Ability to see the future: Loose plot thread?

[Cassar]

As previously seen in the Save the Queen questline, Mikoto has an unique ability to see the future. I read somewhere that the explanation of this is that the echo just has a different manifestation on her? Regardless of the explanation, I don't see this topic being talked about very often and I think it's a pretty big deal.
I mean, were the ancients capable of seeing the future too? Is there anyone else in current day that can? Do they see a possible future or is the future that they see guaranteed to occur? There's just so many questions.

Do you think they'll continue this plot thread? I really think they need to because, as I said, I think seeing the future is a massive deal and it shouldn't be just glossed over like it currently is being treated.

[Cleretic]

There's been some hints that Azem might've had some level of future sight. Either that or they were just a very good guesser.

It's pretty much guaranteed that Mikoto's not the only person who can do it in the present day; Misija got it from her Resonance since it was patterned on Mikoto's, and she was actually better with it. But even beyond that, nobody acted like Mikoto's ability is completely unheard of, so there's probably more like her. And that's on top of even more 'typical' fortune telling like Astrologian; we at the very least have no reason to believe that either Sharlayan or Ishgardian astrology is completely bogus on that, even if the time magic angle on AST has gone away over time. And there's the prophecy that the Seven Hundred Seventy-Seven acted on, too. Alexander's story toyed with it, but it was in service to Straight-Up Time Travel, so that's kinda different.

That said, the developers don't really seem all too inclined to use such a thing as anything beyond 'see misfortune and avert it'. So while yes, it's entirely possible they could suddenly use that plot hook, we aren't really looking at a group of writers that's been all too inclined to use it so far.

[RyuDragnier]

I really hope if they use it, to at least put a "border color" for it. Red for a future that can be changed. Blue for one that cannot be changed. And then throw us curve balls, where we get red and think we can change it...but it didn't change because somebody else needed to do something for it to do so. Or have red around a good event, so we try to prevent it from changing. Future sight can be interesting if done well, but most writers can't really do it well.

[Iscah]

I really hope if they use it, to at least put a "border color" for it. Red for a future that can be changed. Blue for one that cannot be changed.

That's just unnecessarily complicating it, and not how it's shown to work so far.

Mikoto's future sight is strictly about things that will happen. The foreseen event cannot be changed, though the events around it can be manipulated.

It's something that needs strict limitations to not be a boring plot device that solves their problems for them in advance.

[RyuDragnier]

That's just unnecessarily complicating it, and not how it's shown to work so far.

Mikoto's future sight is strictly about things that will happen. The foreseen event cannot be changed, though the events around it can be manipulated.

It's something that needs strict limitations to not be a boring plot device that solves their problems for them in advance.

Well here's an example for you. A vision is obtained of people panicking, houses burning in a response to a plague. It's in blue, it's going to happen. So of course we go about trying to warn and prepare in advance. The problem? Us doing that CAUSES the events to unfurl. We saw it was going to happen no matter what, but we set the events in motion.

Or a red vision where we see the supposed villain dying in front of a high profile individual. We go about to try to make it happen...and then discover said official has horrid plans of murdering people and making it look like another nation did it to start a war, and the supposed villain actually found out completely on accident and has been trying to stop it. This forces us to prevent him from dying and kill the official instead.

Visions can make for good drama if written correctly. I just would prefer a writer capable of doing them right being the one doing the actual writing.

[Iscah]

Visions can make for good drama if written correctly. I just would prefer a writer capable of doing them right being the one doing the actual writing.

Yes, you can do interesting things with visions, but that doesn't mean you have try to fit both unalterable and alterable visions into the same plot or the same person's skillset.

Also, I don't think either of those scenarios are good ones, especially if we already know whether they can be averted or not. The first one shouldn't have us trying to stop it at all, if we know the disaster is inevitable, because the audience can see a mile off that if we can't stop it then meddling is probably going to cause it – so I don't think that's the sort of vision you would portray in the first place to make for a good story.

And the second plot doesn't need to be an alterable vision to carry out that drama, and indeed there would be more point to it if the vision can't be prevented: if you see the victim not already dead but about to be killed, then you have a fixed event that the plot can pivot around. You can't avert it but you have control over what happens before and after.

