Hello! Today's character analysis is a bit
special, because we'll be looking at the very first character we encounter, when we fire
up the game: Hydaelyn! Yeah, that was 9 years ago for those of you who started in 2.0. And
after many years of waiting, we finally got her full story in Endwalker. Because turns
out, this giant speaking blue crystal is an actual character! Who would've guessed!? The
sole question we'll ponder today, then, is: was her story good? Was the wait worthwhile?
Oh and, spoilers and all that. Now, because this video is rather long and
encompasses a variety of topics, all of which are under the umbrella of Venat's character,
I wanted to add little rundown of the video's content here to hopefully make the video flow
a bit better. So, this video is essentially split into 3 parts, each about half an hour
long, and a bonus segment. Part 1 has me going over Venat's story, providing
my thoughts about its execution along the way. I talk about her personality, mention
relationships with other characters, discuss some of the design choices and so on. The
usual, if you've watched my content! Part 2 consists mostly of critique about the
execution of certain things surrounding Venat's character. The first half is critique I commonly
seen pop up in the community, the second half is some of my personal gripes. Part 3 will be praising the Hydaelyn fight
and then reflecting on her death scene. We'll then round it off with a bonus segment,
where I talk about some of the "neat details" behind Venat's character. Right, that's the gist of it. As always, there
are chapters so that you can easily jump around the video! A lot of hard work went into this
one, so I hope you'll enjoy! Now, when we talk about early FFXIV, Hydaelyn
got basically the same treatment as the Ascians in this story. Obscure as heck until Shadowbringers.
In fact, one could say that while the Ascians were generic bad guys doing bad things in
the background, Hydaelyn was a generic good guy doing good things in the background. She
speaks something ominous, grants you the Blessing of Light which basically gives you superpowers,
directly intervenes in the fight against Atma Weapon and Lahabrea himself and, well, that's
about it. The first turning point of sorts happens in
3.4, when Hydaelyn fails to stop the Flood of Light from engulfing most of the First,
and Ardbert does a little babyrage. This was the first time the devs put this thought at
the back of the players head of "oh, maybe there's something else going on here", but
we still didn't know anything about Hydaelyn's origins, what are her motives, why exactly
does she oppose Zodiark. Shadowbringers, being the expansion that basically answered everything,
then of course answered those questions: Fast foward to the end of the expansion, you
then finally meet Hydaelyn face to face in 5.5 when she appears to warn you about the
coming darkness that will bring about the end, obviously referring to the 6 hour long
queues that will accompany the Endwalker launch. After either unsubbing or grinding Bozja for
a few months, you enter Endwalker and there she is, among the first few characters you
meet in the story. You talk to her on the boat and what's this?
There's only 2 dialogue options, both of them basically "what the hell Hydaelyn!?" But of
course, none of this came as a surprise, as it was all setup and intentional So, in Shadowbringers, we got the Ascian/Zodiark
side of the story. We learn of the tragic fate that befell the ancients, why Zodiark
was created, the conflict between Zodiark's and Hydaelyn's factions and of course, the
horrible event that was the sundering of the world. They do something interesting here,
which is that they show only the Ascian side of the conflict, as it is all narrated by
Emet-Selch. Thus they deliberately leave out Hydaelyn's side of the story, and we are left
to doubt her. This is naturally accompanied by Shadowbringers being like "Darkness isnt
inherently evil, nor is light inherently good", a message which works both ways, further adding
to the whole questioning of if we are doing the right thing just cos we fight for Hydaelyn
and the light. But mainly this doubt comes in the form of questioning Hydaelyn's role
in all of this, why she opposed Zodiark and more importantly, why did she sunder the world?
And mind you, this idea of doubting her isn't just my interpretation, it's very clearly
something the writers intended, as I alluded to with the first Endwalker encounter with
Hydaelyn having both dialogue options be confrontational. There is no "I believed in you all along,
Hydaelyn!" option, which to me is a pretty clear sign that yeah, that's precisely what
the devs wanted the players to think. And on that front, I think they did a very good
job. With dialogue like this: Both of these bits of dialogue plant this
idea in your head that Hydaelyn is hiding something from you. I must say, as far as
setups go, I think this was very well executed. There was certainly a lot of discussion surrounding
Hydaelyn during Shadowbringers and especially just prior to Endwalker. Ok, but enough talk
about the setup, what about the execution? As in, how can we reflect back on that now
that we've finished the story? Let us first consider the biggest decision
the writers made that would shape Venat as a character. We have this conflict, the sundering,
which Shadowbringers spends a great deal exploring the ramifications of. They then had basically
2 choices with Venat: either make her not responsible for the sundering, or do make
her responsible for the sundering. To not make her responsible could have been something
like having it be an accident, or something along those lines. Now, obviously the writers
chose to go with the second option, but I nonetheless find it interesting as I think
either way you could have had interesting dilemmas and drama with Venat's character.
