three jobs while he was an Exarch.
Since he has a staff that uses part of the Crystal Tower as the focus, he can pretty much use the tower's power to fuel his spells and remain in the same level of power as before - just without the limits of his previous body locking him down to be near the tower to prolong his life.

And as for the lost CT knowledge, the Crystal Tower was already reawakened in the future to prevent a tragedy of the past - implying that the Tower already did its job as a Beacon of Hope, and now he no longer needs to continue staying watch inside the Tower since it has done its purpose in The First. He can now live his life the way he wants to. All the secrets of the Allagan Technology is pretty much available in the First at this point anyway - e.g. Mowen taking records from the CT to help fill the library up.

In the end though, that could still be a point in the story for Dark Knight storyline in the next expansion. We do a lot of self-reflection in the DRK storyline after all.