[Cassar]

I've heard the theory of Azem having this ability and honestly that would make sense and it would be pretty neat.
What kind of bothers me is the fact the Scions (or anyone, for that matter) could've like asked for Mikoto's aid during the final days or something, her ability would be incredible in times of need, yet no one even thinks about it!

I really hope if they use it, to at least put a "border color" for it. Red for a future that can be changed. Blue for one that cannot be changed. And then throw us curve balls, where we get red and think we can change it...but it didn't change because somebody else needed to do something for it to do so. Or have red around a good event, so we try to prevent it from changing. Future sight can be interesting if done well, but most writers can't really do it well.

Honestly that brings me to my second concern with this future sight thing - If the future she sees truly is a guaranteed future, then that somewhat goes against the multiple timelines aspect of the game's time travel. I mean think about it, if something is guaranteed to happen, and there's nothing you can do to change it even if you try, then that means it's something predestined, which kinda goes against the idea of infinite possible futures and alternate timelines, right?

[Iscah]

Honestly that brings me to my second concern with this future sight thing - If the future she sees truly is a guaranteed future, then that somewhat goes against the multiple timelines aspect of the game's time travel. I mean think about it, if something is guaranteed to happen, and there's nothing you can do to change it even if you try, then that means it's something predestined, which kinda goes against the idea of infinite possible futures and alternate timelines, right?

The thing with FFXIV's time structure is that it isn't just infinite splitting possibilities. The timeline split created in Shadowbringers appears to be an exceptional event, which at least by my own theory on how it works, relies specifically on intervention by a time traveller. The rest of the time, there simply is one flow of time from past to present to future, and just because we haven't experienced it yet doesn't mean that it isn't there waiting to be experienced.

Also, I don't think that's at all the same thing as being predestined. It's more symbiotic: you are free to make your choices, and the future will/would/has turned out according to those choices. If you would have chosen differently, the future would have reflected that in the first place.

[Alleo]

I've heard the theory of Azem having this ability and honestly that would make sense and it would be pretty neat.
What kind of bothers me is the fact the Scions (or anyone, for that matter) could've like asked for Mikoto's aid during the final days or something, her ability would be incredible in times of need, yet no one even thinks about it!

It really depends on other factors: Can Mikoto and other echo users even use it on their own? We for example cant use our echo when we want to. And on top of that we have Mikoto that was like: I keep silent about it because the future should happen as a I see it. And to top it all off, how far away into the future can they see?

That's the other beef I had with it.

The Echo has been firmly established to work by reading the "memory" aether of either souls or the environment, so being able to predict the future is decidedly not something that falls within the scope of what it's previously been shown to be capable of doing and they didn't even bother trying to handwave it by saying it's predicting the flows of aether or some such (Which is how Xenoblade did it).

Well we do have Fordola with the made up echo that is able to have future sights when it was about her attacks. We had to use a device otherwise she just would have known how to stop us because she saw it coming.

I am not against adding to the echo. We have learned with Endwalker that you can see visions in different ways and we know that the echo worked different for people like Minfilia and Kryle too. Yet I am also not a fan of future sight. As in seeing it happening. Having that as being able to predict attacks is okay but Mikotos echo is too much imo.

[KageTokage]

Well we do have Fordola with the made up echo that is able to have future sights when it was about her attacks. We had to use a device otherwise she just would have known how to stop us because she saw it coming.

I am not against adding to the echo. We have learned with Endwalker that you can see visions in different ways and we know that the echo worked different for people like Minfilia and Kryle too. Yet I am also not a fan of future sight. As in seeing it happening. Having that as being able to predict attacks is okay but Mikotos echo is too much imo.

They at least had a simple explanation for why Fordola's ability worked, which was that the incorporeal aether mobilizes before the physical body which provided a very short term precognition in a logical manner.

XIV is very fond of trying to explain how magicks and other supernatural phenomena work at least on a surface level, so them just coming in saying absolute future sight is a thing without any explanation whatsoever about the "how" of it was really awkward.