More than likely they went for the latter option as a way of subverting the players
expectations, as I assume most people were expecting the sundering to be some kind of
a mistake, because surely no one would wish to intentionally bring this amount of suffering,
right? Then the writers could be like sike! It was 100% deliberate! And the audience goes
*gasp*. And I'd say this was largely succesful, given the overall fondness of Venat in the
community. Of course some people may disagree with the choice of having her be fully conscious
of the choice to sunder the world, while still keeping her essentially as a good guy and
justifying it but I think we can all agree that it's a good thing they avoided the generic
trope of having her turn out to be some mastermind villain all along, youkno, the overplayed
"oh no your god was evil all this time!" It's nonetheless interesting to me, to see
a character created this way. They were essentially working backwards, by having the sundering
be explored first, then creating a character revolved around justifying it. I'd say this
was a very ballsy move, as it's rather difficult to justify such an awful event as it was portrayed
in Shadowbringers, but this difficulty does also explain why to some, it was a hard sell. More on that in a bit. What makes the Elpis segment so impressive
to me is that they managed to accomplish quite a lot within that relatively short time we
got to spend with those characters. Now, you may disagree with the time travel premise,
but at least they used that time wisely. Specifically, one of the most awesome things in this segment
is how smoothly it manages to make us like Venat, someone whom we knew zero about prior
to entering this place. A big reason for that I think comes down to
the really solid introduction to her character, in Elpis. We pretty much immediately get what
her character is all about. She shows a lot of warmth, compassion, is innately curious
and seemingly has a lot of wisdom to boot. What's not to love, right?
Plain and simply a lot of the success behind Venat comes down to the buttery smooth dialogue,
great voice direction and of course the talent of the voice actors involved. I've only played
in English, so I can only speak for the English VA, Joanna Roth, but I've no doubt they are
of similar quality. With Venat, we have basically 3 distinct voices:
first, we have the warm, motherly type of voice, which plays into the whole thing of
her being a source of guidance through the story. Then there's the more stern and assertive
voice, which is reflective of the more typical ancient's way of speech, which comes out when
she's not messing around and whenever she's being decisive. And the final one, which is
also my favourite: the "Azem" voice. The reason I love this voice so much is that it really brings out her curiosity and adventurous spirit, which
in turn makes us really attached to her! Which of course makes sense, as she used to be Azem.
And I just want to point out that the decision to make her into Azem was brilliant! Precisely
because of what I just described: we immediately gain a semblance of attachment to her, in
the very first scene. Speaking of Azem, how was the relationship
between them? Because it can't be a video about an ancient without discussing Azem!
Venat clearly seems to hold Azem in high esteem. After the one on one fight, she recalls how
much tenacity and strength they had despite being way younger than her. She also passes
on Azem's words with a clear tone of fondness as she's empowering the Warrior of Light's
crystal of Azem. Words that she still remembered after millennia. Wow, that's pretty powerful, right? There's also the fact that she tried to contact Azem before the sundering, though I will elaborate more on that point later. While we are on the topic of Elpis, let me bring up another memorable piece from there: the solo instance! The 1-on-1 against Venat was excellent! It's just so fun to see a character actually swap jobs mid fight, and how her attacks are themed after those jobs. I especially
appreciate Dancer getting some appreciation. But mainly, I very very very much appreciate
that they went through the effort to record an entire freaking song just for this one
instance. They wanted to make this a memorable fight, which would further help you bond with
Venat, and by god they nailed it! I remember wondering why she had 1 job of
each role, thinking if it had any significance, and then this awesomeness is followed up by
letting you do a dungeon with the 3 ancients!! This may be just a huge coincidence, but I
happened to have a fitting interaction with all 3 of these characters on my first time
playing through this dungeon. Besides the one I shared between Emet and Hythlo in my
Emet video, the one I had with Venat was when I tapped Superbolide to soak some damage and
she more or less immediately used Benediction on me. I was like wow, that's so fitting to
her character. She even has a line associated with this very situation. How cool is that!? All in all, getting to bond with Venat in
Elpis was a blast and certainly one of the most memorable parts of Endwalker for me!
Let's now move on to talking about the sundering. So Venat takes notes during Meteion's reports
which I think is a rather organic way of showing her wisdom. Specifically, she paid attention
to this planet's fate: We later find out that this was referring
to the 3rd world we encounter in Dead Ends, the one where that Ra-la thing goes around
clapping people who have become full of apathy. At this point she might assume that their
own star is on a crash course towards becoming just like that, but in general, she's shocked
at the fact that all these stars met the same fate by trying to get rid of sorrow and suffering. Which in turn jumpstarts her adopting a new kind of an ideology, the one we see later on. That you can never fully, permanently get rid of that stuff, to live is to suffer,
and that you ought to use that to basically gain strength through adversity: Which leads us into THE SCENE! You know the one, where she do the thing and the world splits. Let's talk about that one, because I've got some things to share! Holy hell is there a ton of emotion packed into this scene! The cinematography was on
point, the dialogue was god tier, the way they used and recontextualized Answers was
genius, the way she takes hits as she's walking, suggesting the pain people go thro with the
rejoinings and how that weights om her, the imagery contrast between her walk and you
approaching Emet, suggesting a similarity not just in your and her suffering but also
the similarity between her and Emet-Selch, the heart-wrenching expression Hythlodaeus
makes as he turns around, and then Emet's own reaction to it making such a gut punching
exchange of like 5 seconds with no dialogue I mean I could keep gushing on and on about
this scene, but I'll bring up what is probably my favourite part: The expression she makes after the ancients
more or less ignore her statement about moving on, and proceed to sacrifice themselves to
Zodiark, is so fucking powerful. In that instant, you can tell so many emotions flooding through
her mind. Anger, anguish, grief. It is in this moment that she realizes what she has
to do. You might say I'm reading too much into this, I don't care, but I'd imagine that
Venat underwent the same mental gymnastics as Emet-Selch in regards to the whole naive
hope that there would be a path of lesser tragedy, as it were. In fact, I reckon the
similarity is so hilarious that the specific person they hoped could resolve it, was the
very same. Azem. Remember that Venat did try contacting Azem, but they didn't respond.
