Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.4

Gonna backread the whole thread at some point, but I wanted to get my thoughts out now, before they are possibly changed by cool theories/perceptions.

MSQ

So, I'm a fan of anything that kicks off with Alisaie wanting to do something.

That said, this entire first part of the patch felt like fan service with a side of extra fan service. Catboi Sage Deluxe ramrodding in a, "Remember the olde days?" Along with a smidgeon of Sharlayan lore. It was all smile worthy.

I was most interested in the supercomputer, and it was nice for Griggs of Vinheim to furnish us with transportation for the ceruleum. No Lucia dialogue Q_Q

Not quite sure why we had to run the computer until it blew up, could it not store the previously eliminated results? Could we have not shut her down and come back tomorrow? I wonder if Allagan Royal Blood = eidetic memory or if G'raha had that just by luck.

Wow, they actually did it. There goes my argument for this being dark fantasy bottled as high fantasy. OTL But wow, that's also really cool that we can just untemper anyone now.

Why flying pigs? Because it caps off the expression, "Heh, sure kid, maybe when pigs fly!"

New dungeon was cool. I loved the FF1 sprites on the bookcases. I ran with Trusts just to see if Alisaie would cast Scorch now. She does not seem to cast Scorch for me, though I had thought she had been shown casting it in the trailer. Second boss the Trusts didn't know what to do, how refreshing, but I got tipped off that I needed to get knocked up because I could target the balls that need dead, and instantly thought of other mechanics where you need to at least get knocked into the air or up to another platform, namely Castrum Lacus Litore's final boss. Even with the balls at 70% cast done, we were able to kill them. EZ PZ

The fan service kept going, and except for the G'raha fan service, this patch seemed dedicated to pleasing me. Merlwyb STYLES on Sicard by shooting his musket ball out of the air, and then shooting him in the thigh. I didn't play 1.0 so Captain Asthma didn't draw any reaction. The instanced battle did though. I was a little scared that Mistbeard killed himself for oursake.

<Insert 5G Towers joke here> Really though it made me go WTF?! when they stated, "The towers are of Garlean make." Sister, nothin' about those towers looks Garlean to me.

At last, Fandango swoops in and drops a FFIV reference on us. He wants to burn the world to ash and die. Huh. You know, a lot of people are saying he's just not being upfront with his motivation for that, and I can understand wanting more.

It all set my head ablaze with theory. Patch 5.4 casts Run Wild on my imagination. So here's the skinny on what I think Fandaniel's motives are:

I think, personally, he's dead serious about wanting to usher in the end. Whatever the Ancients did to their souls to make them everlasting, I don't think that was a natural part of life. Emet-selch sold us the visions of a Utopia. Remember though, Utopia means no place, and I'm fairly certain whenever we do learn Fandaniel's impetus, it will sell Amaurot's dark side to us.

Consider: The 5G Tempering towers are likely not an original innovation by Fandango. I've long wondered about the state of world politics and Amaurot's place in them, along with the darker aspects of that culture. Conformity was the norm. Suppression of individuality was also the norm. Somehow though, conformity of thought wasn't the norm? Debate was encouraged? Hmm. I find that hard to believe. So I think that Amaurot's spires were tempering spires, and that they tempered those Ancients with wrongthink, and had them sacrifice themselves to fuel Zodiark. Likely along with any foreigners near Amaurot's embassies, assuming they had such things. Yeah, it's completely unsubstantiated fanfic material, but I'm fairly certain Fandango got the idea from those times.

Related to this would be the Terminus cult idea. So many of the monsters in the Amaurot dungeon, including all of the bosses, had humanoid faces. Even if those faces were warped in grotesque fashion, they were still unmasked faces. I believe that Fandaniel, in spite of being a convocation member, was aligned with this Terminus Cult, even back then. He just hid it, or, the Fandaniel we're dealing with is one of those rare cases of raising any old sundered soul up to the station. Anyway, it's my thought that a death cult that wanted to end the utopia existed back then. When the calamity occurred they almost got their wish, but were denied.

Anywho, that's enough imagination.

The end that showed the towers tempering people to Garlemald had me wonder if it's a red herring that we're going to what's left of Garlemald for a whole expansion, or if it's setting us up for some interesting boss fights and character deaths/injury.

For one, it made me wonder if Thancred, Urianger, and Estinien could possibly come back tempered by the towers. If maybe Estinien might skewer his Lalafellin tormentors. Ruh-roh!

Eden

Just Gals being pals! Which honestly didn't bother me. The prismatic crystal also didn't bother me. But, I don't really care about Gaia, even given her true identity. I did enjoy the theme of memory and identity though.

The fights were also very enjoyable, though I'm not really a fan of the Cloud of Darkness one. I can't decide whether Shadowkeeper or Fatebreaker were my favies The music in the final fight was orgasmic, but the boss itself was ehh, weird to look at and pretty boring once you memorized the patterns.

Kinda felt bad for Mitron. Guy basically just wanted his wife back. No going about it in a good way, but hey, induce sympathetic reaction achieved. Course, his original real name was Artemis. Artemis a goddess. Gaia a Titaness. Originally gay? Guess it doesn't matter, they kinda transcend sexuality due to all the soul transmigration.

