Were all our efforts wasted? *spoilers*

[Fatestorm]

Hello friends:

Let me make clear up front--this is a lore post, and this is not meant to be a complaining thread.

All we can do is speculate on the events we saw in the trailer--and until ARR that's all it will be--speculation.

However, I'd like your thoughts on one aspect of the speculation. What would have been different had we done nothing?

I know it's hard to argue about counterfactuals, but consider--what would have changed had we never assaulted the transmission tower in Castrum Novum? Had we never challenged Nael van Darnus on Rivenroad?

It seems, either way, that Dalamud would have fallen, Bahamut would have been released, and the realm savaged.

If anything happened, it was a result of the Twelve which 'fought back' somehow against Bahamut in the cutscene. We see they failed in their attempt to re-imprison him--perhaps they managed to drain him of power, or something, which we will not know until ARR. Yet in any event, surely as Dalamud grew closer the people of Eorzea would have prayed to the Twelve to save them, with or without our help.

Which leads again to the thrust of my question: Was there any point, at all, in any of our struggle against Garlemald and Van Darnus in the entire Grand Company storyline? Or was it all, from beginning to end, a doomed and pointless effort?

[Angelas]

I did like this progression of the storyline as it shows a no-win scenario. We did everything we could and we still lost, maybe it was in vain HOWEVER it adds a sense of realism to it. We fought and we lost, doesnt mean it was all for nothing.

[Atrejyu]

lol what a senseless question...

we tried ... and failed.... transition to ARR and such...

[Kikosho]

From a lore standpoint, it was bound to happen since Eorzea goes through Umbral/Astral eras. But I wouldn't say there was no point to it. Grand Companies were revived and the Eorzeans came together thus making the coming Astral era start on a right foot.

[rina_inverse]

remember guys, this is not the end
consider this 1.0 as World of Balance and ARR as World of Ruin in FFVI

[Ralliare]

Nael van Darnus would be granted even more power for his service (if he doesn't get raised by Bahamut).
He probably as well would have been able to call it much faster without our assault, and would have been possible able to give it a faster calling and mroe power if we never killed him.

The reason we were able to be sent to the future was probably because of the power of the twelve. With their summoning failed there would be loads of energy about.

Bahamut is a being made of Ather, as are apparently the avatars of the twelve we tried to summon. So we probably did drain his power heavily. Though not 100% simply because Bahamut has shown an ability to absorb the stuff from the primals.

[Vilhem]

It might have been a futile battle...but people by nature will try if there's even a small hope of winning. The struggles and the odds stacked against the people made it real, more dire. And it shows that not all stories, especially in video games, does the hero win.

There's a bit of the story that has me wondering though: in the Living on a Prayer quest, Yda and Papalymo mention only using a small portion of the Twelve's powers and saying that would be enough in staying Dalamud. Yet obviously it wasn't enough... So I don't think it was that the gods weren't powerful enough..but that they simply underestimated Bahamut... by a lot

[faris]

well, if it wasn't for us, Ifrit, the moogles or Garuda would have had Eorzea.

[Delsus]

From a lore standpoint, it was bound to happen since Eorzea goes through Umbral/Astral eras. But I wouldn't say there was no point to it. Grand Companies were revived and the Eorzeans came together thus making the coming Astral era start on a right foot.

It wasn't supposed to happen at all, the 6th astral era (before Dalamud's fall) was supposed to be the end of the cycle, however the Garleans brought the 7th umbral era, the 6th astral era was supposed to be a time of eternal peace.

[Alex-Bahamut]

To be honest, I think that is the point. We're not "supposed" to survive the 7th Umbral Era and in the kinda prophecy we're told of the 7th Umbral, is that it's the fact we did something that saved us total destruction. Well that's what I got from all the quests.