Who is the guy in the trailer? Us or Arbert?

[Alise]

in the SHB trailer, that man with Axe and change to so many job. He is also the same guy that portrait many trailer before. I wonder if he is refer to Arbert or us? Since I don't recall we are having a hard time fighting just mid tier of Sin eater like that...

[Alien_Gamer]

It's a generic stand in meant to be the WoL. The trailer isn't literal either, that scene represents the struggle against the flood of light.

[Enkidoh]

Derplander is both, he both represents the player's character as a stand-in in cutscenes and propaganda artwork, and is his own independent character in the form of Arbert. Ferne confirmed this way back during the Beta test for ARR on the old forum that is now archived:

So yes, the Midlander male, Miqo’te female, Roegadyn male, Elezen female, and Lalafell female in the recent trailers are in fact the same ones that appeared in the 1.0 trailer! (Yes, the black mage is the Elezen female from the morbol party, not the snooty male from the Midlander’s party. The robe & hat conceal some of her more distinguishing features, and we all know there was no bust size adjustment feature back in 1.0).

But that still leaves one question—was the party an actual party, or were they merely symbols meant to represent you, the players? Well, you can breathe easy knowing they are both. They all ventured into Eorzea at the same time as you did. They all did similar quests, and lived through similar adventures. They exist as your characters exist (in a virtual world-sort of existence). The fact that you haven’t come across them is probably the same reason you haven’t come across my character, Amanda Hugginkyss (or maybe you have? /wink). They’re just somewhere else. Though, maybe you’ll stumble across their party in the future. Or maybe you won’t. How’s that for committing to an answer?

And that still works even with the revelations in SHB. Derplander, is you, and is his own person (in a metaphysical way). Commence mind screw.

[Iscah]

Derplander is both, he both represents the player's character as a stand-in in cutscenes and propaganda artwork, and is his own independent character in the form of Arbert. Ferne confirmed this way back during the Beta test for ARR on the old forum that is now archived:

And that still works even with the revelations in SHB. Derplander, is you, and is his own person (in a metaphysical way). Commence mind screw.

That same post "confirms" that it's the female Elezen who becomes the black mage in the featured party, which is not the case for Arbert's party.

The Warriors of Darkness are a visual reference to the original Warriors of Light as seen in the ARR trailer, but they're not actually the same people. The originals are clearly people of the Source, involved in the fight at Carteneau - in which case if you consider them the canon heroes of ARR onwards, Arbert is an otherworldly doppelgänger of the protagonist, but not the same person.

[Edax]

in the SHB trailer, that man with Axe and change to so many job. He is also the same guy that portrait many trailer before. I wonder if he is refer to Arbert or us? Since I don't recall we are having a hard time fighting just mid tier of Sin eater like that...

It's the poster Warrior of Light. In the Distant Worlds concert, they'll play FFXIV cutscenes with that poster model. I remember one such cutscene was poster WoL as the Dark Knight facing his own shadow.
I can only imagine future Distant World concerts will have 2 identical WoD/WoL models in the Crystalarium Inn talking to each other.

[YianKutku]

I think of it as the cinematic trailers being the Wandering Minstrel version of our adventures.

[Alise]

Our Source world will ruin by Black Rose, not Sin Eater. In actual future that Uringar see, there was no Sin Eater. So I don't think that trailer is the version of us if we didn't go to the first either.


Then in the story of the First, we actually quite happy and easy going most of the time, so we don't struggle against weak Sin Eater for sure.

I think of it as the cinematic trailers being the Wandering Minstrel version of our adventures.

that guy who always overestimate stuffs :x

[RopeDrink]

In actual future that Uringar see

Spoilers, but... Urianger's vision of our future was a ruse.

As for the topic itself, the trailer is the WoL, in a cinematic version of Holminster Switch (seeing as you encounter both the insulting gremlins and an identical Sin Eater in the dungeon, complete with that 'descending from the light' entrance, before you complete the dungeon and split the sky to reveal the night.

The confusion is thanks to a hefty chunk of trailers all using a baseline for the WoL + WoD's. For example, you can literally mistake all NPC's in the previous trailers (Flames of Truth being one of the most noticeable) for the WoD's, seeing as it has characters that look identical to Ardbert, the Bard, Black Mage, White Mage and Paladin. In future trailers, you also see the female Elezan that crops up in pretty much every WoD role quest in ShB... But they are not the same people. In short, you just have to accept that what Emet said is entirely true, and that the WoD's are basically shards/replicas/pieces of the originals, just with their own history like everyone else. They are essentially the WoL's for the First, much like we are for the Source, just split due to the sundering, which explains why Ardbert joined with you in the finale as he/you are pieces of the same soul.

Sounds complex but it really isn't.

[PeppermintBrown]

Trailer derplander is us. Or an approximation of us. The specifics are too closely tied to what we do in these expansions to fit the First and Arbert.

That said, the things don't match US 100% either, but the locations match. So I see it as a sort of symbolic interpretation of us, not things we literally do. It's too far removed from Arbert to really be him.

[Keever]

Ardbert didn't experience the Battle of Silvertear Skies or the Calamity, he never went to Ishgard, never sparred with Lyse at Rhalgr's Reach or became a samurai in Kugane, and never fought any Sin Eaters, ever.

The trailer midlander is a stand-in for the player character. He also appears in all the gameplay trailers for every expansion and patch, in the player character's spot. He's the default appearance selectable for the benchmarks.

Ardbert & co. looking like us is a meta reference on the devs' part. It's meant to show you "hey, they're just like you!". The dev team must have thought it would be cool. No confusion necessary, lol.