Whether or not you find her actions justified, it's still worth mentioning the fact that
she didn't just instantly jump to "Oh, genocide is the solution!" She did try to find an alternative,
but there were none she could see. I am sure that every single person watching this video
has been in those situations where you've fully processed a situation, you know exactly
what you have to do, but you are having a hard time coming up with the strength and
the courage to actually go through with it. That's Venat in this moment. This is her coming
to an acceptance that this the only way, or at least the only way she herself can see
in her mind. This is her processing the full extent of the consequences of her actions,
and it terrifies her. As it should any sane mind. She's about to permanently offer both
her and all her followers' souls to become this god, kill everyone, end the entire civilization
as they knew it, subject people to a miserable existence where they will die for no reason
repeatedly, while also getting slaughtered en masse by the Ascians, who themselves will
also go crazy due to the sheer depression resulting from her actions, while she herself
will be in complete solitude for thousands of years, watching those people she created,
suffer endlessly. All kinds of thoughts like these, and probably
way more, would all be on her mind at this moment. I think even being in that position
of having to make such a nightmarishly difficult choice is enough to snap most people mentally.
But she's able to tap into her love of people, nature and the beauty of life itself and thus
gain the resolve to carry on with this decision. Because in her mind, if she does not go through
with this, then all life, beautiful or otherwise, will end. I mean damn, that's the kind of
bravery and resolve that only an Azem could have! And THAT is why I think this scene is
incredible. And this leads us into a brief, yet interesting
topic to discuss: looking at the story from Venat's pov. As in, how did she fare through
all this experience? Much like Emet-Selch, Venat's personality
changes quite a bit as a result of the sundering and the toll that sort of a traumatic event
takes on a person. It's a bit difficult to describe in words, but when you hear her speak
in the present, whether thats on the boat, in Labyrinthos or before the trial, you can
tell a slight difference in her inflexion from the one in Elpis. She speaks with a lot
more weight, if that makes sense. Like being burdened, very similar to the change Emet-Selch
went through. It's also no coincidence that her default expression in her Hydaelyn form
is this very tired facial expression. This is the result of spending over 10 millennia
in solitude. She probably had it even worse off than Emet-Selch, as she was completely
alone and she had the knowledge of how the sundering went down, which in this case is
more of a curse than a luxury. She herself did that, and she had to cope with the choice
she made. Though she was resolved in the moment, I like to imagine that it probably took her
a very long time until she finally came to terms with her decision. How often has it
happened to you, where you went through with something and you were all fired up to do
it in the moment, but then the ramifications of what you just did, doesn't hit you until
later, or sometimes way later? I'm sure that as millennia passed, the weight of her decision
must've become more and more difficult to bear. Every time the Ascians caused a lot
of damage, and she sensed millions of people dying both as a shard was obliterated and
a cataclysmic event played out in the Source, it all must have been gnawing on her more
and more. It's made even worse by the fact that she was essentially powerless to stop
these calamities, moreso as time went on. All she could really do was AFK and watch
them pop pretty horrifying. Now, initially, she may have tried to cope by blaming the
Ascians, but ultimately she would have realized that she is also responsible for all of this.
I believe this is what she is referring to after the trial, when she says there was no
kindness nor justice in the tragedy she caused. I think some people really gloss over the
significance of this line. She's not just saying that because she feels bad in the moment.
That is the state of mind that she has been for the past thousands of years. Regardless of whether or not you agree with
her choice to sunder the world, the point I'm making here is that there were no winners
in this situation. And I think that's a key part of the ancients' story. It's very tragic,
and it sucked for every single person involved. The more character analysises I do on the
ancients, the more this point becomes apparent as you watch these videos! Since I mentioned Emet's hypocrisy regarding
certain things in my Emet-Selch video, it would be remiss of me to not do the same,
as there is some of that going on with Venat as well. The main thing that stands out to
me is her whole mantra about wanting humanity to forge their own path yet, by wittholding
information regarding the threat behind the Final Days, and making a decision on her own
to sunder the world on the behalf of an entire race, she clearly did not afford that same
treatment towards the ancients. I find these kinds of contradictions with characters like
Emet or Venat interesting because it shows just how flawed these individuals are. And
we can pretty safely infer, thanks to the Omega quests, that this flaw with Venat's
logic was very much deliberate, as in it was precisely meant to be kind of grey. Another thing I observed while thinking about
the Omega quest, is that Emet-Selch and Venat are really two sides of the same coin. Emet-Selch
wanted to sacrifice all current life, the sundered people, for the past. This is because
he believed that was the right thing to do given the knowledge he had.
