Ran'jit's strength makes no sense

[LSSJGamer]

snip

I agree with you actually. Now that you explained it I am not as salty about it. Thanks for the explanation. Though my willing suspension of disbelief is still gone considering the type of attack we take in the 1st level of the new raid and we can still keep going. I think I will keep just a little salt... just a little.

[TankHunter678]

I agree with you actually. Now that you explained it I am not as salty about it. Thanks for the explanation. Though my willing suspension of disbelief is still gone considering the type of attack we take in the 1st level of the new raid and we can still keep going. I think I will keep just a little salt... just a little.

To be honest half the time we take those massive cinematic attacks and we survive I cannot help but think its like back in Preatorium where Hydaelyn basically buffs our defense so we can actually survive. Though its also worth noting that none of the primals or raid bosses actually try to figure out how to incapacitate us in a single blow unlike Zenos or Ran'jit.

[Big-Isaac]

The whole "Master Monk" trope is writ large, yes, but that by itself doesn't justify anything. Even before you take Hydaelyn's blessing into account, we're a soul that has been rejoined 7 times, meaning that we are supposed to be inherently superior to "normal" people. We see this again and again in every job quest line, with us eclipsing people who have decades of experience at a given job in mere days.
Us losing to Ran'jit is like current Goku losing to Master Roshi because the latter has "more experience"

[LynMars]

Like many, I have issues with how Ran'jit was handled; it's one of the few missteps in the overall fantastic story.

There wasn't nearly enough information about him in the main story line to explain who he was or how his skillset worked, beyond he's been fighting sin eaters for decades and raised and trained multiple Minfilias. I don't even mind his power level or how his weird martial skill was unfamiliar enough to baffle the Scions for a time until we "figured it out", but the lack of info was more frustrating in this case than making him scarier. Possibly because of the issue with having had Zenos behave in similar fashions where we "have to lose the right way" as he consistently beat us over and over in Stormblood, and so Ran'jit felt like more of that same frustration.

I also feel like maybe Ran'jit started off decent-ish, but was hardened by the hopeless situation of the world, and his "love" for the Minfilias felt more like an abuser's; he trained them to fight and be vessels for the Oracle, not their own person, and Ryne he kept locked away, ostensibly to "protect her" but that in its own way was abuse. While some of the Scions (I think wrongfully) assumed Thancred couldn't tell between the Minfilias, it was Ran'jit who demonstrated in his dialogue the inability to see Ryne as her own person, separate from previous incarnations.

His popping up in the pyramid in Rak'tika also felt very plot-directed, rather than naturally written in; did he have a way to track us specifically, maybe some way to home in on Ryne? Because how could he get through not only an uncharted forest but also the maze and puzzles of the temple to meet us in time? And then again, more plot armor.

I too really think Ran'jit should have been defeated at the trolley duty in Ahm Araeng. He was Thancred's foil, Thancred's villain, and things were set up for it with Ryne's special cartridge she gave him literally just before the battle. The story was between these two men as her father figures from that first meeting in Laxan Loft. The duty in Eulmore felt tacked on, and only to satisfy the requirement of "it's the PC who is the hero and gets the kills" even though 1) the setup of this expac giving the Scions more agency and depth as party members works, and 2) we were controlling Thancred at the time anyway.

The Jesters could have been the dangerous enemy duty blocking the way to Vauthry, instead of doorstop sub-bosses. I felt like I killstole Ran'jit.

[shoobiedoobie]

I pretty much agree with the issues people have with Ran'jit's power level.

But more importantly, i want his second outfit for a glam

[Hezzlocks]

Honestly I think we haven't seen the end of Ran'jit. Sure, he's very likely dead (though honestly i felt it was left slightly ambiguous enough that they could bring him back if they tried hard enough) but that doesn't mean we won't end up delving into his past. I mean, think about Yotsuyu. In 4.0, she was, to be quite honest, a fairly one dimensional villain, with very little explained about her past aside from one echo scene of her being mistreated. She was just an evil dominatrix torturing and killing people because she liked torturing and killing people, and when she "died" in the Doman castle, well, let's be honest, none of us gave her a second thought, we were all focused on Gosetsu.

However, with subsequent patches we were introduced to Tsuyu, and had some more of her past explained to us, and suddenly we had a villain we could emphasise with, one who could never be forgiven for her actions yet we hoped she could be redeemed somehow, and one we felt sad for when, in the end, her horrific past caught up to her.

