Відео

Admittedly I mainly just took it as a simple allusion and thought nothing more of it. But that's an interesting angle, I never thought how an adopted child might struggle with choosing which name to go by. I suppose it reminds me a bit of the Red XIII/Nanaki situation in FFVII, although obviously Krile's adopted name isn't given to her by a deranged scientist haha

​@@imacuttlefish6832 yeah, she has two names given to her by people who as far as we know, both care for her deeply. I'm sure that's something that would weigh on her, even if the developers never bring it up themselves. (honestly I'd be surprised if it's something anyone on the development team even would have any first hand experience with to consider as part of the story)

@@anthonydelfino6171 With the insanely high adoption rate in Japan, it's indeed probable! edit: though I suppose Japan is kind of a weird case when it comes to that, as vast majority of those adoptions are adults. But then, Japan and its deal with adoptions and orphans is such a complicated and messy topic that YT comments aren't quite long enough for discussing lol

It's unfortunate it ruined the ending for you. We could certainly have a discussion about how silly it was to bring him back (and a few other characters in that expansion... that was kind of the name of the game in Stormblood lol) But if we take it as, he's there now, we have to resolve this somehow. I think Endwalker handled it really well, personally. I'm not here to convince you the character was good or anything, but I still wanna offer an alternative stance. Maybe instead of looking at it as doing the fight for him or because your character enjoys it, you could consider it more as their duty to get rid of this guy before he'll invariably cause more harm in the future, because you know for damn sure he'd try to pull whatever shenanigans possible to make you come at him again, without any regard for anyone else, if left alone. That's essentially what my discussion around the 2nd dialogue option revolves around. It's a much colder stance that does not lean one way or the other. I think it's the next best thing to walking away.

​@@imacuttlefish6832 I do think that if the script were written differently I might have felt better about it too. The fact that Zenos's dialoge implies he will accept if you just walk away, and then the game itself doesn't give you that option really was upsetting too. If the script were written differently where he doesn't even say he's okay if we walk away, where either if I as a player could have considered that he'd continue to do atrocities in order to try to fight me again, or could have seen it more as his dying wish... or even if I could have just seen more of a change in him? Like to me even at the end where we were fighting riding on his back, I felt like he was doing all that for his own selfish ends. Like when he showed up initially I was there thinking "DUDE! Now is not the time!"

​@@anthonydelfino6171 I think if this was a more western RPG oriented game with allowing you to make those kinds of choices as a player, we might've gotten an option like that. But given that the game has to be told in a rather strict and linear fashion, it would have simply created too many issues had we allowed him to stick around. As for the line where he gives you the option to walk away, that one is interesting because I'm pretty sure he was full on bluffing with that anyway. I mean realistically speaking, would he really have accepted such an outcome? You bail and he just happily dies away at the edge of the universe? Naa, that's not Zenos hahah

It's worth noting that, if we go with the causal loop idea, then there is no "timeline a", "timeline b" etc. There never existed an instance of Elpis without the Warrior of Light, there was no "first time". What we see happen, is what always happened. The whole trick with a causal loop is that it switches the order of cause and effect, instead of A -> B -> C, it could become C -> A -> B. It messes with our minds because we can only perceive of cause and effect in a linear fashion (A -> B -> C). In a sense, you could think of it as, the WoL entering Elpis is essentially event C, but it happens first in the timeline of events. I hope that makes a modicum of sense, at least this was my interpretation. I hate trying to explain time travel, and I honestly don't feel it adds anything to the story anyway. Not to mention how FFXIV kinda just says screw it and has multiple time travel theories all in the same story. Ugh.

Hmm, I never thought of "hear, feel, think" as a way of tempering, and I don't think that's what's happening. However, I could see it being something analogous to tempering, like something more symbolic. Whereas other primals try to force their will upon others, Hydaelyn instead implores them to think for themselves. I like that idea.

It was a good time! Getting clapped by Dabog (Zadnor edition) multiple times, banging out a few relics, completing Delubrum Savage with my FC. I look forward to more such content in Dawntrail.

I am humbled to hear you say that. But unless they find out a way to either clone oneself or remove the need to sleep, I don't think I am up to such an enormous task!

I can see why that would be a concern, but I personally disagree. I don't think it needs to be a choice between the two, you can absolute have both. I would actually point to the Bahamut fight in XVI as a shining example of how combining spectacle with character moments and emotion can work brilliantly. Also, admittedly I did not mention this in the video, rather it was one of the comments. But someone suggested that, instead of a cutscene of the two primals fighting, we could even control Hydaelyn herself. I think that would make it even better. I think such an interactive element would've elevated that moment even more.

