Endwalker Reactions || The Mothercrystal || Ugly Crying, USA - FFXIV 

ME TOO. I have probably watched others go through The Mothercrystal dozens of times and I still cry like a big fat baby. Amanda's vocals and Soken's wizardry are absolute magic!

You too! We all do! All of Hydaelyn's children. ToT Such a powerfully emotional moment to experience as a community!

Aw, that's awesome! I'd love to catch someone going through it live! I remember going back and watching the ones posted right after I'd finished Endwalker, and I cried right along with them all over again.

@@elibbabats If you/re still keen on catching others progress through Endwalker, the boys over at Grinding Gear ( www.youtube.com/@Amovetv ) just recently got to Elpis. And while the holidays and other RL things have halted their journey for the moment, it could also give you some time to watch their older vids to catch up on their reactions, thoughts on various events, and occasionally humorous speculations about what might come next. Garrett in particular has been pretty sus about Hydaelyn, so it'll be interesting to see his response to this part when they do get there probably sometime in January.

Gosh, that was all so beautifully put!

I felt the same way!!! There was a BIG part of me that thought they were going to make Hydaelyn the actual bad guy of the story, and I was getting more and more worried as things went on. Once we got to Elpis, and then on to meeting her in the Aetherial Sea, I was an emotional wreck. I love having experienced the absolute rollercoaster that this game is, lol.

Jebaited us hard they did. Although since the last 2 expansions are dealing with pretty heavy existential and ethical themes. You absolutely can make a case that Venat did a pretty bad thing genociding… sorry, sundering her people. And she did so because of her own self-righteous beliefs. Unlike Emet who was trying to save his people… what I’m saying is Emet’s genocides were more altruistic in nature than that of Venat. I’ve had plenty of debates on these topics. It’s pretty fun.

​​​@@pumpkingamebox Altruistic to his people, not to the lives newly born. By the end of Elpis, it was clear that Emet-Selch was never getting that world back even without Hydaelyn's meddling. At least Venat was altruistic to life on Etheirys as a whole, no matter what form it took. While Emet-Selch couldn't or didn't care to even acknowledge his hypocrisy, Venat owned up to her mistakes. Although he did acknowledge at the end, that he wouldn't have gotten as far as Ultima Thule even with Zodiark and Etheirys whole.

@@crazy13alex Is being more altruistic to your people a bad thing? Every (good) politician MUST look out for his people more. And if another country suffers for the happiness of your people, that’s only wrong from the sufferers point of view. We also don’t know if Emet would have truly failed in returning back his world. They did already come up with mass genocide of lesser life before the sundering. We’re doing the same irl with our entire food sector. Sure, going to the edge of the universe could have been hard, and impossible if Venat wouldn’t disclose the mark she left on Metion. But they could have Zodiark continue protecting them without any more sacrifices. As he has done being imprisoned for millennia after the sundering. So I completely disagree with you on what could and could not have been done if Venat didn’t interfere. Didn’t acknowledge his hypocrisy? Lmao! You played through ShB right? He absolutely knew his hypocrisy, that’s why he was in such deep denial about it. Making excuses that we are such lesser life forms that we aren’t even alive, and so on. But even if he did fully acknowledge it, would that have stopped him from killing us to return his people? I think not. Leaders and soldiers of different nations can be sympathetic to each other despite going to war. To Emet, his old friends were more important to him than this low level cancer Hydelyn has spread. To WoL the scions and the new life was more important than Emet’s boomers. And so we have this ethically fair clash at the end of ShB. Oh, and he could completely return people. Since all 3 unsundered were trying so hard to bring back Zodiark, it stands to reason they had a way of extracting souls from Zodiark to be among the living once more. Therefore half of all Asians ever was essentially in a coma inside Zodiark. WoL defeating the 3 unsundered in that way was technically genocide, since were dooming the Ascians to be forever stuck inside Zodiark. Venat owned up to her mistakes? She owned up to the fact that she ended a civilization against its own will? I don’t remember that sentiment. She was honestly a weirdly written character. They meant for her to be super likable, to the point that the player should just accept her actions that followed. But that instead would be hypocritical of us and WoL as a character. It feels more like the writers wrote themselves into a corner in ShB and had to bend many rules in EW to get out of it and finish the story, come hell or high water. I discovered a lot of video essays on the subject of her actions and the writing. I’m interested in what they might say, and maybe you’d be interested too. Though, disclaimer, they naturally skew more to my opinion. Since it’s controversial to think of Venat being in the wrong.

