Echo Vision Frequency

[Iscah]

I don't think Elidibus saw in 5.3. I think he saw the color off the WoL's soul put couldn't quite put a finger on why it felt somewhat familiar. He never put 2 and 2 together that the Amaurotine WoL he idolized may have been standing right in front of him.

I don't think we were ever "the Warrior of Light" pre-Sundering. The legendary warrior that Elidibus is channeling seems to be an early incarnation of Ardbert's soul-shard.

I'm guessing that Zenos might get a vision of the WoL's life story in 6.0, might change his perspective on the WoL.

Maybe he'll finally stop trying to push his "we both love violence for violence's sake" line on me then.

I feel like we've missed the opportunity for a shift of perspective for Zenos though. I remember when he first popped up again in 4.3 and we were wondering where he might go from there, and the answer has disappointingly turned out to be "straight back to what he was doing before".

If you're not going to take a man's physical death and revival in another body as a storytelling chance for some introspection and shift in perspective, when is it going to happen?

And since they've gone that way, I don't know where they could take it from here. As much as his relentless "there is nothing in this world but battle" thing gets dull, having him find compassion (or any degree of care for others) at this late stage would feel trite.

In some ways it's a path we've already trodden with Omega and its late realisation of the importance of the soul, but Omega was questioning along that line from the start and wanting to understand even if it was entirely ill-equipped to do so.

Zenos doesn't need to understand what drives us. He knows. He's entirely wrong about it (give or take your personal interpretation of your WoL's motives) but he knows - not that it really matters so long as we give him a good fight out of it.

But, again, as far as we are shown, The Resonant control when their powers are active by lighting up their eyes. Though I suppose we could also say that this is just a cool visual for emphasis.

I just rewatched the scene - she's arguing with Arenvald when her eye lights up and she gets flashes of our past, and she immediately grimaces. It doesn't feel deliberate to me.

Other scenes imply she's sensing other people's thoughts without even showing the Resonant eye effect, from wincing in cutscene #2 of "The Price of Freedom" (where we don't know what's going on with her yet) to an outright Echo-headache in #5 of "Return of the Bull". It lines up with Arenvald's observation and indicates that she is constantly getting these unwanted flashes of emotion, if not actual visions, from the people around her.

I don't know if that supports or detracts from my impression that her looking into our past isn't deliberate, but the simplest argument against is that there's no reason for her to be doing it in that moment. She doesn't choose to look into others' pasts and she wasn't even focused on us at the time.

I think she can voluntarily call on the intended effects of the Resonance - the heightened senses "listening" for her opponent's next move - and everything else is an unwanted side effect she can't control.

Maybe the eye effect in that scene is just to emphasise or confirm that yes, it is her Resonant powers giving her these visions.

[Vyrerus]

It doesn't feel deliberate to me.

She's not arguing with Arenvald. She's berating him, immediately after talking to the WoL. Because he's been standing there berating her using his knowledge of her past from the vision he had of her at Baelsar's Wall, when she kidnapped Krile. Her eye doesn't just randomly light up. She consciously closes her eyes and reopens them, lighting it up of her own volition, as she has every time she has used it. Three sentences prior she'd just said, "Had a peek into my past, have you?" Which she said to the WoL. Her head's now facing Arenvald, but she's still thinking about the WoL.

Those are some good subtle observations of yours, though. We also know from the Pendants Echo vision we have while asleep in Shadowbringers( the one where we go to sleep righ after Ole Exarchy visits us after Ardbert singes his hand on us), that she could have been having Echo visions in her sleep as well, when she unconsciously channels her power.

Also, that's all I've been trying to say. She can call on the Resonance at any time. She just doesn't get to control the side effects, but she knows what they are and that they are likely to happen.

I appreciate people responding. I'd forgotten about Ardbert and every WoD having Echo visions at the Gnath colony. Were there more? I went back and checked the first time we meet Krile. Nothin' Kind of a shame.

I also find it kind of interesting that we have Echo visions for every Cardinal Virtue for those instanced battles where we control a WoD companion of Ardbert's. Even though the Cardinal Virtues no longer have the WoD's souls, as those were sacrificed to Minfilia to stop the Flood. I guess there's their residual selves in their damaged Crystals of Light though.