Thread: [SPOILERS] Revelations from Patch 3.3

Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

I hate you all.

So much.

Don't let my hope be reborn. Don't do it.

Also, unrelated to anything, it seems a bit odd that Unukalhai's instance got its own unique background music, but still no voice acting? All of the voiced battle lines were reused from the ARF.

Even more convincing that he's not surviving, IMO. Regula probably isn't, either.

If it's despair you want, then I shall... provide.

All jesting aside, Lahabrea is GONE gone. As in there's almost no way in Hell he is still relevant to the unfolding tale. Alphinaud's above comment was, more likely than not, a reminder to himself not to live in the past and grieve endlessly for those we have lost, but to look to the future their sacrifices bought us with hope. It would be easy to mire ourselves in grief, loss, and despair, but we have all decided to continue down this path despite the pain and sorrow it has caused (and will continue to cause) us.

We do what we must because we can. For the good of all of us. Except for the ones who are dead.

The Eyes are gone unless someone retrieves them, which seems unlikely. Even if Lahabrea was absorbed into the Eye and wasn't burned during King Thordan's Ultimate End or while Nidhogg was possessing Estinien (as fuel for his Final Chorus or Bloodrage supers, f'ex), the chances of him now escaping and returning to the narrative ever are slim, at best.

As for Matoya commenting on Alphinaud's research in her cave, it was likely a product of his desperate wish to save Estinien. Minfilia's fate is... unfortunate, especially given the dubious conditions surrounding her sacrifice. Yet what's done is done - we cannot change the past, but we can shape the future and make her sacrifice meaningful. That much we can still do, at least.

Unukalhai and Regula's fates are still up in the air. I doubt the lil' guy is gonna bite it, but Regula I'm not sure of. He remains a very enigmatic figure, defined only by his desire to acquire Allagan tech (chiefly the means to bind primals) and his loyalty to the Emperor (plus a little bit of battle lust during your first encounter with him). There's no telling what side of the fence he'll end up on, but the chances of him turning his back on Garlemald now seem rather low.

More on the Eyes:

They're gone. Forever. Get over it.

While there is the possibility of someone retrieving them, I seriously doubt that is going to happen. The problem with the Eyes is that they are such powerful artifacts, as long as someone holds onto them the opposing side has to try and gain control of them. We can use the Eyes as fuel for Blades of Light, while the Ascians can use them for myriad ends (none of them good). The entire story would become a contest to see who can control the Eyes - aside from the Garleans busting out new superweapons, little else would matter.

That is why they are gone. Forever.

And with them, any lingering possibility of Lahabrea still crawling around in there and breaking out.

Omega is a scrap heap buried in Cartenau until the story moves to excavate, refurbish, and fuel it. Shinryu showing up as a result of its activation is a mere possibility, and seeing as the former has yet to happen, the latter has a low chance of happening based on current circumstances.

Elidibus will probably survive until 4.0. Past that I can't make any kind of guess, given we have no details on 4.0 beyond that it is implicitly going to take us to Ala Mhigo.

(3.3 MSQ) If we really must debate this:

The patch ended with Paladark standing over the Steps of Faith, gazing into the abyss (as it gazed back?). While it certainly doesn't have to mean anything, any more than that energy signature Nero missed out on finding below Syrcus Tower has to mean anything, I at least think I know what we're supposed to think. The Eyes will resurface somewhere in a greatly diminished role, with or without Lahabrea. I just like thinking he's trapped in there because the idea amuses me to no end. He could end up as this game's Sigma.

But... it could all have just been Eldibus confirming the kill, and Paladark's seemingly sinister smirk acually meant "Nice job, guys." We'll find out at the end of the patch cycle, I'm sure.

I think the camera angles made it painfully obvious what was going on in that scene...

