Revelations from Patch 6.5: "Growing Light", Part 1

[Lyth]

MSQ:

This was fine as a Werlyt-tier sidestory simply written for the purposes of rolling out a few new Extremes. I'm fine with it if they do a more focused Void story at a later point, but they going to need to make a lot of the 'optional' content mandatory to do it justice. I like the work that they did with optional references, but it places a lot of limits on the writing.

This story relies too much on homage to make it work, which was an issue with the Omega raid series as well. A good homage doesn't need to be a direct re-enactment. It's more interesting when you introduce a concept and take it in a different direction.

Zero's decision to absorb the light on the first was a good example of that. There's no point keeping it as a last minute 'surprise', as people can instantly identify the Cecil reference from the patch trailer itself. But the idea of having a 'part-sineater'/'part-voidsent' is a really interesting idea, that could have been explored somewhat had we simply gone to the First a few patches ago. It feels like a lot of these 'final acts' have been a bit rushed on plot revelations on account of being too stingy with secrets.

I wonder if the original Golbez was Azem's shard on the Thirteenth, as per the description of Igeyorhm's interaction with him. It's slightly different from the EE's explanation of events in that the death of the Watcher triggers the Flood of Darkness, but parallels Ardbert's actions on the First. Interesting that having a Flood without a Calamity produces a Void.

Musically, it was fine, although I have to say that I liked the original better. It just makes for an easier listen when doing the Ex. The best FFXIV renditions of final boss tracks have been Neo-Exdeath and Ultimecia's themes, simply because they don't go overboard with trying to add new flair.

Myths:

I enjoyed the Myths quests overall, and the fights were fairly interesting. Again, what was particularly nice were the character specific references, such as your interaction with your patron. I'm curious to know if Byregot's comment on crafting is tied to unlocks or a specific level.

I'm still not entirely sure how much the Twelve actually remember about their past. The tie-in to their past lives at the end was nice, but it felt rushed. I felt that it would have been nicer to hear their stories from each of them directly, rather than narrated by Deryk. Especially since some of them do make comments which seem to recognize you from your past life.

Also, I'm wondering when Dalamutt makes his appearance as a mount.

[Cassar]

MSQ:

I wonder if the original Golbez was Azem's shard on the Thirteenth, as per the description of Igeyorhm's interaction with him. It's slightly different from the EE's explanation of events in that the death of the Watcher triggers the Flood of Darkness, but parallels Ardbert's actions on the First. Interesting that having a Flood without a Calamity produces a Void.

MSQ spoilers:

How much more confirmation do you need? This is all the confirmation that we're gonna get that the original Golbez was Azem of the 13th, and he died during the war. His soul is inside that crystal, so I suppose we could rejoin with it in the future?
Also makes for an interesting parallel between Ardbert and Golbez, both got tricked by Ascians and almost destroyed their respective worlds. Makes you wonder, do the Ascians always go for the Azem of each shard (maybe expectedly, since they all happened to collect more crystal blessings from Hydaelyn) and trick them into destroying their own world? Is that what happened to all the rejoined reflections?

And Cleretic, you might be right about the dragon tease at the end. It definitely would make sense that Vrtra's siblings would respond and make for a cute ending to the tale. I still think we're going to Meracydia tho
Also, will Azdaja ever recover her original form? Or will she permanently be baby dragon?

[Lyth]

...

The EE provides a slightly different description of events:

'In the Thirteenth, Igeyorhm's power proved too much for the inexperienced Bringer of Light and their one-sided battles eventually resulted in a Flood of Darkness consuming the entire world and rendering it a nigh-empty void.' - Encyclopedia Eorzea Vol. 1, p.213

If the description still holds, then it sounds like Igeyorhm simply found a level 1 Azem on the Thirteenth and killed them before they had the chance to gain strength, and then went on to trick their future allies. It could be a slight retcon, though, and perhaps Golbez is that very shard. Hard to tell without them actually commenting further.

[Cassar]

The EE provides a slightly different description of events:

'In the Thirteenth, Igeyorhm's power proved too much for the inexperienced Bringer of Light and their one-sided battles eventually resulted in a Flood of Darkness consuming the entire world and rendering it a nigh-empty void.' - Encyclopedia Eorzea Vol. 1, p.213

If the description still holds, then it sounds like Igeyorhm simply found a level 1 Azem on the Thirteenth and killed them before they had the chance to gain strength, and then went on to trick their future allies. It could be a slight retcon, though, and perhaps Golbez is that very shard. Hard to tell without them actually commenting further.

That's very interesting, I had no idea the EE ever even mentioned any of this.

I have to imagine this must have been a case of "The encyclopedia was written by in-game scholars and the information wasn't accurate", because according to Durante/Golbez, it was because of him that the void was formed. It would make sense that the scholars wouldn't know this, considering we, the Scions, are probably the first people to ever hear about how the void actually came to be.
But again, the fact that in 6.4 we saw through the eyes of Golbez, and with the captions written in that specific way where there's no text box + the fact that here in 6.5 Durante looked at us and saw Golbez during the memory leaves no room for doubt in my opinion.

I'm not sure that the actual Golbez ever dealt with Igeyorhm or if it was only Durante-as-Golbez later. I may need to rewatch the explanation.

You're right actually, that was my mistake. The Golbez that fucked up was actually Durante, and not the original Golbez/Azem, so nevermind what I said about Azem always messing up.

Now the only thing left that's really bugging me is what I said earlier about how we never went back to Zero's abode in the 13th after the game telling us that "we wouldn't be able to return for a long time" back in 6.2. I was certain that would be the conclusion, and we would get more information about the statue that the game made such a big deal about.