I have to imagine for those (unlike us) who played from the beginning - the Exarch reveal would have been something. Cause Crystal Tower wasn't a requirement til 5.3. I have to believe people just forgot.
oh I had no idea who Graha was lmao. It's been so long since I went through Crystal Tower and never really paid much attention to it in the first place.
Can I just say how much I appreciate that you guys make videos like these. The streams are great but you guys don't JUST stream, you also take time to make videos on what you played and I love that. Definitely helps with retaining long term viewers too.
Totally agree. For me, what makes the whole “MSQ rewatching” fun is seeing streamers articulating what they think is happening in the plot and, more importantly, how the content is making them feel at any given moment. Right now, GG is doing an excellent job at providing that over the course of a dramatic expansion.
@@DrollLondon don't forget that they have future content just waiting for them when they finish msq and go back and react to all their correct and incorrect predictions 😂
I'm 100% here for the theories - correct or incorrect, I'll smiley-face all the same. For me it's the enjoyment of watching someone else trying to piece things together without the full context from future content, and finding foreshadowing that I totally missed at the time. (Or, sometimes, red herrings I missed at the time.)
I'm so glad they came to FFXIV. Their experience with putting together media is so welcome here. We have a lot of content creators who only stream and post vods, but not a lot of people who regularly put out discussion pieces like this. It's great.
Fun fact about the Lion Sin Eater boss: If you bring him along with Trust/Duty Support, Thancred makes a comment that basically confirms that it is the same sin eater he had to fight in the Shadowbringers opening cinematic whilst rescuing Minfilia/Ryne from Eulmore.
@@DameonStarflame Yeah, didn't they say that Thancred rescued Minfilia/Ryne like 3 years ago or something. While the one that had its wing cut off by Tesleen was like _maybe_ a couple of days(assuming you did Alisaie's story first, then Alphy's Story, then Holminster).
I can't believe the opening was not "Well Kyle..." and just Garrett shooting Kyle in the back and going on a rant about how Kyle disappointed him because of Imagine Dragons.
Raha was never a good liar, which is why he asked Urianger asked him to lie for him. So of course nobody believed that brief moment when he tried to be evil, because he was so terrible at it that Ryne was like " =| Nah fam that doesn't track" and yes. Raha loves you. He loves you so much that he traveled through time just to see you again. Who else loves you that much? He is your biggest stan.
@@TheSylvirr I know that they said that they'd leave romances to headcanon, but I tell you that I would seriously pay for romance packs from the store for New Game +!
I find G'raha Tia's obsession super creepy. As a female Seeker Miqo'te, I never forget to include the Tia in his name. Always got to remind him that he is not an eligible mate. And I actually kinda liked him when he went into the Crystal Tower. Honestly, I'm still mad at him for stealing all of my friends' souls. Had he stopped at Thancred and put his effort into communicating with us before attempting further summonings, I could have forgiven him, but nope right back to soul stealing. I can't even complain about my biggest gripe with G'rah Tia because they haven't gotten that far yet, and its a big spoiler.
I still love that, on the Chai-Nuzz "Dating Game," no matter HOW BADLY you're failing, you bring up protecting Dulia, you INSTANTLY give him the drive, just to protect her.
Those two really did turn out to be the sweetest of couples. At first you think perhaps it's just the "airhead housewife, heckled husband" meme, but I love how we slowly get to see beneath the surface.
@@ginacirelli1581 And the thing is, they still *kinda* are? Just…not in a way that reduces either of them to a joke. Like Dulia is still flighty and excitable, but only because she has a huge heart and feels at 1000%. Meanwhile Chai-Nuzz is weary and a little henpecked, but only because he would do *literally anything* to make his wife happy.
@@ginacirelli1581 Also, I respect that the writers didn't try to make them out as "brainwashed and innocent of what they did." They own their actions and show remorse over it.
@@ginacirelli1581 I look at Chai as more the kind of man who would be an intelligent, curmudgeon who sits in a workshop locked away from the world. The kind of man who needs a compassionate soul to make him a great person. Dulia is the heart of the Talos, so to speak.
