What’s better than a head pat? We’re back! Shadowbringers brings out it’s biggest emotional moments so far as we return to Ahm Araeng in search of the next Lightwarden.
0:00 – From Rain to Ryne
3:40 – Defending the Crystarium
11:47 – Minfilia Leads
19:07 – Battle of the Dads
31:07 – Merging
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This was a literal rollercoaster of emotion. And yeah, the Arthurian-esque theme of the land and people being one is very strong in Shadowbringers. You "bring shadow" to the people, get them to move on with their lives and that in turn heals the land. Its one of the most clever things that Shadowbringers does with its story. They tied the metaphysics of the world to a story about human nature and how to deal with grief.
The problem with full CG video in game is that it gets data mined and spoiled. It happened with the Flames of Truth video and the devs were pissed, so they don't do them now.
Funny thing, that many players seem to miss, is that Thancred is acknowledged as the strongest of the Scions by the rest of them way back in ARR. It's probably one of the reasons Y'Shtola ribs him so hard all the time.
Bring back the tier wall! Miss the trial & dungeon & raid overviews/re-caps. Great vid!
I interpreted Thancreds ability to go invisible not as channeling Aether, but stopping the natural channel flow OF Aether. He has been cut off from the flow of Aether for so long that he has developed the ability to use that to his advantage: restricting his own life force.
I also assumed that Ranjit sees Aether just like Yshtola, justified by him shooting us a knowing look while we were invisible in the Crystal Tower but being unwilling to act on it at the time.
Are you seriously wondering where the Crystarium- the city built around a giant crystal tower that functions as a world's biggest solar battery- gets its power from? This seems self-evident to me.
So, something you may not know about Japan is their view on hugging. It's considered an EXTREMELY intimate act, reserved for your sexual partner.
They're more accepting of it from foreigners to a degree because it's part of their culture and they're very polite about it, but even amongst family you don't hug your parents.
It's considered vaguely sexual and they generally don't do it.
So Thancred wouldn't huge Ryne/Minfilia, but he MIGHT hug the Original Minfilia after confessing his feelings.
This is sort of changing among younger Japanese, but the people who made these game and wrote it are not younger folk.
Lyna's breakdown is one of the few times in this game that the animation doesn't manage to do justice to the performance. Salóme R. Gunnarsdóttir does such an impactful job with a character we likely won't be seeing much of in the future.
Garret needs to realize that the answer is just "Ranjit knows kung fu."
Ah, that cliffhanger at the end of the video was so good, the editing gets better and better each Wednesday. Good job guys, definitely will tune in for next MSQ stream!
If this story beat got to you so deeply I can't wait to see your reactions to what comes next. No one is safe.
Kyle got the statis thing and the fact that it is what the world is dieing to. That was the whole theme of trolley town (and ShB)! +10 points Kyle!
This is so good I have watched it twice already. Can't wait for the next one!
quick correction: aether is not magic per se. its mor like… energy. thats why the crystals all over eorzea are used for all manner of power-based shenanigans. to drown out ones aether, like thancred did in the fight is to literally subdue your own soul, your life energy. which is exactly why overdoing it leads to death, because you will end up destroying your soul.
on thancred only: He is the character that you see a huge growing if you start back from ARR. in ARR, he was that kind of side character that … did not shine at all. See him as a "kid". Just that.. guy in the corner. In heavensward he went "full emo mode" … say teenager and kinda didnt come out of it until shadowbringer… where he kinda realised his "arr years where he was hitting on all the ladies ended up with him having a kid" and he had to step up. Said "kid" had him only think about "the mother" and 1 would mean the other leaves…
and he grew up and after being this kind of late teenager which still doesnt know what to choose, he finally matured and embraced it.
He is still Thancred, but he has grew up mentally. This is why i love him so much NOW. he isnt that annoying "i like you cause you have tiddies" guy … well.. he probably still isiInside but its not JUST what he is anymore. And i really appreciate him , characterwise, for this.
“Fun fantasy” and “embedded in a wall” are two things I didn’t think went together in a sentence lol
The Mr Bucket fight was legit
What Thancred almost certainly whispered, judging from his mouth movements was "aishiteru" (pronounced "ISHE-teh-roo"), which translates to "I love you," which luckily has very similar mouth movements. I suspect it was chosen in part because of that.
