Thread: 6.4 patch speculation

Originally Posted by Kesey

What is disconcerting to me is the lack of a villain beyond Golbez. If this is it for Golbez, his final showdown in this trial, we have no rumored or secret villain teased for the upcoming expansion.

That's nothing new. We didn't know most upcoming main-expansion villains by this point in previous patch cycles.

Originally Posted by Iscah

That's nothing new. We didn't know most upcoming main-expansion villains by this point in previous patch cycles.

Not true; by 4.3 I believe we had seen 'Solus', and 5.3 was the expansion where we got both Fandaniel's face and name. By 2.3 Ishgard was... a bit of a factor but that's a weird case. 3.3 was the only time where we definitely hadn't seen anything of the next expansion's villains, but the events of 3.3 did directly lead to Stormblood's inciting incident.

What we really do need to recognize, though, is that this patch cycle is ALSO completely unlike any others. Every other patch cycle essentially treated the x.1-x.3 patches as the epilogue/final chapter of that expansion, and x.4 and x.5 as the leadup to the next. Endwalker's patches have been explicitly said by the devs as being done differently, as they specifically wanted Endwalker's finale to be the actual finale in a way that wasn't true for all previous expansions. They've also said that the hook for 7.0 is coming very late, so 6.x's MSQ is neither epilogue nor prologue; it's its own story.

So yes, Kesey's right that it's unusual that we don't have a future hook or villain, but is missing that this isn't part of some mystery; that's been stated by the developers as the intention of the story we're currently in. Golbez is most likely not some secret mystery hook for the next expansion; he's probably gonna get defeated in these patches because this is just where his story ends.

I wouldn't exactly say it's a daring guess to say that Golbez was somehow involved with the Contramemoria, though. The same is true of everyone else who's a character in the Thirteenth, and the fact that life is in a birthless and deathless stasis there means he can't exactly have turned up late. At this point it'd be a bigger swing to say he wasn't involved in the war, because... well, how the hell do you dodge that one?

Originally Posted by Cleretic

I wouldn't exactly say it's a daring guess to say that Golbez was somehow involved with the Contramemoria, though. The same is true of everyone else who's a character in the Thirteenth, and the fact that life is in a birthless and deathless stasis there means he can't exactly have turned up late. At this point it'd be a bigger swing to say he wasn't involved in the war, because... well, how the hell do you dodge that one?

Adding to that, the real question happens to be who IS Golbez? We have not seen his face, and his power and ability to strategize is far outside of the norm of Voidsent. Is he a Sundered Ascian from the 13th? Is he Azem's Shard? Does he happen to be a shard of anybody we know? Or is he something even more outside of the ordinary that will throw us all for a loop when we discover it?

Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

Adding to that, the real question happens to be who IS Golbez? We have not seen his face, and his power and ability to strategize is far outside of the norm of Voidsent. Is he a Sundered Ascian from the 13th? Is he Azem's Shard? Does he happen to be a shard of anybody we know? Or is he something even more outside of the ordinary that will throw us all for a loop when we discover it?

I think he's just similar to Rubicante's case in having a strong willpower that keeps his personality from before the flood intact while overcoming his voidsents instincts, at least to a degree.

Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

Adding to that, the real question happens to be who IS Golbez? We have not seen his face, and his power and ability to strategize is far outside of the norm of Voidsent. Is he a Sundered Ascian from the 13th? Is he Azem's Shard? Does he happen to be a shard of anybody we know? Or is he something even more outside of the ordinary that will throw us all for a loop when we discover it?

My favorite theory I've heard is that he's an eidolon/primal who's just... alive forever, now; we won't see under his helmet because there's nothing actually meaningful under there, it's like Susano. It would also explain his kinda cycloptic look when we do see him straight-on; that is not a humanoid in there. That doesn't super square with his stated goal at the end of 6.3, but it also doesn't contradict it.

I mostly like that theory because it completely throws out 'oh he's a shard of X', which I find a dreadfully boring answer that would actually completely flatten Golbez and probably whoever he's a shard of, too. Suddenly he is not his own character, he's merely a narrative extension of somebody else. And he can't even do that right, because the best explorations of that (mostly seen in comic books, think alt-universe Superman or Batmen) are exploring that overtly and right from the start, so you can follow all of that very well. Golbez just hasn't been given that chance.

Originally Posted by Cleretic

My favorite theory I've heard is that he's an eidolon/primal who's just... alive forever, now; we won't see under his helmet because there's nothing actually meaningful under there, it's like Susano. It would also explain his kinda cycloptic look when we do see him straight-on; that is not a humanoid in there. That doesn't super square with his stated goal at the end of 6.3, but it also doesn't contradict it.

I mostly like that theory because it completely throws out 'oh he's a shard of X', which I find a dreadfully boring answer that would actually completely flatten Golbez and probably whoever he's a shard of, too. Suddenly he is not his own character, he's merely a narrative extension of somebody else. And he can't even do that right, because the best explorations of that (mostly seen in comic books, think alt-universe Superman or Batmen) are exploring that overtly and right from the start, so you can follow all of that very well. Golbez just hasn't been given that chance.

I'd prefer him to be an Ascian than a primal or shard of x. At least as an Ascian he can make their choices, even if the Ascians are over done. Primals are too one sided and shard of x are just a what-if scenario (looking at you Mowena and Gerolt). An Ascian will at least be a better story from a character development point of view.

Originally Posted by Kesey

But there is a mystery with Golbez, which is rooted in his identity behind the mask and who/what was he before 13th was corrupted. Are they really going to just gloss over this to get to another story entirely? Their track record says no.

Yoshi-p's comment that 6.4 will have different meaning/understanding after 6.5 kinda points to this idea that Golbez isn't exactly what we think he is.

Last time Yoshi-p spoke like this was about 5.2 and 5.3, where information we learned in 5.3 (that Elidibus was a primal and still alive as the heart of Zodiark) changed the meaning of something from 5.2 (being that Venat was specifically used to create the heart of Hydealyn) which then had major implications later in the story (Venat's role in Endwalker, past and present).

So we are going to be handed a crucial piece of lore pertaining to Golbez and his throne, but won't really understand the consequences of it until later in the story.