A note about the mountain. (all info inferred from previously seen Urianger lectures) The white stuff. Its Aether, everything is aether. the rock is aether, the air is aether, magic is aether, your body and soul is aether. The only difference between an illusion and substance is density. He verbally set off to "remake his paradise" and he started doing it quite literally. I find the clean white kinda funny because he is obviously using light aspected aether so its kind of a lazy outcome. Note as well that light aether is an embodiment of stasis, if you were to make the aether version of plaster, light aether is sort of ideal.
My favorite part of the reveal is simply that Emet lectures you in a: "What, are you STUPID?! He can control the tower, of course I knew he was from the source and had Allagan blood, I just didn't know what his goals where, and when I found them out I cast gun.. How did YOU not know it was Gra'ha tia?!" explanation/line.
Shout out to Feo Ul, who literally offered to let you become Titania, hide in Il Mehg ,and rise up to stop anyone from coming to take you down even as you become lightwarden. That's loyalty you can't buy!
I can finally say: loved how in your "probably wrong predictions" video, the one thing you were almost certain of was that Vauthry was going to be the 80 trial.
In fairness, I was certain during my playthrough too. I hadn't picked up on the number of trials yet, and it was like level 79 MSQ. So I was like "oh yeah, kill all Lightwardens, seems like a good ending". I have Discord messages to my friends basically being like "wait... I thought that was the end".
The moment I opened the window and saw the sky filled with light again... I felt so numb. It was such a moment of failure and shock. It's nuts how they make you feel that. Also: G'raha Tia is bestboi.
If an artist wants his creation to have a crown and a jawline that can cut glass, it will have a crown and a jawline that can cut glass. Do not question the method when you're still getting results.
Now that we can talk about it, it's cool to look back at your first introduction to G'raha Tia back in the Crystal Tower cutscenes. The dude hid in the forest, sending you off on an adventure, and then dramatically revealed himself at the end. He's had a penchant for the dramatic reveals all the way back to the beginning.
Not to mention he uses the same line when he yoinks the aether sand from under you way back when: Something something 'An opportunistic thief makes off with the hero's prize'. He's is a drama club kid level of nerd. His notes probably have 'enter stage left' on them and everything.
Emet said in the cutscenes with Varis before ShB that he can take any form he wants, but that the Solus zos Galvus clone bodies are far more convenient (presumably because it requires less exertion than manifesting a new form from nothing). I'm both impressed by some of the small story and lore details you guys pick up on that most other people don't, and find it hilarious some of the inconsequential or clearly explained stuff you guys get hung up on for weeks - Kyle in particular, lol. :D
Emet does tell you back in Rak'tika that his body on the First is not a clone of Solus. Ascians have the power to reshape a body they possess into their desired physical form if they want to. Emet just likes to stay in the same physical form until his current task is complete. So when he traveled to the First to keep watch over the Rejoining-to-be, he possessed a body and reshaped it to look like his current bodies on the Source.
@@CrashB111 I think it also ties into Emet's nostalgia for the past. Not just for this first civilization he keeps talking about, but Garlemald itself. For all his talk of it just being a tool for inciting Rejoinings, he keeps using Emperor Solus's form, he uses a Garlean gun to shoot Graha, and he funded the empire's arts and culture. He just isn't willing to admit it.
@@mikelemmer3473 We don't know if, or how many times, Emet came close to "going native" in the past. But we do know that he was close to doing it while running Garlemald as Solus. He did genuinely love his son, Varis' father, and it broke him more / solidified his opinion of the sundered as being lesser beings when said son passed away young due to illness.
@@CrashB111 I know, I read that short story too. Provides a whole new dimension to his bitterness and anger at the Sundering: not only did it rob him of his past, but his future as well.
