Yeah, it’s the walkway from the last vigil aether shard between the Fortempt manor and the Church building that has the tall statues lining either side.
I believe the "knights' rubble" bit is referencing the statues of the Knights Twelve in Ishgard -- "Gun-Coating Tompatriot" is saying the blast was big enough to shatter the statues.
In reference to the knights twelve, that's the statues in ishgard, outisde the vault. During Emet's conversation during the ravel, he says Hydalen smote Zodiark, i.e. she hit him with her power, **not sure if spoiler as I believe this has been stated, and what can be inferred** Hydalen fighting Zodiark is what split everthing, so in theory he should also be sundered into 14 parts, so 14 different moons (think of the source and reflections as alternate realities in the same space).
While some sineaters are people, a lot of sineaters are animals. Everything that was alive on the First that got hit by the flood of light got turned into a sineater, not just the humans. So, at least some, and perhaps all, of the meol was originally animals, not people. Vauthry might keep the transformed people as his servants (who knows, maybe they have more smarts than the animals after transforming.) At least, if you were one of the Eulmorans scarfing it down, you would be able to tell yourself that was you ate wasn't people, even if there was no way to be absolutely sure.
Yall have been given a crown by Jesse Cox, have exploded in growth, have fostered an excited community all your own, and your goddamn show is STILL underrated. Keep at it, gentlemen.
I’m seriously so excited for you guys. It’s not an exaggeration when people say Shadowbringers has one of the best endings to a video game of all time. There definitely are some pacing issues throughout Shadowbringers but it’s well worth it for the payoff at the end. As Jesse told you guys, you’re putting out some of the best FFXIV content around right now. Keep it up my dudes!!
I agree with all of this, but I would go a step further and say that Shadowbringers actually has 2 of the best endings to a video game of all time... the 5.0 ending AND the 5.3 ending. Honestly, for me, if the game's story had just fully ended on 5.3, I could have felt satisfied. I'm not at all sad that it DIDN'T, but that's how strong of an ending that felt like, to me.
@@Rakka5 While I agree with this, I think the pacing and overall quality of Shadowbringer's story is better, while Endwalker has much higher "highs" that almost even out the overall quality to match Shadowbringers. But I still think Shadowbringers is a smidge better of an expac.
I understand why you used the term “pacing issues” and by no means hold your use of it against you, but man do I hate the ubiquity of that term and how it paves over the nuances of how a story’s pacing can misalign with a player by treating the sour experience as simply a characteristic of the material and not an exchange born of various contextual elements. It so easily creates shallow discussions about deep topics and just grr grr I’m so mad. Sorry to rant about this out of nowhere but it was either this or me silently seething all day.
Alphinaud's speech in Eulmore is one of my favorite parts of this expansion, because it ties his character arc together so nicely. The look of pure dumbfoundedness on his face as these people he wasn't trying to motivate, volunteer to help, is amazing. You can see the gears in his head trying to turn as Y'shtola takes up the conversation, while he is slack-jawed looking around, and trying to parse what the hell just happened. He had always wanted to be a great orator like his grandfather, someone who could move nations to act towards a better world, and every attempt fell flat or backfired horribly. In this scene, Alphinaud became the man he wanted to be since ARR; and he didn't even notice.
I've long wondered if people of Eulmore are so quick to repent because they are 1/14 of a person while Alphinaud is 8/14, so our crew are the most eloquent, charismatic and amazing people they have ever seen. The folks of the First all are simple, they are what you see. Good people won't stab you in the back, bad people are driven by a single motive. Maybe it's because they are literally shallow
@@nopenonono Dont think it's exaclty like that. i dont think the scaling is linear. because otherwise ppl wouldnt see us as "normal" when we talk to the locals. and there are some complex characters. i think its just that the Eulmorans are pretty straight forward. they just wanted to live in idleness. and since they didnt really care, they didnt care how their acts looked. (making it seem like they were shallow)
@DwagonHD The people of the First seem to have a lower aetheric potential, and lower aetheric reserves than the Scions of the Source. Remember how surprised the Trolleyfolk are when Urianger first holds out his hand and is able to suffuse the Talos with Aether. And then there's another moment, in the Magical DPS role quest, when Cerigg is pondering how to reach out to the voice in the hollow: > Cerigg: "...Wait a minute. What if there was some way you could channel your aether into the void? Might that not allow your aetheric form to serve as a beacon of sorts to guide the child back to us? 'Course, not that I know how we'd go about that..." > WoL: [Charlie Brown Trombone Noises] > Cerigg: "Hm? You reckon you could do just that? I won't even think of asking how. Do your damnedest." The fact that the people of the Source have high aetheric reserves, enough to just let it flow out of us like we demonstrate time and time again, is surprising to people of the First, but subtly so.
