These 12 details hidden in plain sight explain everything in Final Fantasy Dawntrail from Sphene’s biggest failure, Zoraal Ja’s secret power, to how the first half of the expansion affects the second.
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That sunrise at the end had me baffled.. then it dawned on me that Living Memory existed above the Storms and could have housed the living.
I never even noticed the last one lmao, thank you!
Levin sickness is a lot more akin to the people at the inn at journey’s end who were turning into Sin Eaters. I was practically screaming at my screen when that scene with the levin sickness kid “FFS GET G’RAHA AND ALISAIE IN HERE WE KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS PROBLEM WE’VE DONE THIS BEFORE WITH HALDRATH WE CAN SUMMON A PORXIE AND SHOW THEM HOW TO TREAT THIS PLEASE THEY FEEL SO USELESS IN THE STORY RIGHT NOW!!!!”
I disagree with one point: I don't think anything in the characterizatiin of Wuk Lamat suggests that she's merely playing dumb during her interactions with Sphene.
At every point in the story up to and even after Sphene's villain turn, Wuk Lamat is a step behind, not a step ahead.
Excellent analysis!! While I picked up on most of these, there were a few I was like holy shit lol
Appreciate the in-depth review!
I personally felt it was Sphene realizing she needed to purge herself so that her Endless programming would be able to do what was needed to protect her people. This is further supported by the Alexandria Dungeon where we see how she put her own safety aside for the safety of her people. She goes out of her way to save those in trouble and in the process ends up losing her own life. Her life is then put into the Endless and she again finds herself in a situation where she comes to the conclusion that she has to put her own well-being aside to do what is needed for her people and allows her memories to be deleted so that the Endless can act without compromise.
Sphene is aware that she knows what she is doing is wrong, that's why she allowed Joraal to take over, because by using a tyrant to attack and destroy other worlds it would be out of sight out of mind for her. She isn't doing the killing, it's the person who's taken over that is doing it, which still puts her in the wrong because she is just putting that burden of responsibility on someone else which later on when she chooses to erase her memories, she in essence allows her Endless programming to be the Tyrant that she used Joraal for.
Lv 99, Through the Gold Gate, the Synopsis I feel leads more to suggesting that it was Sphene's will to erase her memories, not that of her Endless.
"Sphene appears upon being called at the Meso Terminal,. and Wuk Lamat please for her to reconsider her course. Alas, the queen refuses to be swayed and vanishes again, but not before revealing that she will erase the memories she has as a living person, that she might shed the conscience to become a devourer of worlds."
I feel if it was the otherway around it would remark on how the Endless Programming felt it necessary to erase Sphene's memories to compelte their objective but with how it's worded above it comes off more like she came to the "logical" conclusion that the only way to protect her people was to erase herself.
Overall I really dig the other takes, it does bring into perspective how the two acts work together with Wuk Lamat learning and then using what she learned on her journey against Sphene, I had not considered that. Only real issue I had with Wuk's development is it feels like her cultural knowledge should have been better, if she wanted to be there for her people, you would think the things she learned would have been cultures/ideologies she already knew.
Like I don't mind if they focused on her being gullible, needing training in combat and absent-minded to the different between life in the city and outside but I do think that if they had wanted to amplify her respect of the cultures of her people, she should have been more knowledgeable in those subjects rather than acting like a fish out of water.
One thing I'm curious about: There's a final shot of Sphene's crown, powered on. At some point in the story its specifically mentioned that her crown was also a regulator. Now this could have been a cover as to why she didn't age, being an endless, and the citizens aren't supposed to know what Endless are. But it makes me wonder, if her memory is still out there. Or what implications the crown could have.
Maybe it's her true soul, to be recovered? Some master key restoring Living Memory? I do wonder if there was a master backup of all endless somewhere else besides the pillars we shut down. It would make sense to have redundancies for a system that is housing something so precious and irreplaceable.
fantastic video, thanks for making this! I think your analysis is really on point.
In regards to levin sickness, I think it might be due to more than, or something other than, the aetherial sea being tainted with levin. Electrope is a miraculous mineral, and while we've seen things in its realm (corrupted crystal, which is brought back in an aether current quest so it can be no coincidence) the fact remains that it only converts lightning aether to other kinds of aether. I was expecting to see pyrotrope, aerotrope, etc. – one for each element – but no.
Not only that, but we're told that at first the stormy season was a few months of the year. Then it grew longer and longer. I came away with the distinct impression that it might be related to electrope use. I would have expected that converting the lightning to other forms of aether would shorten the storm season, but all indications seem to be the opposite. I think there is something about using electrope that increases electric aether somehow; else why would the area around Alexandria be engulfed in perpetual lightning despite being on the (previously aetherically balanced) Source?