Waiting on you guys can be agony at times but the content you produce makes it well worth the wait. I can't think of any other youtuber that gives FFXIV the TLC that you guys give it so keep up the good work, please enjoy it, and do not rush. Remember that this is a game about "the journey" Thank you for the fun videos and commentary. 💚
One of Shadowbringers' strongest themes is that of rejecting self-sacrifice. You see it with Ryne, Y'shtola, and now with G'raha. His whole plan was to take the light from you, and sacrifice himself so that you might live. Minifilia struggled with sacrificing her own self so that Minfilia could help where she thought she couldn't. Y'shtola threw herself down a pit to save the Night's Blessed and got yoinked back into existence by Emet. Ardbert's sacrifice was outright refused by Minfilia when he went back to the First- his "time was not yet done." And now, you, the Warrior of Darkness And Also Too Much Light Right Now, have taken on the light of five lightwardens, and all seems lost- you must either turn and become a sin eater or die and release that aether back into the world. How will you overcome this? We'll be watching and waiting, waiting and watching!
I love the detail of Emet using the phrasing "By your Twelve, boy", reminding us of the fact that unlike Eorzeans, he as the Founding Father of Garlemald and its fanatic atheism has no faith in the Twelve.
You know, for people who played since ARR or even Heavensward. Graha was such a distant memory. At least for me he was. Started playing in 2.5 and I did almost everything besides the last encounter of coils beofre HW release. Crystal tower was the first thing I did after beating 2.0, it was years and years old information that I did not even think of looking up, so... Even when the G'raha reveal happened, for a moment I was like "who?" I can only imagine it was like that for many people because they can't comprehend streamers, getting it all in one go, somehow piecing this one together like instantly. Just for some clarification why people may be the way they are about the crystal exarch. Can't wait for future streams~
Yeah I had no clue who he was, even after the reveal. It had been a long time since I played. I would like to go through it all again someday, to see what I missed/forgot.
I remember doing Mt. Gulg on release with some friends on Discord, and when they marble started to show up around halfway through, one of them let out a little gasp and just said "Forgiven Architecture".
I love that Jessie Cox (My only other favorite FFXIV creator besides you two) as Lil JC vacation mode came to help you guys out via roulette (j/k LOL) I can’t wait for you guys to finish 5.0. I hope Lil JC continues to make appearances.
It's honestly one of my favourite things about these streams, now. It must be so nice being on the other side for a content creator as big as Jesse to help out others. I'm not always expecting him to pop by, but to be able to do so freely because they want to be there to support and watch a new reaction to the content is just... It's great. I love it.
Couple of points, it is actually inferable to determine (at least a general range) when Emet-Selch helped create Vauthry. Since it happened after The Flood of Light had already been halted by the OG Minfilia in The First, we know it had to occur (relative to The Source) after the events of 3.4. And since Vauthry already existed before Thancred was summoned to The First, we also know it had to have occurred (again relative to The Source) sometime before the events of 4.4. So the range ends up being within 3.5 to 4.3. Also the lion Sin Eater was never a Light Warden, it was just a powerful Sin Eater that was used to demonstrate Vauthry's powers even as an infant. Another common theory of who the Forgiven Obscenity might have been is that she might have been Vauthry's own mother. As apparently the NPC for Vauthry's mother has a similar face to the Forgiven Obscenity model. Also Exarch!G'raha technically never saw his friends and companions (e.g. Cid, Nero, Biggs and Wedge, etc.) die over the centuries, he was sleeping/in stasis inside the Crystal Tower for those centuries. He was only woken up later by Biggs' descendent.
When Emet comes in after the Innocence fight, given Kyle's earlier stated hopes for how things would work out with him... Kyle: Emet, curse your sudden- Garrett: but inevitable- Kyle: -betrayal! Man, you guys have one of the best stretches of story before you 🙂I'm so glad that you're enjoying this as much as I was hoping you would. Excited for tomorrow's stream. Though... Kyle, stop looking at the area maps before you go to places! Spoilers!
Shoebill is just headcanon; the songstress who became the sin eater is factially not the canary, unless the third lorebook makes the bigger connection, as the canary was a private bonded, while the tt card says she was from the honeybee
I remember pre-descent into the Tempest I even glam'ed my character to make it look like they're slowly turning more pure white. Be it armor, hair ends etc. Just for that added RP flourish of 'Well I'm almost a sin eater...' Heck on release, there was SO MUCH artwork of 'WoL' as a Sin eater. It was great.
