Quote Originally Posted by Galvuu View Post
I also love how people are so certain of what's alive or not in FF XIV.
I'd love people who're on that camp clearly define what it means to be alive in XIV according to the lore right now, and then define what consciousness/sapience/self-awareness are on top so we can label things as "alive" and "not-alive" or "intelligent, creative consciousness" and "AI chatbots" clearly. They clearly seem to know.
Personally, I don't really care about the lore in this case. Not because I dislike world building, or find it useless and pointless, but there is a line where an analysis of a story as it's written and presented is more important to me than making sure every single brick fits neatly within cohesive diegetic boxes from the many disparate stories that exist within the game itself (with multiple writers contributing to it over the span of years). A rose in one story may mean, or symbolize, one thing; a rose in another may mean the opposite, and the context to know which is what would be where that rose is blooming.

I do feel the intended idea of this specific story is as I mentioned (above somewhere) since that is how it reads, that is how the language is couched and the characters presented in their statements, behaviors etc... in conjunction with the heavy talk of commemorating the dead prior, from a civilization influenced from this one, as well with the ending context showcasing:

A somber graveyard, filled with blackened tombstones etched with memories once projected onto the eternal play place that now lies dormant.

(well, barring gameplay purposes).

What you're going for, to me, feels almost like a completely separate discussion wherein you're more trying to figure out what the internal mechanics of the world(s) FFXIV encompasses would classify "Living" and "Dead" as (or, even, in-universe philosophy regarding "what does it mean, to be 'alive'?"), versus this specific story's theme and statement as it presents itself with the context it exists within.