Thread: Revelations from Patch 3.4

Alright, a more thorough airing of my initial sentiments on...

The Main Scenario

I spent most of the MSQ steeling myself to concede the old adage: "The moose makes for a much better archivist than prophet." But how? How had I framed the premises so accurately and followed them to conclusions so wrong!? But the longer it went on, the things on the list read: OH, GODS DAMN IT. Waaait... Nvm.

Equilibrium must needs be restored, after all!?

Ish! If the reflected worlds become imbalanced, they cannot be rejoined to the Source; they become a void of one type or the other. That outcome is worthless to Zodiark; the Source must be hit with enough chaos to rejoin the shards before that can happen. The Warriors of Darkness were essentially following the classic Ascian Feedback Loop Handbook from the start - encourage primals to be summoned, encourage them to be destroyed so that more powerful gods will be summoned (though that bit about encouraging the kobold to find a "new god" is ... ominous; I'll go back to suss that out).

The Warriors of Darkness were pawns, indeed, but not in the way I expected. From their point of view, that Zodiark's rebirth would be hastened didn't seem to matter; they had fought for the Light and the world fell to ruin for it - but at least the Rejoining would see the souls of their realm reborn as something new rather than suffer eternity in a void as ... something else. So they forsook their lives and traveled between worlds via crystal, as had the Ascians. But Elidibus had neglected to tell them certain truths in a way that ensured a certain point of view.

In the end, the Source will consume the abundant Light and restore their world to balance. But for all of the mistaken claims made for Hydaelyn's motivations and loyalties, would She have had the ability to achieve this outcome were it not for Urianger's intervention? There's still some context I need to discern from the events, as I've only had the initial exposure, so far.

I maintain some faith in my original plan: however cosmically unjust, the worlds belong to Life, now. If the other worlds can be held in balance - and Zodiark contained - we might all yet survive in our own ways. I would have stayed Team Mothercrystal regardless, prepared to accept it as a mistake in the end; but this is welcome encouragement to keep the faith...

"Urianger, you bastard!"

WHEW. This one had me reeling. My entire case to keep the faith for him held true, and yet he was the architect of so much of this. Ironically, that we could trust him all along is what makes my trust in him waver now. Just how far would he go to remain faithful to our cause? His ability to take others' hopes and dreams as their consent to be moved across a chess board - even into positions of sacrifice - is in its own way contrary to our cause. As was the case with Iceheart, there are some specific things I'll need to see tangibly manifest in the story (or my POV) to feel at peace with him. We can't all be as understanding as Minfilia, nor should we.

"Were we right about the Griffin!? BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE..."

My list of suspects remains the same ... but my half-serious hope that he might somehow be Gaius returning to the fray has been assaulted with half-serious hints. Sure, most of them still point to Ilberd. The repeated references to doing whatever it takes to liberate Ala Mhigo, the parallel to Nidhogg: rage, despair, vengeance. It's all Ilberd to a T. But did you catch the rumours of what the Griffin was alleged to be? No face but for the scars... a true talent for leadership... marked for death by the Garleans and they would send a legion for him if they only knew.

Which is the red herring? ... Or could it be both? /grin

One way or another, I hold fast to the hope that the Black Wolf will get the last ten degrees of his story arc.

Wait, did Ethys totally call that Yda thing from a malm out!?

So close! I liked the theory mainly out of spite for its nemesis - that Yda is a Garlean.

Granted, she seems a bit dim for the Circle of Knowing, but the bar wasn't just suspiciously low for Yda's sake. 1562 Thancred, the seventeen-year-old who tried to juggle his duties with getting laid, for all his cleverness, didn't quite seem ready for the Sage tattoo, either. Still, it sat wrong with me that she wasn't a highlander. tt's a non-issue; every city has minority race presences. But it is only one generation away from a Highlander, so it just feels weird. I figured that if he was right that she was Ala Mhigan royalty, it would be that she was a more distant relation. Theodred, the last surviving royal, is, after all, named after a figure from Lord of the Rings who died and let the throne pass horizontally.

