Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[Fenral]

I thought that might be the case before they announced the CE/preorder and started playing FF9 on a work trip a few weeks ago, maybe I'll make an effort to finish before June 28 to see if it reveals any epiphanies to me about Dawntrail... I'm trying not to let my speculation go any wilder because it'll be here so soon anyway, we'll all know what's up with this weird cyberpunk city and their silly soul supply in a few months. But it couldn't hurt.

FF9 is kind of an acid trip, and if they take the cues they could from it then the back half of Dawntrail will be a catastrophic cosmological shakeup with far-reaching consequences. Or it will have almost nothing to do with it aside from a few locales and musical cues until we get some kind of big unrelated thing in the post-game story. (Here's a casual reminder that G'raha started out using Zidane's hair model.) There's always some missing piece we won't get until the patch actually drops (like Amon in Endwalker).

[Cleretic]

There's always some missing piece we won't get until the patch actually drops (like Amon in Endwalker).

Still kicking myself for not saying more often that the pre-Endwalker theory of 'Amon is Emet-Selch' doesn't make sense because the personalities and M.O.s don't line up at all, and a far closer match would be Fandaniel.

I didn't say it much because it felt absurd that an alliance raid midboss based on a forgettable FFIII character could possibly be relevant.

[Fenral]

I didn't say it much because it felt absurd that an alliance raid midboss based on a forgettable FFIII character could possibly be relevant.

Not sure if you were around for it, but you'd be amazed at how far people went to debunk "The Crystal Exarch is G'raha Tia" back in the day, so it's probably for the best.

[Cleretic]

Not sure if you were around for it, but you'd be amazed at how far people went to debunk "The Crystal Exarch is G'raha Tia" back in the day, so it's probably for the best.

I was around but not active in the way I am now. Up-to-date and semi-regularly roleplaying, but so distant from the game's community that I had to learn second-hand that we were getting Nier raids. I don't think I had any feelings or theories whatsoever about the Exarch at the time.

I remember that I also heard about the 'Zodiark and Hydaelyn are primals' trailer-reveal second-hand, and my response was essentially 'why am I supposed to care'. Which I just think is funny, because I've kind of wrapped all the way around to hitting that same response from the other direction now; my response to a big reveal isn't 'why should I care' because I don't, my response is 'why should I care' because I want to and think that starting with the intended emotional response, even if I don't have it, is helpful.