Holy crap! <Late Main Quest Spoilers>

[Anonymoose]

Not so fast, now... It's not quite what it looks like.

I'm actually still trying to work out what's up with it. I've only given it the one viewing so far, so this is very raw and perhaps you guys can help me work through it. At the End of an Era, we clearly see Thancred praying while Lahabrea is marveling at Bahamut from atop the cliffs ... and he looks identical to Thancrascian - why? If "red mask" is what Thancred looks like when an Ascian has anchored to him with a Dark Crystal, why do we see an identical form before and after this incarnation of his physical presence? Or are we just to assume that Lahabrea on the cliffs and Lahabrea at Ascians Anonymous were other, similar looking hyur?

What implications does this have for the Ascians we saw in Version 1.0? We can safely assume that Travanchet was an elezen that was Dark Crystal'd ... but what of the Reaper we saw in Thanalan? Is this their natural, wispy form? Why not show Lahabrea like this before and after Thancred to really big up the "RED MASK WAS THANCRED ALL ALONG" vibe? Or show another hyur donning the red mask and raising the hood around the other Overlords?

Development constraints, maybe?

Speaking of 1.0 ... what if the red mask we saw at the Battle of Cartenau... was Warburton?

All in all, though, I'm getting pretty into it and I think SE did a fantastic job. That last dungeon and its cutscenes were like one giant love letter from a side of Final Fantasy we haven't seen in a long time.