/r/ffxivdiscussion: What's Next? Theories and Speculation (DT Edition)

[StormChase]

Thanks for the link, reading people's speculation has made me somewhat hopeful and interested in where the story might go, unlike the game itself.

It's comforting to imagine many different possibilities for the future, I'm specifically drawn towards the world tree speculation. Hopefully the game can get back on track.



Eh, unlike many other sidelined characters, I think Minfilia was handled well. They turned her into a martyr and a tragic figure people feel bad for and long for what could have been. Her death was also the sole reason for Thancred turning into a great character, instead of just a stereotypical 007 ladies man and also the foundation for Ryne, another good character.
At least she's not sipping tea in her castle like everyone else, lol.

And to be fair, Minfilia had a butt window in her skirt. Her character was kind of doomed from the start.

The reason it felt dissatisfying to me was because she basically stopped being her own character once the Word of the Mother stuff happened. Don't get me wrong, I love Thancred and Ryne's arcs, but it also makes me sad that most of the time Minfilia will only ever be relevant when it has to do with them. But at the same time it's hard for me to imagine how it'd work without what happened happening. The butt window thing was definitely a bizarre design choice.

[Divinemights]

What if Azem is the true mastermind and WoL will experiencing internal self struggle and split into two?
WoL vs Azem as next arc
This not only makes story more interesting and also solving the power creeping problem

[Willemdarke]

The reason it felt dissatisfying to me was because she basically stopped being her own character once the Word of the Mother stuff happened.

I agree that was a weird choice.
It painted Hydaelyn as some sort of an unfeeling cosmic power that used our characters as chest pieces. Now that we've met her it seems even weirder, as in EW she was presented as deeply sympathetic, benevolent and self-sacrificing.

I don't mind what happened or how that story went, just how it was presented and the dialogue used. Yeah I think Minfilia should have remained herself and had the autonomy to sacrifice herself.

[Jeeqbit]

It painted Hydaelyn as some sort of an unfeeling cosmic power that used our characters as chest pieces.

Firstly, aside from having the aetherial strength of an Ascian, she was not actually as strong as, say, Zodiark without having sundered them. And perhaps the spell she had used to sunder everything taxed her when it was undone somehow (this is implied a lot throughout the MSQ, but not entirely clear why it's then fine for her to die). Either way, she was not quite as strong as she presented herself.

She could have used the aether from that mothercrystal, but her "deeply sympathetic, self-sacrificing" behaviour led her to leave that aether alone for the future.

In any case, she was weak enough from defending the WoL from Ultima that she needed more aether and Minfilia provided it. In order to release Minfilia, Urianger thought of a way to provide Hydaelyn with a boon of aether of the variety she needs - a complete set of elemental crystals like the ones we collect to form the blessing of light, or that we see in the trial and in the depiction of the elementally sundered shards.

Minfilia should have remained herself and had the autonomy to sacrifice herself.

She did. Hydaelyn needed help and Minfilia sacrificed herself immediately in ARR, since she knew Hydaelyn helped the WoL a lot.

After she was released by Hydaelyn, she was given a choice by Urianger to go to The First. But every single person there knew she would choose to go to The First willingly. So Urianger was a bit treacherous in forcing this choice on her, but it was completely within Minfilia's character to be self-sacrificing for the greater good anyway.

Since going to another shard the way she did requires shedding flesh, that made her like an Ascian but she could have continued living. She decided to sacrifice herself instead for real this time to help Ryne.

So she had this autonomy 3 times and sort of lived through it the first 2.

[FuturePastNow]

I definitely think Sphene will play a role in the DT post-patch story, the inclusion of a zoomed-in shot of her regulator crown (which supposedly houses her actual soul) in the post-credits sequence means something.

They're definitely going to do something with that crown. I have my own theory. You know how there were two of Otis- the "real" Otis soul and memories in the robot body, and the one in LM that I would call a "re-creation from memory." We know that the Sphene we interacted with was more like the latter- she was a being constructed from the memories of others. But in the dungeon Alexandria, one of the background NPCs shouts "They've done it! They've preserved the Queen's..." My theory is that the original Sphene's soul and memories were preserved in that crown too (and if they really want to take the story to a dark place, aware and unable to do anything but watch).

[honest_psycho]

I don't care where we are going as long as the current writers are replaced.

[StormChase]

I definitely think Sphene will play a role in the DT post-patch story, the inclusion of a zoomed-in shot of her regulator crown (which supposedly houses her actual soul) in the post-credits sequence means something.

I personally like the theory that she is our shard from the Ninth. Maybe if that's the case we'll have an Ardbert situation where we can see and interact with the real Sphene even though she's long dead, until we finally end up rejoining with her by the end of the patch story.

Long-term I think we're going to follow in Azem's footsteps and find out what they were doing during the Final Days and how the Key is connected to them. Ultima theorists are probably on to something.

My theory's that it's like the Amon clone situation. The Ascians took Sphene's soul so they could awaken it without her memories influencing her. Meanwhile the Endless Sphene was left behind. Maybe the Ascians thought Everkeep would eventually fall like Allag. Or maybe Everkeep was convenient for them somehow (Were they planning to gather up the souls from the Thirteenth?).

[Zelda206]

The next thing? "Speak to Wuk Lamat".

I might tear my hair out, but at least I'm braced for it this time.

[Volgia]

My guess is we might hang out with Y'shtola since she's in charge of peeking into other shards. That being said there's an implication that Alexandria has been enticing or stealing souls from other shards, so we might see that later?

There might be more to Solution 9, as Dawntrail story might end in 7.3, but I don't know if Yoshi P said that we're back at finishing the expansion in the x.3 patch.