Ok, to answer this question without spoilers, only what's been stated so far: Lahabrea + Igeyorhm = Ascian Prime in the exact same way that Zenos + stolen echo + dragon primal = Shinryu. In the Ascian Prime cutscene, Lahabrea explains that this is not an Ascian power, this is the Echo pushed to its limits: The power to see through the veil of the soul and at its limit, blend them together. This is the same thing Elidibus said way back when Minfilia met him in his very first appearance: If we were as powerful in the Echo as he was, we would have no quarrel, for we would all be one.
The enervation is simple, she divides her target. Strike someone into 2 and everything is halved, strike someone into 14 and each is a 14th of the original. Also correction, 7 times rejoined is 8/14
This is really the point of Emet's rehashing - that everything and everyone has been split by Hydaelyn, soul and all. The reflections aren't just "alternate reality versions" of the source, they are literally a part of the source that has been ripped away into pocket dimensions, diminishing the source and its inhabitants more and more for each reflection. In contrast, Emet is a whole person, not some elevated being. He is telling us that however powerful he is, it's not because he is special but because we have had our power taken from us by the sundering. It would be like how we view a mythic god like Thor as being elevated above us and Thor says "I haven't been elevated, you have been reduced - you should all be like me but were sundered. I want to undo that sundering to return you to normal."
@@Owl90 I think it's cause they're thinking at a meta level , forest through the trees syndrome. The focus on tropes is often the biggest thing that catches them since it naturally points them in another direction due to assuming said tropes is often simplifying things to a point the themes involved are missed... Its pretty common though for most of us we also have the benefits of noting what material is being pulled from. It becomes a lot easier to grasp when one stops thinking in terms of anime and game tropes and looks at it in relation to books like utopia, paradise lost and the divine comedy. Really it's actually kinda like with the VA, where when you pay attention to the fine details you notice they aren't using traditional sources for what you expect and that helps change your perspective. Probably helps to have working understandings of both colour and light theory and physics.
After the Qitana Ravel, Emet-Selch finishes his lecture with “And thus was Zodiark banished and his being divided.” Just to answer Kyle’s question about Zodiark.
On the topic of Ascians fusing and showing you the "true power of the Echo": Zenos used his manufactured Echo to fuse with Shinryu, and exert his will over the dragon-primal. "Ascian Prime" may just be a name for the sake of a name for what they did. Mutual fusion to combine powers.
Correct. The natural extension of being able to empathetically join with a soul to see it's past is the ability to completely merge with that soul. I think the “Echo” is merely the ability of our broken souls to reach out to others to attempt to be rejoined. The splitting of the Source created it.
I think it gets touched on again in the Endwalker 8 man raids, but I can't talk about the specifics since this is a no spoilers past what they've seen disussion.
I love the heavy predictions videos because you both take left turns and stop the other dead in their tracks. Having you guys caught up is going to be an endless source of joy as we all go nuts together lobbing clues and theories at each other like animals Garrett doesn't like except in kaiju size.
I absolutely adore these theory videos, even knowing what everything actually is and is not. Keep on doing these and I pray that people continue to smile instead of spoiling! :)
7:21 The Knights 12 is the name of the road leading up from the nobles manor houses to the cathedral - Its where all the statues line the road looking imposing. Blue Alisaie even comments on them during the tour when you first get there.
Love these! God I wanna see you guys get through these stories of ShB and EW-- it's a double edge sword as once it's done it's done but gosh is it a bittersweet ride throughout.
I love the prediction videos where you make your theories and go back through all the available information (or bring up questions you still want answers for). Love to see this type of story engagement and how you guys think about where things can go. Beyond that, all I have to say is this: :)
It took watching you guys run the Well dungeon and seeing the CS after for me to notice that the boy, when he’s looking at the sky, blinks for the first time. This is what I love about XIV; every time you watch someone go through the story, you discover things you’d not noticed before and it just makes it all that more impactful. MAN I love Gigakawa and her writing ❤❤❤❤ PS: it’s kinda hard to understand, but what Emet was saying with the Ryne example at the PowerPoint presentation was that when the world got split into 14ths, EVERYTHING (all aether based items) and EVERYONE (as far as those there in the world at the time) also got split up as well. So basically everything is 1/14th of what it once was. Emet is one of three who escaped the splitting like you said. PPS: The old man that was the Patron of the Canary… when you give him the sleep powder he says “where did you fly off to, my sweet canary?” But if you click him AFTER you finish, he mutters “I miss you” in his sleep. She was like a daughter or granddaughter to him and it legit made me cry when I read it the first time. Again, another of Gigakawa’s amazing stealth writing skills at play there. Also, Garrett if you wanna see the one dude who hates what you’ve done in Eulmore talk to the male Roe NPC sitting at the bar. He has some choice words for you lol
It is so interesting to see how other people piece together what they think is gonna happen. Watching you theorize has me giggling on how close to how far off you guys are on some points. I have a friend though who is scarily good at predicting a story's end, and the plot points that get you there, that you have to pull a poker face whenever he starts predicting, because 9 times outta 10 he nails it. Obviously Im not gonna spoil what you've gotten right or wrong, but I think you're following too many tropes from outside the Final Fantasy franchise rather than focusing on those specific tropes. All the clues are there, right in front of you. You merely needs arrange them into their proper order.
