Thread: 3.1 MSQ Reaction [SPOILERS]

As with 2.1, we got a short and sweet addition to the MSQ that probably does more to set up the future than explain the present. We only took a few scant steps from where we left off in 3.0, and nothing seems to have changed course. Tis what it is - they just wrapped up the massive 3.0 story, after all. Ishgard looks like it's in for a hell of a ride to 4.0, though. I can only imagine the clusterf[KUPO!]k awaiting Ala Migho once we roll up. Or fly up. Or however it is we get to the door before we kick it in.

Topic by topic first impressions - read what you will - aaand go!

Krile

I really like Krile's personality; there's so much focus on the perfectly practiced high-society decorum and quick wit that I wonder what's under it, you know? However fun it is to watch her outmaneuver people in conversation and sort everyone out into their proper places, I think (like with Iceheart) watching her fumble those tools when faced with joy or rage or anguish might make for powerful storytelling, perhaps on the topic of Val or Minfilia. (Watch, I've just damned her to become another redshirt.)

Confusion about Hydaelyn's Gifts (Please Send Help, I am Dying)

Back in 2.5, Midgardsormr's actions made us draw a distinction between the Echo and the blessing of Light, but don't the conversations with Krile muddy our theories a bit? Remember how Krile says she was saved thanks to the blessing of Light and Alphinaud immediately equates it with the Echo? ... What?

I'm still trying to suss it all out, what it is then that makes us different (and something must, Midgardsormr didn't care that we had the Echo, he was furious about us being "Her champion"). The blessing is still seemingly different than the Echo, but (at this moment) I think what's going on is that [Echo & Blessing] are potentially linked even when [Champion] is not included - that I had previously lumped aspects of [Blessing] in with [Champion] and failed to make the third distinction.

Krile says that Hydaelyn bestows a Crystal of Light upon many who are gifted with the Echo, which fits with Ysayle. Yet the Ascians make a big deal out of the fact that we have a bunch of them - that they are drawn to us - that we can interfere with the aetherial realm to manifest them. Perhaps that is the third tier. There are people who are gifted with the Echo, chosen warriors best suited to bear Crystals of Light (and through them, the blessing), and then there is the Warrior of Light, with a few other perks (and much more power).

Anybody else got any ideas? Especially simpler ones? I tend to extravagantly overthink the unknown.

Thancred

At first glance, I thought the Thancred thing was ridiculous - that he was, like, the direct-to-video unofficial sequel of himself. Upon reflection, however, that assessment was colored by the scene with the Warriors of Darkness (more on that in a moment). We learned in 2.00 that the smooth, confident bard we thought we knew actually puts himself under too much pressure, cares too much what people think, and doesn't like receiving assistance. He's not going to tell anyone that he's helpless to find his friends because he - an Archon of Sharlayan - can't work a simple teleport anymore. You throw that guy naked into the forelands with no MP and that's exactly how things are gonna end up.

The Warriors of Darkness

That was bizarre. First things first - we saw normal Derplander in the Echo, throwing some hefty weight behind the theory that Derplander (Player Symbol and Individual) has split into Darklander (Individual) and DRGlander (Player Symbol). He treats the Warrior of Light like they're last year's model, like they've got a lot of catching up to do on "The Truth." He is the player that joined Elidibus, trusting that the white-robed Ascian, Emissary of Zodiark, was being honest about the whole "putting the world back on the right path" thing.

Speaking for Team Hydaelyn, Team "let's not turn our back on the mothercrystal and follow the party line of Lahabrea's best frenemy forever", I'll admit that this puts me back on the "Hey, are we actually doing the right thing?" ledge. Especially after seeing Elidibus and Darklander trying to get Urianger to embrace some long-lost inevitability hidden in Gubal's forbidden section named after the leader of the godsdamned Occuria. In for a ponze in for a tonze, though. I'm with the Crystal. Elidibus' smirk was too untrustworthy - I think he's telling the truth, but warping it. I think he's the most dangerous person in this game. I think Darklander took the bait as hard as Iceheart did. And I think... that I will quietly admit the very real possibility that I could be very wrong. But I digress - back to the "bizarre" part.

