[MAJOR ENDWALKER/SHADOWBRINGER SPOILERS] On the introduction of dynamis.

[BurnedToast]

Can I start off by saying that overall, I think the team did a great job in tying up the story into a satisfying conclusion. I definitely enjoyed my ride throughout the game and commend the team for the work that they put into this expansion and the this whole saga in general. However, that is not to say there aren't any issues with the story.

I will be talking about spoilers in the Endwalker and Shadowbringer expansions as this talks about an A LOT of important aspects introduced in the later half of the Endwalker story. Do not read below if you don't want to be spoiled.

TLDR: I think the introduction and application of dynamis was lacking.

The main issue I want to focus on is the introduction of dynamis into the story. Since the beginning of Realm Reborn (maybe even in 1.0, I wasn't there for that, please correct me if I'm wrong), aether has always been the main source of energy and power for all life in the universe of FFXIV. From the magics and techniques used in our combat jobs to the creation magics employed by the ancient godlike Ascians. To introduce dynamis, a completely different power source so late into the story of this saga that has been told through multiple expansions feels like it was pulled out of a hat to move the story forward. As if they needed to find an excuse why Meteion and her sisters were the ultimate big bad and this was all they could come up with, that aether doesn't work on them.

Now, I would be inclined to believe in this concept of dynamis, had the authors left hints throughout the expansions (not a lot, but maybe 1 or 2 here and there throughout the saga), that alluded to this secondary power source that apparently encapsulate more than half of the universe. The only hint I remember is in the 5.0 story of Shadowbringers, when we're in the Amaurot dungeon watching Ascians create abominations due to the dynamis infused into their creations by Meteion. I cannot think of any other time where this application of dynamis is alluded to by any particular event, person, or thing. Right now, I'm just not convinced that the writers of this story properly implemented this concept of dynamis.

BUT, I'd love to be proven wrong and if anybody here thinks that there has been any such events I would love to discuss about it in this thread.

[Nekaru_Infitima]

Our limit breaks.

It helps if you look up the meaning of dynamis. "the state of that which is not yet fully realized : power, potentiality —contrasted with energeia"

Potentiality, potential energy. The will to go on, to fight. FFXIV brings it out as all emotions, but the strongest emotion that beats Meteion and beats a lot of big bads in fiction is the human will to survive.

Going on definition let's see...

Gurren Lagann anime, 'spiral energy' the power of determination, will power, survival. Beat the universe ending bad guys.

Undertale (not Japanese so not part of the usual cliche's but still derived off it). Determination. The ability to keep going, the will.

Stepping back into FF. FF9, Trance, the ability Kuja could not understand, the ability that Garlond told you/Zidane that the genomes could not possess, that was limited to beings with a soul and why Zidane could do it but no other genomes, that Kuja sought to understand and obtain.Once again manifesting in the will to survive which they take all the way to Necron (a being very much like Meteion.)

Dynamis is just that same will to live, that eludes all villains in so many fictions that FFXIV returned to its roots with. The foreshadowing is your own Limit Break, as seen in the Zenos fight afterward, where you kept going and had the will to survive and pick yourself up each time.

[yajnaji]

Necron

Not only Meteion resembles Necron, she also was pulled out last minute like Necron.

[KageTokage]

The Ascians have been consistently surprised by the strength of man and it likely stems mostly from the fact that the sundered have a greater ability to influence/be influenced by dynamis, of which they were completely ignorant.

[Lyth]

Aether and Dynamis? That sounds a lot like the Flame in the Abyss.

If a theory can't explain something, sometimes that's because the starting assumptions are incorrect. Can you explain away a Warrior's Wrath as being a manifestation of Aether, in the same sense as a Flare spell? You probably could. What Dynamis does is it gives us language to explain things that we couldn't explain before.

Before we didn't really have the terminology to make sense of the power of the Void and the Voidsent. Now we do. It also explains why the Garleans don't have an affinity for aetherial manipulation, but seem to have a talent for communing with the Void.

[MikkoAkure]

Well we knew about the Final Days for 2 years and had no idea what caused them. We also knew that the Ancients had no idea. So any revelations about the cause were always going to be something new that we had no knowledge of. At least this has some explanations that can be retroactively tied into some past things.

The writers could have just made it something completely alien and unrelated to anything else other than the Final Days and that's what I was expecting anyway.

[StriderShinryu]

While the impact isn't really the same, I basically consider it something like Dark Matter. All around and actually having a potentially significant effect on everything, but not something that we were even really aware of until recently and still can't really measure or control. If someone was suddenly able to use and control dark matter right now it would be extremely impactful but 50 years ago it essentially "didn't exist."

[ColdHades]

While the impact isn't really the same, I basically consider it something like Dark Matter. All around and actually having a potentially significant effect on everything, but not something that we were even really aware of until recently and still can't really measure or control. If someone was suddenly able to use and control dark matter right now it would be extremely impactful but 50 years ago it essentially "didn't exist."

The closest parallel is with Dark Energy. Dark energy is responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe and this is exactly what Metion claims she is doing with Dynamis.

[Floortank]

Meteion was very obviously gonna be the last boss when they set her up 20 hours in advance of the ending. She is certainly not Necron. She's even less surprising than Zeromus.

[JahD]

I think the hint they put here at this expantion is Dynamic, thermodynamics, potential Dynamic, Energy maybe as a primary-Old force of Energy even before aethe energy. This could be tie with the Sun, Azem, and the Cristall Tower also the Garleams as well and why not the expansion of the universe, they just put lorewise speaking a real force of the univere. By the way as some before explain this is tie with the Garleams... The ascian world was just another "perfect" world of many as we could se at the dungeon.. Ther is something more