Thread: 3.4 speculation

Eh, I'm somewhat bias... I really don't view Elidibus or Derplander as particularly good antagonists to really develop at the moment... Garlemald I like, because that's a decidedly human story that I can potentially relate to, with a conflict that is, while perhaps questionable, somewhat understandable IMO... The Ascians? Immortal cartoony villains with a conflict stemming from some cosmic injustice that I'll likely be unable to really relate to... I very much expect the story to go down a "Hydaelyn created life, and thus death, before that there was no death so Zodiark is better!" route, which just isn't something I can get on board with... I just can't see a Zodiark revival being in our best interests... The Truth could be that Zodiark farts sunshine and poops rainbows, but coming from the mouths of a group that actively uses deception to sow chaos and ruin lives... Yeah... Actions speak louder than words, and Elidibus could say all the right things, but the only thing we've seen the Ascians do is be stereotypical shadowy villains... We may not have seen Elidibus doing anything himself, but we've seen the actions of those he associates with; Both the other Ascians and now Derplander, who basically attacked us on sight and further justified a staunch skepticism on our side of theirs... They'd need to do a lot to get me to relate to them at this point, and I don't think they can fit that in with where I think/want the story to go...

I only let Lahabrea off on this because, in the narrative I'd want for him, he has greater ambitions that "Kill Hydaelyn, Revive Zodiark, Throw Party", he wants to be Zodiark, hence the experiments in Primal summoning and the "Lahabrea> By my will", "Elidibus>> No no, by His will" thing... That not only makes him somewhat more interesting IMO, but it also gives Elidibus a bit more room for development... Right now I do not see the possibility of us working together with him ever happening, we're far too polarized at the moment... Make Lahabrea a common enemy for us both to defeat? Jolly Cooperation all round! That also maybe lets us keep Elidibus/Derplander around for longer... I expect 3.55 to end with a closing of the Ascian plot... Mostly just because I'm tired of it and hope 4.0 can give us more human stories than cosmic ones... Give us a dramatic confrontation with Derplander/Elidibus and I don't think they'll see much more development, and if we take down Elidibus I doubt the Ascians will ever resurface... That'll be that done... Give us a dramatic confrontation with Lahabrea, who has just come back from the brink and thrown a wrench in Elidibus' plans? We team up, they get much more development, we finally defeat the games first real antagonist in a satisfying manner, and Elidibus backs off since his plan just flopped... We move onto more human antagonists, but the threat of Elidibus returning and a final confrontation with Zodiark still looms about for 6.0 or something...

It's entirely possible that they don't intend for us to have a finish to Elidibus/Derplander before 4.0 of course, but I see that being what the remainder of the patches before 4.0 will focus on for now... If they're still just milling about, and will be for all of 4.0 as well, I'll honestly be sick to death of them... I'd rather a scenario in which we force them to back off, then when Elidibus shows up in the #.55 teaser after a long absence, I'd lose my shit in excitement... It's also entirely possible that we can force him to back off in 3.55 without anyone like Lahabrea pulling a last minute revival, but I'm not sure of any other candidates... A situations in which we fight Elidibus/Derplander, but they back off rather than being defeated seems fairly lackluster to me...