Emerald Weapon

Gaius redemption arc, ho! As much as people are complaining about this arc happening, it's pretty much just another Vegeta story. Remember in DBZ, Vegeta, the guy who's killed billions of people, destroyed whole planets, sold planets and any remaining population to Frieza etc. Yeah he got redeemed into a loving, caring husband and father. Pretty sure the writers for FFXIV will have no problem redeeming Gaius in similar fashion.

The Emerald Weapon fight was fun. I actually died three times, twice to knockback, because I had my camera angled in a way where I literally could not see the blue Sephirot circle because it was on the other side of the boss. Third death was magnet mines iirc. Second phase the music was pumping and I was refeeling Monk, and it was just 100% groovey.

New villain seems to be a mix of the devil himself and Bishop Frolo from Hunchback of Notre Dame. Except he probably can't sing as good.

The pilot for the pod test for Diamond weapon looks almost 100% like my character, and I was freaking out that my twin brother was being killed.

Nier, Cylva, Unukalhai, and the Role NPCs

I can't remember which dwarf I picked. Poor Anogg though. Poor Konogg too.

Carrying Unukalhai across the rift and reuniting him with Cylva was cool. Urianger saying that they'll need physical bodies at some point kinda rings hollow to me though, because if that's the case, they've been incorporeal for thousands of years. When's the best by date? Another 2~3 thousand years?

Role NPCs got hammered. Poor Granson, you'd think he could have smelled it as he raised the mug. Lue-Reeq never realized how expensive booze can be till now.

Taynor and Unukalhai have the same soul maybe? Guess it could be read as Unukalhai has Nyelbert's soul or whatever too. Why aren't this void gates trying to suck us in like they did during the mage role quests though?

Originally Posted by LineageRazor

In response to that...

I have a few things to say here.

In regards to Vegeta - yes, he did a lot of very awful things early in the series, but as Z goes on he very, very slowly becomes a better person to the point that in Super he's arguably more heroic than Goku. Near the end of Z he's brought back to life via a wish meant to revive only the "good people" killed by Buu (and is surprised by this), gains motivation for wanting to become stronger beyond surpassing Goku (which he flat-out gives up on in the Tournament of Power), and in the manga-exclusive Super Moro Arc expresses regret for the things he did on Namek. Vegeta has a very dark past but as I see it Z is ultimately his story, chronicling his development from sociopathic killer to atoning hero.

Do I think comparing Gaius to Vegeta is fair? Ehh... maybe. They're both former soldiers who went rogue and turned against their masters for selfish reasons, but Gaius transitioned to atonement way faster than Vegeta (who didn't realize the error of his ways until after the whole "Majin Vegeta" episode). Then again Gaius was out of the picture for nearly 3 expansions' worth of story (2.0 End - 4.3 Stinger) and didn't actually become a mover again until 5.1, while Vegeta is a constant presence in Dragon Ball after he's introduced excepting a short period of time during the Buu Arc after he self-destructs in a (futile) attempt to kill the eponymous antagonist.

Is Gaius the "only good" Legatus? Well, other than Gabranth (who's gotten very little screen time so far) he's the only one who's been shown to both live up to the Empire's promise of meritocracy and not indulge in petty racism. As far as I'm concerned he kind of is (especially given Gabranth isn't Garlean and only has his position thanks to nepotism).

Fordola is not let off the hook, she's conscripted into an elite Immortal Flames unit specializing in primal hunting and works alongside Arenvald. She's outfitted with an explosive collar that can be used if she tries any funny business.

As for Valens... amoral scientist driven by envy to surpass his superior, who sees other people only as things to be used in his schemes and discarded when they're of no further value to him? Extremely unsettling presence, tends to be a mood swinger? He's a Hojo.

Nier quest

I kinda think that Anogg might actually be dead, for the original Dwarf and her replicant. I'm also starting the think that the latter, deceased or no, would play a pivotal role in the last tier

Emerald

I mentioned in part my opinion on Varro elsewhere (though forgetting that there likely are people as evil as he in RL). But I must also mention that the wife and kid are likely probably dead and that their final thoughts would be Zenosesque clamoring for prey. And this was after hos torture session with Alfonse. I will say that Varro deserved everything that will come to him, and think that if he was put in charge of Bozja instead that things would've been even worse for the region

The post trial quest was also interesting in that established that yes, the dead orphans did have friends beyond their group. As well as motivating Terncliff to defy their Garlean oppressors.

Role Quests

I kinda think that a 5.5 addition would exist to add Gaia and Ryne to the group of bounty hunters. And also think that afterwards they might wind up being the ones taking up extradimensional heroics while we stay on the Source, culminating in a few short stories about them every Rising, a token quest in 6.0 and beyond that serves to follow up on the void at most and maybe a possible expac about a partially restored void.

Telophoroi= Telos (Supreme end), Phoroi (Plural of beacon/lighthouse). Lighthouses can be poetic for things that usher or *bring* about something (a beacon of hope). So while it literally means "End Beacons", I think it translated better to Endbringers. Furthermore, Shadow has connotations with Endings/Finality/Death, therefore it might be a stretch, but Shadowbringers is also potentially valid as a translation. This could be our faction-with-the-same-name-as-expansion-title thing we got, like with Thordan's Heavens' Ward.