I never doubted hydaelyn idk why but I always believe in her specially after we found out her true name I always knew she was guiding us like there was no way she had played us the whole time

I'M GONNA CRY ALL OVER AGAIN. ToT I STILL NEED MOM. I take it all back! :P

@@elibbabats Yeah, exactly. Back in Elpis, Emet just sort of thought that her refusing to return to the star was a weird Azem thing. But she explains that she loves the people of the world so much that she can't allow herself to die until she knows we will all be okay without her help. And then, at this moment, when all of her plans have come to fruition and she knows she can entrust the fate of everything to you, she knows her time has finally come. After thousands of years of guiding the fate of the world to this moment, all by herself, her work is finally done. She deserves her rest...

Collectively, we as a player-base were NOT OKAY, lmao. You could just feel that something monumental was going to happen! And happen it did... :'(

It is my pleasure to provide, as I too am a feaster of MSQ emotional turmoil, haha! I looove watching other people go through it! Honestly, The Mothercrystal doesn't even compare to the ugly-crying-waterfalls that Ultima Thule produced. I hope all the fellow vampires will enjoy, lol.

After you kill Zodiark that flash where Meteon says "at last" all evil like? I legit thought that was Hydalyn's voice. Especially since Shadowbringers kinda made you think that maybe light isn't all good and darkness isn't all evil.

Ohhhhhhhh my gosh, that's got me tearin' UP RIGHT NOW. ;-; I never really thought of it that way! I really would like to go back and replay all of MSQ with post-Endwalker eyes. I know for a fact that I missed so much/things went over my head because of Streamer-Brain. AHHHH. I love this story SO much. ToT Thanks for sharing!

@@elibbabats when everything is said and done i highly recommend seeing clips from other playthroughs or even doing New Game+ yourself for that experience. Its what i did and now all of the story and lore is burned into my noggin lol

Mom just has a way with words, doesn't she ToT

It's like every part of your journey came full circle at that point. It hit me so hard in the feels when I thought about my first days playing FFXIV and meeting all the awesome people through streaming it on Twitch. Venat is genuinely one of my favorite characters in this game. I loved the story-telling the crafter with her/Hydaelyn.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAH :'( :'( :'(

It is totally the most emotional story in a game I've ever experienced in my life. Thank you for watching! We cry together, haha!

Wow! That's an honor to read, truly! I'm glad to share my journey just as much as I am to watch other people go through theirs. Thank you so much for watching!

WAAAAAAAH 😭😭😭😭 Oh my gosh reading your comment just brought another wave of feels for these characters! They’re my favorite!!! If I could just shake Ishikawa’s and the thre rest of the writers hands… the writing is just SO good. I freaking adore the parallel with Emet. 😭

Yeah a key point was what she said back on the parapits in the ancient world, why she still stuck around after being expected to return to the star was her worries about whether "man can find their own way" when shes gone and how she cannot let go until she is sure. Thats our final words to her, one of true solace for her and her chosen purpose, why she remained for so long helping and helping

Thank you so much!!! That means a lot to me! I'm so happy to share my experience with whoever wants to watch!

It was! It just felt extremely right! After all the battles we fought over the years, it was only right to do such an important one together! :D

RIGHT?! LIke DAMN, the timing of that song and the full circle it made… 😭😭😭😭

Lol!!! I’ve been waiting for some kindred soul to point that out! 😂 Alttp is one of my favorite games EVER so if there’s an opportunity for a good alttp sound effect, I’m gonna use it!

THE BEST RIDE. I can't wait to see where the ride takes us next! :D

OOF. That line hit me so hard in Ultima Thule, too! ;-;

I have. I sobbed. 😂

Well, you're in luck for there are PLENTY. And this is just a taste of what is to come in future videos, lmao. Ty for watching!

I didn't realize, or hadn't heard that Hydaelyn's soul couldn't be reborn until I read this, so I looked it up and now I'm devastated all over again. :'( THIS IS THE MOST TRAGIC THING EVER.

@@elibbabats Elidibus as well. He used up his soul to send us to Elpis. Sigh. At least Emet and Hythlodaeus will be able to.

I did, haha! streamed two more times after the stream featured in this video on two separate days. Enough time to recover between each. :B