Venat wanted to sacrifice all current life, the ancients, for the future. This is because
she believed that was the right thing to do given the knowledge she had. There are differences
in the semantics, of course, but I believe this was the main thing the writers wanted
to portray: the duality between these two characters. They both drew a very similar
judgement, which we can judge either in favour of the other, or judge them both. Now, her relationship with Emet-Selch this
one's rather interesting. Pre-sundering, she clearly respects his station, as is custom
for the ancients. But this doesn't come off as just a formality, rather it seems she genuinely
admires his wisdom and mastery over aether. Post-sundering, however, there's an interesting
dynamic because even though they never directly interact, we can see that despite them being
on opposing ends of a conflict, they don't seem to despise each other at the end. When
she speaks to you for the first time through Krile, she mentions she pulled Minfilia from
the first's lifestream, as well as "another", which was some good foreshadowing as we later
realized she was referring to Emet-Selch. It's of course possible she did this for a
purely pragmatic reason, expecting Emet-Selch to be of use to the Warrior of Light at some
point later down the line, but I don't think so. I think she did actually see past Emet's
actions and decided to give him this opportunity, to now make a decision when he has his memories
fully restored, because she knew he'd ultimately do the right thing due to his love for the
star, and I could definitely see her doing this as a way of an apology, for never telling
him. On the other hand, Emet-Selch speaks somewhat
fondly of her after being summoned by the WoL in Ultima Thule, reframing his millennia
of suffering as her playing a prank on him as an Azem! I always found this odd, but I suppose the
message here is well, first of all, the ancients are crazy as hell, but besides that, I think
the reason Emet-Selch can let go of his hatred towards her is because of this line: In other words, he commends her due to her
solution being correct in the end. He may, and does fundamentally disagree with this
path, but he sees the merit and recognizes her love for the star being equal to his.
On the other hand, Venat most likely didn't hold a grudge on Emet despite being the architect
behind the calamities, since she's able to recognize that she was the one to put him
in that position, both due to the sundering as well as allowing him to escape the effects
of it. I also want to point out that neither of them really have a moral high ground which
to judge the other on. She judged the ancients' right to exist due to what she perceived was
the best path, by looking to the future. On the flip side, he judged the sundered people's
right to exist due to what he perceived was the best path, by looking to the past. Both
of them judged and deemed an entire race to be unfit to exist, to which they both responded
with genocide. One of them judging the other on moral standards would be the pot calling
the kettle black. Moreover, I think in the end, the two were able to sympathize with
each other's plights, despite their ideological differences. They both carried huge burdens
and spent a long time in solitude. In the end, their stories were rather similar, weren't
they? In that sense, I really liked the dichotomy
between these two. I kind of wish they had gotten to interact at least once post-sundering,
but on the other hand, I think the way they did it creates some intrigue about how the
two truly felt about each other, as we never see this exchange actually take place. You may recall in my Emet-Selch video, I pointed
out how mentally strong Emet-Selch was to have been able to go through the sundering
experience, while carrying all that burden. It's the same case for Venat, these were two
individuals who willingly took up an insane burden and carried it for thousands of years,
in complete solitude. The amount of mental fortitude required to survive this experience without your mind completely collapsing is just insane. How, then, was Venat able to
do it, in even worse conditions than Emet-Selch? Well, I believe there are 2 rationales, one
very pragmatic and boring, one a bit less so. The more pragmatic reasoning would simply
be that she's a primal, which could have changed her physiology to the point that she was able
to withstand the mental deterioration that would result from such an extremely traumatic
event, followed by more such traumatic events, and the prolonged state of absolute solitude,
guilt and regret. The more interesting reason and the one likely intended by the writers,
is that she did have one advantage that Emet-Selch and the other 2 unsundered didn't: certainty.
The Ascian plan reeked of desperation, and they were indeed acting out in that desperation
when they went for the rejoinings. With Venat though, she knew for a fact, that if she toughed
it out for thousands of years, that she would eventually encounter the Warrior of Light.
She was then able to cling to that hope, which gave her the energy to persevere. And you
know, when you think about it that way, it really emphasizes our importance, and more
specifically, the type of a special bond that exists between the WoL and Venat. The Warrior of Light-Venat dynamic is interesting
in general. These are two people from two different eras, connected by a rather thin
thread. Yet, there is a level of intimacy there, as they share a kinship that not a
single other soul is aware of. Venat's view of the Warrior of Light is also interesting
in a sense that she acts as a kind of a guiding mentor, but also looks up to them in a certain
way as I had just described. I think this is a huge reason Venat is such a beloved character.
The relationship between her and the player is possibly the most unique out of the entire
game. Whereas Emet-Selch was a villain whom some
people considered to not be a bad guy, Venat was a hero whom some people considered to
not be good. And in both cases it's a cause of the same thing. Emet is designed to be
a villain, but his story was so sympathetic some people didn't see it that way. The inverse
of that is Venat: someone who was designed to be a hero, but whose story was such that
not everyone could sympathise with her choices. In other words, there's a whole lot of grey
in both characters. There's also an important distinction here, as to what we can consider
"success" between each case. With Emet-Selch, this can be seen more as a compliment than
anything, because if a villain is sympathetic enough that people consider them to not even
be villainous, then you've done a good job. Venat is a more technical case, however. She's
meant to be a hero, so when she appears villainous in her actions well, that could be seen more
as failure than the reverse. Personally, I think there are both aspects of success and
failure here, which I'll go more in detail later. Note my wording when I say "some". I chose
this particular wording because I definitely don't think these are the majority of people,
however I also don't believe it's some obscure minority either. These takes can appear anywhere
when it comes to FFXIV discussion. Heck, it even appeared in the comments of my Emet-Selch
video! And when this discussion fires up, there tends to be real support for those takes.
If it was some garbage hot take made up by a select few then it wouldn't garner that
sort of a support, as people would just ignore them. In my Emet-Selch video, I made the counter-argument
to some people's claims of him not being a villain by stating how I view a villain in
a story, I basically pointed out a rather simplistic perspective, which is to simply
look at the narrative itself, rather than the morality and justifiableness of their
actions. Emet is antagonistic both by standing in opposition to the core themes of the story,
but also by literally opposing the protagonists, from whose perspective the story is told.
