Ruby Weapon Questline

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Some postings are a bit hypocritical. The pilots are most likely already dead once they enter the battlefield. If oversoul won't kill them during the fight, we probably will by finishing it. And if not, they die another way. Those kids are soldiers in a war - there is no hope left for them. Even if they don't mount a giant robot they will just send to another frontline or laboratory for 'the greater good'.

[Bhearil]

Some postings are a bit hypocritical. The pilots are most likely already dead once they enter the battlefield. If oversoul won't kill them during the fight, we probably will by finishing it. And if not, they die another way. Those kids are soldiers in a war - there is no hope left for them. Even if they don't mount a giant robot they will just send to another frontline or laboratory for 'the greater good'.

Well Gaius did survive Ultima weapon being destroyed(plus the exploding base to boot). Oversoul is the fantasy version of a suicide atack since it feeds on the pilot life.

Theres a difference between "might die" and "will die" on the battlefield otherwise barely no one would become a soldier if it would be a death warrant 100% of the time. The pilots here are basically human experiments to test and improve the new Ultima prototypes so either they win always or they die (and in some cases both)

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Well Gaius did survive Ultima weapon being destroyed(plus the exploding base to boot).

True, but Gaius is a hard boiled super soldier, not a kid in uniform. Any lower man or woman wouldn't probably survive what Gaius survived.

Theres a difference between "might die" and "will die" on the battlefield otherwise barely no one would become a soldier if it would be a death warrant 100% of the time.

Well, it's not like they all have a choice. And in war, there a lot of moments were sacrifices are made for a "greater good" or just because by the arrogance of a general or whatever. So I think it's still hypocritical to be shocked about the sacrifice of an enemy pilot when we have single-handedly killed thousends of soldiers ourself, most of them just beeing send to defend something we want to destroy. It's not like we've cared much in the past about all those pilots in their magitek-machines if they died or survived when we destroyed them.

[MrThinker]

True, but Gaius is a hard boiled super soldier, not a kid in uniform. Any lower man or woman wouldn't probably survive what Gaius survived.


Well, it's not like they all have a choice. And in war, there a lot of moments were sacrifices are made for a "greater good" or just because by the arrogance of a general or whatever. So I think it's still hypocritical to be shocked about the sacrifice of an enemy pilot when we have single-handedly killed thousends of soldiers ourself, most of them just beeing send to defend something we want to destroy. It's not like we've cared much in the past about all those pilots in their magitek-machines if they died or survived when we destroyed them.

I think the point is that we are not shocked by the 'sacrifice' but that said sacrifice was most likely much more painful and prolonged than the swift deaths that we and other soldiers would mete out against opponents, even if said opponents were driving magitek machina.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

I think the point is that we are not shocked by the 'sacrifice' but that said sacrifice was most likely much more painful and prolonged than the swift deaths that we and other soldiers would mete out against opponents, even if said opponents were driving magitek machina.

I'm not so sure about that. I mean, we've boiled people alive in our flamethrowers, slowed them down by freezing them and killed them slowly with poison DoTs. We propably could and did much worse to them then Ruby would. And if those weapons are somewhat 'humane', the pilot wouldn't feel anything anyway in oversoul thanks to anesthetic injections or something like that.

[LystAP]

I'm not so sure about that. I mean, we've boiled people alive in our flamethrowers, slowed them down by freezing them and killed them slowly with poison DoTs. We propably could and did much worse to them then Ruby would. And if those weapons are somewhat 'humane', the pilot wouldn't feel anything anyway in oversoul thanks to anesthetic injections or something like that.

If I recall, Cid was very explicit that the pilot was in horrible pain.

[KageTokage]

I think they left out the "Die of agonizing pain from being used as a catalyst for summoning a primal" detail to the Weapon pilots.

I assume they were probably just told Oversoul is to be used as a last resort and nothing else, though I honestly doubt that the specifics of what it does would necessarily turn them away when they're already willing to resign themselves to death on the battlefield.

I feel like the fate of Werlyt as a whole is hinging on their cooperation in the Weapon project somehow, which may be why they didn't want Gaius to know the details...though he's coming after them regardless.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

[ReviaInfantry]

True, but Gaius is a hard boiled super soldier, not a kid in uniform. Any lower man or woman wouldn't probably survive what Gaius survived.

Well before StB where confirmation of Gaius still lives, he is presumably dead at the point. IMO they put him back into the plot because Maxi-second hand... I mean second in command guy makes too few an impact on "hey the empire has good guys too"

Also the real sacrifice is they got put into side stories, just like Omega. Which while important to the plot still an optional content, even if "oh hey that's unstoppable, but you can go stop it if you have time."

[Anonymoose]

Well before StB where confirmation of Gaius still lives, he is presumably dead at the point.

The dev. team talked about this during one of the panels or interviews. If I remember correctly, what happened was that Naoki Yoshida, Natsuki Ishikawa, and Banri Oda all had no idea whether Gaius was canonically deader-than-dead or only-mostly-dead, and then when it came up as a story possibility they were all like, "Well, I thought you knew!" so he was Schrödinger's Legatus for a bit, there. I was hardcore on Team #GaiusLives, but it started out as a, "That didn't look like a convincing death for who they built him up to be...and the end makes his character arc very strange if you take 1.0, 1.18, and 1.23 into account." Then it turned into a meme because I got so much sh[KUPO]t every time I said it, so of course I said it every chance I got. (And it wasn't funny as much as frustrating until FusionX and Ethys started saying it, lol.)

I didn't think it'd really happen, tbh. But I'll be glad if his character arc and story is sensible at the end, whatever it is.

As for WHY they brought him back (aside from fan momentum), remember how when we went to Ishgard they dragged Estinien back into the story to be a sort of pilot navigating us through his homeland? That again. But for Garlemald.