[4.4 Spoiler] Alpha and Omega

[dragonseth07]

So, I'm diving into the new raid, and I have to say that the cutscene is REALLY confusing.

Omega says that he based Alpha off of some mundane creature that beat an impossibly difficult opponent, and then chocobo feathers fell everywhere. This is clearly referencing some super-heroic chocobo somewhere, but I have absolutely no idea what one it would be referring to. Is this a reference to an old FF game that I've forgotten? Something in FFXIV that I'm blanking on? Or has it yet to be revealed?

I can think of a few noteworthy chocobos, but none that would seem to fit this bill.

[LalafellDown]

Probably Chocobo Racing on the PS1

[Wyssahtyn]

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/C...Chocobo_series)

Alpha is from this.

[Jonnycbad]

Alpha is Chocobo from the game "Chocobo Dungeon"/"Chocobo Racing".


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Choco/Mog summon from FF7 is also a reference to this series, as they were best friends/rivals.

[Bright-Flower]

Didn't Omega also say that once he made Alpha he kept doing tests against him without good results or something? I thought the implication was basically that Omega trounced Alpha a bunch in combat scenarios trying to recreate what the original chocobo did, but I could be wrong about that.

Something that confuses me a bit... Midgar fled his original world to ours with Omega on his trail, but Omega also says he wasn't able to beat Midgar? What exactly happened there?

[ChaoticCrimson]

Something that confuses me a bit... Midgar fled his original world to ours with Omega on his trail, but Omega also says he wasn't able to beat Midgar? What exactly happened there?

It's a bit vague, and while this may be purely conjecture on my part I believe the implications are that the war probably made the Dragonstar untenable for Midgardsormr and his children to continue living there, and so they left to pursue a new world to inhabit. The battlefield simulated in Middy's fight sure seemed far from hospitable, even for a species as robust as the dragons.

As far as Alpha's concerned, that was my impression too, and it was only after the apparent failures that Omega re-purposed him to attract potential test subjects.

[Kallera]

I find it strange that they had stated that omega creations all dissappeared, except for alpha. In addition, why did it vanish when it died? Is there perhaps something there that could explain why Alpha now has a soul?

[Vayanne]

Alpha gained a soul by developing the ability to care about others and that pushed him to become something more than what he was created to be.

I've never been so moved by a raid story before. Omega has done everything it could to gain strength but eventually realized the kind of strength it lacked was impossible to achieve due to its own flawed design. And when you learn that the only reason behind it all, all Omega wished for, was just to go home… And as it finally starts to attain what it lacks, it disintegrates. It’s interesting that this happens in a way similar to how beings with a soul sometimes turn into crystal dust upon death, so maybe it finally gained some semblance of a soul? At least Alpha managed it and survived to enjoy exploring the world. It was also sad how he behaved towards Omega like a child to its emotionally cold and distant mother.

[Jonnycbad]

If other planets exist...how does the creation story of FFXIV fit in. It seemed like the universe was an aetheric sea until Hydalyn split Zodiark from it because he was growing power hungry, thus creating a physical and aetheric plane and she coalesced into a planet and he the moon. Now this is all well and good because this is a myth from the perspective of mankind...but what about other planets with other alien life. Are they too also with their own lifestreams? With their own mothercrystals with personas? Are Ascians bound only to the conflict of Zodiark/Hydalyn or do they have a universal presence? Is Zodiark and Hydalyn only gods of this small section of space or are they omnipotent? What of other "gods" on other worlds? By introducing Middy/Omega as extraterrestrials, it begs so many questions.

[ObsidianFire]

That is something I'm definetly wondering about. It doesn't help either that the same word in Japanese can refer to both a "star" and a "planet". So every time those words get thrown around, I can't help but think the situation is fuzzier then it's made out to be in English.

The Astrologin quests further muddy the waters. In them, we learn that stars give off aether, and the power of the constellations is based in the aether that comes from them. So it seems different stars have different aether qualities. This can be seen in Ishgardian Astrology which is mainly focused on charting the changes in the Dragonstar. Doing so lets them roughly predict the state of the Dravainian Horde. Given what we've learned from the Omega raid, it seems this could be the star/planet the Midgardsormr originally came from. And it could still linked to its former inhabitants' aether in some way even after all that time and distance.

So yeah, I'm wondering how "local" Hydaelyn and Zodiark's conflict is. Are they just confined to a planet? Did they do something that is causing problems throughout the universe if left unchecked? Do all other planets have Hydaelyn/Zodiark counterparts and ours are more dysfunctional then most? What makes me think the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict isn't a "local" conflict is how the separated Shards seem to work. If we were in a sci-fi 'verse, it almost sounds like Hydaelyn broke space/time. But is that 14 other versions of the universe? or 14 other versions of one planet?

The Omega raid was a little weak I felt if just looking at the self-contained plot. How the revelations it gives fits into the greater cosmology is a lot more interesting.