I certainly don't know if Ran'jit can possibly have the same sort of story arc, but the makings of it are there. He spent a lifetime fighting Sin Eaters. He raised and trained each Minfilia, considering each one of them to be like a daughter to him, and had each and every one of them die in his arms. Such a life could break even the best of people. When Lord Vauthry showed him a future of peace with the Sin Eaters, a future where he need not ever watch his daughter die again? Of course he'd take it.

Such a story could easily be expanded upon in future patches. And I hope it does, because if it's left as is, that is a terrible waste of a character with high potential.

[Zackneifein]

The whole "Master Monk" trope is writ large, yes, but that by itself doesn't justify anything. Even before you take Hydaelyn's blessing into account, we're a soul that has been rejoined 7 times, meaning that we are supposed to be inherently superior to "normal" people. We see this again and again in every job quest line, with us eclipsing people who have decades of experience at a given job in mere days.
Us losing to Ran'jit is like current Goku losing to Master Roshi because the latter has "more experience"

I don't see why people of the Source should be stronger than someone from the First or any other shard.

The reunion with Ardbert restore our soul and reinforce it enough to withstand the light, but doesn't mean we have any power up.
Ardbert and his companion was our equal (us with the Scion), and all of the Scion are elite fighter from the Source with 8/14 soul shards.

[FrejyaAthenes]

I see a lot of people floating around the theory that Ran'jit is part Sin Eater and Vaulthry's control is making him less effective, but the evidence just doesn't seem to be there.

He acts no differently than normal compared to the citizens, is loyal and high ranking enough that he wouldn't need to be fed meol (note: the Jesters also act normally when you fight them, so it's easy to assume that higher ups aren't fed meol) and his ability to see through illusions and sense aether can be attributed to a number of factors. Fordola's artificial echo, for example, allowed her to predict our movements by reading our aether. This kind of sight is also present in Y'shtola and Ryne, the later of which Ran'jit personally trained. It makes sense that he would have a similar technique and would pass on a style that utilized said technique to her.

Also, much like I brought up back when people were saying that we could be a primal, wouldn't Ryne have noticed it, like she did with Vaulthry? Or Y'shtola when she saw him, considering she thought we were a Sin Eater from looking at our aether?

[AnakhaSilver]

I see a lot of people floating around the theory that Ran'jit is part Sin Eater

It's his eyes for me. They look eerily like the one kid's. And he's just so PALE on my screen, to an eerie degree. It's like he's on his way to being a Sin Eater.

[Lewtskie]

It's his eyes for me. They look eerily like the one kid's. And he's just so PALE on my screen, to an eerie degree. It's like he's on his way to being a Sin Eater.

Note the kid is a male Au Ra, or whatever First variant are called, and thus have dark sclera. Ran'jit's eyes are merely pale. Either this is natural, or something to show his age. He also wasn't as pale as some say. Like, he was pale, but not unnaturally so; often his skin varied by the lighting and under certain light did show normal tones.

He never partook of any meol, he likely knew what it was, and he was never tempered or under any influence save his own. He fought under Vauthry's command completely willingly because he was an old, broken monk who was tired of losing every iteration of Minfillia to the eaters, all whom he each considered a daughter. He had given up fighting against the eaters, and just wanted peace for "his girls".

For his seemingly unnatural strength and ability. He was a Monk through and through, who's martial prowess often allows one to subvert the strength and ability of someone potentially stronger than him. Whether we were stronger than him or not at the beginning I couldn't say, but i would assume it wouldn't have mattered. He was a new foe and one who's ability grew from fighting creatures whom we weren't yet matched with for likely decades. We fight him enough times and each time after going against stronger enemies ourselves; eventually we either match him(or even learning his tricks as he learned ours) or become strong enough to overpower even his ability.

Against Thancred isn't a fair comparison. He only began having troubles against Thancred after he started utilizing extremely dangerous abilities that crippled both him and Ran'jit. Towards the end of the fight Ran'jit likely saw a man on his deathbed, leaving two ideas: either knew that, left alone, Thancred would perish and the possibility that Thancred would take action that would kill him and Ran'jit. A danger he didn't have the luxury of chancing, being that he still needed to stop us and "rescue" Minfillia.