The thing is, there was a moment where Crystals Tower was just side content. At the beginning of SHB before it was made mandatory to continue with the sstory. So those who hadn't done it were very confused who this catboy was while those who actually did CT were like "OMG, IT"S YOU." since it seemed like G'raha going to sleep in th CT was the end for him or his arc.
This ... Knew a few folks the last time they had seen the CT cutscene's was... 8'ish years ago. They were like "I know I should know this cat... who is it?" I did CT, but knew others that hadn't... Yeah, making CT required is a massive "We know who you are!" flag...
1. The prevailing fandom meme around the Exarch's speech and acting ability is that he practiced it with notecards in front of a mirror and still couldn't sell being a villain, and Emet-Selch shot him instead of using magic because Emet-Selch, as a connoisseur of the dramatic arts, was so offended by the performance. 2. The devs revealed Innocence's model without revealing the tie to Vauthry; as a result, a lot of people made cosplay plans to make Innocence, and most backed out when they realized just who Innocence was. 3. Ascian robes 😂 4. Cannibalism either way, given that Sin Eaters were people. o/` the ciiiiircle of liiiiiife~ 5. Getting any kind of an official timeline is impossible. People have made an attempt around the very few touchpoints we have, but Yoshi-P has historically dodged the question when asked. 6. The Exarch's lie wasn't actually a lie when you ask about G'raha; it's something along the lines of, "I encountered no-one of that description in the Crystal Tower." Which is a *terribly* Obi-Wan way of answering, because he didn't encounter anyone like that because that was him. Truth, from a certain point of view. 7. I think it's less that he's picked up Garlean affectations so much as he originated them; Solus was the one behind creating the Garlean Empire out of a hardscrabble group of refugees. They've only been a threat for about 75-80 years when ceruleum was turned to magitek use. 8. So, you'd say that you did everything right, everything asked of you, and STILL it came to this?
"Now I'm wondering, what is going to transpire when we get to the Tempest?" I'll tell you right now; one of the greatest endings fucking EVER. PERIOD. Shit goes down, and it goes down HARD. Y'all are in for such a ride, I'm so excited for you dudes. And I'm really happy you're finally seeing where all the Shadowbringers hype comes from. It took its time but DAMN was it worth the payoff!
I remember feeling OFFENDED that Innocence got better hair than we’ll ever get ingame. It’s not fair. Going down the rabbit hole of “was the nipple face the baby?” really opened up some body horror theories I’m going to have to kill with drink. Like the adult Vauthry form being this malignant mass/chrysalis that slowly formed around the baby form until it was ready to burst forth as Innocence.
Shadowbringers is an expansion worth of gaslighting, and just when you start to question yourself they pull back the curtain and go, "it was Graha Tia, you dummy!"
@@DrFlareon You're absolutely right. I forgot about Louisoix in the cinematic opening. Though I think Alexander is more of a direct link based on who assisted you with it.
Mt. Gulg is a bit different than primal arenas. As best as I can tell, the environment in a primal fight is more of a reflection of their control of the space. It's like a distortion of reality as you fight in their domain. Mt. Gulg has been physically lifted and transformed with the vast quantity of aether that a lightwarded possesses. He's basically shaped the light-aspected aether into a palace on the mountain.
The Crystal Exarch was one of my favorite characters because of his earnestness as the WoL's biggest fanboy. As noted, he does try to play it down, but it gradually seeps through especially in that last "campfire" scene you have with him. Also, I'm so glad you're finally at this point. The Exarch reveal is the hardest spoiler to keep secret IMO - I've had several friends start ShB and point-blank say "That's cat-man, right?" and you can only say "Nah" or "Who's to say?" so many times. This has also gotta be a huge load off your mod team too ;-) (Thanks mods!)
Well, and then there is *peep* and *peep* and you can't forget about *peeeeeeeep* :P Still a lot of potential spoiling but yeah, Crystal Exarch is the one you can spoil the easiest so Mods probably had to be very focused during streams.