Aishiteru a far less common, but more serious and formal way, of saying "I love you" than "suki da yo" or "dai suki". Saying that as a goodbye to someone you will never be able to see again is fitting, and isn't strictly romantic, which is good since canonically Thancred is like an older brother to Minfilia. They met when he was 17 and she was 12 or so, after all. The similarity in the mouthing was likely intentional, and the phrase might have been chosen with help from Koji Fox, who is the head of English localization, second on the lore team, and also on the writing team. Why was it whispered? Because being that blunt would be considered a bit over-the-top in Japanese, or even cheesy, so just mouthing it comes off better culturally.
Glad to see you guys back!
Looking forward to your tear tier list when you're all caught up 😉
Dadcred and Mommynger will raise their little Ryne well. Less auntie Y'sthola smack down dadcred.
I have a weird habit of getting grabbed by the shock factor of certain character deaths or fake deaths. Like, I'm emotionally following along, then BAM! I'm in tears because I didn't see it coming. That was my reaction to the Thancred moment and I totally thought he'd died. But I was also okay with it, because he'd really gone through that whole arc and I was like, "If this is how he goes out, then it was good." It was a pleasure to watch you guys go through the whole thing and really talk about your reactions, what you liked and disliked and why, and try to predict the future. I love how Garrett keeps saying that "This is the most I've loved Shadowbringers" because it really does just keep getting better and better. And you're not done yet 😀
Keep seeing the purple thing come up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it just implies void stuff. Dark Knight, We know Ascians return to the void when they die. I'm sure there are other cases too
the videos are getting better and better! cant wait for tomorrow's stream!
Dadcred and Uncle Orange are very interesting foils with regards to Minifilia, and Ran'jit is … what Thancred could have become had he continued to think of Minifilia/Ryne as Minfilia, rather than her own person. With regards to the cinematic cutscenes, Coils was a special case: as I understand it, the Louisoix cutscene was a.) using some partly-completed stuff from the trailer for ARR, and b.) a reward/closure to 1.0, and c.) somewhat experimental at the time, because they were still testing how to build raids at that point.
Minfilia's line to Ryne is definitely one I go back to frequently, for many reasons. Being able to endure that doubt and despair, especially right now, is important. Kyle's headcanon is the accepted one: Minfilia says she's acting much like an Ascian at this point, possessing appropriate bodies, and Ryne is one who has the capacity to handle the amount of aether, etc., that Minfilia requires, but she's not a reincarnation of Minfilia as such. (Also, I definitely thought Thancred was dead at this point when playing through two days after release.)
The voice actors REALLY hit their strides in ShB: Lyna's line will always make me tear up. Bethan Walker (Alisaie) and Colin Ryan (Alphinaud) do AMAZING things with the twins, and Peter Bramhill (Thancred) is just so good here.
+1 for the Tears tier list! Super happy to hear that you're also loving the voice acting, they really upped the ante in ShB for me.
I'm just super hyped for you two, seriously like *does happy hand flailing gestures* AAAAAAAAA!
Minfilia's quote is the very first quote that hit me hard. I carried her quote until to this date as my daily affirmation — well it's one of many quotes in the game. As for the rest of the quotes, I will be smiling here. A smile better suits a spoiler. <3 But yes, it gives me something to think about myself IRL — someone who is going through a tough time.
5 Light Wardens. 5 Stages of Cancer. Just sayin.
Wait 3:42 was that moment with Ryne edited?? Because I don't remember the scene having those black and red hit effects for Ryne's attacks
If it is then maybe it's time for me to Resub and check it again…….
Also "Apocalypse through laziness" is one way to say it, but there's another, more appropriately menacing way to put it, y'know, like, "The Heat Death of the Universe"?
ryne's hair colour is "a parting gift" from minfilia.
THERE'S SOMEONE MISSING FROM THE WALL OF TEARS
KYLE
KYLE DID YOU FORGET YSAYLE AGAIN?!
Whether you can be a mage or not depends on how good your innate control over your body's aether is. It comes up in the thaumaturge questline for example.
It seems Thancred's possession just downgraded the shit out of his natural talent levels, so he had to get creative with what little control he still has.
Crudely clamping down on the natural flow of his aether is easier than trying to move it around!