Fair enough, haha

I appreciate your perspective on buddhism, and you are correct, it's not a focus on here. Thanks for the reminder, I might bring it up in some future content. Though I'd like to say one thing. I don't focus on those themes as much, because I see those as more relevant to when talking about Endwalker and its themes as a whole, whereas this video focuses more on Venat and her perspective specifically. I am well aware of the story's portrayal about how to live is to suffer, especially given that it's quite heavyhanded with it. If I'd've gotten into the overarching themes of Endwalker, this video would've been even longer haha FWIW, in my Shadowbringers analysis, I do cover that story's portrayal of life and death, where I talk about how I view Emet's stance re the ancients as being in the wrong. I don't take a buddhist stance there, but I'd say they I oppose him for loosely similar reasons as you describe here. And I released that video before Endwalker was even released. So I wouldn't consider this a foreign concept to me, no. I have planned, for a while, to release a video talking about the ancients as a whole and how the story tackled them. So that may be something of interest to you, once I finally get around to it.

You just said the magic words "2 expansions squished into one". That is one of my core issues with Endwalker. I felt it shud've been 2 expansions, as the first draft intended. In that context, it is true that fitting this in somewhere would've been technical. Though not impossible, I don't think. The abruptness does add to the scene, though I believe it could've remained fast-paced even with the fight included.

@@imacuttlefish6832 all that, on top of the fact that Anima is my personal favorite, I was super excited to its XIV appearance and I'm still sad it just landed as a dungeon boss. They did the best with the deal they had to work with, but it surely could've been better, if they had more time for that arc we couldve even had a duty as Venat, actually experiencing the sundering.

@@noodletrashcanOh my goodness, you have no idea how happy it makes me to see someone make that comment. I always felt Anima being a dungeon boss and basically just a distraction before Zodiark, is one of the biggest L's of Endwalker, Not only is it a shame to see one of the coolest summons in the series being wasted like that, but even ignoring the fanservice aspect, Anima itself in FFXIV was setup as a big threat, and the way we resolve it does absolutely not live up to that at all. I mean, it's quite telling that even Tritoch in Dawntrail had a much better execution, despite being way more of a distraction than Anima was. Such a waste.

Too bad it didn't come with Cid, I loved that guy hahah

Tldr?

L take, everyone was getting sacrificed anyway. One was going to continue life in a way that involved a semblance of freedom and free will. The other had people be slaves to a primal and sacrifice themselves (which is ultimately the entire antithesis of the Ancient way of life, choosing when to die) over and over and over....potentially. Because it sounds like 75% of the ancients were basically in zodiark at that point, iirc, so most of them weren't coming back it turns out. Zodiark was not keeping up that end of the bargain. Venat made a difficult decision that ultimately broke that horrid cycle, at the cost of people who were not going to continue living anyway.

When she talks about the crystal's original bearer, I don't think she is referring to the one who first bore the crystal in a literal sense. If that was the case, and she was indeed talking about Emet, calling him the crystal's original creator would make much more sense. I think "bearer" in this case simply refers to the person bearing the crystal's name, Azem. When accounting for the context of when she says the line, and the content of the quote itself, I also see it more sensible that she's talking about Azem, as I'm not sure why'd she bring up Emet there. Also, for full clarity, I don't expect people commenting to provide sources, so please just discuss freely. I usually know which scenes people refer to, especially if they are talking about things covered in the video, so it's often not necessary. I may specifically ask for it on rare occasion, though. As a side note: while I genuinely do appreciate wanting to provide a source, I don't think something so incredibly vague as citing 3 entire books, and a massive game spanning multiple expansions featuring thousands of lines of text, is very efficient. Generally, the more you can narrow down your source, the better. Like I said though, it's not something I expect and a YT comment isn't obviously as serious as a citation in a thesis or whatnot, so don't worry too much about it haha

You forgot about the part where you sacrifice everyone born after the world was restored to bring back all those people who sacrificed themselves. Then when the world was sundered, they kept trying to do that very same thing. No one will deny what Venat did was horrible. But no one can deny it worked. Because of that choice, the people of the star were able to keep on living, and were able to eventually solve a problem the ancients were fundamentally unable to solve. And they didn't have to sacrifice their children's futures to do it.