You have seen my second-favorite moment of this expansion. I 100% agree with you: the intense feeling of FAILURE in that moment where you look up and see the sky full of light is beautiful. Amazing. That moment was when I understood how great a writer Natsuko Ishikawa was. What other RPG--what other *MMO* RPG, for goodness' sake!--could make the player feel like a real, genuine failure? This is a genre built on wish-fulfillment fantasies and building yourself up until you're the baddest of the badasses. By leveraging that, leaning into it, and then *ripping* it away right at your moment of triumph, Ishikawa masterfully induces the player to feel _exactly_ the same emotions that their character would be feeling, and it is GLORIOUS. That's all I really have to say here. As you say, Mt. Gulg is a "I have no notes" dungeon, Innocence is a rockin' fight, the writing is just unbelievably stellar. This whole section, from the moment you activate the Talos until the end of 5.0's story, is just going from triumph to triumph. But the best is yet to come, and babe won't it be fine? Best be about it, heroes!
I'd never really thought about it much before, but Emet's deal with Vauthry's father must've happened after Heavensward when Minfilia and the Warriors of Darkness arc happened. Because Vauthry was born after the flood of light. So that's Emet doing some scheming after he 'died' as Solus
"some technology I thought emet was going to take control of for some big evil moment!" Emet: uses gun Gun memes: the community generally thinks its the best move to use gun too, but we also just find it funny that the most dramatic character is just like "im so over this". Graha's acting was THAT bad. Songbird theory - I dont think its that they think its the /current/ songbird, they think its a previous song bird. Shoebill - I think it's just a beloved easter egg
About Emet in Ascian robes... Back in Rak'tika, he brought back Y'Shtola from the aether, nude. Then snapped his fingers to give her clothes. He litterally has clothes making magic. *insert reference to DBZA season 1 clothes beam*
This section did such an amazing job of bringing everything up so it could crash down into the ground hard. This was just crushing when I played it. In regards to My Gulg and whatnot, my head cannon is that it's a sign of how powerful Vauthry is that he can make it fly (he fly himself up there and I refuse to believe those wings did anything). The marble I'm assuming is Vauthry 'corrpting' the rocks with light to remove their imperfections and color and shape it to his will (because he's a light warden and has influence over light aspects things)
re:Pacing. One thing I've found true in both Shadowbringers and Endwalker is right at the point where you're saying "When do we get to the fireworks factory?"... you get there. And it's more spectacular than you imagined.
He's not in a Solus body, when you speak to him in Raktika he tells you he possessed someone on the First and molded their appearance into one he likes
They gave another hint about the Exarch’s identity by playing a version of “Eternal Wind” during that cutscene with him by the cliff. They did take full advantage of him never being voiced in 2.x though.
About your guys question on if Lahabrea made ascian robes for Thancred, do you guys remember when Emet used Piccolo’s “clothes beam” on Y’shtola after snapping her back for us? Laha probably did the same for Thancred.
Emet-Selch pulling out a gun is like when the refined, elegant, perpetually calm character looks you dead in the eye and uses profanity: it's a disruption of expectations in a way that makes a specific point, and for our favorite melodramatic jackass to realize this and do it on purpose is so completely in-character for him that the fandom naturally exults over the moment. We laugh because it is just so him to do this exact thing in this exact way.
Never underestimate the narrative impact of Gun Edit: Also, fun fact. That’s a pre-imperial Garlean military revolver. His time as Solus left him with a fondness for it.
The marble of Mt Gulg I think is Sin eater being twisted and warped into building a manifestation of Vulthry's ideal paradise, hence the demonwalls, the rubix cube and ground slammer that crumbled into rubble, all being parts of the enviroment still capable of beings. He did adsorb a lot of light before fleeing Eulmore, this may have been partly spent being used to create everything in a short amount of time that it is now before the showdown. When you look at it that way, its his city of flesh and innocence of his warped paradise.
As for the pixies: nobody invited them, and you know what usually happens when people neglect to invite the fae to a gathering. Fortunately your Beautiful Branch was watching and they love you so... and had a different target to direct their anger on.