Worth noting that manipulation is still a skill that has to be developed, so it's doubtful any random could just do the same thing. It shows how skilled Thancred was with aether manipulation that he could pull this off at all.
You can always tell which way a boss is facing by looking at circle on ground around it. It will have an arrow pointing out where the head of the creature is facing and a break in the circle where the rear is. If the circle is not broken and there is no arrow, that means there is no 'head', no front or back to the creature and thus no positionals.
The duel with Ran’Jit was the first time the game really got my heart pounding. And it’s honestly tame compared to what’s coming.
I guess they never ended up finishing the Ivalice raids if Bucketman wasn't giving them Nam flashbacks.
Oh I love you guys! Cant wait cant wait cant wait.
The big thing people don't seem to realize is that Thancred isn't talking to her because he wants the choice to be completely hers. He is worried that if he says anything, it will affect how the Minfilia situation plays out. He doesn't want either one of them to go but ultimately believes it's Minifilia's choice to make. As with all communications, both of them are a little silly about properly understanding one another. It's true Thancred is difficult, but so is Ryne in her own way. She draws conclusions about how Thancred feels without ever asking him about the situation. It's a realistic depiction of the issues poor communication cause between parent and child.
Thancred whispered "I love you".
can confirm, Ryne looks now how she would've by normal, non-oracle of light birth of her parents. also that Amphibious Talos (bucket head) boss in Malikah's well is hands down the literal best boss in the whole game
Love the video breakdown. Keep making quality content.
6:05 Sorry, I have NOT forgiven Disney for the Last Jedi. Since 2017 Star War has been dead to me.
One of the joys of playing an MMO is seeing the characters we know evolve and well, grow up. We saw it with basically all the Scions, but I swear Thancred must have had the most changes over the entire series. Glad you guys enjoyed it.
P.S. Gundam Heavy Arms reference is gold in my book.
Storge is the Greek name of familial love. Such as a parents love for a child. It fits with this chapter don't you think?
28:30 The Warrior of Light can go back and forth because of MMO reasons, but that doesn't mean any of the more "normal" people can. I suppose we'll just have to keep playing to see how they do it. 🙂
I am so excited for when they get to feels-walker
So here's the deal with Thancred's ability: Thancred is originally a rogue. All Rogues have the "Hide" ability, it's one of the first things you learn. Thancred has "multiclassed" into Gunbreaker. As such, he still retains all his Rogue abilities.
Here's the kicker, the "Hide" ability requires the ability to manipulate aether. Thancred has lost his ability to control the aether in his body due to the "Flow" spell from ARR. It's not that Thancred doesn't have aether, it's just he cannot control it easily like other humans can (for some reason, all races in this game are referred to as "mankind" so human is all encompassing here). Thancred using his more refined "Deception" ability several times shows that he had no other choice but to use it, bc if he uses it incorrectly, he will kill himself. To use all of his "Hide" abilities, Thancred must use aether, which is like trying to force water through sealed pipes. Too much for toolong will cause the pipes burst, which means Thancred will die.
Thancred is one of the greatest Rogues/Survivalists in the world, so his "Hide" has evolved to "Perfect Deception", which ofc he cannot use anymore without great risk to himself. That's why one of the tooltips reads "Thancred will be KO'd once the timer on the debuff expires". He will literally die if he uses his hide ability, that's why he never uses it anymore unless absolutely necessary. This is the reason behind Thancred's special ability in the RP duty.
Also Minfilia is dead-dead. Like perma dead
The in-world explanation for ranjet's strength is he has at least 100 years for combat experience and fought the sin eaters during that time. We learn this admittedly off-handedly since crystal Exarch says ranjet leads eulmores army ever since the sin eaters appeared implying the 100 years of combat. The other factor that leads creadence to Ranjets combat experience is He trained every reincarnation of Minfila which only has been a thing the last 100 years. How he survived and lived so long is another question entirely this is hand waved by him knowing his special martial art.
I believe the words Thancred mouth at the end of that sequence are his last words for Minfilia. Having it be silent opens it to be whatever the player might project thancred might've said to Minfilia at the end, but I also think it keeps it more personal like those words are for Minfilia alone. Its one of the most beautiful moments of Shadowbringers, and ffxiv as a whole.
Gukumatz is Ranjit's dragon, based on the Creator Deity of Mayan mythology.