Am I the only one who thought like the WOD's introduction was like a shonen action sequence? Between the condescending dialogue and cocky body language and hilarious facial expressions (you got me, Dev. Team, they could get sillier), I couldn't not see him as practically channeling the hip teenage badditude of Sonic the Hedgehog or the Power Rangers. I hope that doesn't sound like a harsh critique, I just thought it was weird. (Maybe Thancred's not the only one getting old.) Full disclosure, though, I originally watched the scene with muted sound. The solid choice for a voice actor definitely toned it down a bit on the replay. (At the very least, I stopped imagining that Darklander punctuated his sentences with DAAAWWWwwwWWWG instead of a period.)

Hints of Yda, Papalymo, and the obvious fate awaiting the Garleans and the Warring Triad
No comment. Please look forward to Patch 3.2!

I'm chalking up the Blessing comment to be a something of a mistranslation. Krile's words were basically in contrast to everything we know.

My pet theory with how much they're building Elidibus up is that he's going to fail before becoming the game's main villain. WoL will defeat WoD and significantly hinder Elidibus' plans either at the end of this questline or the end of the next expansion. He's not going to die to your character, though.

His failure is going to tick just about all the rest of the Ascians off, because he's always going on about everyone else failing him (and Him, too). There's a reason why Altima was one of the voices we've heard so far. They've been pushing these XII references onto us, I can't help but see Altima as a traitor of some sort in the future.

But it doesn't, because we saw that our Echo didn't weaken in 2.X while Hydaelyn was waning. The Blessing did, directly. In contrast to Krile's words.

I'd go as far as to say they unintentionally didn't differentiate between 'blessing,' as in "a gift," and "Her Blessing," which makes us supersoldiers.

Is it just me or was there something extremely off putting about the Fortemps brothers in that last cutscene in the manor? And has anyone noticed that Artoriel is slowly putting on more Haurchefant-esque mannerisms throughout the different cutscenes in this patch? Could just be me, but he's directly quoting him, using his usual body language, and his cheery behavior when he adresses Emmanellain is odd.. at the very least Artoriel seems pretty out of character at certain parts.. Emmanellain's reaction to Artoriel was downright weird. And if you talk to Emmanellain at the jeweled crozier (he's at a new location at the top of the stairs looking out) he's being very moody, even Honoroit is freaking out.
I'm just wondering, cause there's obviously something fishy going on.. I have a feeling Artoriel becoming the count isn't a good thing.. Has anyone else noticed this?

Originally Posted by Emmanellain

Is it just me or was there something extremely off putting about the Fortemps brothers in that last cutscene in the manor? And has anyone noticed that Artoriel is slowly putting on more Haurchefant-esque mannerisms throughout the different cutscenes in this patch? Could just be me, but he's directly quoting him, using his usual body language, and his cheery behavior when he adresses Emmanellain is odd.. at the very least Artoriel seems pretty out of character at certain parts.. Emmanellain's reaction to Artoriel was downright weird. And if you talk to Emmanellain at the jeweled crozier (he's at a new location at the top of the stairs looking out) he's being very moody, even Honoroit is freaking out.
I'm just wondering, cause there's obviously something fishy going on.. I have a feeling Artoriel becoming the count isn't a good thing.. Has anyone else noticed this?

I just checked out Emmellain's dialogue. There's some context that you might or might not be aware of: If you talked to Emmanellain after completing the 3.0 storyline, Honoroit mentions that Emmanellain had thrown himself back into martial training with unusual zeal, and speculated he intended to follow in Haurchefant's footsteps. If you talked to him after the update, Honoroit informs you that Emmanellain had, as usual, lost interest in his lessons at the first sign of difficulty. Which was disappointing to me, because I liked the idea of Emmanellain getting character development that way.

So, I can imagine seeing Artoriel making sufficient progress in leaving up to the legacy their half-brother left behind had an impact on Emmanellain. Maybe it will give him that badly needed kick in the pants that will actually stick.

