NPCs with plot armor, does it bother you?

[Clover_Blake]

Haha, you aren't alone, this has always bothered me as well. I'd like to think that it's actually as someone said, that quests are inside some sort of time bubbles and certain scenes are going to be assumed to happen in past time.

For example, I imagine that the Estinien from the DRG quests doesn't treat you like the Estinien from the end of HW would. Also, I could be wrong because I haven't paid attention to the DRG quests, but if I'm not mistaken, Estinien is supposed to carry one of the eyes with him, whereas the eyes are in a different place even before SB. That alone is a huge change that suggests that you aren't playing in the same timeline. The eyes case would be equal to any death, right?

Still, I guess the devs would want to abuse the time bubble the least possible, in order to prevent tons of temporary chaos. Or maybe they will prove us wrong when we least expect it! It wouldn't be accurate to say that FFXIV hasn't had some huge plot twists before, especially with two certain Scions.

[Iscah]

For example, I imagine that the Estinien from the DRG quests doesn't treat you like the Estinien from the end of HW would. Also, I could be wrong because I haven't paid attention to the DRG quests, but if I'm not mistaken, Estinien is supposed to carry one of the eyes with him, whereas the eyes are in a different place even before SB. That alone is a huge change that suggests that you aren't playing in the same timeline. The eyes case would be equal to any death, right?

That's correct, Estinien has "the Eye" with him during the ARR quests - at this point, as far as they are aware, they only have one of Nidhogg's eyes and he still has the other. Also the war against the dragons is a plot point, but talked about in terms of the 'mythical' version that the Ishgardians have believed for centuries and not the truth that we uncover in the course of Heavensward MSQ.