Cute Little Lore prediction: Lunar Subterrane to feature the Fathercrystal

[Eisi]

Yoyoyo!

The Fathercrystal just disappeared from the story and we didn't see it in 6.0. I hear people claim it's beneath the Zodiark fight arena, but I never saw it myself.

I think the reason why they didn't wanna show more of the Lunar Subterrane dungeon in the Live Letter (Yoshi said it would be too spoilery) is because we'll see the Fathercrystal there at the end.

[Carin-Eri]

Well, it's assumed that the dungeon is on the Moon of the 13th, so I guess it depends on whether or not the crystal exists there.

[Eisi]

Well, it's assumed that the dungeon is on the Moon of the 13th, so I guess it depends on whether or not the crystal exists there.

True!

I think there's one in each reflection, but who knows?

[Cleretic]

Sure, why not, let's have a weird rock inside this bigger weird rock.

[Carin-Eri]

True!

I think there's one in each reflection, but who knows?

Considering how Aether-starved the 13th is, said Crystal could perhaps be the reason Golbez doesn't appear to be lacking in it.

We saw, through various cutscenes, that he had Aether to spare, perhaps this is the reason.

[MercuryD]

To be honest, I always assumed that they dropped the "Father crystal" concept once they confirmed that Hydaelyn≠Mothercrystal. Zodiark was supposed to be the Father crystal to balance Hydaelyn but... Here we are.

[Cleretic]

To be honest, I always assumed that they dropped the "Father crystal" concept once they confirmed that Hydaelyn≠Mothercrystal. Zodiark was supposed to be the Father crystal to balance Hydaelyn but... Here we are.

Oh, they definitely dropped it, otherwise it absolutely would've come up at some point in Shadowbringers or Endwalker. There's a big purple crystal below the Zodiark arena, but that doesn't really look the same outside of being a purple crystal.

However, the developers are often prone to using orphaned plot points in future stories to make it look like said future story is an ongoing part of the world. They're open about that, it's not them just pretending they planned it the whole time, but the intention is for the story to look more coherent to us. So it's in no way invalid to speculate if that crystal could turn up again, we just need to be aware that we're structuring that question as 'what could they use that crystal for' rather than 'what is the crystal doing'.

EDIT: On the point of 'how would a crystal of darkness' form': we have lightning crytals. We have crystals of a phenomena so inherently transient that there's a saying about how it doesn't stick around. I don't know how a darkness crystal happens, but I can only imagine it's easier to make than a lightning crystal.

[Lyth]

Just out of curiosity, how does one get a dark-aspected crystal? Light governs stasis, so it's not surprising to see aether crystallize when Hydaelyn was the Will of the Star. Given that Dark governs movement, you would expect the opposite when Zodiark was the Will of the Star, with aether essentially evaporating.

With this being a Moon of the Thirteenth, where the ambient aether is so unstable due to the Flood of Darkness that its denizens are described as 'aether-starved', how does an aetheric crystal of any form materialize?

[Iscah]

Were we ever even told that vision was of Zodiark's crystal? I took it at the time to mean "something's going to happen that will corrupt the Mothercrystal", on par with having a vision of a known character dying or something.

[Cleretic]

Were we ever even told that vision was of Zodiark's crystal? I took it at the time to mean "something's going to happen that will corrupt the Mothercrystal", on par with having a vision of a known character dying or something.

They never said... anything about it, really. Definitely not in the game, and I don't think they've ever discussed it in development interviews either, but there's been an awful lot of those over the years. Everything saying it was Zodiark was ultimately just assumption from context, albeit fairly plausible given that context: if all the raving Lahabrea was going on about balance was at that point actually supposed to be accurate as opposed to 'he got pretty close for being crazy', then it made sense that what we were seeing in this cutscene right after that fight was the counterbalance to Hydaelyn. That's ultimately circumstantial evidence, but when we're talking dramatic narrative then circumstantial evidence is the best kind.

I feel like I far prefer what we've got to what we could have, because I think 'there must be balance' is contrived and arbitrary as a plot point every time I see it (I blame Star Wars), but ultimately we just don't know what they were planning back then, save that it wasn't what we got. All I can say with confidence about it is that it was probably abandoned for a reason, and when it's a plot thing like this it's probably not for logistical reasons. I love cut content in games, but a big thing we always have to remember when looking at those is that things often hit the cutting room floor because they're just not as good as the stuff that didn't; there's every possibility that this plot idea was thrown out because it sucked.