For a famous cutscene, we need a change of format. It’s time to get some ANSWERS!
0:00 – Intro
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4:51 – Big Walk Energy
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It's such a colossal payoff for everything in FFXIV leading up to the journey to Elpis. You don't know the details, the context, or why Answers is important – It starts mostly as…extremely melodramatic. "Why do bad things happen" with lyrics that sound pretty.
Then, Stormblood/Shadowbringers/Endwalker happen, and CB3 did the near impossible and added entirely new depths to the lyrics of Answers, the history leading to the Calamities, the entire goal of the Ascians…
They took villains that I did not care about at all from ARR through Stormblood pre-Emet and made them some of the most tragic fallen heroes in fiction. Emet is the worst case scenario for someone like the WoL, who cannot move on and will not let themselves move on, and thus commits atrocities.
Venat on the other hand…refuses to give up hope. Despite everything, and despite the knowledge that the choice she is about to make is going to usher in untold suffering, she refuses to accept that there is no answer to Meteion and the loss of Etherys. She perseveres, knowing that her job will be *horrific*, because she still believes there is a way to avert the Final Days.
"Answers" has been in this game from the beginning and more or less had four different life cycles and interpretation
1: A curious an open-ended question of the quest of a new MMO
2: A lament of the state of the game (the 1.0 cycle)
3: A capstone to finalize the end of a broken world. (The fall of Dalamud/final cutscene of 1.0.)
4: This epic, epic moment, contextualizing the entire saga of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark series.
Each time it is used it contextualizes beginnings and ends. Their use of it here is a master class of drawing meaning in ambiguity and I am HERE FOR IT.
I laughed so hard at Catholic upbringing intensifies
my interpretation of the biggest fault of the ancients is that they did not know how to grieve.
they lived in practically a perfect world. no hunger, no war, no homeless, no death.
they might have been wrong to create life just to take it away but even hermes agrees that some creatures are too dangerous to allow to roam free, but that doesnt stop him from grieving these creatures.
not only that, hermes grieved for the imminent loss of of the previous fandaniel, a thing usually joyioius in the ancient culture
the ancients did not know how to grieve, opposed hermes' grief, not seeing a reason for it
so when the world ended, when so many had to sacrifice themselves to save some… they did not know how to cope. the grief was so impossibly big that instead they refused to move forwards and instead kill countless people and creature to bring back people how had willingly given their life for others
For me the Ancients response to Venat always made perfect sense. She chose, of her own will out of absurd “fair determination”, to keep her people ignorant of what happened in the cosmos. Of what befell other civilizations. Of course they would reject her! She never did what she should have, been honest and upfront from the start, and by doing so the ignorance of the people would lead them to their doom. And by the time we see her spouting off about how other civilizations have met their doom is too late! The Final Days came and she played her part in ensuring this would come to pass!
19:38 Just a reminder this cutscene was released in December 2021. Pretty sure everyone was wishing for a time pre-pandemic at that point.
You know I think it's good that they show her sundering the people who became Zodiark, because if they showed her attacking Zodiark it would feel more like triumphantly destroying a monster. But attacking the Ancients really emphasizes that she destroyed reality and condemned an entire people to death for their mistake.
“Has your journey been good? Has it been worthwhile?”
Just a quick post. IIRC Ascians trapped in white auracite don't die "permanently," souls are not so easily destroyed. It essentially destroys them and sends them straight to the life stream I believe. Think of it like an express trip. While their memories and stuff might be destroyed their soul would return.
Basically after the ruins of Amourot in Shadowbringers people wanted to learn more of the Ancient world so we got an entire zone dedicated to going to the past.
Now compare the lyrics of Answers to the events of the story. "Death has passed his judgement" can be interpreted as Hades judging the sundered unfit, for instance.
28:23 Zodiark already existed at this point, those guys wouldn't have become him. Half sacrificed themselves to make Zodiark, who stopped the Final Days. Then a second sacrifice of a quarter to restore the world. Then the Convocation planned a third sacrifice of a good chunk of non-Ancient life to get back the people of the first two sacrifices. Venat became Hydaelyn and caused the Sundering before this third sacrifice could happen, which was still the Ascian's plan all the way to the modern day.
30:25 No, the fisher would be Mitron. ^.^
Answers and Flow get me every time man. Brilliant king shit. GOD I love this game.
I'm very glad you guys mentioned Answers existing in the launch of 1.0 because a lot of people seem to be under the impression that it was written for the fall of Dalamud.
honestly when I first went through this cutscene, the only words that came out of my mouth was "Fuck, that was good" and for the next hour or so I had to recompose myself.
Ancient society was never a paradise. It was like Jurassic Park and creation magic was the dinosaurs. There was an illusion of control.
counterpoint to 18:23 the lyrics reflect the idea of summoning hydaelyn that's forming in venat's head during this scene, creating a new way forward, a new way to have hope for their race, a new freedom from the final days and the consequences of zodiark existing
This cutscene was so important, even to the voice actors, the Venat's VA requested re-record all her voice line in the cutscene after she saw the completed cutscene, and ey let here re-record it.
What's throwing ya'll off at the beginning is that there are FOUR versions of Answers.
