[SHB SPOILERS] Your most meaningful moment of Shadowbringers

[KalinOrthos]

Read title. I've been playing through ShB on my alt and I'm surprised at how much of the story still hits pretty hard and so good the second time, especially now that I have the new perspective of what happens further in the story. So I ask: What was the most meaningful or impactful moment in the game for you?

For me, it's after the Dying Gasp. Where we would normally get a statement of incredulity, or of a threat that their work will continue, Emet-Selch asks our character to "Remember us...that we once lived." This comes off the back of his monologue before the Amaurot instance, where he angrily retorts to us that he had been searching for a thousand thousand lifetimes to find someone to pass his legacy to, where we finally feel the burden he feels when he tells us he has sired children and raised civilizations. His request is so impactful, because in us he sees fit to at least entrust his legacy, even if that means his quest comes to an unfulfilled end. It doesn't absolve him of the blood on his hands, the corpses in his wake, the fires and ruins that line the road he walks, but it's these moments of genuinely good writing that make this my favorite expansion of a game ever, that they give a villain, one so unforgivable as Emet-Selch, such a degree of sympathy.

[Theodric]

Seeing the destruction of Amarout first hand and learning that the Ascians were simply trying to bring back their loved ones, regardless of the cost.

A pretty sympathetic cause when all is said and done - it's a level of loss and torment far beyond anything the Warrior of Light and his allies have experienced as well.

[lunar_seraphim]

The dynamic between Thancred and Ryne.

Every bit of development involving those two was definitely when I was most absorbed into the story. I always felt sorta "meh" regarding Thancred, but seeing him in this new paternal role really struck a chord with me. Watching Thancred struggle with caring for Ryne because he knew her survival would ultimately bring about the end of his original charge, Minfillia, felt organic and well-written. While frustrating at times, I was humored by his strictness and abrasiveness towards Ryne, as they were really just weak attempts at hiding how much he was growing to care for her.

Personally, I am hoping Thancred finds a way to stay in the First so he can continue to look after Ryne and their adventures can continue.

And I've retconned it in my own head that Thancred is the one who slew Ran'jit, not us. Such a glaring mistake in one of the most profound story moments to have Ran'jit survive only to be cut down in a pathetic battle with us. They both cared for Ryne, their fate should have been decided between themselves and themselves alone.

[TwitchingFool0]

The dynamic between Thancred and Ryne.

Every bit of development involving those two was definitely when I was most absorbed into the story. I always felt sorta "meh" regarding Thancred, but seeing him in this new paternal role really struck a chord with me. Watching Thancred struggle with caring for Ryne because he knew her survival would ultimately bring about the end of his original charge, Minfillia, felt organic and well-written. While frustrating at times, I was humored by his strictness and abrasiveness towards Ryne, as they were really just weak attempts at hiding how much he was growing to care for her.

Personally, I am hoping Thancred finds a way to stay in the First so he can continue to look after Ryne and their adventures can continue.

And I've retconned it in my own head that Thancred is the one who slew Ran'jit, not us. Such a glaring mistake in one of the most profound story moments to have Ran'jit survive only to be cut down in a pathetic battle with us. They both cared for Ryne, their fate should have been decided between themselves and themselves alone.

I'm still upset about Ran'jit. I was really hoping he'd see reason or abandoning Vauthry in some way. They just threw him away like garbage. All that stuff Ran'jit said was useless I guess. Just had to give us Zenos number 2.

[Jirah]

SHB has many great story beats moments which I’ll share by emotion

Joy: Seeing the scions safe and unharmed, especially Uringer whom I called would get a following and be more appreciated in 5.0 btw

Disgust: Goodlord we all know what this one is which is such a dark turn of events that just keeps getting worse that I don’t wanna spoil it. Has to do Something with Sin Eaters and it’s after Ryne found Jesus and is able to detect wardens the instance leading up to Immaculate *wink*

Anger: Every time Vahlthry mentions something and Ran’jits lack of will to fight for his world. His character is interesting but come on! Do you know what that fat pale punk does?! He is old and has seen her die so I think he’s relatable in some way. Vahlthy though, you love to hate him and love villains like that, take notes Zenos, the One-noted.

Fear: No brainer, that one bit straight from resident evil game. It’s a chilling scene and paints a Gory picture of the fate of those who aren’t strong enough to fight them off.

Sad: Honorable mention of Emet walking around his precious city while a revenant from the past narrates on pitying him, that sets the tone for the fights ahead. But the lowest moment , in a good way, was our last warden fight. We are essentially on death row the pixie offers you a sweet deal to die . It’s a sorrow filled rollercoaster and the scions optimism plummets while they figure out wth to do. Your a time bomb and I love it

SHB is a amazing ride of emotions just wished they nailed the content and difficulty issues otherwise this would’ve been the perfect expansion by all dimensions

[Enkidoh]

Seeing the destruction of Amarout first hand and learning that the Ascians were simply trying to bring back their loved ones, regardless of the cost.

A pretty sympathetic cause when all is said and done - it's a level of loss and torment far beyond anything the Warrior of Light and his allies have experienced as well.

^This. What a dungeon. The imagery, the lore, Emet's sincere commentary about the apocalypse that befell the city, it was just so well done. And of course, the cutscene after completing it - yes it did devolve into an Advent Children Complete reference when Ardbert appears and becomes a deus ex machina saving the WoL at the eleventh hour, but it was still an amazing experience that is now my favourite part of the game.

Seeing how my character was truly suffering as the sineater transformation began and their very soul started shattering and the corrupted Light - lets not mince words - raped them in body and soul, all while Emet stood smirking and belittling them for their folly was such a powerful scene.

