*Spoilers* Questions about Shadowbringers

[MrThinker]

Technically yes, for now at least - although from memory I think G'raha tells Urianger that the concepts of time travel were developed out of certain events that happened during the WoL's adventures, implying that we historically did them.

Your memory is absolutely 100% correct here.

EDIT: Relevant Quotation from "The Unbroken Thread" - cutscene 1

Certainly. But where to begin? I should start with those great minds who survived the Calamity─Cid Garlond being perhaps the greatest. In hopes of staying the unending tides of war, he and his fellows pursued all manner of possible solutions. One of these was rooted in a theory which unified several fundamental principles discovered over the course of the Warrior of Light's adventures. It proposed a method by which one could enter the river of time, traverse the rift, and leap between worlds.

This part of the cutscene remains unchanged regardless of quest progression, so yes it assumes that the WoL (and not some other adventurers) will eventually, if they haven't already, beat Alexander, Omega, and the Cloud of Darkness.

[LineageRazor]

Having read all this back-and-forth, I gotta say I'm WAY more on-board with Iscah's interpretation than Edwin's Block thingy.

To me, it's simple: the moment your character steps into the first quest of Heavensward, she has canonically done EVERYTHING THAT IT'S POSSIBLE TO DO in ARR. CT? Done. Coil? Done. Leveled every job? Done. Crafted/gathered all the things? Done. Relicked all the weapons? Done.

Note: the CHARACTER has done all these things, even if the player has not. For things the PLAYER has not yet done, the game is coy, and works the dialog to avoid giving too much away, just in case the player wants to go back and do them later. But it's still the case that these things are part of the character's history. They are not added in retroactively as the player does them - they are already done. The player doing them after the fact is, at best, a flashback, or maybe an Echo vision.

Same goes for the first step into Stormblood. Void Ark? Done. Alexander. Done. Etc. First step into Shadowbringers? You get the idea.

[Iscah]

Note: the CHARACTER has done all these things, even if the player has not. For things the PLAYER has not yet done, the game is coy, and works the dialog to avoid giving too much away, just in case the player wants to go back and do them later.

Thanks for the vote, and I agree with you overall, but on this particular point - the game does specifically say you-the-character haven't done things if you-the-player skipped them. I see it more that you're supposed to have done everything in ARR by the time you leave ARR, but if you haven't the game will do its best to accommodate that and provide an alternate narrative - but it's not how the story is supposed to go, so the alternatives are only temporary and if it causes weird time anomalies or doesn't line up with the overall plot, that's 'your fault' for not doing things in chronological order.

As discussed earlier, if a player didn't do Crystal Tower before Shadowbringers, G'raha will tell Urianger that the WoL hasn't met his past self yet (even though CT should/must have happened at this point).

And the fluctuating state of our progress in the Binding Coil, which by the canon "everything finished" interpretation should be all wrapped up at Lv50 / post-ARR, but instead we get these variable remarks from Alphinaud and Alisaie in post-Heavensward indicating we're still only partway through it.

Alphinaud's possible remarks depending on Binding Coil progress:

Would I be right in assuming that you have not spoken with my sister since...one of the memorial services, was it?
By the Twelve, it seems a lifetime ago. I should like to think we have both grown since then...

It has been many moons since last we worked together...though I believe the same cannot be said of the two of you.
Aye, I confess, I was aware of your subterranean expedition─of your search for the truth of the Calamity.
I considered involving myself with her venture for a time, but as you know all too well, circumstances conspired to keep us apart. I can only assume she carried on in our absence...

It was good of you to accompany my sister on her forays into the coils. The knowledge that you were with her did much to put my mind at rest.
Though I know not what she found at the end of her search, Deks and Sinis did inform me that she had taken to the road on her own, apparently on a journey of self-discovery...
And what came of that I can only speculate. I am glad our paths crossed, regardless.

...To think that the three of us plumbed the depths of the coils and confronted Bahamut himself. Had I not been there, I would struggle to believe it.
Shortly after we parted ways, I heard that she had taken to the road on her own, apparently on a journey of self-discovery. Precisely where to I never learned, though I suspect that was by design.

And Alisaie's:

It is an honor, Forename. I realize we are barely acquainted, but having heard so much about you, it hardly feels that way.

I should thank you again for your assistance with my expeditions, Forename. Though we left matters somewhat unfinished, I am nevertheless prepared to focus on the task at hand and aid you to the fullest extent of my ability.

As you helped me to brave the coils, so too will I help you to defeat the Warriors of Darkness.*

To be honest, Forename, I wasn't planning on seeking you out just yet. When I set forth on my journey, I did so with grand ambitions. As you may recall, I promised I would not disappoint you...
I pray you will forgive me if I do.

* the text on Garland Tools has these all in one run-on piece of script and I'm not sure if this line goes with the part before or after it, or if it is separate.

The final version is how it's supposed to play out once you've got all the pieces in place, where Alisaie tells you at the end of the Coil storyline that she's departing on her journey - but if you haven't got to that scene, their alternate dialogue fills in the blanks and creates a "temporary version" of how she ended up going on that journey, which works on its own but directly contradicts the "real version" of how the expedition went.

But trying to treat these temporary alternate versions as canon is just too messy - especially as it opens extra cans of worms like trying to explain how Urianger is still at the Waking Sands when he is actually currently in Mor Dhona / the First and how Cid could be in three places at once if you leave CT/Alexander/Omega all half-finished. That's clearly not happening in-game (unless they want to send us for a real mind-screw later on). Just handwave it as game mechanics and treat the complete version as canon - it's how the lorebook handles it.

[Ilenya]

Glancing at this topic, I've realized the whole silliness with CT and the like can be solved with a simple statement.

The WoL from the Eighth Calamity timeline isn't a version of our character we've played. We've never played in the Eighth Calamity Timeline because time never went that way for us. It could even wrap around to the point where the change between Calamity and current timeline changes at the exact same point; the start of ARR. The Eighth Calamity Timeline as been running alongside us all the way until...Probably the first time the Exarch makes contact with us, since that would be the first in story point where the timelines would have diverged. Only difference being, Current Timeline WoL hasn't necessarily done everything involved, because Current Timeline us doesn't need to for the timeline to work.

Well, work as much as any time travel paradox timeline would, at any rate. It's a random theory, but eh, it'd answer a few things.