Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 2)

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

To a degree, yes; there's some wiggle room to build the shadow of doubt. I can see a lot of ways to make it work, my trouble is that I don't see the writers actually building anything in those spaces which do make it work. (At least, not ones that are visible yet.)

Even in the Mitron / Gaia example, Mitron's first lines in that very story arc were "I am Mitron, servant of Zodiark." and as soon as Gaia remembers who she was she starts seething Darkness, gets a face-glyph, and has an (unused) recorded battle line in which she shrieks, "In Lord Zodiark's name!" so we know where some developer heads are at, lol.

Good point. I guess it ultimately comes down to

how Fandaniel is characterized. Is he Fandaniel the Ancient or Fandaniel the sundered mortal? Is he the culmination of the unsundereds failure when it comes interacting with their sundered “comrades,” or is he a unique anomaly motivated by his own goals.

Like you point out, we don’t have many other Ascians we can point to who we’re neither working directly under the unsundered nor did not act wholly dedicated to the plan for the rejoining.

Still something has to be going on. Unless Fandaniel is secretly, in some convoluted scheme, still serving Zodiark, its clear he’s an even greater threat to Zodiark than Hydaelyn or Venat. And unless I’m missing something, all we have of his existence before he began working with Zenos is a small, broken, memory contained in his soul crystal. And even that didn’t seem particularly noteworthy, but perhaps that’s the point?

One other thing on the “dreamer”

Perhaps others had already noticed this and I’m just blind, but after Zenos gives permission to take more aether from a source “closer to home,” Fandaniel turns around and, staring up at the tower, yells

The time has come to fulfill your hearts desire! My hearts desire! To relieve those wretched creatures of their meaningless existence!

My initial interpretation was that he was directing this statement to Zenos, but what if he wasn’t? The camera, Fandaniels direction, all seems focused on the tower. The dialogue in other languages also points to this. If all that is correct, then that does narrow down who it could be, as I don’t think many characters would wish to “relieve those wretched creatures of the meaningless existence.” Certainly couldn’t imagine it being Varis. Would an unsundered fit? Emets voice is the narrator in the trailer right?

Originally Posted by KageTokage

If the other translations made it clear as to who/what they were referring to as the "dreamer"...

...then I now feel about 99.9% certain that Anima is the being responsible for the towers; moreso with it potentially being a nod to the fayths of FFX.

Though now I'm wondering how the thing was created even moreso.

I think it makes sense as a consequence of his job change, as well, since I doubt he's just going to get some itty bitty Voidsent avatar following him about. This pushed me further in that direction (the mask above him is a fair match to his former helmet)...

https://twitter.com/mizurimns/status...987751942?s=19

The little munchkin is the bottom half of Anima from X... I suspect what that thing (Anima) is, is a soul cage of sorts and that the critter is whatever is devouring the souls.

Wouldn't surprise me if it's what's embedded in the tower... they seem pretty organic, anyhow.

Not playing 'till dinner slows me down.

MSQ

So we called together the the spoken and beast tribes to realize Alphinaud's long-sought dream of a "Grand Company of Eorzea!" Yay, sticking it to the Telophori! ... but to make sure this sticks, we're getting info on the Crystal Braves and giving advice to the sylphs, only to find out that Alphinaud and Alisae's pops Fourchenault has been sent as Sharlayan's envoy to Gridania. So we go to meet him... and after exchanging pleasantries he turns out to be a total douche, expectedly telling us in no uncertain terms Sharlayan will not intervene and then disowning his kids for speaking out of turn.

Harsh, bro.

That said, as G'raha observes this was a bit theatrical, and there must be some purpose for which Fourchenault came to Eorzea and told us Sharlayan wouldn't intervene. Clearly they know something and just won't tell us because... Sharlayan, but just what that something is nobody knows.

Time for more Telophori fightan, and despite having been paralyzed from the waist down (it seems) Arevald shows up to encourage Alphinaud. So we take the fight to them at Cartenau, stopping no less than 3 Lunar primals and preventing Danny Boy from seizing control of the aetheric leylines for his "gateway to the gods." The day is saved at a cost (like always; this is war), and the Scions are dropped off at the Rising Stones. No entry to Sharlayan till Endwalker launches till Krile can get us entry despite the Forum stymieing her every attempt to do anything. Yep, first location big city, expecting lots of political intrigue there.

So while doing recon the Scions figure out the towers are drawing aether from the land itself to summon. Finally we see a manifestation of who can only be Venat telling us vagueness is coming and it's up to us to stop it. Thanks for that noninformation, Venat.

Meanwhile in the Imperial capital...
Danny Boy reports back to Zenos, who has just finished slaughtering some people with his new Reaper scythe and powers. Danny Boy notes that without the redirected aether from Cartenau "the dreamer" will need to "dream deeper," to which Zenos replies "the dreamer" won't complain. Danny Boy then notes that the "gateway to the gods" (presumably the "remodeled" Imperial palace) is now complete and all they have to do is wait for the aether to enact their plan, after which Zenos gives his closing monologue about how he's going to gorge himself on the darkened moon and ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny and blah blah blah.

Oh, and the moon's turned red-orange. In cutscenes, anyway.

The only observation I can make that might be of some particular worth is "the dreamer." Both Zenos and Danny Boy refer to it in third person, so while it's possible they could be referring to Zenos due to his dreams of the Final Days, I find that somewhat unlikely. Instead, I'd argue this is related to Anima in some way - aeons in X were "dreams of the fayth." Further glyphs factored significantly into Danny Boy's plan at Cartenau; though Spiran script didn't show up here, Spiran glyphs were closely related with the Yevonite faith in X. So my guess would be that they captured or created some fayth-like entity, and are exploiting it for their plans. (Does it house the soul of Zenos' mother? Danny Boy's? Whoooo knows...)

So yeah, kind of disappointing in that we still have no real idea how the towers are supposed to recreate the Final Days. Other than some vague terms being thrown around, everything went pretty according to the book... and now Endwalker's prologue is over with us having very little context in regards to what's really going on.

YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse (Epilogue)

Yeah, supes disappointing. "Konogg's probably hanging out in Eulmore!" So we go visit his shack, only to find out that Anogg somehow came back and the two are now walking the earth. Cue "credits," which really just show the ratio of players who sided with which twin during the quest back in 5.1, and... that's it.

Maybe there's something locked behind NG+? I suppose I can try running that over the weekend, but I'm not expecting anything...

I'll get to Bozja when I get to it.