But they WILL specifically complain about it in only the way the Feo Ul will do ... I do love that's one of their character beats, always saying "Why the heck didn't you call me for help?! You're so mean!"
I like to imagine Emet became more theatrical as Solus because of the Ivalice questline and how they mention they were a royal theater troupe like its just kinda fun to think about 😂
"i now feel like i know enough about shadowbringers to know why it's so beloved" DUDE WTF, i laughed out loud for a straight minute at that quote. I'm glad you're enjoying the ride though :)
I wish you would finish shb already, but these videos already remind you that, in exchange for the stalling, you are truly giving the community a lot. You rock. I hope i catch the end live.
I love the fake out twist with Graha. Everyone sees it coming, and they're so "AH HAH!", but that fake twist conceals the Emit betrayal which hits so squarely.
The writers are imo really good at giving you the satisfaction of figuring out a reveal before it happens but then also layering something additional and unexpected on top of it to keep things exciting and (to a degree) unpredictable. So many times in the MSQ, even going as far back as the final ARR patch, there were moments where I felt like "Well, the things I was anticipating happened, but then they KEPT HAPPENING-" Imo that's infinitely more enjoyable for the audience than when stories try to keep their twists twisty by undercutting their own foreshadowing to be like "Surprise! There's no way you could have seen this coming!" Instead, it's like "Hey, you were absolutely right about that thing - nice one.. BUT ALSO-"
Innocence's transformation contains a reference to the sculpture 'St. Michael's Victory over the Devil' at the Coventry Cathedral, essentially making Vauthry a representation of the Archangel Michael...and possibly Jesus, depending on your interpretation of certain descriptions of Michael in the Bible. I think ShB is leaning into the Michael/Jesus comparison here because Vauthry/Jesus was supposedly a perfect child born without the corruption of mankind's sin.
I love how someone finally mentioned St. Michael the Archangel - Vauthry's boss model is such a clear visual reference to Coventry but also a lot of very Catholic art. He is as a character a very metaphorical St. Michael and messianic figure.
Okay, so timeline: This isn’t really a spoiler but I’ll warn just in case, it has been confirmed by the devs that Shadowbringers take place over the course of a few weeks, and the exarch told you very early on that at the moment the first and the source are moving 1:1 in terms of time, so there are no time shenanigans going on in that sense. Now onto stuff that has absolutely been revealed. Vauthry’s age is somewhat up for debate but we do know for a fact that he can not be older than 100 years in the first, because the sin eaters were around before his birth and they arrived shortly after the flood of light. We also know he is definitely older than 15 because that is Ryne’s age and Eulmore had already began “Protecting” the oracle instead of having her lead them in battle. But as for his age based off the time in the source, hard to say, it depends on how much time passed between Ardbert and his gang going to the first with Minfillia and the time it took for you to be drawn to the first. But given we are told that the entire story of ARR to Endwalker encompasses a year, we can imagine it’s been a few months if that. Now, does this mean that Emet somehow got worn down in as few as a few months or as many as 100 years? No, and this is because we don’t know everything he has been doing during that time, he could have been going to other shards and spending gods knows how much time on any of them given the way that time flows inconsistently between them.
Do you have any official sources on those timelines? I've seen many people claim that "the devs said", but no-one's been able to provide a source to actually back this up. I have tried to search for it myself, but I've failed as well. What I could find, was the devs stating that they didn't want to give a definitive timeline to anything, but rather preferred to have it in a neboulous state of "some time has passed". It was in a liveletter discussion, IIRC.
@@christianf.5553 hmm, well I always hear the 1 year notion passed around so I didn’t have reason to question it, but even then, if it’s been less than 1 year we are still taking a handful of months if not less which ultimately still serves my point in that using the flashback to try and guess how long Emet has been working on his plans for Vauthry aren’t exactly going to work. As for the Ages, I believe Ryne mentions she is not much younger than the twins, but no actual age is given, I see 14 to 15 passed around, but I err towards 15 personally. The 100 years is explicitly told to us so I don’t really see a real argument against it.