But it looks as though Yda may have been related to famed forces of the opposition to the King of Ruin.

Or was the opposition a distant relation, as well? I'm excited to learn more!

Alexander

I f[kupo]ing called it. For a while there, I dared to let myself believe it was going to go differently, and I was was really hoping they would hold off on copying that part of the CT blueprint, but no. Guess this is just going to be our pattern. "They're gone now, so it's up to us now to build a brighter--" *YAWN*

I really liked it up until that point, then I was less sad and more just bored. At least she got something resembling closure in the end, but you don't get a medal for doing "the same damn thing as last time, but with an actual character arc."

I don't get to do the rest until tomorrow, but definitely not going to let people who have already cleared MSQ keep me from it another night. Cyril's (spoiler-tagged) excitement will keep me fueled through another day at the PHP salt mines.

MSQ

So much to talk about and think on.

Holy molly this was a great patch. So much stuff and right from the outset. Some of the key things:

1. Not surprisingly the 13 shards from the source are alternate worlds.

2. Again not surprisingly the WoD are from one of them, specifically the First.

3. There world is being consumed by the light which is in imbalance.

4. THE 13TH shard was already consumed by darkness and... IS THE VOID!!!! THAT IS HUGE!!!!!!!!! Actually this might help explain why mortals can be turned into Voidsent.

5. Yda is Ala Mhigan. This seemed pretty likely since we first saw her reappear in HW. I am curious Papalymo's connection to her and his reference to giving her mask to her.

6. Voids aren't much use to Zodiark. I wonder how the existence of the 13th shard, the Void, effected their plans.

7. Hydealyn seems keen on keeping balance. This for me makes sense. She has been consistently portrayed as caring for her 'children'. That said, the current set up is a complete mess but one I think she created out of desperation. This whole thing looks like its going to be a lot more complicated than simply beating the Ascians which is outright what the WoD said at the end.

8. Minfilia is Hydealyn's emissary. This we already knew but the term emissary makes me suspect she literally holds the same role now that Elidibus did. Her comments in the final cutscene make me suspect that she is also limited in how she can intervene without assistance from mortal sources.

9. The Griffon is turning out much like I suspected. I think we will be wading into a war in 4.0 which will have major problems on bothsides. Much like Ishgard, I think finding some common ground will be necessary while removing the most extreme elements.

I'm sure there will be more once I have had some time to digest it all and review. There was a hell of a lot going on. We now know more of the nature of the 13 shards and the fate of at least 3. Unukalhhai almost certainly comes from another of the shards. I wonder if Midgardsormr and the dragons do as well?

First: WoD realm, at risk of becoming a void of light.
???: Unukalhai's world who's aether was consumed by people wielding the power of primals.
.
.
.
13th: The Void, taken by darkness.

Interesting that the WoD also uses the term closest and furthest from the Source.

Its worth noting that Yoshi P has indicated we will likely see the WoD again in the future so I expect we will run into them and Minfilia again eventually.

On a side note, I think with the reveals in the post MSQ scenes this was the perfect patch to add the /facepalm emote.:P

MSQ

It was surprisingly heartwarming, from the reunion of the Scions, to the Warriors of Darkness reaching their goals (though that might be rendered bittersweet by their prior actions and the possibility that they would had become lost to the lifestream and reincarnated when Minfillia returned them). It was also bittersweet with the Kobold subplot (and I think trollish...of course that depends on if the devs actually mentioned Titan being a solo duty thing or not, but I do hope they do similar stuff like that with other duties)

Sophia

I was reminded about the post ifrit stuff with Y'Sthola little tirade about use killing tempered, and I noticed that the first time that was brought up since we first slayed Ifrit, the only other time being with the Kobolding in the MSQ of this patch. I also noticed that the themes of Balence seem to tied well with the MSQ of the respective patch...it sort of made me feel like Zurvan should had been placed first instead of Sephirot to tie in Alexander

The Creator

Time Paradoxes galore. We were this close to dying a rather gruesome death and had to save ourselves in the past. I actually kinda like that twist. Any disappointment I'd had about this being CT 2.0 was mitigated by the fact that unlike G'Hrara, Mide and Davan[sic?] actually did escape

Hildibrand

Speaking of Timey wimey shenanigans I can;t help but wonder if Vivi/Gigi is related to Alex and the Enigma Codex?