We can then look at Venat from the same lens: none of her actions over the course of the
game stand in opposition to the party, on the contrary, she is always aiding the protagonist,
sometimes indirectly, sometimes directly. She's also "in the right" thematically, since
the way the story is told, the ancients wanted to remain in the past, while she wanted to
look to the future, which is a sentiment supported by the story. In that sense, you'd be hard
pressed to really make a case for how the narrative, structurally, depicts Venat as
some kind of an evil character. Yep, so that's it! She's a hero, the minion even says it,
end of discussion! Well, not quite, as I think the interesting
part of the discussion is to get into why people feel that way towards Venat. It's also
worth noting that it feels like these sentiments were way fewer when the expansion came out,
and have become more prominent as of recent. This makes a lot of sense, since after the
emotional high of Endwalker, people have been able to reflect more on the story.
Heated discourse surrounding Venat is usually sparked by people not agreeing with the choice
she made and them feeling that the game forced them to appreciate said choice. The choice
I am referring to, is of course the choice to sunder the world. Now, I want to begin
by saying that I think conceptually/thematically it was an excellent idea. In Shadowbringers
the conflict between Zodiark and Hydaelyn is presented as: one group is stuck in the
past and refuses to move on, while the other group didn't want to be stuck in the past
and instead wanted to look to the future. This is kind of the crux of Emet's character
in ShB too, so it makes sense the ancients as a whole are represented that way. So in
Endwalker, when we got the opportunity to explore this conflict more, it seemed pre
solid, as we would get Venat's perspective, and how she came to choose that the only course
of action was to shatter the world. In addition to the whole past vs future thing, there was
also this question of perfection leading to apathy and apathy leading to death, versus
accepting that suffering always exists, and is a prerequisite to both happiness and life.
So when I put it like that, a character who fought for the future and to preserve life
should be viewed as a pretty heroic figure within the story, right? And so it is for
most people, yet this sentiment isn't shared by everyone. So, I looked into it and spent
some time reading these Venat critiques and I've managed to boil it down to 3 reasons
why people may have disliked Venat's portrayal in the story. Mind you, it could also be a
combination of any or all 3 of these things. So here they are: So we'll start off with the first point: was
she justified? Obviously this is very heavily based on opinion, so there isn't a definitive
answer. But we can at least discuss it a bit. Conveniently there is a story that explores
this very subject that we can examine: the optional Omega quest in 6.15, which has been
described as somewhat of an epilogue to the 6.0 story. At the end of this storyline, Omega visits
the Watcher in Mare Lamentorum to better understand the Final Days and how the ancients dealt
with it. The WoL then explains the full story of Emet-Selch, Hermes and Venat as they saw
it unfold. Omega then directly attacks the WoL's fond view of Venat, and likewise gives
perspective to the other 2 ancients. You then get to express which of the 3 ancients, if
any, or all were justified in doing what they did. I myself went with the option of none of them
being justified. The reason I didn't feel that Venat was justified
is this: she considered herself to have the right to shatter the known world, exterminating
an entire race in the process and basically giving up before even trying to change their
fate. And honestly, you could say this was the case for all 3 of them. All of them wanted
to play god, all of them willing to sacrifice everything to achieve their goals, all of
them made a decision on behalf of an entire race. When I was discussing this topic with
my friend, he had a really funny and solid conclusion about the ancients: "maybe sacrificing
everything simply isn't the way." So the common thread here really is that the ancients are
simply built different. It seems to be that when an ancient is distressed, they are very
prone to black and white thinking. They are also extremely entitled and arrogant to a
fault. Now, combine this with the fact that they are very powerful beings and well, notice
how a small group was able to summon Hydaelyn and cause the extermination of their entire
race? This kind of power is quite simply insane, it's like if one guy in our world had the
power to nuke the whole world, and no MAD to ensure it doesn't happen. And this sentiment is echoed by the writers
themselves, where they wanted to precisely convey this idea of how the ancients were
completely different from us normal people. It makes sense for us to judge them so, because
it's hard for us to justify someone making such drastic decisions for all of mankind.
Hence why I went with the none are justified option. But do you think she was justified,
or any of them? Lmk what you picked and your reasoning, I d be happy to hear it! Moving on to the 2nd reason some didn't vibe
with Venat's story: for some, it simply comes down to the execution behind Venat's decision
to sunder the world, despite it sounding wonderful on a thematic level. Those pesky details that
ruin every writers story! And I can think of at least 3 things: Time travel. This is already problematic because
I know quite a few people who immediately get turned off by time travel being used to
explain anything within any story, so as a trope it's already not desirable I would say,
especially when it's combined with another hated trope that I'll mention in just a bit.
Not to mention that FFXIV is an instance of using multiple time travel theories within
the same story, which further causes confusion. Anyway, because Endwalker is a causal loop,
it already creates a conflict with Venat's motives. Those who watched my Emet-Selch video
may recall the discussion I had surrounding his supposed tempering by Zodiark, and how
I'm not really a fan of leaning too heavily into that, given it removes agency from his
character. It's more or less the same thing here. If we suppose that Venat went along
with the plan for no other reason than "the WoL told me that's how it went down so I followed
the loop", then that's not particularly interesting, as it makes for a boring excuse for her decision
and removes all free will from her actions. Now, I don't think the devs intended you to
think that way, nor do I think most people do, heck even I myself don't lean too heavily
into this mindset, but it's still worth noting as a factor that could put some people off,
and it exists purely as a result of them deciding to use time travel to resolve this conflict.
