Time to cover some of the plots and story points in FFXIV that were never really explained or resolved! With a story as big as this there are bound to be things that slip through the cracks. And yet, as lore nerds we’re passionate enough to still wonder “What’s going on?” in the back ground. So lets discuss these points and what may or may not be happening my friends!
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#ffxiv #lore #story
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i just want to know how to bring the real Minfilia back
Isnt the echo just a small fraction of the power the ancients had some people awaken
Spoilers ahead. Obviously, but still, fairly warned be ye if you're around here for whatever godforsaken reason:
So uuuuh… considering Gaius is carrying five masks (unless I'm miscounting which is entirely possible given the hour I'm writing this at), whatshisface died when Moony sacrificed herself, Igy and Laha died in Azys Lla, we killed Emet, Elidibus and Fandaniel, Gaia renounced her seat p/ much (Loghrif), we moidered Mitron dead, and we're Azem. Someone tell me where my leap in logic is because I'm counting 13 dead ascians + us (Azem), making fourteen.
As for translation issues… this is probably one of the majors reasons I play this game in english. I don't speak japanese, but with Michael Koji Fox I know that it's hopefully as close as possible to the original stuff.
And as for the whole "Shards have the same night sky" and stuff… that's probably a can of worms where the explanation is basically "magic" because any other explanation would fare poorly. Like, one guy in these here comments talks about them being superimposed and that's the headcanon I'm going with as well (which is still "magic").
pretty sure the echo is just the power of the ancients, after all, Venat teaches you how to use it lol
I refuse to accept "Emet Fucked" as the answer to why Zenos dreamed of the final days and I will stand by this until the servers go down
I was an 1.0 Player, that took a long hiatus shortly after ARR, and I really like things like this, because I’m really curious about story beats that I thought I missed, that turned out to be just missing.
I'm pretty sure the echo and thr blessing of light are the same thing the echo is just the part that lets u see the past
For me the plot hole I wanted answered is why Zenos was dreaming of the file days since he was a child.
I sincerely hope one of the living ascians becomes a party member in the future. It'd be so interesting to have one of the Ascians come around to the changes in the world.
I'm still waiting for Odin to be revisited. Last we saw of him some dude stole the sword and disappeared with it.
I didnt see it, but the heart of sabik is actually finished, its a throwaway line in the Weapon story line, with gaius and his kids
i would like to know more about the azim – azem connection there obviously is something to it
Pashtarot's counterpart in FF12 is Zeromus. I think he'll be in 6.4 or 6.5
The inconsistentencies and unresolved plots might be due to changes in lead writters, perhaps? Natsuko ishikawa was lead for SHB for EW, not sure who the leads were in previous expansions. If it's the same person or a different one, each expansion. Each writer had their own story to tell, I guess.
The impression from numerous interviews with CBU3's people that I've gotten is that the XIV story hasn't been developed with a definitive ending in mind. The lore and story is developed enough for one expansion and then some. It's a big cause for frustrations that I've had with the story direction for a while now. But most of these examples presented here, should be viewed as story-threads in suspended animation. Especially the Ascian one! They will be reintroduced or continued when the writing team thinks it's necessary.
The inconsistency of the Echo is so frustrating. It's never really clear what exactly it IS. Shadowbringers and Endwalker imply that it's a fragment of powers the unsundered Ancients once possessed, yet it also seems to be much more. The Echo is shown/said to be able to let users do some or all of the following:
– See into the past.
– Understand all languages
– Protection from tempering/corruption of the soul
– Sustain their soul outside their body, and infuse their soul into other bodies to possess them, making them functionally immortal.
– Fuse/merge with other beings, both other souls and primals
– Unlock power beyond one's natural limits
– See into the future
5.2 also kind of implies that the Echo and the Blessing of Light are one and the same, Hydaelyn reaches out to any who can hear her and grants them her blessing. Yet the WoL's blessing is frequently called out as unique (allows us to absorb vast amounts of light), the blessed are meant to carry crystals of light, and Midgardsormr distinguishes between the echo and blessing calling one as "gifted" and the other as "chosen". In Endwalker the blessing is said to simply be protection from tempering, even though that's historically attributed to the Echo. So are they one and the same? Though even when the blessing is stripped from us in Heavensward, we don't get tempered and have no trouble still seeing into other's pasts. It's just so all over the place.
Ultimately the Echo is nothing more than a story device that allows us to see flashbacks and gain information. That's fine, but I wish they had just solidified that early on instead of adding more and more to it without ultimately having a plan for what the power actually is and what it can do. Unless they plan to really thoroughly resolve it, I hope they just cut their losses and leave it alone going forward.
Something I've been thinking about recently is the Garleans cloning experiments, Emet-Selch mentions he doesn't even need the cloned bodies of Solus right after establishing them. From a storytelling perspective it's weird to just mention something then say it's pointless, so it must have been foreshadowing something, right?
I doubt Gaius knew of any way to permanently kill Ascians. I don't know if I would call extra Ascians a "plot hole" though. They are simply people who have yet to reveal their plans. You have to keep in mind that these past 10 years of gameplay all occurs within maybe a year or two of story. These patches and expansions are taking place in the course of maybe days or weeks at a time. It isn't odd that known enemies aren't poking their heads out right away if they are like Fandaniel and deciding to focus on their own ends. We can't even say that they are "laying low" really with how little time has past.
I don't think they left the Echo hanging as a plot or dropped it. They worked hard to explain how much of what we thought was a result of the Echo was the Blessing all along. I wouldn't call it a retcon as much as the characters in the story learning an assumption they held was incorrect, but that deepens it's plot more than anything. I love games where the lore isn't revealed by NPCs as infallible fact, but their individual understanding that might conflict with what other characters in the game will tell you.
It is also important to note that the echo manifests differently in everyone. It is just a term we've given to inherited powers and abilities that all ancients had, somehow manifesting in sundered beings of today. Sufficed to say, I don't think it is so much that Zenos uses the echo better than we do, but that his Echo is different/better than ours…that we may never have been capable of what he can do with the version we got. His isn't a copy, but something the garlean tech allowed him to unlock through study of Echo-barers. It isn't even surprising to me that they might have managed to force open more possibilities than those who were born with some variation of the echo naturally. If the resonance machines are capable of unlocking the echo more fully than it occurs naturally in people who were born with it, if the tech is able to grant people near-ancient capabilities so easily, it is kind of the most powerful piece of technology we've seen and I do wonder if we've seen the last of it… if it's secrets were really buried with those we've had to kill.
wow… i REALLY need to go back and carefully READ the story again! i barely remember any of these!
As someone who skips all of the story stuff it’s neat to see what potential things could maybe get pulled back in in the future or reconnected or referenced in new content.
I could be wrong but I thought the reason why Ramuh acts differently is because of the Sylphs view on him and reasons for summoning him. Unlike the other tribes who see their primals as aggressive beings to fight their enemies, the Sylph see him as a defender of their lands and so he is more reasonable when we meet him?
When I was a sprout, someone told me that Shadowbringers would reveal a big secret about the mechanics of what /actually/ happens when you die and respawn at a crystal. My mind swam with possibilities, most of them Star Trek transporter related. I beat the expansion a few months later. Asked around. Nothin'.