Endwalker Main Scenario Commentary & Feedback

[kaynide]

I'm a tad too tired right now to really dig into your whole post, but for the first of these, that both did and didn't actually happen. Your example is confirmed to be wrong; as learned (I believe) in Fractal Continuum Hard, the 'original Garuda' was actually an Allagan general that commanded the Iksalion, who was mythologized over time to become Garuda as the Ixal gradually forgot their origins.

There is no reason to assume Garuda did not have avian features just because she was an Allagan "person". They had many examples of experimented humanoids with bestial features, probably the most notable being Scylla with her dog heads.

And as for the void, it is actually confirmed how that fell: essentially, the Ascians hadn't figured out that a Calamity is needed on the Source when a shard is consumed, so they whacked the Thirteenth out of alignment and then went 'oh, crap, we screwed that up' when it didn't help. According to the first volume of the Encyclopedia Eorzea, the clash that tipped it over was actually Unukalhai (the Amaurotian-dressed kid from the Warring Triad questline and the Shadowbringers all-roles questline) and Igeyorhm (the Ascian that fused with Lahabrea in the Aetherochemical Research Facility).

I mean, that seems vague at best. The facts are only that it was consumed by a flood of darkness that was triggered between Unukalhai and Igeyorhm. We have no specifics on what method was used to cause the flood, nor do we have clear answers on why so many of the new Dynamis-monsters look like voidsent. The devs could easily have gone with more.. "Cthulu cosmic horror" tropes, but there are very specific creatures that look both in model and overall design as voidsent. Many identical.

As we both know, the game is quite vague to give it wiggle room for later, as in last month’s discussion on “We should assume the game isn’t lying to us and believe Elidabus is dead…until he isn’t”.

[Cleretic]

Wow, okay, I'm sorry for suggesting you might like the healer role quest. On review, I'm not sure you'll like any of the role questlines.

I won't deny that a constant Thing with FFXIV has been an unwillingness to engage with some of the uglier issues of a big story's aftermath. I understand why they don't (I don't think anyone would be all that interested if Stormblood's patch questlines were instead Fantasy Nuremberg), and honestly, I don't think it's an especially deep sin of theirs; most games don't even bother with any of the aftermath, FFXIV is actually quite unique in consistently dwelling for quite a while in the 'now what' territory after the final battle.

But I do think the Endwalker role quests are a big step in the right direction, because all of them focus on something that region's story has always sort of pointed the proverbial camera away from. And yeah, by nature it is 'the stuff we didn't talk about when it was current', but I do think it's smart that they use that as part of the text. 'We haven't talked about this for too long' is an element both in and out of universe, the neglect and willful ignorance becoming central to the story.

FFXIV is ultimately always a positive story, one that looks up and ahead. that's a part of why EW's role quests focus on what they do--that optimism and want to move forward means that there's little room for stories about mistreated families of war vets or discriminated-against minorities, so it's really nice that they made a whole set of storylines about circling back to all that. But at the same time, you can't expect that optimism to just leave for those questlines, and if you come at that story about veteran families with the outlook of 'have we considered they might have deserved being treated like this', you're not gonna find much.

...also, I'm not even sure how you could go through the whole storyline thinking Fordola had shown no regret or remorse, given basically the main secondary theme of the story is 'Fordola is abundantly Not Okay and is wracked by nearly every kind of guilt it's possible to have'. It's just that she's been trained to keep all that pain bottled up... which is only making it worse, really.

[EdwinLi]

Fate of Midgar's home, their action to survive, and what it may mean for Season 2.

This is a rather sad moment in the story because we learn the Truth about Midgar's home as it is now one of many worlds destroyed and what is left is now just slowly dying in Ultima Thule due to their Final Days caused by the war against the Omega machines leaving their world poluted beyond belief and all children on their world will be born mutated, aggressive, and almost mindless.

Other dragons did attempt to find a new home in other stars but all of them, except for Midgar, ended up becoming attacked by the civilization that lived there out of fear, see them as a threat, or desire to conquer and enslave them. Thus resulting in those stars eventually causing their own final days as well due to their actions towards the dragons who only wanted to find a place to settle down and call home after their world was destroyed by Omega and the other machines.

This also push more of the narrative that the Source/shards maybe the only world that can produce enough hope to not end up becoming destroyed by a Final Days of their own making or another's making. Something I feel may mean something if Season 2 antagonist is a being from a dead world that has already been destroyed by a Final Days of his/her civilization's own making or a action of another.

[symbiote129]

Fate of Midgar's home, their action to survive, and what it may mean for Season 2.

This is a rather sad moment in the story because we learn the Truth about Midgar's home as it is now one of many worlds destroyed and what is left is now just slowly dying in Ultima Thule due to their Final Days caused by the war against the Omega machines leaving their world poluted beyond belief and all children on their world will be born mutated, aggressive, and almost mindless.

Other dragons did attempt to find a new home in other stars but all of them, except for Midgar, ended up becoming attacked by the civilization that lived there out of fear, see them as a threat, or desire to conquer and enslave them. Thus resulting in those stars eventually causing their own final days as well due to their actions towards the dragons who only wanted to find a place to settle down and call home after their world was destroyed by Omega and the other machines.

This also push more of the narrative that the Source/shards maybe the only world that can produce enough hope to not end up becoming destroyed by a Final Days of their own making or another's making. Something I feel may mean something if Season 2 antagonist is a being from a dead world that has already been destroyed by a Final Days of his/her civilization's own making or a action of another.

