Who on the 13th?

[Rongway]

Ardbert literally is the promotional stand-in for the Warrior of Light.

That's the point? He looks nothing like me. So why should anyone else's appearance indicate whether they are a WoX fragment or not?

[Absimiliard]

That's the point? He looks nothing like me. So why should anyone else's appearance indicate whether they are a WoX fragment or not?

The characters we play aren't the "canon" Warrior of Light. I mean, they are in the narrative sense, but cosmetically they're just a sort of stand-in. The WoL's actual, official appearance is that of the Derplander, I'm afraid.

[Cassar]

Azem doesn't have to look like Ardbert in every reflection. Matoya's shard on the First is that of a Nu mou (Beq Lugg) and Cid's shard is Chai-Nuzz, a Miqo'te.

Golbez's physical appearance is irrelevant. His face probably wasn't shown just because of technical limitations, as they didn't want to spend resources on modeling a unique face there.

[Rongway]

The characters we play aren't the "canon" Warrior of Light. I mean, they are in the narrative sense, but cosmetically they're just a sort of stand-in.

There is no reason to believe that. The NPCs have opportunities to remark on how much Ardbert physically looks like the player character, and they never do because it would be ridiculous for someone to do so if the player character is anything but a midlander male. It is more reasonable to conclude that Ardbert's appearance as a shard of the WoX has nothing to do with the WoX's appearance, and any characters whose shards resemble them do so by coincidence or narrative convenience, not as a general rule of shard characters.

[Cleretic]

Azem doesn't have to look like Ardbert in every reflection. Matoya's shard on the First is that of a Nu mou (Beq Lugg) and Cid's shard is Chai-Nuzz, a Miqo'te.

Golbez's physical appearance is irrelevant. His face probably wasn't shown just because of technical limitations, as they didn't want to spend resources on modeling a unique face there.

...is there actual evidence Beq Lugg is Matoya's fragment? This is the first I've heard someone pitch that, and I think the only evidence might actually be 'old magic-knowing person who both work with porxies'.

(Also, we'd be remiss not to point out Mowen and Grenoldt, but they run on Comedy Sidequest Logic where it's just funnier to see them act completely different to the people they're identical to.)

[Rannie]

...is there actual evidence Beq Lugg is Matoya's fragment? This is the first I've heard someone pitch that, and I think the only evidence might actually be 'old magic-knowing person who both work with porxies'.

(Also, we'd be remiss not to point out Mowen and Grenoldt, but they run on Comedy Sidequest Logic where it's just funnier to see them act completely different to the people they're identical to.)

The dungeon full of working magicked brooms during that one boss fight doesn't do it for you? You know that one on the First where you first meet them? Take Y'shtola through it and see what she says...

[Eisi]

That's the point? He looks nothing like me. So why should anyone else's appearance indicate whether they are a WoX fragment or not?

It's a meta bridge between your character and Ardbert. You could make the same argument about Azem, why would their appearance/gender indicate a connection to the WoL? Yet still they follow our gender.

I got into this frame of thought after arguing with Cleretic about the same thing. I argued there was no reason for Azem to share our gender in light of Ardbert or potential other shards unless they were literally us, she argued Ardbert was meta-connected to us via appearance, so Azem was meta-connected in a different way, because the writing is just pretty gut based and has to establish connections like that to not fly over our heads. I actually agree with that line of thought now, XIV's writing counts on the players being relatively simple-minded and not think about it too much. So the same would go for Golbez, their appearance would be a secret to allow us a better means of identification with or sense of agency over them by allowing us to imagine them however we like.

[Eisi]

...is there actual evidence Beq Lugg is Matoya's fragment?

[LilimoLimomo]

Given that the 13th is without lifestream, whoever the warrior of light that is us on the source is there, is still there, somewhere.

I just realized that this isn't necessarily true, as there are numerous souls that have been ferried away from the 13th. Just to throw out two different flavors of examples: Unuklhai and Rubicante.

So there's no guarantee that an Azem shard is still in the 13th. It could be somewhere else. And we've also seen that there are ways to destroy souls, so there could be other reasons why it is entirely out of circulation. Narratively I would bet against any shards of Azem's soul being destroyed due to plot armor, but it's technically within the possibility space and thus worth considering.

[LilimoLimomo]

It's the internet so I genuinely can't tell if this is a joke or not. If it is a joke, thank you for the laugh, it made me smile.

If it isn't a joke: the argument that Matoya and Lu Beqq share a soul because at the ripe age of X00 Matoya's posture has degraded such that it matches that of every Nu Mou...seems equally as strong as suggesting the Arenvald shares the soul of one of those voidsent that sit on an orb because they're both always sitting. It simply lacks substance.

I hope it's a joke but I've seen so very much on the internet that I've lost the ability to be certain about such things...