Atoriel seemed less out of character to me, and more like he's undergone some character development. As he admits at the end of the Coerthas Western Highlands quest line, he harbored some resentment towards Haurchefant, and by extension was more then a little skeptical of the WoL at first. To quote:

ARTOIREL
...I would speak plain. From the first, I questioned your motives and your competence─unjustly, I now realize.
Rumors have a way of growing more fantastic as they spread, and quite frankly, those surrounding you beggar belief. But Haurchefant swore that all the stories were true. He championed your cause and begged Father to grant you patronage...
And he duly listened, because for all his wisdom, he has never been able to say no to my dear half-brother─the legacy of my father's sole indiscretion.
Mother hated him, of course. Even on her deathbed, she refused to acknowledge him. And...to be honest, she was not alone in her feelings.
But that is not the worst of it.
...At Camp Riversmeet, when we came upon the wounded knight, I knew immediately that one of us would have to pursue the heretics alone. An onerous task, fraught with danger...
And there you were─the savior of Eorzea and honored guest of House Fortemps. My new comrade-in-arms. Haurchefant's dear friend.
I told myself it was to be a test, but part of me...part of me hoped that you would fail.
Yet you accepted the task without a word of protest, nor any sign of fear. And you duly tracked the enemy down, faced him alone, and lived to tell the tale.
Plainly, Haurchefant had the right of it all along. That I doubted your strength bespeaks mine own weakness. But I will not doubt you again, on that you have my word.

Unlike Emmanellain, Artoriel became aware of his flaws, and has started working on them. He's been left with quite a lot to live up to, between Haurchefant and Count Fortemps, which is why he humbled himself enough to ask the WoL for support. And you also have to think, both Haurchefant and Emmanellain have shown traits of cheerful enthusiasm, albeit in different ways (The main difference is that Emmanellain's a coward, while Haurchefant was unflinchingly courageous). Its really not that much of a stretch to believe that its a family trait, and that Atoriel has simply kept it better hidden up until this point. And of course, its only natural that he start following Haurchefant's example to a degree, given the above dialogue.

The 3.x storyline is going to be very interesting for him, if nothing else.

Originally Posted by Emmanellain

snip

I agree Artoirel was acting out of character and weird, and a little nicer than usual? I thought at first it was just because of.. you know, his brother dying and his father breaking down in tears, and maybe things got put into perspective for him. But it got more evident towards the end that he's not himself.

The scene with Artoirel, Edmont and Aymeric really broke my heart.. To overlook his own son when he's standing right there, and to tell Aymeric that he reminds him of Haurchefant and he couldn't bear to lose him, that's the kind of stuff that could send Artoirel to the dark side, man. I know Edmont has doubted his abilities before, I wonder why..

I don't know what's up. Emmanellain's last expression was weird, I don't know what he was thinking but definitely something is going on.. I miss Haurchefant and I feel sad for Artoirel and I hope he doesn't go all evil; I was already so scared I was going to lose him too in the Vault.

Originally Posted by Emmanellain

Is it just me or was there something extremely off putting about the Fortemps brothers in that last cutscene in the manor?

I'm just wondering, cause there's obviously something fishy going on.. I have a feeling Artoriel becoming the count isn't a good thing.. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yeah, something weird is going on there. Can't tell what exactly, but I got a bad feeling about it.

Just wanted to add that I felt really bad for Artoriel with the way his father was disregarding him.

Also, maybe it was just how it was animated, but the mostly blank expression Artoriel had during many cut-scenes just didn't sit right with me (when Aymeric was stabbed; as he quietly watched the citizens during the scene in front of the church). That being said, I'm not inclined to think that he's evil (or I hope not, anyways), but I feel like there's more going on in that head of his than we are aware.

Every time I saw a scene in Ishgard, particularly where the Fortemps brothers were involved, I just felt uneasy. Artoriel's father's disregard for him, Emmanellain's strange behavior, their father stepping down. Something more there, that's for sure. Or not. Only time will tell. :P

Honestly felt really short, and not a whole lot really happened. It felt like simply setting up the "patch plot" so it can all get knocked down in the future updates.

Thanks to the lack of dumb filler quests it kept everything focused, but felt short due to the lack of padding. There's one thing I'm still hung up on...

Why is Thancred wearing a blindfold over one of his eyes when you can clearly see in the flashback stills that he was teleported with both of his eyes intact nor does he mention being seriously injured while living in the wild, not that I was expecting such to begin with. The dude was murdering bears completely naked with sharp rocks. Seriously like no one is even concerned over this.

Other than that, super lame to just get immediately ganked by WoDs and having my Virgil 1 fight stolen by Thancred like that. Anyone else notice that ever since 2.5 every story fight as transitioned from pretty down to earth, although pretty flashy to big dumb anime fights with characters leaping 30 feet into the air and energy explosions?