Revelations from 4gamer

[Anonymoose]

I'm afraid though, Moose, that Hildibrand is quite canonical. <charcuterie board of various forms of evidence, ranging from conflating game mechanics and story to a well-organized bulletin board covered in conspiracy string>

Rebuttal

Gamer Escape: Exactly how canon is the Hildibrand storyline? Godbert is on the real, actual Syndicate, but much of the storyline is clearly exaggerated, if not out-right one-directionally canon. Even the NPCs claim some things make no sense.

KF: And those of us working on those quests might think, but this doesn’t make any sense! Oda-san would like to say that it’s up to the reader how much sense they want to make of it and how they want to look at it.

Somehow after all these years I'm still fond of the "one-way bubble" interpretation. ("If it happens outside of a Manderville Bubble, it's still true inside of it, but whatever happens inside of it has to be taken with a boulder of Ishgardian licking salt.")

[Vyrerus]

Rebuttal

Moose gestures towards, "Old Faithful." In this sense, Old Faithful is a common interview dodge used by any creator as a way to avoid disturbing a fan base, but moreso used to evade having to think about something they could not devote man hours to in their work setting.

Retort

There's nothing that happens within the Hildibrand questlines that is truly so remarkably absurd that it could not happen given the rules of the FFXIV world. Point to any portion of Hildibrand, and I will point to another quest outside of Hildibrand and give lie to the idea that we must needs dismiss Hildibrand to some wavering bubble that might sunder the more serious game from its lighthearted side. After all, NPCs also remark in the course of the MSQ that some things beggar belief or that they are in an area that defies comprehension.