Patch 3.3 (Trailer) Discussion (2.x - 3.2 Spoilers)

[Enkidoh]

It's okay, Cyril. My favorite character will never come back either, and Yoshida will never confirm his permanent departure because that would require acknowledging he existed to begin with.

But really, if Nael van Darnus and Louisoix can be resurrected by not-quite-dead Bahamut, and if Nanamo can visibly and animatedly asphyxiate on screen (in FMV!) only to shrug it off one patch later like it was just a sleeping pill, there's really no point in trying to gather evidence supporting whether or not someone is really, truly dead, because that's just not how this universe works.

Hell, maybe we stop Nidhogg for realsies and Lahabrea runs off with Estinien's body instead? Gotta leave room for a sequel!

Nael 'came back' only because players kept whining about wanting to fight him again despite SE constantly stating he was dead and gone. And even then it wasn't even the real Nael the player fights in ARR, (the real thing is truly dead), but a poorly-made aetheric copy created from a fragment of Nael's soul by Bahamut, and even then Bahamut didn't even get his gender right! The Nael fought in ARR is just like an egi in a sense, an aetheric construct created from a portion of aether from another being or individual. But that's enough being cynical and snide from me - snark knight armour just doesn't suit me.

And Cyril, don't worry about Lahabrea, if you like him that's fine (hey, I have a crush on a certain ex-Garlean engineer, much to my bf's chagrin! ), but sadly I think it's pretty conclusive he is gone forever - unless of course he comes back like how Nael did, but again that wouldn't be the real thing but just a copy and... now I'm just going around in circles.

[Laili]

And even then it wasn't even the real Nael who really is dead, but a poorly-made aetheric copy created from a fragment of Nael's soul by Bahamut, and even then Bahamut didn't even get his gender right!

Wasn't the fact that the English translation called him male the actual error, and the reveal that she was female was actually supposed to be a big deal?

[Belhi]

No. Bahamut literally reconstituted him. The face s/he had was probably from a memory such as his mother.

[Yasuhiro]

Where are people getting the name scathach from? Final Fantasy Wikia doesn't show up with anything and the closest I get when searching for it is a spell from Final Fantasy XII. Was it another name for Calofisteri cause only other one I remember is Woodsprite from when I played it on PS1.

[Enkidoh]

Wasn't the fact that the English translation called him male the actual error, and the reveal that she was female was actually supposed to be a big deal?

No. Bahamut literally reconstituted him. The face s/he had was probably from a memory such as his mother.

Yeah, there were multiple sources throughout the game that stated Nael was male, in 1.0 he used male elezen animations, even the lyrics of his theme music Rise of the White Raven clearly stated him in the male tense. And Urianger also all but stated bemusedly about how bizarre the whole thing behind Nael's 'rebirth' as a woman really was. Either way, Nael is canonically male by birth, and the ARR version fought is just a poor gender-swapped copy made from aether and fragments of the real Nael's memories.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Interesting. I'd heard that it was a translation thing, too - that Nael was for all intents and purposes male in 1.0, but the devs took advantage of the ambiguous nature of gendering in Japanese to make it into a Samus Is A Girl reveal (or retcon, at it were) in Coil, with all the dialog treating the character as if he had always been female. English, however, doesn't have that sort of ambiguity, and so a different explanation had to be thought up thanks to all those male pronouns. Has anything definitive been said about this by the dev team, Yoshida or otherwise?

It's a moot point anyways - the "poor aetheric resconstruction" explanation is canon for the English version of the game, whatever it was meant to originally be in Japanese.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I must be the only one that has no strong attachments to any of the villains in this game. I'm the kind of guy that prefers the bad guys to stay down and stay there instead of coming back because lol reasons *looks at Sephiroth and Sin from the audio drama*

[Cilia]

Interesting. I'd heard that it was a translation thing, too - that Nael was for all intents and purposes male in 1.0, but the devs took advantage of the ambiguous nature of gendering in Japanese to make it into a Samus Is A Girl reveal (or retcon, at it were) in Coil, with all the dialog treating the character as if he had always been female. English, however, doesn't have that sort of ambiguity, and so a different explanation had to be thought up thanks to all those male pronouns. Has anything definitive been said about this by the dev team, Yoshida or otherwise?

It's a moot point anyways - the "poor aetheric resconstruction" explanation is canon for the English version of the game, whatever it was meant to originally be in Japanese.

That's arguably the closest thing there is to an objective truth on the matter. Even the devs are leaving it ambiguous. (I'm pretty sure they like to laugh at us throwing around wild hypotheses as we are wont to do, and leaving Nael's birth sex ambiguous is a prime opportunity to watch people speculate.)

EDIT

I must be the only one that has no strong attachments to any of the villains in this game. I'm the kind of guy that prefers the bad guys to stay down and stay there instead of coming back because lol reasons *looks at Sephiroth and Sin from the audio drama*

No, you're not the only one... I'm fine with villains staying dead when it's clear they've died instead of having them come back because of popularity, leading to <insert contrived reason here> explaining it.

For the villains of this game, the only one I'd wish to see more of is Gaius, because he was a relatively just and honorable man who might have been redeemable had he not died in the exploding Praetorium. However that's what Nero is for, who explicitly escaped before we could kill him and wasn't in the Praetorium during the Ultima Weapon's meltdown, leading to his (possible) redemption during the Crystal Tower. (I'm a bit of a sucker for redemption stories.)

For my two cents, I feel Lahabrea is your textbook Smug Snake, who is competent but still has his plans foiled despite arrogantly believing himself to be untouchable and his plans to be perfect. There isn't much lost with such a one-note villain.

[Yasuhiro]

I must be the only one that has no strong attachments to any of the villains in this game. I'm the kind of guy that prefers the bad guys to stay down and stay there instead of coming back because lol reasons *looks at Sephiroth and Sin from the audio drama*

Nah, I'm the same. I don't particulary find anyone interesting either villain wise, I can list all the other FF series villains from the top of my head but really struggle to remember anyone in this game because they're so bland and throwaway til the game needs them again. Tho to be honest I don't really like the story in this game in general I think the pacing is awful and I hate the dropped plot points and 3.2's " x character was spying on character y while also being spied on by character z " found that hilarious and thought " wow! someone actually storyboarded this!" best story in an MMO? I guess! Best Final Fantasy story? no way. But I'm rambling now :P

[Belhi]

Where are people getting the name scathach from? Final Fantasy Wikia doesn't show up with anything and the closest I get when searching for it is a spell from Final Fantasy XII. Was it another name for Calofisteri cause only other one I remember is Woodsprite from when I played it on PS1.

Scáthach is actually referenced as the queen in the coffin in the VA story which makes a lot of sense. The name is actually referencing Irish/Scottish Mythology. She was a female warrior that lived in a place called Dún Scáith, which translates into Fortress of Shadows(an appropriate name for a Void Queen's lair I think). She is most well known for being the tutor of Ferdiad (who shares the name of the Voidsent we met in Amdipor Keep HM) and Cúchulainn(who shares a name of the third Voidsent boss in VA), who also interestingly was the wielder of Gae Blog.

I don't know if her name has actually been used in FF games before though.