Obviously this is all guesswork and theme interpretation, but I have a suspicion that if Alexandria were to put the electrope back in the ground their levin sickness might let up. And I really liked what you said about levin sickness mirroring tempering – I absolutely agree, and I wonder if the methods used to get rid of tempering could be tweaked to address levin sickness too. Also, I still find it very interesting that Queen Sphene herself was a victim of levin sickness, as mentioned in one of the Living Memory sidequests…
I desperately need to know about why the relic bears Azem's symbol. We knew Azem was up to something before the sundering after they left their position. If they forsaw an outcome where all shards could co-exist peacefully with the source and made an object to make that theory possible, they're even more of a madlad/madlass than I originally thought they were.
This is why AI will never be viable in the future
The state of having too much lightning aether is the same as the over-light aspected of the First, or the Tempering in the Source. Which makes it really frustrating that the writing team forgot about the porxies. We can cure that, it's exactly what Angelo & Co were created for, and we have Alisaie with us, just a link-pearl call and maybe 2 minutes walk away!
I hope that'll come up in the post-MSQ quests.
Normal mode spoilers:
When doing the story forcthe Arcadion, you can mention to the announcer that your "simulated allies" reminds you of the endless and he notes he has no idea what you're talking about.
Its not even an issue to go from Epic Conclusion of Story Arc to slow almost ARR style adventure, its that damned house cat butting in on everything, even well past where she should've f'd back off to tulliyollal to stay there as a ruler. She's got no business being in alexandria. yes, zoraal ja challenged her. But we're a literal god-killer. Surely we can handle one upjumped lizard with overgrown ambitions.
Nevermind the final fight against Sphene. Finally we are actually in focus, she specifically deleted the cat and our other companions… only for that damned furry to come back jumping in last-second to steal our glory. I'm fine with her being around the first half, that was very much her story, her trials. But the second half? Really could've done with a bit less of that "Lets get to know everyone! friendship is magic, weeeeeeee!"
Im glad to see someone appreciate the good parts of Dawntrail, thank you!! 🥰
About the sunrise in Living Memory, is possible that Living Memory was rejoined to a Shard by Sphene's interdimensional fusion during the final fight
There is a good core in DT….but details and execution, that is why soo many are upset because it was close to greatness
the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference
because of how largely unnoticed these excellent points (video) were, means they werent presented clearly enough (sad, but reality)
as a standalone story; either for a new game or if it had happened prior to ShB and EW, DT wouldve fared much better in opinion and analysis
the events still have the narrative problem of having occcured after ShB and EW
The lessons learned, ideas fought for and technologies/solution power gained ShB & EW:
meaning: the lessons learned and arguments made by the scions against the ascians and in dead ends against metion
that broken lesser lifeforms are still alive and have value…. in living memory we by action become the ascians become metion -.-
furthermore it is established and implied a long travel time across the salt
if the reinforcement scions were only notified with the discovery of the gate then by boat they wouldve been unable to reach tural in time
in EW one of the first technologies we encounter is the experimental aetheryte travel of one way to a new location…. logically the WoL, with their high affinity for traversing between aetherytes, shouldve teleported to sharlaya picked up a duplicate setup for the destination and brought it back to tulliyollol; thus allowing reinforcements to teleport across the salt instead of traverse
between ShB and EW the WoL pilots the G-Warrior of which there are at least 2 in operation, prior to EW; upon encountering the electrope airships why was Cid and also Nero not called to anaylze electrope and find counters; such as deploying a magitech field between the fleets and the dome blocking communication or better yet also sending back to the dome the status still the same signals the fleet should have been sending and thus allowing the fleets to be attacked withouth reinforcements from the dome nor zoraal ja being aware of their loss
somehow the dragons, whilst they can fly interstellar distance (midgardsormr at least), they arent fast
we have contact with the loporitts, the moon, access to abandoned allagan airships and spaceships and have had so for a bit now….plenty of time for some to be made operational again, like G-warrior was, the sharlayan ark is also a high speed transport craft
why wasnt G-warrior or its successor brought over for the WoL to attack the fleets
the time dilation, to the degree it was under the dome is ultimate a plot device; and can be kept, or weakened or removed as called for narratively
the alexandrians attack by airships, airships that can pass through the dome; why build a breechable location for a counter force; especially along the RR tracks that are not going to be used by electrope-trains to transport forces by ground. the dungeon couldve been changed to the assault on the flagship airship above tulliyollol and ends with Cid and Graha hacking the ship and having the flagship send the stand down commands; the train is still modified but instead of adding flammable thermal insulative wood to the sides of steam engine…which historically ….. did sometimes blow up from their own internal runaway heat management problems… lets not make it worse. instead is plated with electrope plating so it can pass through he barrier like the airships
It make sense to not use any of the above for the mere rite of succession but as soon as a shard, especially a shard that is invading appears; entire world (the Source) on deck
also not having a working train running around on a loop that players can walk around on whilst in moves in shaaloni was a huge miss….Tower of Fantasy has working mmo trains.