Starts with an establishing shot, putting us on the right side of the bridge well after the battle was won, then they specifically focus on the either Blanhaerz, or the abyss... There is an obvious focus on where we threw the eyes; It's entirely ambiguous, I really don't think we can out right say the eyes are gone for good... It could be a retrieval, or they could simply want to make sure we've lost the tool we used to slay the last Ascian, though the later seems kind of unlikely given we have Hraesvelgr and Midgardsormr at our side now, possibly even Tiamat...

I disagree with the notion that the eyes reentering the plot would make them the sole focus... We have no idea what Elidibus has in store for them, if he has anything planned for them at all... It's entirely possible that they could be used up entirely, rather than remain as they did with the Ascalon... There is also the possibility that we out right destroy them following their return, or seal them away properly... That was the plan, after all... Both Estiniens and Haldraths... Both wished to take them out of the reach of man and dragon both, and Nidhogg returned to get in the way of that... Now Nidhogg is gone-gone, and we have a scene ambiguously focusing on their new resting place... The possibility is there IMO...

And again, Yoshida mentioned that we'd find it less stupid that Estinien picked them up at the end of 3.0... Why? Nothing has made that seems any more or less stupid... All that's happened is we've thrown them away and the Warriors of Darkness are interested in that fact... At the very least, that implies we've made a bigger mistake than Estinien in casually throwing them away... Doesn't mean they'll be retrieved, but again, we have four, maybe six other eyes we can borrow to aether-blast Elidibus... I'm doubtful, after Hraesvelgr was convinced after Midgardsormr mentioned how he hopes this is a new foundation to battle the Darkness, and after Hraesvelgr already let us borrow his eye, that they'd deny us such a tool to battle the Warriors of Darkness... If Elidibus simply wanted to make sure we'd lost our aether-blasting balls, well... Might as well continue the XIV tradition of stupid antagonists, I guess... "They've lost Nidhoggs eyes after borrowing Hraesvelgrs! They have no more eyes to blast us with!", "What?! You borrowed Hraesvelgrs eye again?! Unpossible!", yeah... Lets avoid sending Elidibus out like that please...

That's to say nothing of Lahabrea, I'm not going to bother repeating that argument, everything that can be said on that has been said... I'll just continue to hope he returns because for some reason that line of speculation seems to annoy some people... I'd like a recurring villain we actually fight and who gets more and more twisted with every encounter and Lahabrea is the perfect candidate, we had our Seymour fight in Praetorium, then he came back as Ascian Prime for a Seymour Natus, now I'm waiting for him to rise out of that abyss for a Seymour Flux battle...

I didn't mean it as a personal challenge, but more as a general statement to various ideas about the Eyes.

Blanhaerz (Paladark / WoD!Broegadyn - Darklander refers to him by name in the stinger) was probably just there to observe the events and make sure they all played out as per Elidibus' script and intervene if it became necessary. That's what my money's on, at least. His tilted head was likely just because he was making a call, as all characters seem to tilt their heads down, and the camera zoomed out to show us he was in Coerthas, near the Steps of Faith, and was thus observing our fight.

As for the psycho grin, it seems to be Blanhaerz' default expression (he made the same smile when trying to cut Shtola).

They could be going for the Eyes, sure. But again, due to the fact the story would devolve into a contest to see who can control them, I'm fairly confident us throwing them from the Steps of Faith into the misty abyss was a story cue that they're gone forever.

Fun fact: Blanhaerz translates to "Grand Darkness" in Roegadyn. I get the sneaking suspicion he's not a very nice person.

Originally Posted by Cilia

Fun fact: Blanhaerz translates to "Grand Darkness" in Roegadyn. I get the sneaking suspicion he's not a very nice person.[/hb]

I'm no expert, but according to this Roegadyn dictionary, it rather translates to Dark Heart.

Originally Posted by CyrusArjuna

Plus we didn't even get to see Solus, so I for one would be annoyed if they introduced a new emperor just to kill him off so quickly. It could also undermine the threat level of the empire if the head honcho keeps changing every expansion.

If you need pictures of him, you can actually see him here and here.