WILD SPECULATION, where Kyle and Garrett throw darts at Emet's Powerpoint and see if any of them land in something corporeal! OW! That one hit Ryne! Oh, it was the duplicate Ryne, no harm, no foul!
The moral relativism thing is a big one that usually has folks up in arms. The way I see it, Emet is a survivor of the zombie apocalypse. Seeing all his people turned into fragmented pieces, our definition of "mankind" not much different to him than rotten, shambling half-dead human beings like zombies. Most people wouldn't consider killing a zombie murder, even if you had the "smarter zombies" kind of story where they can still speak some words. You got them zombie stories of nuking the world and starting all over too, it's possible Emet sees it that way. But it goes even further than that because of how life and death works in this world, with the aetherial sea, and souls being reborn, and so on. It's just such a well-written, nuanced kind of worldview that has some great dialogue coming up. Now I spotted some lovely theories, and some good questions to ask. But Garett: You said it's building up to Shadowbringers Credits... You're not at level 80 MSQ yet. You still got a big, meaty chunk of "Welcome to Shadowbringers" coming right up.
There are statues of the historical Knights Twelve that the primal versions are based on. Remember the echo to the original Azure Dragoon after defeating Niddhog long in the past? There were a bunch of knights with the prince (Haldrath iirc?) who fought Niddhog. They included the forgotten knight, the Dzemael ancestor, the Fortemps ancestor, the Durendaire ancestor, the Haillenarte ancestor, etc... Anyway, Ishgard has big statues of them if you look around. It sounds like they may have gotten exploded.
The "Grinding Gear Reacts to Grinding Gear's #ProbablyWrongTheories" video that's going to come out after Shadowbringers is done is going to be FANTASTIC. Almost as good as the "Grinding Gear Reacts to Grinding Gear's #ProbablyRightTheories" one will be.
Emet is just the absolute best. He never lies, he just omits. And boy has he omitted. What the game makes you forget is that Emet's version of saving the world, and your version, are completely at odds with one another.
The amount of people who I've seen comment "emet did nothing wrong" on SHB videos are wild, fully bought into his views of the world without remembering what he's not saying. Just cause he perceives sundered people as less than a person doesn't mean they are!
I love that as of Endwalker you can see how much he omitted. He does want to save the world but his world necessarily means ruining yours. His people are peaceful and like to reason out disagreements but they are unnervingly callous about life even as they respect it. They have morals, but never adjust them and always go to snap decisions. Heck, because they are duty focused I would argue very few ancients value their life. And yet, amidst all of that Emet-Selch sort of did albeit under the harshest penalties of dismissing every creature for being Sundered and a fraction of Ancient life. He is trying to accept sundered people as they are, and unfortunately he is correct when he says life is definitively worse under sundered rulings, but it’s not like sundered beings seven times rejoined are dismissible if they got as far as they did in Stormblood and even irrelevant Thordan VII ruined Lahabrea by meticulous planning. Honestly, the Ascians really have been coasting.
Really fun discussion as always. On the information retread: this will happen a lot in Endwalker. When I played it, I found myself wondering why they repeated certain plot points over and over. Then I saw a lot of online discussion where people still missed/forgot those repeated points...and criticized the story as not making sense because they forgot that info. So as people recording/discussing...you probably will find yourself noticing lore repeats average players seem to miss.
I wont say which is which to avoid even the potential for spoilers, but aome of your theorizing is great and some of it induced out and out laughs followed by "Ohhhh you sweet summer children..." Great stuff, as always!
*spams the smiley emoji all through this conversation* ...yeah, y'all remind me of me when I got to this point. "WHERE IS THIS GOING I DON'T UNDERSTAND" Stuff is coming where it'll kind of all make sense! ...and then make you ask more questions, and get you ready for EW!
