Here’s a little bit about myself, for those of you who care enough to read this. I’ve been playing FFXIV since the ARR Beta, and before that, FFXI for about 6 years; so I guess SquareEnix has been present for a big chunk of my life.
I wanted to give back to the community, but I’m not particularly talented like a lot of the people here. I’ve made some silly shorts here and there, like You’ll Never See it Coming and Team Rocket in FFXIV (both found in this channel), but I’ve never worked on a big project like this one before.
So… I’d like to present to you my Endwalker Story Speculation video. It took me about a month of editing, mostly because I had to learn a lot of things from the scratch. I know it’s probably not as good as some of the videos circulating around these parts, but I hope you end up liking it nonetheless.
To be entirely honest, I wasn’t going to publish it after the Endwalker Launch Trailer, because it touches upon what I’m saying in the video, and I didn’t want to come across as stating the obvious or being too pretentious. But my partner and friends encouraged me to do it anyway. As a fun learning experience, if anything.
As far as speculation videos go, please keep in mind this is just for fun, and a lot of the things I’ve said could (and likely will) be wrong. I also suggest turning on Closed Captions, because English is not my first language and my accent might be hard to understand sometimes. And finally, please be mindful of spoilers. I don’t recommend watching this until you’re all caught up with the story up to 5.5.
If you have any comments or feedback about the video, I’d love to hear it. Thank you for your time!
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I really liked this video! The editing is great and I always enjoy you're theories! I can't wait to see what happens in Endwalker!
I love this, and now with the new launcher trailer out, it makes this even more likely
Ok. Dude that video is so well put together, I'm so glad you finished it. I love the story telling to build up the theory, and I LOVED the meme edits. They legit made me laugh. But dude, the fact that you managed to piece all that together is really amazing. I would never be able to draw those comparisons to ancient Greece. And the fact that IT'S ALL MAKING SENSE IS SCARING MEEE. Dude As well as this was and fun to watch, I hope you're wrong. Great video man. I hope you can find it in you to do more of these. I would love to watch.
2:20 So what you're saying is that they're Redditors?
I'm surprised you found all of this but never mentioned Arenvald encouraging Alphinaud to be a hero after Arenvald got crippled. Also, I think that if Alphi does die then its going to be because he tries to step up and be a hero when we've either been beaten down by Zenos/Zodiark or are away from Eorzea or something.
I should point out something said by Yoshida during the Live Letter. He said that the tagline at the end, said by Alphinaud wasn't always planned to be there, he was torn on its inclusion, but he ultimately left it in as he wanted something to reference A Realm Reborn.
I have mixed feelings on tying Greek myth into this, because the myths about the minotaur tend to focus more heavily on Ariadne and Theseus than they do Daedalus and Icarus. That, and I seem to recall that Daedalus and Icarus were locked in a tower that overlooked the ocean — with Daedalus' warning to Icarus being to avoid flying too low, lest the wings become waterlogged and weighty, and too high, lest the wax soften and the feathers fall from the wings.
All that being said — I do agree with a lot of this speculation, and it concerns me greatly. I worry that not just one of the twins (I wouldn't put it past them to put all these omens and signs on Alphinaud, just for Alisaie to die saving him from his fate) but any number of our compatriots, Scion or otherwise, could be facing their end. Sad face. 🙁
Great video, especially for your first time! I have some criticisms, but I wanted to open by clearly stating that this is good stuff. I wouldn't engage with your ideas if I didn't think they had merit. Now, with that out of the way, I see two major criticisms for this, and one speculative counter-theory, also based on some evidence, that is worth considering.
Major criticism 1: Hasn't Alphinaud ALREADY "flown too close to the sun" and been HEAVILY punished for it? That's exactly what happened at the end of ARR! He got too close to the Warrior of Light, and his arrogance nearly killed him and everyone he associated with. But he learned from that and built himself back up, better and wiser than before. It'd be pretty disappointing for him to go out like a chump on a heroic sacrifice now.
Major criticism 2: The Labyrinth does actually have other stuff, and none of it relates to Daedalus/Icarus. Minos, the Minotaur, etc. was a Greek mythic smear campaign against the Minoans of Crete, who were mostly pirates that preyed heavily on (Mycenaean) Greek ships. But ON Crete, the Labyrinth had a stronger connection to Ariadne, who might even have been a goddess in Minoan culture, the "Mistress of the Labyrinth." (Also: "real" labyrinths weren't mazes, they're one long, looping corridor, used as a meditation aid like a mandala.) Also, Daedalus & Icarus weren't locked in the maze (the former knew how to get out, that's WHY he was locked up), they were trapped in a tower. Plus, it'd be very odd to have an elaborate Labyrinth myth-parallel that…didn't actually reference the Minotaur at all.
My counter-theory: During the Labyrinthos reveal, Yoshi-P mentioned that the buildings looked "very old" (paraphrased), and that that seemed interesting. Then we learned it was an artificial, closed-off environment, apparently meant to protect Sharlayan's stored knowledge. I think it has a much more important, and sinister, purpose.
I think Labyrinthos is an Ascian-made artificial environment intended to allow the Ascians to repeatedly "farm" the biosphere of the planet, for several reasons. First: Ancient souls are HUGE chunks of aether. Pre-Sundering, Emet-Selch called the new life as "malformed creatures" having a "sickly glow." Just culling the planet's life once would never be able to restore 75% of the Ancient civilization, and if they took everything they'd just waste the sacrifice of many of their brethren. Hence, they need to keep enough stuff alive to be able to repopulate. Enter Labyrinthos: artificial bio-dome, with all the world's knowledge…run by a STRICT pacifist/non-interventionist society.
But second: their mysterious founder, Nyunkrepf Nyunkrepfsyn. Suspicious name. "Nyunkrepf, son of Nyunkrepf" implies self-creation. Then (1) he allegedly prophesied the flood and built an ark to carry survivors; and (2) he managed to teleport THE WHOLE BOAT, and EVERYONE on it, safely hundreds of miles away, to dodge a tidal wave. It ran aground in the Peaks, where you can still see it today (Nyunkrepf's Hope). When other survivors began squabbling over food, he took a group of like-minded folks and sailed north-west and founded Sharlayan. He personally saw to the creation of the Ecclesia, the predecessor to the modern Forum.
Sounds a lot like Emet-Selch, crafting another nation to serve the Great Work. Teleports are easy, he can pull souls from the Lifestream, can move huge amounts of aether, and would already know when and what the Sixth Calamity would be. Hence the Forum's confidence: the Ascians prepared them and would have "prophesied" the Final Days (actually Zodiark culling the planet) so the Sharlayans could all hide underground. They could then return to the surface and repopulate. Mare Lamentorum and the floating island area (with its Amaurotine swoopy-things) are secret, hidden retreats for the revived Ancients to wait in.
With this counter-theory plus my first point, we can even keep the Alphinaud=Icarus idea. He's an Icarus who survived falling, who built himself back up again better. He knows stupid risks, while his dad has become hidebound, unwilling to risk at all. This injects new life into an otherwise kind of tired story (Stupid Teenager Is Stupid, news at 11) while still honoring its origins.
I hope you are wrong about this!
But my concern over bits and bytes aside, great video 🙂
pretty fun video with good editing! keep it up man!