2 tracks: 1 is the current interzone train, the other separate train is on a loop to all major settlements in the zone both those with and without aetherytes, and the birdge.
the oasis aetheryte area should be expanded into tural's version of reunion (trade hub of multiple tribes, not just the fantasy bison herders; also blu nation tribes, amongst others)
zone 5: we see remnants of alexandria in 2 lvl 100 dungeons, living memory and also here….. overkill;
the wall is bleh, either set it up as the military highway from tower TO breechpoint or have it be parallel to the domes' boundary as a defense or get rid of it
instead of ruins of alexandria better yet would be ruins of "terra" so that the XIV's version of FFIX's alexandria became terra in style/ architecture
zone 6: the issue with the endless is that environmental aether does not work, it has to be life force aether
so we cut off the lifeforce aether….but the environmental aether that maintains the land should be either on a separate control system (not meso terminals) or able to be reactivated prior to a patch x.1,2,3,4,5. in tempest it is stated that emet's illusion will fade and the bubble we caused will collapse but not for a while so the players can still enjoy the beauty. in dead ends the scions add to the zone, add more life to the zone….. living memory on the other hand, physically is worse off for our presence and progress
There's just no way the Levin Sickness (which we saw once and, I believe, had referenced another time) won't come up again in the upcoming patch story.
We were kinda busy trying to figure out how to deal with Zoraal Ja, and then Sphene, but it definitely felt like setup for something that's coming later.
I'm just going to enjoy this non copy pasta toxic take on DT. You'd swear a good but not great expansion is worse then 1.0.
DT and Wuk Lamat are good. Fun even. Not the best that's still Heavensward and Endwalker but it was what I expected and more.
Just remember gang, this is only part 1 of 6 or 7 depending on how you count the .5 and .55 patches. Some unanswered questions (LIKE WHO ZORAAL JA FUCKED & why the relic has azems symbol on it) will more than likely be answered in the next few patches.
A couple of the early ones are a bit of a stretch for me, but it's so nice to see someone talking about foreshadowing and possible connections for a change, instead of people who either skipped the cutscenes or cant read complaining about plot points that literally never happened.
Plus a "things you might have missed" video with things I did in fact miss? Rare.
Some great analysis here, especially of the sunlight detail!
Great video, thanks. Some of the story elements were lost to me during playtime but this gave me a better perspective!
You know what? You're pretty amazing. There's a lot of things that didn't make sense to me and now I dislike Wuk Lamat a little less and understand why I don't like Sphene even more! I appreciate this video! Thank you!
Finally, someone who actually paid the fuck attention instead of complaining about shit that was clearly explained in the story, or explained in previous expansions that people just miraculously "forgot".
Wasnt the sky with sun in the credits scene because the programing sucessfuly merged living memory with some random shard (probably the 11’th)?
Well yeah, the Scions mention levin sickness might be curable with the techniques against light sickness mastered on the First, and the psychonecrosis storyline also points that way
Btw now we also know why Zoraal Ja was staggering even when loaded to the brim with souls. He was probably in an advanced stage of psychonecrosis from abusing the beast soul system
I question the reasoning about making a tall city to survive the lightning. As far as we know the game has never revealed exactly how far reaching a calamity is, only that it's basically world wide. The way they explain these reflections as well makes it somewhat confusing for me anyway as I am unsure if these reflections are just different planets split from an original one or entirely different dimensions. If they are entirely different dimensions do these calamities expand further out from the planet or are they only planet wide? the point most relevant to the issue of the raised city however is how do we know that raising the city actually protected people? hell how do we know the city itself is actually raised? what is the extent of the damage from the levin storm? is there even land outside of the city? remember the issue with the first with it's flood of light? everything became completely barren and no life could exist. What if a similar situation exists with alexandria or their world? there's a lot more questions to ask really and no way to answer them quite yet until we see more story patches.
Correction regarding the Feat of Gold: it wasn't Wuk Lamat who gave Havli too much information, it was Mablu. Mablue was the one who called Wuk Lamat "Third Promise" in front of Havli, which prompted him to double the price.