Pour one out for those who did Shadowbringers before Crystal Tower was mandatory and were like, "Wait, who is this cat man?" Less dialogue options too.
The exarch reveal itself isn't too shocking particularly if you have gone through the story more recently. As someone who played Crystal Tower when it came out way back in ARR it wasn't as fresh in my mind and many others who played it back then. To be fair though, I guess 100% correct who it was right away and I think many did, most were on the right trail but just were thrown off by the game.
So like, at this moment when you're the source of the light... when you take a teleport back to the source, does the sky in Norvrandt just switch off like a lightbulb? Teleport back and poof, it's light out again. That's really got to mess with the minds of everyone on the first. It'd also be really bad to complete your sin-eater transformation on the source.
I like that the writers really didn't believe anyone would be all *that* fooled by the Crystal Exarch's true identity being G'raha Tia, which is why the big reveal is immediately followed up by Emet-Selch bursting in with a gun
I'll throw it in now since it's still safely in the realm of unconfirmed fan theory, but there's a decent chance that Chai-Nuzz is the Cid of the first as the genius engineer who ran "Daedalus Stoneworks."
While there is a lot of - extremely deserved - hype around The Twinning, there is one other lv60 patch 5.0 dungeon. The quest to start it is in Eulmore after you finish the 5.0 MSQ. I hope to see it next week, imo it's just an extremely fun dungeon.
The Mt. Gulg preview images were so confusing to see because we already knew there was a Nier collab at the time and we were thinking "What is this? A Nier dungeon in the leveling content?"
I just have to say I love just love you refer to Vauthry as handsome squidward because that has been my nickname for him since I saw him I feel so much validated rn.
I just wanted to point out that Mt Gulg is from FF1 as the fire volcano and then they also use it in FF9 later on. Not related or anything just like they’re reusing the name for fans.
I'll be honest, I didn't know who the exarch was even after the face reveal because it had been so long since I'd done the crystal tower quest line that I thought "Yes, I definitely remember you and won't be checking the wiki to see what I've forgotten." Also now that you're past this point I recommend checking out a video called "A skit about the Exarch reveal scene" it's a treasure.
Also need to remember for those that played for long time before expansions,and don't repeat see cut scenes how long it has been for people that had seen graha. I completely forgot about him.
The funny thing for me was.....doing the Crystal Tower hasn't always been obligatory......thus I didn't do it before Shadowbringer. So.....when the reveal happened, I was just like...."Who?"
Crystal Tower was optional content at the beginning of Shadowbringers expansion. It only became mandatory in patch. I'm glad it's here, but there are a couple dialog scenes you could only have if you'd done CT, trying to call him out as G'raha early. I love the way you guys bounce and I can't wait till you check out the tempest. Ummm.... you guys have good dental plans, right? Don't worry about it!
Wonderful take on this section of the story! I know you two will love where the story goes next! Also I got tickled by the mention of my Ascianvald, I had fun prepping that appearance and so glad Kyle liked it and immediately knew what it was. (Pothi)
I think you guys are looking too much into the ascians can body hop. Emet did not possess Solus. Solus was always Emet. There never was a Solus, only Emet.
I appreciate you guys going out and sharing your MSQ experience with the world via the internet. It's incredible fun for me to go around seeing what other folks have to say about their time progressing through FF14's plot and sharing in an experience that I would never have expected to be so close to my heart when I started it.
Emet wasn't lying or trying to sell us on his plan at the end, I don't think. He did say that **if** we were to survive the rejoinings we would only stand to gain. The reason why we don't survive the 8th calamity is not so much because of him but more because we try to go on the front lines to stop it.
I like that you can extrapolate that Emet was basically saying, hey maybe you wanna be an Ascien? because how else could you survive the thousands of years all the remaining rejoinings would take. I wonder if that was his plan, to turn the scions into the black masked minion Asciens we used to see, if we passed his test.
Welp thanks for the chills from the ending bit there. Great video! It's always fun to see the thought out analysis after the initial stream reactions. I also loved the return of the everlasting light skies to the zones. It felt like an excellent way to "take" something from the player, which is difficult in an mmorpg game.
