What is The Eye doing?

[Lambdafish]

Nidhogg is obviously nothing but a big WoL fangirl

Or.. or... is it attraction?!

Incoming fanfic

[Mysterysword]

I'm pulling pretty much all of this out of my ass, but seeing as how the Azure Dragoon is a symbol of hope for the Ishgardians to rally around and keep fighting, and seeing as how Nidhogg actively wants the Dragonsong War to go on for eternity so he can torment the Ishgardians forever, I'd say this is his purpose in creating Azure Dragoons.

Sort of like giving your enemy guns, and thus giving them hope that they can defend themselves, when you have missiles.

As for why Nidhogg then chose the WoL, I can only assume that he wanted to try and manipulate us into bringing the Eye back to Ishgard. It's a little far-fetched, and honestly seems too subtle a strategy to fit with Nidhogg's character, but it's the best I can come up with.

I also considered the possibility that it's the dragon heritage that all Ishgardians* have, that the Eye is reacting to, but that wouldn't explain why it reacted to the WoL, who is explicitly stated to be a foreigner to Ishgard, and therefore most likely doesn't have Ratatoskr's essence in them.

*Speaking of Ratatoskr's essence being passed down through the generations, I've been wondering how every Ishgardian can possibly have it in them. If only Thordan and his knights ate the eyes, and then passed them down, and as far as I know, all of Thordan's knights were Elezen, why would the Hyur population of Ishgard also have the essence? I thought interbreeding wasn't a big thing in Ishgard, and if it was, wouldn't it have shown in the features of the people?

[Nalien]

The Azure Dragoon plot point is pretty disappointing... We're an Azure Dragoon at the same time as Estinien! Why? Who cares! Hopefully 4.0s Job quests touch on that, seeing as we sure as hell aren't still being chosen by Nidhoggs Eye, although 10g says they just go "Hraesvlgrs Eye chose you in 3.3!" and nothing more is said...

There are a few possibilities as to why Nidhoggs eye picks us, my favorites being he never actually picked any Azure Dragoons, he just noticed them and Ishgard mistook that metaphorical crooked eyebrow to mean Nidhogg chose them... Ratatoskr, in some small sense, still being alive in Ishgard and manifesting most strongly through the Azure Dragoon would be a particularly heartbreaking scenario... Nothing backing that up though, and it doesn't explain why we're an Azure Dragoon... Midgardsormr would be my explanation there; We're destined to be connected to him, and thus an Azure Dragoon, and Nidhoggs Eye reacts to that... Kinda backed up by our Limit Break...

I think the more likely, though kinda boring explanation, is the one we've already been given, though... Nidhoggs Eye picks an Azure Dragoon, and in us it picked a second Azure Dragoon... Why? Well, because Ishgard has two Eyes... Why Nidhogg picks anyone is still kind of odd, though giving Ishgard hope is a fair explanation, but then Nidhogg tried to take control of Estinien all the same... Still, the city had two Eyes, one picked Estinien, the other picked us... Where was the other Eye? Fused to Haldrath. What did Alberic see when we battled Estinien? Haldrath... We called upon the power of "our" Eye, and manifested the armor it was fused to as a result... No explanation for why the second Eye only just picked a second Azure Dragoon, maybe Thordan disturbed Haldraths tomb earlier than we think to prepare for his summon and awoke the Eye in 2.0 or something...

Really hope 4.0 goes back and explains some of this though... I mean, it kinda has to, doesn't it? How can we be the Azure Dragoon, chosen by Nidhoggs Eye, when Nidhogg is dead and his Eyes foolishly tossed off a cliff? At the very least they need to explain why his Eyes are still giving us... What were they even giving us exactly? 1.x and 2.0 were kind of iffy on Dragoons, the Azure Dragoon seemed like the only one... 3.0 made it clear there is an entire order of them (although... Do they ever show up outside the Job quest? They're in the trailer, and occasionally get mentioned, but the only spears I saw at the Final Steps of Faith were held by statues... All the actual knights fighting there seemed to be Temple Knights...), and we don't seem all that different from them... I'm incline to think you could make Azure Dragoon nothing more than a title and remove any indication of "Chosen One" from it with little impact on the story...

[LineageRazor]

*Speaking of Ratatoskr's essence being passed down through the generations, I've been wondering how every Ishgardian can possibly have it in them. If only Thordan and his knights ate the eyes, and then passed them down, and as far as I know, all of Thordan's knights were Elezen, why would the Hyur population of Ishgard also have the essence? I thought interbreeding wasn't a big thing in Ishgard, and if it was, wouldn't it have shown in the features of the people?

Well, Hilda's backstory seems to imply that, while scandalous, it's not that uncommon for such trysts to occur. So, why isn't Ishgard (or, at least, the Brume) crawling with pointy-eared Hyur? Not all such unions will necessarily result in a child as perfectly half-and-half as Hilda. Many would likely be able to pass quite easily as Elezen or Hyur, with only the barest traces of the other heritage (and possibly without even the knowledge that they HAD another heritage, if their mother kept quiet about the affair). A thousand years of this could well be enough to pass the blood of Thordan's knights to most or all of the Hyur population, as well.

[RobinMalvin]

Can I mention that the Eyes have answered to THREE people at the same time?

Estinien, WoL, and Thordan.

Those three chosen by the Eyes have one thing in common; strong desire for power. Estinien wanted power to slake his thirst for vengeance, Thordan to purge the world from evil and rule with iron fist, and WoL... just for the sake of power(?).

[Morningstar1337]

WoL... just for the sake of power(?).