As for the question of why Ryne was split in two and the world in to 14, I believe the impression is meant to be that her attack on Zodiark was so powerful that it divided him and the star into 14.
Oh god, you guys don’t know how nice it was to watch this after a hellish week on a business trip. Thanks for the laughs and the entertainment! Your certainly have some interesting theories, I can’t wait until you learn more and keep refining them 😉 Now I have to catch up with your live streams and the podcast, GG!
That PowerPoint has a lot of important things different from the cave explanations and pretty important things, ryne example was just an example you don’t splits her into fourteen like the shards to get the point across. If you really understand the PowerPoint early you start to pick up on many things but it will all make sense soon
Just FYI, the imagery used for the Source and the 13 shards in both the Exarch's and Emet's power points is not indicative of how it actually looks. While I am unsure exactly how to explain this, the simplest (yet still confusing) one is that the Source and the Shards are in the same physical space but in different dimensions that are separate from everything else in space. It's part of why the First has no equivalent to Midgardsormr, the Great Wyrms or their broods (as Middy was only able to reach the Source).
I think you're right, a lot of the lore repetition is for a good reason. Not only do people not generally go back through their recordings, but also many of us play through the MSQ as essentially a single player game and don't bounce ideas off friends. Love to see more of your videos, thank you!
These predictions are so good! I don't want to comment on them specifically so as to not give anything away in either direction but I'll just say I can't wait until you see how it all pans out. You guys put out some of the most entertaining and engaging FFXIV content out there. Keep up the great work!
This is entirely an aside but while your view count steadily rises, I just want to appreciate the insane amount of engagement your videos have. Hundreds of comments, consistently, every video is really something to be proud of and quite rare as far as XIV content on youtube goes. And it's only increasing.
Honestly, with the final WoL vs. Ran'jit fight, I _initially_ felt it missed the mark. I felt it would have been good to have Thancred be the final blow (or Ryne, like you suggested). I did not feel like this was the Warrior of Light's story, so this wasn't the Warrior of Light's fight. It's why the post-trolley fight worked so well because it was _personal_ for both Thancred and Ran'jit. It wasn't until someone pointed out that we got bodied by him at the beginning that I felt a little better about it. We needed to have our Vegeta-esque, "you bested me, and I took exception to that," moment. However, your point that the Warrior of Light is a parental figure to Ryne, or at least that they are someone she looks up to and idolizes, helps me reconcile that even more. Thank you.
Watching these guys theory craft is like grading a math paper. Some answers are pretty bang on, some are hilariously off, some have all the right steps but the wrong answer and some have all the wrong steps with the right answer.
your threories are adorable. part of me sees two kids in a candy store while you talk about the story. wholesome. cant wait to see your reactions on the resolutions to your theories. fun times ahead of you guys
Source = dimension (original, 7 times rejoined), Hydaelyn = the planet (it's the same in every dimension, but maybe called by different names in others)
The thing with ryne. Just split her into two as an example. The planet and everybody on it was split into 14 tho. So by comparison, everyone alive is 1/14 of what people used to be during Emets time. Before the sundering. Except for the ones that survived the calamities. Because there’s been seven rejoinings so far. So quick maths here, the people in front of him are basically half of what he is by comparison.
The Knights Twelve are the statues that are along the road from the Vault down to the Hoplon. They're statues of the Original Knights Twelve. "How fourteen instead of two" Because she didn't hit Zodiark once. She did seven times: 1 beacame 2 to 4 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 12 to 14. His example, Hydaelyn stopped at one. Ascian Prime works because of the "power of the Echo." Since 2.0, it's been known that the power of the Echo is to break down the boundries of the soul, and to surpass them. Understand all languages, Souls can transplant to other bodies (Sahagin in 2.1 shows this), See the past (Our usual Echo visions), See the future (Canon reason we can retry wipes is we see a possible future, otherwise also AoE indicators are us seeing the future). What Lahabrea and Igeyohrn did, was literally break down the boundaries between each other's souls to become one. While it's not outright said yet, the Echo is really just a swiss army knife that has a billion attachments. I can't wait to see you hit the point in the story where I said "F-k it I don't need sleep I just need to finish Expansion" point, which is soon. There are like... 0 places you can take a break without blue balling yourself once you continue the MSQ past a certain point, and I feel pity for your guy/gal trying to break that section up into digestible parts.
I have a theory about Ascian Prime... [redacted] seems to [redacted] be something [redacted] that [redacted] you [redacted] may [redacted] learn about [redacted] if [redacted] you [redacted] keep [redacted] playing [redacted].