Maybe I'm empathic but I really felt the sheer agony my character went through in that, my heart was racing. And the Hades fight.... omg... never before has SE accomplished truly what they were trying to show with the Ascians... overwhelming Darkness threatening to consume the player character's Light, unlike those other ameuters like Lahabrea and Nabrieles who were just cartoonish in their "MWHAHAHA I'M SO DARK AND EVIL AND ZODIARK WILL CRUSH YOU!!" supervilliany, Emet/Hades really was what an Ascian should be: extremely powerful and dangerous and all consumingly Dark, and yet, gracious in defeat, almost thankful we finally sent him to his rest, relieving him of the burdern of carrying his peoples' legacy. Amazing character, amazing battle, amazing dungeon and amazing storyline. ShB truly is the best FFXIV expansion yet!

And the revelations really started making me question everything we thought we knew about the lore - especially the WoL's origins....

The only problem now is I'm afraid SE might have raised the bar so high it's going to now be a very hard act to follow to actually exceed this!

[Edax]

While I know it's impossible for the writers to let the Warrior of Light die, I did like how close they pushed it, to the point where she legit looked dead. It really helps push against the tired power fantasy by having the WoL hanging by a thread.

[Lauront]

Pretty much anything Emet-Selch/Ascian/ancient related, and seeing the Scions' reactions to some of the things we're now learning. I am looking forward to seeing how they build on Elidibus's role. I am hoping he isn't sidelined in favour of Zenos, a character which continues to disappoint and bore me ever since SB.

Varis's death was also pretty sad, as I had high hopes for how they might use him in the plot in the future... but what's done is done. At least the Memoria Misera trial went some way to remedy that.

[Anonymoose]

Most meaningful is a tall order! A lot of scenes were powerful, but which meant the most to me?

As someone who tries his best to archive and interpret the lore, there were a lot of meaningful scenes.

In terms of things that were resolved or un-resolved. I may edit this list as I think on it, lol....

✔️ The conditions required for a Calamity
✔️ Rejoining vs. Calamity
✔️ Which dimensions are gone, which were destroyed in which Calamity
✔️ What astral and umbral are (again) as elemental forces
✔️ How Light and Dark as primoridal forces relate to astral and umbral
✔️ How a "Light Calamity" can happen (it still can't)
✔️ Flood mechanics
✔️ What the world was like "before"
✔️ Who the Ascians are, what their history is
✔️ Elidibus, in the end, has no common ground with us (He's a snaaake!)
✔️ Cleaning up the starshower of 1.0
✔️ Everything about Lahabrea makes sense in light of him being a tenured university professor
✔️ Thancred/Minfilia closure

❌ The truth about the Flood of the First (Please look forward to it.)
❌ What about the other timeline now that G'raha's still here. Unresolved paradox? Infinite multiverse? Inverted lattice through the crystal of time, creating a macle in mockery of the fabric of reality itself?
❌ How we're supposed to think about time now, given that changing it doesn't quite jibe with Alexander's whole "4D, set in stone" thing
❌ Can we uproot Hydaelyn from the stream without undoing the world as we know it? We now know that the Lifestream pre-dates the Sundering, but that BANG ZOOM BECAME THE MOON split not only Zodiark the World Soul, but the world along with him. And yet we also know Hydaelyn is Venat + Creation. Often in such a scenario, Square Enix will indeed opt to kill both. But will that bring back the Cacophany?
❌ ...What's up with the Presence of Silvertear Lake these days?

But as someone who's just a player havin' a good time?

1. Arriving in Crystarium.

Not many (if any) of you remember this (probably), but I latched on very hard to some areas of the Rapture tech demo and was disappointed to see there was nothing quite like it in 1.0. The world was beautiful, but also felt empty and not very "living." When 2.0 was announced, I thought it might be fun to add an area like those we saw in Rapture to maybe Ishgard, or something, as a little throwback. "Look how far we've come." That never happened, of course, so I just let it go. I even planned on modeling my in-game house after Rapture but could never get it quite right because there were still not many housing options that matched the aesthetic.

But then Crystarium happened. A whole city based on Rapture, with purple trees and a library to boot. And then it turned out G'raha Tia built it, so it coincidentally felt very personal. And now there are going to be Crystarium housing items that are very much my style, so I can't wait to get that done.

All that's left is Purple Promyvion and one day returning to Eorzea (city-state deeplore, Mor Dhona) and I think this game will have given me literally everything I ever wanted from it.

2. Post-Amaurot

There's something about being an adult that bothers the hell out of me: every experience is processed in light of your entire life's wealth of past experiences and acquired knowledge. You can't see or feel or touch or taste or hear anything without it activating knowledge or comparisons. A mild version of this bleeds over into my enjoyment of pop culture, usually resulting in me being jaded, cynical, or disconnected - even when I'm really loving my time with it.

Something about that scene where everything is super melodramatic and hopeless and all your friends have been cast aside, and then you're just about to collapse from the Light pollution and then right in a row the RAPID upswing of the trailer theme hittig and the Ardbert vision and Exarch showing up and the "trick of the light" and the true introduction of Hades and the cutscene melds right into the trial with Exarch summoning the pillars of light that become the other champions of the Source you would have rolled with back home, I definitely had a moment of pure, child-like hype, lol.

[BasicBlake]

There were so many points in the ShB story that literally had me open mouthed. But nothing really hit quite like walking up to that cliff in Tempest and seeing the city. Seeing the work Emet has done. It was a "wow" moment.