While that is a possibility, the WoL's motivations are a cipher due to the blank slate thing. With that said, it is more likely that he would desire the power to aid in his Primal slaying (The only one he actually faced by the point Jobs are unlocked was Ifrit) or to protect those that are dear to him, the world, or some other stereotypically heroic thing

[Nalien]

Can I mention that the Eyes have answered to THREE people at the same time?

Estinien, WoL, and Thordan.

Is this the case? Seemed more like he was just using it... If you have to be chosen in order to use it then I'm even more confused by it, given how Estinien effectively crippled Nidhogg with it... Why give your enemy that much power over you? Heck, the Eye wasn't even meant to be carried around, it was kept in the Vault until Estinien stole it, indicating that the Azure Dragoons never really directly used the Eye...

I'd need to go back and check the cutscenes as well, but I don't think the Eye reacted to Thordan in anyway... It clearly reacted to us when we first met Estinien, but the only animation I recall of it with Thordan was him turning it into a sword and it absorbing Lahabreaether...

[RobinMalvin]

Is this the case? Seemed more like he was just using it... If you have to be chosen in order to use it then I'm even more confused by it, given how Estinien effectively crippled Nidhogg with it... Why give your enemy that much power over you? Heck, the Eye wasn't even meant to be carried around, it was kept in the Vault until Estinien stole it, indicating that the Azure Dragoons never really directly used the Eye...

Haldrath had the Eye until his death, hadn't he? And with the fact Azure Dragoons need the Eye's power to fight Nidghogg on equal footing, and Estinien brought the Eye with him during our journey together, I'd assume that Azure Dragoon would keep it in person when fighting Nidhogg. It was because Nidhogg was thought asleep and thus not an immediate threat that the Eye was kept, until Nidhogg awakens.

I never said the Eye reacted to Thordan. I said that the Eye answered to him, when he reached for it, allowing Thordan to access its power with no apparent difficulty despite Nidhogg's presence in it. Unless you count the Eye's glow as a sign it reacting to someone, then yes, Thordan also qualifies.

But I honestly don't think you need to have the Eye reacts to you in any way to use its power, but you have to beat Nidhogg's will in a mind battle first, which is said to be extremely hard it took Estinien crippled to cripple Nidhogg. With Thordan could access its power seemingly without effort can be adressed to the fact that he was primal when we saw him used it, or that he made Nidhogg's will inside the Eye to submit, making him somewhat one of the chosen and allowed to use it, just like how Azure Dragoons do.

Then, we toss both of Nidhogg's eyes into a chasm... so what happens to the power of the Azure Dragoon? Do the eyes still give someone their power? Shouldn't the WoL be a DRG no longer...? Gaaahh!

Eyes of a dragon can store the surrounding aether inside, so yes, they can still give power to anyone wielding it.

Dragoon's abilities and skills come from training, not the Eyes. It's Azure Dragoons who can tap into the Eyes power, giving them extra power to be able to face stronger dragons i.e Nidhogg. As Alberic has confirmed, an Azure Dragoon can give up their link to the Eyes' power. With Estinien being the last Dragoon to ever bond with the Eyes, I believe his link has been severed when he's freed from the Eyes' grasp, or he simply gave it up when he put down his spear.

[RobinMalvin]

I don't think the Warriors of Darkness are after Nidhogg's eyes to revive him at all. I'm expecting the WoDs to eat them just as Thordon and his knights did to Ratataskr's.

Well since Nidhogg has been confirmed to be dead for real this time, I doubt they'd want to revive him.

No,they must want to use the eyes for their wellspring of aether, maybe to eat them, or to empower something, something...

[Nalien]

Haldrath had the Eye until his death, hadn't he? And with the fact Azure Dragoons need the Eye's power to fight Nidghogg on equal footing, and Estinien brought the Eye with him during our journey together, I'd assume that Azure Dragoon would keep it in person when fighting Nidhogg. It was because Nidhogg was thought asleep and thus not an immediate threat that the Eye was kept, until Nidhogg awakens.

I'd think Haldraths story is a pretty good argument for not giving Azure Dragoons the Eye to play with... It eventually claimed him, and everything we saw of Estinien had the same thing happening... It makes sense to me that they'd keep the Eye out of reach, having seen what it did to Haldrath... We saw what having it did to Estinien multiple times... Even with Nidhogg dead, it was a battle for him to harness the Eyes power for something as simple as breaking into Azys Lla, you don't want your "best" fighter to be burdened in that way during such a crucial battle...

I also don't think Nidhogg would have stood much of a chance against Ishgard if the Azure Dragoons always had the Eye backing them up... Estinien utterly crippled Nidhogg during the Aery, if every Azure Dragoon could do even a fraction of that, I think Ishgard would have overpowered Nidhogg long ago, not the narrative we got, that Nidhogg was holding back every time and could easily have wiped them out... Nidhoggs dialog during the Aery also indicates that Azure Dragoons don't usually use the Eye in that way, if every Azure Dragoon used the Eye against Nidhogg in that way, Nidhogg wouldn't have been so surprised when Estinien pulls it out to counter him...

Heck, just from a strategic point of view... While it's possible the Eye can cripple Nidhogg, it's also true that he wants them back... Using the Eye on the front lines is a pretty risky plan, bordering on stupid... You risk letting it fall back into his hands (or... socket?) and powering up your enemy... Given you do not need to be in direct contact with it to be an Azure Dragoon (given we're an Azure Dragoon long before we touch it), it makes far more sense to keep it under lock and key during the battle... The last thing you want is an Azure Dragoon falling in battle and handing the Eye back to Nidhogg as a result...