Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[jameseoakes]

My frustration as someone who has defended Venat, and will continue to do so, is that the negative perspectives on her seem rooted in assuming the worst possible interpretations of her actions, ignoring information that contradicts or disproves those interpretations, and then getting increasingly upset at the caricature. It’s a constant back and forth of “we’ll it’s possible she’s just lying, therefore that means she definitely is” and “she for some reason didn’t try anything but the Sundering and thus my plan for defeating Meteion would totally work despite it undermining the meta textual message and the narrative going out of its way to explain why it wouldn’t work.

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What is the Meta message of the story?

[Lucida3b]

I think when the devs contradict and undermine their own meta textual messages, it’s a sign that maybe they aren’t as concrete as they’d like people to believe. I’d find their themes a lot easier to swallow if they didn’t have to contradict them just for the heroes to win or for specific characters to be painted in a good light.

Which meta-textual parts are you referring to specifically?

[KizuyaKatogami]

Which meta-textual parts are you referring to specifically?

While i may not exactly regard said themes or textual parts as “meta” myself, the themes along the lines of suffering, learning to deal with loss, moving forward instead of being tied to the past etc. These have all been contradicted by things like the scions suffering level being incredibly low, them being brought back at the end of UT, the 8UC timeline where they were willing to sacrifice the entire timeline to bring the wol back etc etc.

[PawPaw]

Got to the realisation that time travel and memory issues are their key jokers.
ARR started with Louisoix teleporting the WoLs in the future and a massive amnesia of all eorzeans.

Can I just say I had completely forgotten about this? Has this been touched on since ARR? There's that whole flashback Cid has where he remembers us giving him his goggles or something right before Carteneau, right? Then flash forward 5 years and aside from a couple of lines in ARR they just kinda dropped that whole "No one remembers what happened" plotline entirely? Was this hinted at in 1.0? I wasn't around for the end of that.

[Rannie]

You do know that the whole giving of the goggles was a symbolism of us being in his memories watching them and maybe even helping his memories return right? In 1.0 before we even Met him he ALREADY had his goggles. We also couldn't have given the goggles to him since when we had the vision he was still holding them. Also for 1.0 players who are legacy they are remembered at the end of 2.0 and then that's basically all that was needed except for a n added line by Edmont in 3.0.

[PawPaw]

You do know that the whole giving of the goggles was a symbolism of is being in his memories watching them right? In 1.0 before we even Met him he ALREADY had his goggles. Also for 1.0 players who are legacy they are remembered at the end of 2.0 and then that's basically all that was needed except for a n added line by Edmont in 3.0.

I think I just said i wasn't around for the end of 1.0, quit pretty soon after launch, so no, I wasn't aware of any of that. Now I know, though.

[Skyborne]

What is the Meta message of the story?

Essentially the song Answers, where one must find their own meaning of life through various trials. However, just as there's no one answer, there's no one interpretation. Or at least, I'd like to think.

[MikkoAkure]

While i may not exactly regard said themes or textual parts as “meta” myself, the themes along the lines of suffering, learning to deal with loss, moving forward instead of being tied to the past etc. These have all been contradicted by things like the scions suffering level being incredibly low, them being brought back at the end of UT, the 8UC timeline where they were willing to sacrifice the entire timeline to bring the wol back etc etc.

I don’t necessarily believe the Scions were required to suffer a lot for the sake of “themes”. Unless you just don’t like them. Plus anyone who thought they weren’t coming back at the end hasn’t been paying attention to the extremely saccharine and overall general overly positive vibes of the game’s story all the way back to ARR. There was no way they were going to end the entire decade’s worth of story on a bittersweet note.

You also seem hung up on one line from a short side story not present in the game itself about a scenario that was only a possibility and didn’t even come to pass. And the reason the WoL had to come back wasn’t specifically to “save the hero” it was because that moment led to a chain reaction that would eventually lead to the end of all of the worlds and the full Rejoining.

Can I just say I had completely forgotten about this? Has this been touched on since ARR? There's that whole flashback Cid has where he remembers us giving him his goggles or something right before Carteneau, right? Then flash forward 5 years and aside from a couple of lines in ARR they just kinda dropped that whole "No one remembers what happened" plotline entirely? Was this hinted at in 1.0? I wasn't around for the end of that.

The missing memories part from the Calamity is referenced and explained in the Endwalker MSQ. Something to do with a lot of aether being released that is similar to the type of aether memories are made of and washing it all out, similar to the memory block magic the Forum members had.

[sidurgu-12]

I don’t necessarily believe the Scions were required to suffer a lot for the sake of “themes”. Unless you just don’t like them. Plus anyone who thought they weren’t coming back at the end hasn’t been paying attention to the extremely saccharine and overall general overly positive vibes of the game’s story all the way back to ARR. There was no way they were going to end the entire decade’s worth of story on a bittersweet note.

yeah even when ew got dark (garlemald) there were moments of levity throughout. hell, the loporrits exist (besides for plan b) to lighten the heavy mood of what happened in garlemald. imo they were needed.

[SannaR]

The whole future Ironworks plan to save the WoL you could say is hinted at needing to happen as Alexander says the only "good/hopeful" timeline is the one that the WoL is alive in.