Amnesia. This is the other hated trope I referred to just now, which was used in conjunction
with time travel to set up this conflict. Once again, ignoring that there will be people
that are immediately put off by amnesia within a plot to resolve something huge, especially
when combo'd with time travel, it additionally creates issues with Venat's character. Namely,
their decision to make Venat the only person who was aware of the cause of the Final Days,
and creating this rather silly arbitrary restriction where Venat cannot go to the convocation because
"Hermes might go craycray", which some people saw as a clumsy excuse. Keep this part in
mind because I'll follow up on it later. Because dynamis was added so late
into the overall FFXIV story, it naturally raises a lot of questions, as it s deliberately
set up as a very mysterious type of force we don t know much about. The devs have said
that dynamis wasn t a concept when ShB released, when the outline for EW would have been written,
which makes sense because it s not alluded to at all in any of the Shadowbringers patch
content. This particular comment by Yoshida has led me to a theory. Because I have a peanut
brain, the only way I could make sense of this whole dynamis situation, was to put on
my tinfoil hat and create some wacky crackpot theory about the game s development. My theory
basically goes that the reason dynamis wasn't originally part of the script, was because
of Venat. That originally Venat sundered the world simply due to ideological differences,
the ones that we see in the game. But then they realized "oh yeah, she looks kinda evil rn" so they cooked up dynamis for a more concrete justification for the
sundering, in addition to the ideological differences between the ancients and Venat.
Mind you, this is just a silly theory with no evidence, don't put too much weight on
it. But theory or no, the whole dynamis justification felt off for some people, because it simply
raises a lot of questions. So, those 3 elements I think contribute to
why some people felt off about Venat's character. I think the degree to which this stuff bothers
you really depends on a) how much you dislike these tropes, b) how used you are to seeing
them and c) how much do you care about the details of the plot vs the overall thematic
significance and emotions behind the characters. Personally, it didn't bother me as much as
I make it sound through this analysis, because I saw the overall point and I didn't get too
hung up on the details. But I reckon I might end up being more critical once I NG+ and
do my analysis of Endwalker, who knows. Now, neither of the previous points in and
of themselves would be enough to make people dislike Venat, I think. But it's this next
point that basically turns those matters into actual issues. Which is the feeling that the
story portrayed Venat as a hero of sorts, when some didn t feel that way about her,
creating a disconnect between the players own thoughts and how their character reacted.
One thing I noticed when I went back to look at the dialogue choices: when you meet Hydaelyn
in the present, after Aitiascope, there is no option reacting to her negatively, only
positively. On the flip side, during your first encounter
with her, when she appears as an avatar on the ship at the very start of the game, the
only dialogue options are negative. This to me seems like kind of a strange design choice.
Its like you are forced (you as the WoL) to look at it only the one way. What if someone
believed in Hydaelyn despite Shadowbringers and thought only positively of her? What if
that same person then changed their mind after Elpis and viewed her negatively? What a jarring
experience that would make. This probably goes a long way in explaining why people felt
that way, that the game "tried so hard to portray her in a positive light", because
you aren't really given an option to combat that.
Most likely the devs thought that, after Elpis and seeing her perspective, combined with
Y'shtola's explanation that the sundering "was necessary so we can use dynamis", plus
the thematic significance I spoke of earlier, vast majority of players were in agreement
with Venat's choice so there was no need to have an apprehensive dialogue option anymore.
It could have simply been a miscalculation on their part, to put it plain & simple. Keep
in mind that if FFXIV was a JRPG with a main character whose story we follow, say we were
playing as Cloud Strife, then this wouldn't be such an issue, because we would merely
be spectating the main character. But since in XIV we are meant to represent the protagonist,
obviously one of the worst things that can happen is your character saying something
you don't feel like you'd say. That's pretty much an immediate disconnect. Something interesting they could have done
is take a note out of classic FF titles. I don't know if they have the capability to
do this so maybe its a bit ambitious, but do you recall how in some older FF titles,
you would have these hidden counters? Like in FFVII, the dialogue options you give to
characters determining who you'll get the date with in gold saucer, that kind of stuff.
They could have done something like that with Venat, where if you give negative/positive
options, the counter would increase in one way or the other. And if you had a negative
view on her, the trial would be framed slightly differently: instead of a test of your faith/determination,
it would be more like an actual confrontation of Hydaelyn. The cutscene following the trial
would also slightly change, but the outcome is the exact same. So it's the same thing,
just changes in semantics. And yes, that would also include the dialogue of the Scions, to
also be more confrontational. If the counter was positive, well then it would just be the
same shit as in the game proper. An alternative and simpler fix, that wouldn't
require any new system, is to go with the tried and true method of giving a positive,
neutral and negative response. I gushed in my Zenos fight video about how effective this
was, so it strikes me as strange that they didn't utilize the same opportunity here.