1. The version that plays in the ARR cinematic/end of an era.
2. The longer one in the OST, also used in THAT cutscene.
3. Answers Reprise. Used in the end of the 1.0 cutscene with the goobbue. This version is also used during The Rising each year.
4. Dalamud Answers. Only used during the Final Days of 1.x. It's actually pretty terrifying to listen to when you put your mind in that time period where the Warriors of Light did everything right and still, still it came to this.
I like wanting to go back to a previous time. Often you hear people want to return to a 1950's Norman Rockwell type situation, the problem is that era never really existed. Many people were still banned from pools because they were black and it was also the high point of other civil rights movements it was far from a perfect time.
no one notice that, even venat work against hermes, but in the end she agree with hermes idea, ascian idea is only perfect inviduality can live, but hermes want to follow nature selection rule himself
You know…Final fantasy 1 was also a time loop come to think of it.
Venat's position at this point is so difficult. She's literally the only person in the entire world who knows the truth about the ultimate threat to existence. She's just watched everyone come up with a temporary solution, then immediately turn to a next step that would probably actually take them further away from properly resolving the threat. They were going to go backwards, and get stuck in a cycle of hiding from the truth and reality of life, never growing or developing or getting strong enough to overcome the threat. She couldn't tell them, because she knew the knowledge didn't carry forward. And she didn't have enough allies to argue or fight directly. She had to take decisive action and force everyone else to face a harsh world and grow. And then she was alone for so long, watching suffering, trying to guide her Warriors of Light, waiting and hoping for the conjunction – for the timelines to connect properly, so she could find us, and send us back to her in Elpis. It's a hell of a path to walk. And I love the cuts to us facing Emet-Selch – I suspect most of her chosen heroes have had that same drive to push on in the face of everything. It becomes her life, so I think she looks for it in the people she calls.
I wonder how many times Azem's soul has been a Warrior of Light before coming back as us? 🤔
Remember the conversation with Venat where you tell her about your world? Without that knowledge, do you think she would have initiated the sundering?
"I'm voting Zodiark." That at the end is too real. There would absolutely be people voting for Zodiark.
In late 2016, my dad was diagnosed with ALS. I became a caretaker for him. After he passed away in 2018, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and stuck around to look after her. She would pass away a couple of months before Endwalker released.
With all of that happening in my life, I absolutely was not prepared for this cutscene when I experienced it for the first time. That entire last minute of Venat monologueing "To find the strength to continue, when all strength has left you" along with Answers playing in the background was just…. I dunno, man. It was like the game was reaching out to grab me by the shoulders and say "You will power through all of this, because you have to."
What's actually goin to shut you down is the fact these videos have been done over and over. Mabe someone has not seen it, but for the most part… a smile best suits a hero.
Not sure how you guys feel about checking out Music covers but now that you guys have reach this part of the MSQ, I would recommend Skar's "Epic Metal Cover" for Answers. He has put it on Youtube and have done many awesome Metal covers of FFXIV songs/tracks.
I am at 3:53 and this is sick. Remember they do not need you, you need them. I unsubbed. They do not think their fans are worth it. You only want your money. You guys are so entitled you want EVERY thing you do to get money for. And if you do not you emotionally manipulate your fans. You go on and on how this video will be demonetized but instead of saying the fans are worth it you try to guilt them into giving you money. All your fans should unsub to send you a message. A few weeks ago you were bragging how well you were doing , money wise, and here you are almost demanding people give you money for demonetized videos. Hell no. Do not emotionally manipulate your fans.
Been binging all of your videos the past week- even watching your stuff out of order has been great! I remember seeing you guys way back during the WOW exodus and writing you guys off. MAN i regret that. seeing the journey in real time wouldve been a blast
And with this cutscene, we also finished all the best parts of Endwalker. From this point on, all that remains return to the classical shonen stereotypes, something that, after the dark and crude Shadowbringer, and the first half of Endwalker, I would have gladly avoided…
No sorry you are viewing past events as presented to you directly by the timestream. What you see are literal events that did happen.
Been avoiding FF14 content for a while now, I can't even bring myself to play the game after some bad IRL stuff went down despite how much I love it to death, but I had to click and see your discussion about this. It's absolutely one of my favourite moments in the entire story and cements Elpis as one of, if not my favourite arc in the game. Back to digging my head underground and avoiding every memory of the game while I heal, but I'll resurface to watch your Endwalker climax vid when that drops.
Hope you all have a fantastic time with it!
I absolutely hate this cutscene. It almost completely ruined my enjoyment of Endwalker, and is one of the biggest gripes I have about the narrative going forward. It takes agency away from every other character in the story and the underlying logic behind it is kind of half baked and not that well thought out. Every bad thing that happens or has happened in the history of game's world is kind of Venat's responsibility in some roundabout way. I find that distasteful. I can't even say it was executed in the best possible way, despite how much other people seem to rave about it.
Venat is "morally grey" done right.
I think RoboCop got it more right than we really want to admit….
25:50 I concur
kyle please don't stop being you
And amidst despair, light everlasting.
28:00 I wouldn't be surprised if that was a game engine limitation.