Thread: 7.0 What if WoL rode the train?

Originally Posted by Cleretic

The WoL is just as weak to 'listening to heartfelt/informative monologues' as anyone else in this universe; the moment Sphene starts talking about her ultimate plan, they're glaring along and unwilling to do anything. (Not that it's easy to stop Sphene, given that she's every single sentry.) In fact I'd argue that the WoL is below average in this field; at least Y'shtola took some shots. Not that I even think this is a viable angle in this context anyway, because we weren't 'paralyzed by speeches' in that scene; there's literally one line between when Zoraal Ja drops the key and when Sphene turns up to take it, and she takes it via telepathy.

But it's not like the road is clear if you do get to Living Memory, I actually think there's an insurmountible barrier that I just didn't bring up because my hypothetical didn't even get to that point: Cahciua's not there, so we have no plan of attack. Sphene's plan is going to be much the same as it was in the game itself, but without Cahciua to give us any direction at all--especially not the way to get into the Meso Terminal--we just can't actually stop Sphene once we're there. Your best hope is that maybe Robor and Alayla have an idea, but because this hypothetical actually means we never learn Krile's backstory, we don't know who they are either, and they're probably not opening up to us without a Krile to pour her heart out.

These are all decent points. There is one factor that could aid the WoL in this matter though and ironically for your argument it's time. There were 30 years of power spent by Living Memory before the WoL originally shows up. Sure Sphene is actively seeking out solutions now, but if it could hold out another 30 years then it's a possibility that she would be open to negotiation. You do a rather good job of painting the deck against the WoL though lol.

Originally Posted by Xirean

You do a rather good job of painting the deck against the WoL though lol.

The thing with FFXIV is that it's a character-driven story with a lot of characters; the end of a story is ultimately the culmination of a lot of people's individual journeys. As a result, it becomes really hard to pose a 'what-if' that doesn't end worse, because we tend to be faced with only problems this particular lineup of characters can solve.

Stopping Sphene is ultimately the culmination of multiple character journeys: most prominently Krile, Cahciua (and therefore Erenville by extension), and a couple we never mentioned, like Gulool Ja and Wuk Lamat; the fact that the Queen Eternal is even beatable when we do get there is because Wuk Lamat connects with Sphene enough to get her to actually stop. That does mean that the problems in front of us are often very specific problems, that can't just be dismissed or easily done by someone else, because Character X doing Thing Y is an important part of their journey.