The negative option would express you being unable to condone her actions, something to
that effect. The neutral response would have you approaching the fight with a mentality
of: "I don't want to fight you, but i also don't agree with what you've done. Show me
how to reach Meteion", in which case she'll still go through with the whole "no, not until
you prove yourself to me." I also want to add that, in an interview,
Natsuko Ishikawa had said that when she wrote Hermes, she expected 80% of ppl to hate him
and 20% to like him. I'm wondering if Venat was written with the same expectation, just
the other way around. If this is true, I d say it s fairly accurate, as the Venat like
to dislike does seem to be about 80/20. But also, if we suppose this is true, then
why not account for those 20% of people? As it's kind of strange thinking back to how
there were only 2 dialogue options before and after the fight. Surely it wouldn't have
been too much hassle to slam in a 3rd option? The most logical thing I can think of is that
they simply didn't want to write dialogue for Hydaelyn, that were responses to these
confrontational/negative dialogue choices. However! If you were someone who was annoyed
at this lack of ability to express your character's view on the matter, the aforementioned Omega
quests do provide a fix of sorts, where the devs finally gave the players the opportunity
to have their WoL express their view on Venat, as well as on Hermes and Emet-Selch! It's
funny, actually, because this storyline feels like a genuine fix to basically all the critique
I have just been talking about. Yes, it's optional, but I also understand
why it's optional, not only because it requires the completion of the Omega raid, because
of course Ishikawa wanted to continue that storyline, but also because it does fit a
lot better as kind of a cherry on top. If I had to really critique it for one thing,
I wish it was available right at launch, instead of having to wait half a year for it. But
oh well. I really appreciated this Omega questline
because it allowed me to reflect on these characters and made me realize that, even
though I can't justify their decisions from a morals point of view, I nonetheless like
them as characters in the story, because I nevertheless found value and interest in examining
their flawed decision making, as guided by their questionable moral compasses. In other
words, we don t necessarily have to agree with a character to still find them entertaining. I want to dedicate an entire segment to the
lv87 scene "Thou Must Live, Die, And Know", otherwise known as the sundering scene, because
I've thought about this scene quite a lot for the past year that Endwalker has been
out and I really wanna share some of those thoughts, even if I can already tell that
some people will recoil at the thought of criticising this scene!
Now, the most recognizable aspect of this scene is
how this sequence is purely symbolic. You are basically witnessing a memory of the events
that played out, thus it's rather condensed and not necessarily very coherent, as far
as, you kno, representing how these events actually went down. And that's the first thing
that I disagree with. I fundamentally don't agree with the design choice to make the cutscene
like that. I would rather have had them play out the events as they actually happened. Seeing the convocation reacting to the Final
Days, them discussing possibilities and coming to the decision of summoning Zodiark, which
was most likely suggested by Fandaniel as he was the one knowledgable of the celestial
currents. Here, us as the viewer, could feel the irony in him being the one to come to
a solution to a problem he himself created. We might see Elidibus being eager to prove
himself by offering to being the heart of Zodiark, basically giving some representation
of that one Shadowbringers side story in the actual game. You could additionally have a
quick scene mentioning Azem leaving the convocation due to disagreeing with the Zodiark plan.
We would still keep the heart-wrenching scene of Hythlodaeus offering to sacrifice himself
to Zodiark, only I think it would be even more powerful here, as we could actually have
a brief exchange of dialogue between him and Emet-Selch. Then we see Zodiark summoned, in his full
form, and we see the Final Days averted, but at a cost now the land has been poisoned.
Winds die, the seas rage, the earth decays so the convocation proposes another sacrifice,
requiring yet again half of the population. However, this time there is opposition to
this idea. We see Venat and her faction form. They try to argue with people, and this scene
goes largely the same as in the cutscene in the game. Venat and her faction argues with
them, as they don't want to sacrifice and wish to instead move on. But people reject
their thoughts and want to offer more to Zodiark regardless. So another sacrifice is made. Venat is absolutely appalled at this, just
like in the game. This is where we see Venat's resolve, and it would be basically as powerful
as in the game. Then, when the 3rd sacrificing is announced, where they'd sacrifice the lesser
life forms to bring back those they've lost, Venat's response is basically "No more" as
she realizes talking won't help anymore, they must take more drastic action if the sacrifices
are to be stopped. This is where she accepts that to sunder the world is the only way.
She and her faction march to the capitol, Amaurot, and confront the convocation. The
debate gets really heated on both sides. Elidibus leaves Zodiark to act out his role as the
emissary and help solve this heated conflict between the two factions. Venat realizes there
can be no resolution with words, and pulls out her sword. We see a man standing in front
of the convocation. Lahabrea. He says: "You would destroy it? Our beautiful world? Venat
you're making a grave mistake." and she basically says her lines from the cutscene as a response: But she stops at that last line. She doesn't
say THE LINE yet. Venat's faction then perform the summoning on the spot, as they offer their
lives to fuel this primal. The convocation looks in horror as the primal takes shape. Then we see Venat transform into Hydaelyn,
as Answers fully fires up. Once Zodiark realizes Her intention to sunder the world, He sees
Her as a threat and it would seem conflict is all but inevitable. We see Zodiark towering
above Hydaelyn, He is absolutely enormous. This is the most powerful god the world has
ever seen, at His full might. Hydaelyn is nonetheless resolved and engages Zodiark.
I would imagine this fight would play out similar to Thanos vs Hulk in Infinity War.
