Is Y'shtola finally giving actual red death flags or am I just seeing stuff?

[SannaR]

Ok hear me out first. Yes, I know that she is the face of the franchise and that she is the queen of fake out deaths. But I feel more so with this patch than others that she could be throwing actual death flags this time.

My first point is she's finally getting character development. The 2nd one and probably the weakest is well she's female character that's finally getting character development.

One thing I noticed her do a lot in this patch is the hand to heart emote. Which sure the devs could just be showing it off cause we finally are able to use it once you get to level 5 in the current pvp season. You could also argue that she could just be doing that as a sign of excitement at the aspect of figuring out no death involved shard travel. Yet why does she look forlorn if not remorseful whenever she does it?

She also seems to become easily weakened. We see her slightly winded after completing the warding spell. Now we don't see if Urianger was winded or not. Yet since coming back from the first he also hasn't shown any signs of being in need of some recovery. This isn't the only time post 6.0 that we have seen Y'shtola needing some form of recovery. She was also a little winded after she gave Zero some of her aether. I don't remember if there was a person between Y'shtola and Varshahn's offer of aether that got interrupted or not. Yet during our 1st trip into the 13th and post aether giving she does make a comment about how low she is before we come to the decision of bringing an unconscious Zero with us.

Now I also know that part of the reason why she and Urianger didn't help with putting up the wards to the Crystal Tower was to show that they were given outfits and weapons that were exactly like the ones they wore while on the first. Yet we have Krile who wanders over looking and sounding she could fall asleep from exhaustion at any second from helping with said seals. Course we don't know how long that took or if she helped out with it after a round of healing magics before hand. But if what Alisaie says at the start of that cutscene is to be believed they all should have felt as fit as a fiddle. Or strong enough to participate in the lv 47 fate that had just spawned.

[jameseoakes]

Ok hear me out first. Yes, I know that she is the face of the franchise and that she is the queen of fake out deaths. But I feel more so with this patch than others that she could be throwing actual death flags this time.

Is she the face of the franchise anymore? I don't remember her making it on to the favourite final fantasy characters lists (I might be misremembering), and if she was I am pretty sure Emet and Tia where much higher on the list so I think the idea of her being the face of the franchise is dated at this point

[SannaR]

Is she the face of the franchise anymore? I don't remember her making it on to the favourite final fantasy characters lists (I might be misremembering), and if she was I am pretty sure Emet and Tia where much higher on the list so I think the idea of her being the face of the franchise is dated at this point

She's used in a lot of the official art. Coming into 6.0 she got a picture of her strumming a guitar with a blue bird. Any time a XIV character is put into something like Desidia or one of the mobile games she normally is the only one or part of the group that gets to represent the game. Heck she even has a posable doll made after her. She might have fallen as a fan favorite, but she is still in a lot of the official marketing for the game.

[Carin-Eri]

I don't think they'll kill her off to be honest.

What I suspect might happen is that she'll find a method of travelling to the First and will opt to stay there, and take up residence in her former home with the Night's Blessed.

[jameseoakes]

She's used in a lot of the official art. Coming into 6.0 she got a picture of her strumming a guitar with a blue bird. Any time a XIV character is put into something like Desidia or one of the mobile games she normally is the only one or part of the group that gets to represent the game. Heck she even has a posable doll made after her. She might have fallen as a fan favorite, but she is still in a lot of the official marketing for the game.

Oh she's certainly not irrelevant but she not really the main character of the game anymore (not sure who is now though to be honest), and given we've moved on from the who was apparently the main villain going by Dissidea I don't think Y'sthola is in a place were she matters as the face of the game.

[Cleretic]

Y'shtola's someone who knows her limits, which also comes with knowing how to push them. She knows she can just get more aether, so she's happy to run herself a bit tired if it means a more immediate win, which is pretty much exactly why she offered Zero aether. The reason she's the one showing that she's tired after the warding scerne and not Urianger is because the rest of the scene is Y'shtola's scene; it's focused on her, so she gets to be the one that shows exertion, and she recovers pretty damn fast. She's also immediately accompanied by Nidhana, who's exactly the right person to raise that this was a red flag if it was.

And 'she uses a particular emote' means literally nothing. Like, I don't even know what you think you're raising an eyebrow at here.

I think what we're actually seeing is them setting up the pieces for a 6.0 that doesn't have her in it. We've seen Thancred, Urianger and Krile get some form of invites to future stuff that's almost definitely them being the core crew for 6.0; meanwhile, Y'shtola gets a scene that almost literally says 'the thing she wants to do is possible, but will take a while before it sees any fruit'. That reads to me like she's being given a plausible out for the immediate future, while also being reserved a spot to lead in future content, be that either a new expansion or side content. After all, one of the best things that not having a famous cast member for a bit brings is that them coming back is almost a hook in and of itself.

Y'shtola was never really 'the face of FFXIV' for internal reasons; like XI, XIV never really bothered with a 'face' character, and the notion of Y'shtola being one is exceptionally odd in retrospect given it took until Shadowbringers for her to even get a trailer appearance; clearly she's not highly prioritized by the devs. Instead, Y'shtola became the face because, out of all the options, she was the most interesting character in XIV for other games to put as the face; first Record Keeper, then followed by the likes of Dissidia, Brave Exvius, and Opera Omnia. It's not because of her story prominence (because... yeah, she didn't have any, especially when they were picking), but likely just because of roster diversity. She's visibly non-human, she's a woman, she's a healer; all of those are rare things for the 'face' of a Final Fantasy game, so she's a way better choice than the other likely frontrunner, Thancred. That's not really related, but yeah, it does explain the developers' relationship with her; despite being the face she's just 'one of the Scions' to the writers, so they don't give her anything overly exceptional.

[SannaR]

The emote was happening a lot. It's on the same level of Alphinaud's fist clenching post 5.3. Where if he was in a scene you could probably count at least one fist clench from him. There's also not much of 6.0 left if she's going to just exit stage right.

XI also technically has a face that also belongs to an NPC. Though said NPC doesn't have as much of a personality as the one who tends to be the representative from that game. It's kind of in character for them really. As it'd be a bit odd if the guy who ended up being in charge of the rogue/thief information group had a personality to the point everyone knew he was in charge of said group. When the writers are not aiming for them being the worst kept secret.

That and Japan loves their small creatures bonus points if they're cute and more bonus points if they're a character that can pull off any sas that comes with the Ohohohoho laugh. If XIV is moving away from her being the representative of the game then I'd say Alisaie is taking that spot if the Puma advertisement campaign is anything to go by.

[Tehmon]

She has such a clearly defined goal that can also substitute as a death (as in making more room for new characters while she stays offscreen for several expansions) that I don't think it's going to happen, beyond just her popularity.

[TowaIsBestGirl]

Y'shtola's not dying. Her lives are all but over nine thousand. Further, more elaborate and concrete reasoning isn't even truly necessary.

[Catwho]

I don't think they'll kill her off to be honest.

What I suspect might happen is that she'll find a method of travelling to the First and will opt to stay there, and take up residence in her former home with the Night's Blessed.

I agree that this is a more likely scenario. She made a promise to Runar, and it would be unfair to not let her keep it just to kill her off.

But having her live on the First and continue solving mysteries there? Especially since we're going to be trying to figure out a way to pump light from the First over to the Thirteenth to eventually fix it? Now that makes sense to me.