Death/Getting KO'd

[FrionielHope]

So what's the explanation for when you get KO'd? I mean if you're just out randomly and get ko'd Im sure it can get explained that someone drags you back or the Aether teleports you back or something but what about in quest battles?

I mean is Ifrit really ok with you just getting KOd he doesn't want to kill you or whatever? And furthermore when you do instances the exact same scenario plays out even if it's incredibly unlikely that it would happen twice

If there is no explanation then I have a fun little theory. When you get KOd in a important battle the Aether or the Echo sets back time and erases your memory of the event, thus the exact same scenario plays out but since you've experienced this fight in the past even if you (your character) don't remember it, so it makes you better at the fight (AKA the Echo Boost)

If I'm wrong though and it is explained I'd love to know

[Londis2013]

I could go with that.

[Urthdigger]

I view it as gameplay/story segregation, like how you simply vanish when you log out, how everyone goes on the same quest to save the world, and how the same FATE events occur over and over again.

[WhoIsTheGuest]

Divine Intervention: Mother crystal transformed you into aether upon your death, and reshape you back into physical form later...just like how "echo" intervene everytime at such a good timing throughout your main quest line.

Kinda like, "The New U" station in Borderlands, and "Nano resurrection technology" in PlanetSide 2.
:3

[Skies]

Actually there is an explanation for it in the very initial quest that has you attune to your first aetheryte.
It's a combination of adventurer training and teleport magic, essentially. The Return spell moves you back through the aether flows back towards the aethryte you are most in tune with, whereas the Teleport spell lets you focus more and choose the target. Simply getting KOed and returning is an instinctive behaviour, you're disabled, instinctively you seek to return to that safe point. (game doesn't actually forgets that this is a thing, later on you DO get to hack into an aetheryte to reach elsewhere )

Of course some things such as a battle's scenes replaying precisely the same in stuff like Ifrit fight is a simple... Segregation of game and mechanics is sometimes needed because the story presumes that you are ever victorious

[USMCJEV]

The acts of dying (in which cases you are not revived), reviving at the crystal, would be considered non-canonical and simply a feature of the gameplay that does not represent the story.

As Urthdigger put it, it's Story/Gameplay Segregation