I assume that by now everyone knows there are spoilers in this topic, but obligatory spoiler warning.

Quote Originally Posted by Rydin View Post
Many people believe this fight is what stopped the Empires advance into Eorzea....
But that theory yields way too many plot holes....
1. The Empires sudden halt prompts the unemployed soldiers to resort to "villainy" to survive (Villainy being the number one job skill of both soldiers and hoodlums)
2. To quell that barbaric behavior, guilds are set up, and so begins the "Age of the Adventurer"
3. The opening movie is of adventurers getting guild leves from an adventurers guild.. Implying that the empire has long since stopped their advance into the city states, and therefore this battle cannot be what halts their forces and these events are much closer to 10 years ago than 15
The character in the opening movie used the echo. (On whom? Who knows.) It's why he, like our characters in the main scenario, gets all confused and disoriented when he returns. You're able to reach into the memories or the past and alter the memory but not the outcome.

Quote Originally Posted by Rydin View Post
It brings the ship crashing down... but instead of flying away... it decides to stay and rot with the ship because its obviously a very old, very slow dragon who wants to die anyway... A little geriatric euthanasia never hurt anyone, right?
The dragon(Midgarsormr) blew the ship up, and the ship's on board ceruleum tank exploded, killing the dragon. Also, the dragon is -extremely old-, it's the Keeper of the Lake, whom has protected the lake since Nymeia asked him to, or so it is believed.