Revelations from Patch 6.4: The Dark Throne

[SilversLyu]

Zero is giving me huge deathflag vibes at the end of the new patch, last time I had them was at the end of Shadowbringers where I thought.. surely someone has to die. I wonder what way they go with the Zero/Zeromus thing...

[Fenral]

I feel like you're mistakenly fabricating your own evidence for what you want the conclusion to be. I'm correcting it not because you're wrong to be disappointed the story isn't going the way you thought it will/hoped you would, but because this sort of mistake has a habit of rooting itself in and compounding if not corrected; you don't wanna spend months building up this theory and assumptions only to find out that your base evidence was wrong.

You're assuming a level of emotional investment that simply isn't there, and frankly, isn't going to lead me to have some kind of screaming tantrum when it turns out to be nothing, because it's really not that big a deal. My batting average isn't that great and I'm used to that by now. It's just a very strange use of a red herring, because it feels like the sort of thing that would definitely go acknowledged in-universe.

I'm not sure who you're trying to reach with all that, but it isn't me. :/

[Cleretic]

You're assuming a level of emotional investment that simply isn't there, and frankly, isn't going to lead me to have some kind of screaming tantrum when it turns out to be nothing, because it's really not that big a deal. My batting average isn't that great and I'm used to that by now. It's just a very strange use of a red herring, because it feels like the sort of thing that would definitely go acknowledged in-universe.

I'm not sure who you're trying to reach with all that, but it isn't me. :/

Oh, I'm not assuming you have much emotional investment in this. In fact I feel like this is happening because you're not invested, so you're glossing over details and filling in bits with what you just assume is happening based on where you think the game is going. Which is fine, god knows there's parts of the story I where I zone out and start skimming details, but the problem starts coming when you start treating that half-remembered-half-imagined version as what actually happened.

I'm basically just trying to get out in front of you, several months down the line, going 'wait, but didn't they say Zero's name came from X'. If anything I'm the one who's emotionally overinvested, because I'm really big on us all engaging with the story as it actually exists and was presented, rather than some weird misinterpreted version that sits unquestioned in someone's brain that they're just assuming we all played too.

[Crushnight]

I wonder if Zeromus is canonically considered to be one of the Lucavi within the Ivalice storyline. In FFXII this seemed to be the case, being affiliated with the Cancer Zodiac, but I think that Zodiac stone was simply associated with Construct 7 in Tactics. If these are different, I wonder how they will be able to work around having two Zeromus variants, given the recent references to Ultima.

Tbf seeing as how Ultima seems to have been around since before the sundering thanks to Athena and the heart of sabik, it’s very likely Ultima was also sundered across every shard as well, this could be why the 13th had all those auracite for the memoria war because Igorymn found Ultima on the 13th and proceed to give stones to everyone.

The Source don’t have an Ultima piece since we killed it and the 1st version was very likely swallowed up by the flood but that is speculation just that auracite is very capriciously absent.

[Kuroka]

It could be that it literally was more of an animal before and after the sundering it became the primal like being we know and fought....

[Fenral]

It could be that it literally was more of an animal before and after the sundering it became the primal like being we know and fought....

I believe High Seraph Ultima didn't actually become the High Seraph until she became an object of worship.

From the Triple Triad card:

So named for her ability to wield the ultimate form of destructive magick, the High Seraph was once nothing more than an embodiment of pure ruination. Yet over time, the terror in which people held her shifted to reverence, and by a process not unlike the prayer-fueled creation of a primal, this worship quickened within Ultima a sense of self-awareness.

It's unhelpfully vague as to whether her original form was more of a space bug operating purely on instinct or even just a rock of some kind. I've filed her away under "holes Matsuno dug for the writing team."

[Carin-Eri]

Zero is giving me huge deathflag vibes at the end of the new patch, last time I had them was at the end of Shadowbringers where I thought.. surely someone has to die. I wonder what way they go with the Zero/Zeromus thing...

Not so sure myself - I mean, if they were going with the Zero/Zeromus thing they missed the perfect opportunity really - namely when Zero attacked Zeromus at point-blank range.

If anything I'm starting to wonder how Azdaja will fare considering everything she's been subjected to.

[SilversLyu]

Not so sure myself - I mean, if they were going with the Zero/Zeromus thing they missed the perfect opportunity really - namely when Zero attacked Zeromus at point-blank range.

If anything I'm starting to wonder how Azdaja will fare considering everything she's been subjected to.

Cant say much about Zero, other than this patch gives me weird feelings about her future wellbeing.

On the point of Azdaja.. given the history of dragons, I'd say she is another case of a doomed being with more pain and suffering. Altho they leave the outcome pretty open, especially with the Memoria which fell inside Zeromus pit. But I am not overly optimistic, I think Tiamat will be the exception of "freeing" a dragon, more or less atleast. This also potentially creats an internal crisis for Vtra being so eager and motivated to rescue her all the time, and it was all for naught. That is the vibe Azdaja and the direction of the void story so far gives me.

On another matter.. Zeromus being "summoned/brought back" etc to help the 13th, reminds me of Amon bringing back Xande to help Allag. It's probably just a mere coincidence of people manifesting their wishes and hopes, like on many occasions in the game already. Both are ancient heroes, Zeromus is vage in that he could just be a legend. But it's interesting how spot on both cases are, with people being obsessed with bringing back the "good old ways" and failing miserably, will Golbez succed this time tho? also an integral theme of the whole Ascian Saga we just finished with Endwalker. Just something I observed, do with that what you will.

[Alleo]

I am playing too much Tears of the Kingdom right now so I have not done the MSQ. But I have read about the overall story points and its sad, that this is another world ending threat. I really hoped that our character would get a nice interesting adventure after stopping the destruction of the universe but it seems that we wont get smaller stories right now. And I really hope that we can save Azdaja. The dragons really have it bad. I also hope that we wont solve the void problem at the end of 6.5, since there is a whole team waiting on the First to do that. Would feel bad to take that away from them.

The raid (which I did play) had a nice ending but I wished for more story scenes between the fights. I guess we at least learned the fate of Eric and it did make me a bit emotional. Hopefully the Ancients and their stories will rest after this and the last 24 man raid. I am ready to move on from them and explore the world that is existing right now.

[Alleluia]

To be fair, this is the patch story. It might be setting up for 8.0 and the political story that requires a neutral party is gonna be the focus of 7. Or we don’t stop zeromus at all and 7.0 is dealing with the consequences of that. All depends how 6.5 goes.