/10char Post

While I freely admit I was wrong about the Eyes being gone (and I'm damn pissed they aren't - let that damn dragon be dead), I'm still not convinced Lahabrea is in there - or more accurately, that anyone has any designs to free him. Even if he's still in there (and that's an if the size of F/Sn Gilgamesh's ego, given Elidibus all but stated verbatim that he was dead), he clearly isn't important enough to get out - the Ascians have had the Eyes on hand for months at this point (at least a few months pass canonically between Nidhogg's defeat and the ending of 3.3 - new systems of government don't start themselves).

Granted the possibility remains. Even so, nobody is going to be intentionally releasing Lahabrea even if he's still in there, for the foreseeable future at least.

Questioning how Nero got into Cartenau in broad freaking daylight, given we had to run what was essentially a black ops mission to get the Dreadwyrm Trance... that is Cartenau, right? Only place with that much intact Allagan crap... except Azys Lla, but if it were there it'd be pretty obvious. And is it too much to ask for a Garlean character that becomes a better person without becoming an expatriate?!

Haven't done Alexander yet, I'll get to it over the weekend, but... hardly surprising Mide sacrifices herself to end it. Even after Alphinaud resolved to stop making sacrifices they continue. Not-Minfilia departing for the First Shard seemingly forever. Mide sacrificing herself to stop Alexander. I'd have just five words to tell them...

okay now that I've completed the Triad, the MSQ and Alexander, I have some issues

this will be disjointed ramblings because i have been up for way too long and have overloaded my braincase with many eorzeathoughts

or something

MSQ

Ho boy, ho ho ho ho boy. Let me try to piece through this in a somewhat chronological fashion:
Aymeric dinner bored me to tears. I'm so over elf husbando.

Xelphatol, the concept art dungeon of yesteryear finally made manifest did make my heart sing-- only for the crushing sadness it will never be a proper region of Eorzea crush it so I forgot where I was going.

How was Garuda able to be summoned like that so flippantly? It wasn't a full summoning? Bah.

Alisaie gets new clothes, sans pants. We're in Ishgard, Tataru. Neat red mage job tease, she even mentions not being beholden to one school of magic later in the Rising Stones.

The whole Urianger arc man, paralleled 1.0 so beautifully I almost think I'm looking too far into it--you're led to believe he's an enemy (though originally because you didn't know much of him) only for him to actually be a super good guy. In retrospect, it's Urianger all over. That's what he does--he's so concerned with making the best play for the most amount of people, he doesn't exactly ask if you're okay with it. I was also very glad Alisaie did not immediately forgive him. Good. Good on you Alisaie. You go girl.

Yda confirmed Ala Mhigan, at least this might put the Garlean rumours to rest. If she ends up being royalty just GROAN. Her father was a leader of the Rebellion against the King of Ruin so there's hope... also, like, wtf? Gundobald just noticed her? Haven't they been in the area since like 3.1 at the latest? It's not like Yda was even doing a good job of hiding--Papalymo had the sense to put a hood on and Yda's walking around neck tattoos all out and what-not. I suppose she's to be our tie to Ala Mhigo now that we're down the daughter of an Ala Mhigan Resistance spy.

Gu Ba was... interesting. I'd really love to see him and Alisaie interact more down the road, as he might be our one key in understanding the summoners.