@@Bluelyre except that line of reasoning only happens BECAUSE she sundered the world. if she hadnt of sundered it, then they would have made their own sacrifice to fix everything, went on to populate the world with more life, which theyd eventually sacrifice to undo everyone's sacrifice, which is hardly different at all to what they were already doing at elpis; creating life and getting rid of it if it didnt suit them. and at no point do they say they are going to sacrifice "people" to achieve their goal. its only AFTER venat sunders the world does that come into play. in the cutscene where she makes the decision, she is explicitly protesting against the people wishing to sacrifice THEMSELVES, not some future plan to sacrifice other people. so again, all that happens, as the writers WROTE it, is that she goes against what her people want, and plunges the entire world into chaos and suffering, in order to humble them, because she doesnt like the decision they came to. and ultimately it doesnt matter whether YOU think theyre plan was good or bad. the ancients were clearly written to be "good" people, and she goes against them and destroys them and the world because she disagrees with their solution. thats insanely narcissistic behavior. literally "im right and everyone else is wrong so no matter what i do its justified" and again, her reading the script to know its what happens is not justification. if she showed hesitation and remorse as she was deciding to sunder the world but went through with it cause she knew she had to, then you could at least argue that shes not a horrible a person, and its just lazy writing. but thats not what happens. what happens is a psychotic bitch destroys all of society and the world, plunging it into millennia of war and suffering, and makes herself god, because she believes people need to be more humble. but its okay the script says thats what happens

​@@BluelyreIt wasn't their children. It was an explosion of rampant life made by Zodiark. Life that Elpis would have made very clear wasn't particularly hard to come by or inherently special. The problem was solved. Zodiark was made, and the aetheric shell he produces would have guarded the star to perpetuity. Had they wanted to end Meteion, they could just use creation magic to make dynamis-capable individuals that are resistant to her song. The same way the Sundered were able to.

Dude the ancients were actually bad people. I do not care that they lost the paradise that they squandered. They did not value life, seeing as they were willing to throw it away, which is what led Hermes' poor mental state. The sacrifice required SOULS, which random creations on Elpis don't have. If Zodiark was happy with a bunch of cows surely they would have tried that first.

​@@Bluelyreoh this person definitely didn't read a single piece of dialogue

Aye, regardless of one's stance on the character, getting full deleted, soul and all, is such a brutal fate.

Fair

Y'kno what, I respect the honesty haha

I actually agree. I find it strange that people are quick to point to Y'shtola as the worst instance of fakeout deaths in this game. For me, the worst damage was done in Stormblood. As you said, many instances where a character should've died only to come back later. For me personally, the worst character revival has to be Gaius. When he came back in Stormblood patch MSQ, that completely shattered my suspension of disbelief. It might be partially because by that point in Stormblood we'd already been through so many fakeouts, but I also think his survival is easily the most absurd thing in the game.

I, too, was put off by the whole Lyse thing back in the day. I think I've come to terms with it now but it was definitely a baffling choice for a couple of reasons, one of them being the one you stated. I never thought of that, but you are right, the Wuk is perhaps the closest to Yda. But I rather not open the can of worms that is Wuk Lamat hahah

It's interesting cos seeing it as a genocide essentially does align with Emet's view, of there being a distinct difference between the ancients and the sundered people. If we were to draw that line, then yes, it's logical to conclude she commited genocide on the ancients. But it's quite clear that the game wants us to think of them not as separate but both as simply "mankind" at different points in time. Hence Venat's "hence he (mankind) shall walk" In the end though, it's not that black and white, it's a matter of perspective for sure. Some food for thought re the whole genocide route of thinking: since the WoL deals the deathblow on 2 entire civilisations, on the ancients by slaying Venat and on the Omicrons by defeating Omega, then does that make the WoL genocidal too? Perhaps even the most accomplished, behind the Meteia hahah

Ima ignore the DT part of the comment as I have not played it yet. But aye, this whole thing could definitely be retconned in some way. Having it shown in ultimates would definitely be ambitious. But really, there could be a lot of excuses the writers could come up with to show another pov of the sundering, in which we could see a more concrete portrayal of events (and therefore the actual showdown between the two most powerful and eldest of primals).

Aye, this is deffo one of the big unknowns, and there's certainly a lot of speculation there. Such as, could the ancients have been capable of "weaponising" dynamis through familiar against the depressed bird? Basically fight fire with fire. Suppose we'll never know. Unless they decide to do some sorta crazy alternate timeline where we get a glimpse of the ancients taking a different path. But personally, after Endwalker and Rebirth, I think I've had my fill of time travel and multiverses for a while hahahah

I, however, would argue that such a distinction is simply semantics and that, for the layman, such a distinction is irrelevant.

