Endwalker's plot is loosely based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator (Spoilers)

[kpxmanifesto]

Isn't it James Cameron's terminator? Schwarzenegger is just in it right?

Yes you're correct. The title should read "loosely based on The Terminator Starring Arnold" or "loosely based on James Cameron's The Terminator."

[SigmaOZ]

I also found some similitude with "Terminator 2", not story wise but the music, part of Endwalker's battle theme sounds similar to said movie's main theme. Pretty cool actually, makes me want to watch the movie again.

[kpxmanifesto]

It gets better though. If you read the sparkly items on the floor, they go into detail about how in this planet, the main civilization (called the Globalists) tried to unite all the people under one ruler to help establish peace.

Much like the Garleans were trying to do with Eorzea.

Naturally, there were those who opposed this (the Freedom Fighters). And thus war ensued. So the Globalists created the Peacemaker machines in order to defeat the Freedom Fighters, except the Peacemakers ended up realizing than in order to establish peace, they would have to get rid of not just the Freedom Fighters, but the Globalists as well. Now THIS is literally Terminator (and other AI in movies out there, Ultron had similar motivations, etc.).

The machine realized that peace would be impossible unless they were ALL exterminated, which is similar to Meteion's train of thought in the sense that she believes happiness is ultimately impossible - non-existence is the only option.

Ultimately this led to one person (I don't know which side they were on) triggering all the weapons to basically destroy everything - you see it right after you kill the second boss.

It's just so well-done because it sort of illustrates what might have happened to our planet had the Garlean's actually succeeded in conquering everything.

Yeah I should've predicted SE would do something like this. The SE localization staff love pop culture references and this is a prime example of that.

[Floortank]

I don't see any similarity. Her decision to wipe out existence is born of despair and suffering. It is not the emotionless logical algorithm of a machine made for killing.

Skynet is also not a remotely philosophical character. It cannot be argued with, and it has no cosmic agenda.

[kpxmanifesto]

I don't see any similarity. Her decision to wipe out existence is born of despair and suffering. It is not the emotionless logical algorithm of a machine made for killing.

Skynet is also not a remotely philosophical character. It cannot be argued with, and it has no cosmic agenda.

This analysis entirely misses the point of this post. I'm not saying the game's plot is a copy The Terminator's. I'm saying that FFXIV captures that same spirit where a civilization's seemingly harmless creation ended up being its own undoing. There's obvious differences between the two universes.

[Floortank]

This analysis entirely misses the point of this post. I'm not saying the game's plot is a copy The Terminator's. I'm saying that FFXIV captures that same spirit where a civilization's seemingly harmless creation ended up being its own undoing. There's obvious differences between the two universes.

"Based on" means "a recreation of." And it's not. Not only is it not based on Terminator, but also, Skynet was never "seemingly harmless." It was given the capability to wipe out the human race deliberately, and decided to. Its entire mechanism was a murder machine and it did what was predictable to it. It is nothing like Meteion.

You have failed to understand not only Endwalker but also Terminator.

[kpxmanifesto]

"Based on" means "a recreation of." And it's not. Not only is it not based on Terminator, but also, Skynet was never "seemingly harmless." It was given the capability to wipe out the human race deliberately, and decided to. Its entire mechanism was a murder machine and it did what was predictable to it. It is nothing like Meteion.

You have failed to understand not only Endwalker but also Terminator.

Title says "loosely based." You have to read things carefully, man. Also, "seemingly harmless" as in its creators didn't think it capable of turning on them. They didn't predict Skynet becoming self-aware.

[kpxmanifesto]

I also found some similitude with "Terminator 2", not story wise but the music, part of Endwalker's battle theme sounds similar to said movie's main theme. Pretty cool actually, makes me want to watch the movie again.

Yeah, Soken is known to draw some inspiration from popular pieces from time to time. For example, his song Figments, the OST for the dungeon Dohn Mheg, appears to be inspired by Peter Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker Suite. It's fantastically composed IMO.

[Exosapien]

Title says "loosely based." You have to read things carefully, man. Also, "seemingly harmless" as in its creators didn't think it capable of turning on them. They didn't predict Skynet becoming self-aware.

Man you need to chill out. People don't agree with your take because it's wrong, telling people to read better isn't going to make your argument more sound. You're just wrong. 100%

[kpxmanifesto]

Man you need to chill out. People don't agree with your take because it's wrong, telling people to read better isn't going to make your argument more sound. You're just wrong. 100%

I like this idea. Thanks for your input.