The Warriors of Darkness, definitely better than what they were in 3.1, and confirmed some vaguely obvious truths (too much of something is bad), but I was decidedly disappointed in two main things:
"Slow as ever" -the Warrior of Darkness after he beats us to Bowl of Embers, conveniently forgetting when we beat him to Xelphatol like only seven quests ago
"Like the Ascians, we are beyond death" -I don't think I can use the language I want to describe this on this forum. We saw him exorcise an Ascian, and he speaks of besting Ascians in his world, surely he would've stumbled upon the killing blow? Auracite + aether = Dead Ascian. Had we another Deus Ex Auracite up Urianger's sleeve (and he had some pretty big sleeves down there in Thanalan) like, game over dude. The Echo being used against us was neat, and realistically their retreating with Crystals of Light could've been very easily explained as using the Echo but no "beyond death" is what you went with. Right before you died. Apparently because your crystals were almost out of juice anyways.

I have to wonder if the First being consumed by Light and the Thirteenth by Dark is intentional; if the Source is in the middle, like, is it already the "most" equal?

My head is still reeling from a lot of stuff: Oh we got Tupsimati back finally, cool. What? Why did Papalymo just take it after being MIA forever. "Oh I sent a letter but it got lost in the mail"

I know, I know, I know. The writing was on the wall--Nidhogg's Eyes weren't destroyed. In a moment of weakness and poor judgement we disposed of them in quite possibly the worst way possible. I would've rather them be left unfound for at least one patch.

I can't see the Griffin as anyone but Ilberd still... there's a case to be made for Gaius, I guess, if you're some diehard Garlean fan, but I wouldn't call the former legatus "a man of boundless rage and bottomless despair."

I also guess whatever character development Nero might've had from Crystal Tower got erased.

Can we also just point out Urianger played Elidibus like a damn fiddle? How is this not a bigger concern to him?

Did we just force Unukalhai out of the Solar for our reunion?

I was so on board for pretty much this entire story (excepting the few WoD gripes) and then the closer just made me groan so audibly. Are we so dumb!?

Alexander

I thought the time travel looping was done okay, as well as could be expected for that sort of plot. I don't know how/why we didn't notice Quickthinx being a robot earlier. Shanoa twist was cute (her being an automaton at least, being part of Alexander was weird). The ridiculousness of Alexander summoning Alexander within Alexander's Alexander was just ... great, really, lol. As was going through the distortions and seeing yourself frozen in the time when Prime was about to take the shot.

I didn't even realize we left Mide with G'raha Tia because I legitimately had no emotion for her whatsoever. I couldn't relate to her and thought she was just annoying, honestly, which I hate to say. Dayan being part in control of Alexander was a "duh, gonna happen" moment, but I think I would've liked it better if we didn't get the weird within the soul of Alexander where every possibility is made manifest at the same or whatever the heck that was. I found Roundrox's abridged bildungsroman far more interesting.

Honestly, my absolute favorite part of the Alexander story was Alexander's realization that the only logical thing to do would be to unsummon itself. For the whole blathering on about a rational society, it made the rational choice, which ran counter to the ideals of the summoners.

Also Travanchet WHAAAAAAAAAT. I definitely don't think this is where his story was slated to back in 1.X, but I'm glad the loose end is tied up. Equally fitting Y'shtola was the Scion with us for Alexander (aethervision aside). My hopes for Heartstrike are renewed.

Triad

With further characterization of Elidibus being, like, definitely bad Unukalhai is left in the lurch. I have no doubt, like Urianger, he'll end up turning against the Ascian and it will be sweet poetry. Maybe.

I liked learning more about Regula and his rise to power with Varis. I don't think this will end quite the same way in FFVI.

I honestly took the quest line as a whole kit n kaboodle about how Equlibrium and Balance may not be all it's cracked up to be, especially with the protege of Mr. Equilibrium Must Needs Be Restore Himself. The Warring Triad's diary entry on Sophia and Unukalhai's master however does characterize Elidibus in a much different manner, imo

i think that's the immediate stuff i want to get out. i probably won't come back to thinking about all of this at once again. have to start taking it in bite-size chunks now, yeah?