That'd definitely be something I'd appreciate, or at the very least a nod to it. It's a bit strange that such an incredible feat that only a few people could pull off, is basically not acknowledged at all in the larger story.

It's funny because I recently thought about this too. There's merit to revisiting some of my older content. Namely this one and Thancred/Ryne. Not only cos I have better equipment since then as you pointed out, but also due to my skills having improved as well as the obvious reason that these characters have also gotten more story since then. It's just that in general I am hesitant to do that kind of a thing. Because I view it as basically lazy and uninspiring. I don't want to become someone who just rehashes their old content, but rather always look forward. But I do acknowledge that there is merit to doing it in certain situations, and in moderation. For Krile especially, I'm hoping she will have a satisfying story in Dawntrail for me to talk about! I think that would really give me the justification to revisit her and make a more thorough and consice analysis.

The rejoinings would have had to have happened in the same way we described to her in order for us to be born and experience the life we experienced. So yes, all her choices came down to recreating the WoL including letting the Ascians go to do the rejoinings and letting the First fall to light so that G'raha would have to go back in time to save us, thus time travel would be invented. As a closed loop, everything that happened was predetermined.

It's a classic instance of a bootstrap paradox, wherein a thing exists purely as a result of time travel. For me, this "thing" would be Hydaelyn, but one could also make arguments for the Warrior of Light being the result of it, or heck, even the Final Days themselves. Basically if you ask the question of "who came up with the idea to create Hydaelyn". The WoL mentioned it to Venat in Elpis, which informed Venat's decision to go through with that plan, but the WoL couldn't have come up with it, as they only knew about it because Hydaelyn existed in the present. So where did that idea come from? That's basically the paradox. The answer is, that idea never existed. It simply was. Here you could just switch Hydaelyn with the Warrior of Light and make basically the same claim about them being a paradox and never existing.

Hmmmmmm, an echo boosted or even resonant Estinien could definitely stir a lot of trouble hahah

Aw thanks, that really means a lot! And hope the other vids were/are to your liking haha

@@imacuttlefish6832 they got me thru my 9 hour office job shift, fastest shift i’ve ever had 😂💕

Ooohh, that there's an interesting thought. I think the game definitely supports that idea, because you can clearly see it being a kind of an off/on switch, like it's become muscle memory to him at this point.

Hahah yea the old Embolden worked in a funky way. It reduced in effectiviness every.. 4 seconds or so? It also gave magical damage to the RDM, but physical damage to everyone else. This basically meant it didn't even boost all of the RDM's own skills, since some of them are physical.

Without knowing about the existence of Meteion, the idea of not trying to save the people in Zodiark seems nonsensical. How do they know they need to "get gud" at suffering? Trading plants and animals for the immortal souls of our loved ones wouldn't even be up for debate on Earth. We'd be jamming Zodiark full of cows so fast it wouldn't even be funny. She knew they'd reject her suggestion because it makes no sense. It's like seeing your loved one flailing in the ocean and being told you need to learn to let go and move forward as you're reaching for a life raft. At the end of the day, she deemed her people weak, she met the WoL and like Athena thought she could do better, so that's what she did. It was a decision made from sheer hubris.

I love that the Ancients as consistently bad at making meaningful decisions. All of them would literally stew in a weird thought process, go about it in secret, and then spring it on everybody. Truly, their society was basically perfect only because it is culturally ingrained never to stand out and to always focus on the star. And that is the point, but at this point I wonder if any of the Ancients were actually good or if they just think so or prefer to think of themselves as such.

@@iantaakalla8180 I wouldn't judge all of Ancient society off the handful of ones we met. For all you know we could have only met their Varises and Thordans.

Naa definitely not, vast majority of ancients we met were quite compassionate people. But the ancients' society was absolutely more prone to having these individuals with their extreme "this will solve everything" solutions. One is their unfamiliarity with suffering, yes. But I think a much more concrete factor is that even a single ancient has a crazy amount of power. Just thinking of the fact that a mere 14 people could summon an entity that was capable of sundering the entire star into multiple fragments is, quite frankly, horrifying. I also think their extreme collectivist mentality plays into this potential danger. We see it in both instances of summoning (Zodiark and Hydaelyn). The people are so commited to a cause, that once they rally behind an authority, whether that be the Convocation or a person, like Venat, they are so steadfast on pulling the trigger on the whole sacrifice thing. Combined with how insanely powerful an ancient's soul is and how much it can fuel a summoning, and we can easily see the kind of recipe for disaster when it comes to summoning.