Say, is it perhaps too much to think that there is still an unknown force responsible for the all crap Eitherys had to go through?
Like we know that Meteion or rather the Meteia were created by Hermes with an emphasis of having less aether so that they are more attuned to Dynamis and being not really reliant on aether so that they don't need to consume something but they rather give some new questions for me.

Like what hinted Hermes that Dynamis exist and that he could use it so that certain creations of his could traverse the universe without problems? Who were these few people that were researching Dynamis before Hermes? Like how were they able to properly assess that "Dynamis" are influenced by emotions as well? Or am I dumb and missed something again?

[EdwinLi]

Say, is it perhaps too much to think that there is still an unknown force responsible for the all crap Eitherys had to go through?
Like we know that Meteion or rather the Meteia were created by Hermes with an emphasis of having less aether so that they are more attuned to Dynamis and being not really reliant on aether so that they don't need to consume something but they rather give some new questions for me.

Like what hinted Hermes that Dynamis exist and that he could use it so that certain creations of his could traverse the universe without problems? Who were these few people that were researching Dynamis before Hermes? Like how were they able to properly assess that "Dynamis" are influenced by emotions as well? Or am I dumb and missed something again?

Anything is possible now since Endwalker acts as the end for Season 1 storyline but introduction to Season 2 storyline.

Dynamis is newly introduced here and context of what it is shown through the storyline. How this maybe used in Season 2 is anyones guess for now.

Emet also mentioned locations are will be heading to for Season 2. I suspect whatever new antagonist appears he/she/it will begin their efforts against WoL there.

That aside, I am still sticking to the theory that SE may go down the Warrior of Despair path for Season 2. How they may handle it, I cannot say since this is as far my theory goes.

As I mentioned before, the Warrior of Despair is a new concept SE introduced in Final Fantasy Mobius which is sadly shutdown now.

[YianKutku]

I'm still working on a longer post of "what I got wrong, what I got right" (I have the basic text written out, but formatting for forums is tedious), but for now I have a very minor comment about an aspect that is kind of living rent-free in my head.

Zone 5 setting spoilers:

I found it unusually amusing that the Amaurotine Ancient society had tried so hard to make everyone uniform and nondescript out of some sense of communal abolishment of status and class, and yet going around Elpis, we see the immediate problem that nobody can tell each other apart other than using unique identifiers. In this case, hairstyle.

Some few NPCs have the talent for seeing aether, but not everyone can, and so hairstyle is the best they can do.

[Elgeron]

While I have mixed feelings overall with the MSQ of EW and I think it was a step down from ShB overall, there are some parts that I really liked. One I think I don't see mentioned so often is

The resolution to the Garlemaid storyline, in particular Julius' character and the scene in the Alliance Camp right before Fandaniel kidnaps the WoL. It may be a bit silly, but for me it was the most emotional part of the MSQ despite how simple and subdue it was compared to the ending or Venat's scenes. I think it fitted the whole theme of dead and despair versus life and hope quite nicely while still being quite an humane and touching moment. It is also so much more poignant after such a cynical and depressing chapter of the MSQ, and the execution of the scene overall was quite good. For example, the fact that an Ala Mighan was the one that offered the drink to Julius, whose nation was not more than a year before under Garlean rule.

Yet the most beautiful moment was such a simple line that pretty much answers the nihilistic view of Metion of why live if there is so much despair and death, a sentiment that is reflected in our answer after the final fight in our last encounter with the little familiar: The small things in life are what make life worth living. Despite how sad, how much pain and how hopeless everything seemed, something as small as a gesture of kindness, a nice meal, a warm drink, the friendly banter of a companion are precious things that are worth suffering for. Compared to how bombastic the game gets later on, this moments conveys the same message but with such a simplicity and sincerity that makes it so effective in my opinion. Despite it flaws, I think it is one of the highest, if not the highest emotional moment of the narrative for me, perhaps followed by Urianger's reunion with Moenbryda's parents.

[Alleo]

Some thoughts about Zodiark and the sacrifices

I always assumed that he truly "ate" up all the souls and used them as batteries but seemingly they are still there. I guess they really do have so much aether that their souls would still be intact.

Now a question that I got: Are these souls inside Zodiark sundered? Zodiark is but Hythlo for example is perfectly fine with using creation magic.

That for me means that he has a complete soul. But wouldnt that mean that bascially now a huge amount of souls will be reborn in the future that are complete and can use creation magic? I wonder how that will change the path of the planet (not that we probably will ever see that)

[symbiote129]

Some thoughts about Zodiark and the sacrifices

I always assumed that he truly "ate" up all the souls and used them as batteries but seemingly they are still there. I guess they really do have so much aether that their souls would still be intact.

Now a question that I got: Are these souls inside Zodiark sundered? Zodiark is but Hythlo for example is perfectly fine with using creation magic.

That for me means that he has a complete soul. But wouldnt that mean that bascially now a huge amount of souls will be reborn in the future that are complete and can use creation magic? I wonder how that will change the path of the planet (not that we probably will ever see that)

In question to that, when they said they will meet again in the future, do you surmise that they will still appear in WoL's lifetime or beyond the game's timeline? Is reincarnation in this game one-way? Like is the aetherial sea only connected to the present, hence their reincarnation will only be in the future?

[Alleo]

In question to that, when they said they will meet again in the future, do you surmise that they will still appear in WoL's lifetime or beyond the game's timeline? Is reincarnation in this game one-way? Like is the aetherial sea only connected to the present, hence their reincarnation will only be in the future?

I think it will be beyond the games timeline and after WoLs own time. But it could theoretically (imo) be possible that they would be reborn really fast and could met an older WoL. I am just not really sure if SE would do that.