Zodiark is extremely powerful, but because He doesn't have Elidibus piloting Him, He
isn't as skilled which gives Hydaelyn an edge, as she is the complete contrast, a very skilled
warrior. Similar to Her trial fight, She takes full advantage of all 3 of Her combat styles,
as She struggles against Zodiark's onslaught. But make no mistake, She is still extremely
lethal, as is He. Once again, bear in mind, this is the two are their FULL POWER. The
two fight ferociously, heavens fall and the ground beneath them trembles, it's akin to
the end of the world. It's clear this isn't just some cute lil skirmish. For all intents
and purposes, it's a battle the likes of which you have never seen before. I mean for god
sakes, it's the two eldest and most powerful of primals duking it out! Consider some final
bosses from this franchise: you got beings that break the laws of the universe, destroys
entire solar systems, create big bangs, all sorts of crazy shit like that. Yeah, this
battle would be something like that. Ridiculous, yet epic to an insane degree. Yet, we all know how this ends. It's apparent
that Hydaelyn could never fully defeat Zodiark. She does spot an opening however, and charges
up for her ultimate attack, the power to sunder worlds. She concentrates Her mind on this
attack that would shatter Her adversary into 14 pieces, and the world with it. In that
split second, all the ramifications of what She is about to do enter Her mind, but She
nevertheless proceeds with a fiery resolve. As this is happening, She delivers the line:
"No more shall man have wings to bear him to Paradise. Henceforth, he shall walk!",
the second part being delivered in perfect sync with the Hydaelyn kick that delivers
the final blow on Zodiark. The world is split and I would play the last part,
Venat's walk, the exact same as we saw in the game, cos that cutscene is immaculate
as it is! Oh, I would also feature a very brief, like 10 second explanation, on how
Emet-Selch and Lahabrea survived the sundering, instead of answering it in a bloody Q&A... Well, there you have it, I guess this was
basically my fanfic of how I'd have pictured the Final Days going down. But I have made
this part with an actual point, which is that I hope by demonstrating it, you understand
the value I see in the events being played out as they actually happened, versus the
symbolic version we got in the game. The idea behind this cutscene was obviously to have
it be focused solely on Venat. But I personally disagree with that choice. Yes, you can have
the emphasis be on Venat, have this be very much from her pov, but it shouldn't have come
at the expense of everything else. What expense am I referring to? Well, besides this version
offering a lot more characterization from all the ancients involved, which is why I
included those parts with Fandaniel, Hythlo, Emet, Elidibus and Lahabrea in them, as well
as giving a more coherent explanation on the true sequence of events, oh and actually explaining
wtf happened to allow the boys to go on unsundered, I have 2 main gripes with this cutscene. Those
2 gripes are as follows: #1: The way the scene portrays Venat as doing
all of this alone. I actually think this is a disservice to Venat's character. Her followers
chose to make the ultimate sacrifice for something they believed in, while also believing in
her. And keep in mind: we find out that they didn't just die, they mega-super-omega died!
What I mean is that unlike those who sacrificed themselves to Zodiark, like Hythlodaeus, they
didn't get to keep their soul and be reborn. And as I spoke in my Y'shtola video, in a
world where rebirth isn't just a theory or a religious thing but rather something absolute,
taking that away from someone is probably the most terrifying thing. These people were
willing to go that far! Plus, they didn't even know the full extent of Venat's plans,
they were about as much in the dark as everyone else. All of this is to say, the people in
this faction got quite a raw deal to put it mildly, but chose to go with it nonetheless
because they genuinely believed in her. Yet, in the scene that plays out in the game, these
people don't exist, it's all about Venat. Me me me. I don't think this was intentional
at all, mind you, but in my eyes, it devalues Venat's character slightly, because it makes
her seem like kind of a c***, as if the sacrifices made by those people didn't matter and that
it was all about her. #2: The fact that we never got to see a fight
between Zodiark and Hydaelyn. The decision to leave this out altogether absolutely puzzles
me. Listen to the way Emet-Selch describes this encounter
in Shadowbringers: Does this not sound like a battle of truly
epic proportions? And if Heavensward taught us anything, it's that our perception is different
from those who don't age, such as the dragons or the ancients. When he emphasizes three
times how they fought, I get the idea this wasn't some brawl that was over in 5 minutes,
rather a prolonged encounter that may have spanned days, weeks, years, maybe even decades!
But that is just speculation. But I just cannot comprehend how they had the perfect opportunity
to display this encounter, thanks to the way the story unfolded in Endwalker, and never
took it. This could have easily been the coolest cinematic in the entire game. And something
I wanted to emphasize in my imagined version of the fight, you could have still kept all
the same powerful emotional impact that the actual scene in the game had, if not even
more powerful potentially. Another reason it baffles me is due to the apparent dedication
to show summon battles in FFXVI. I gushed about this in my summons video, basically
I'm really glad they are doing it, because for me, these epic encounters between summons
or other major entities, are a huge component I love in Final Fantasy titles. So how is
it possible that they didn't go for it, when they had the opportunity to make among the
best ones yet? Now, I know what some people might interject
with: "It's just eye candy, who cares, what matters is good writing and that the scene
is emotional!". I do think it's important to have good writing as the foundation. Just
look at a lot of the modern movies. They have huge budgets and a lot of talented artists
who can create immaculate CGI work, but the writing sucks ass, so it's akin to trying
to polish a turd, it just doesn't work. However, when you have a solid foundation, then having
eye candy is basically a cherry on top. When you saw the Bahamut cinematic for ARR, or
the Shinryu vs Omega fight in 3.5, or any number of cool moments while fighting primals,
you can't tell me those didn't add to your enjoyment, despite them being basically just
eye candy. They served the plot, and delivered amazing visuals on top. It's a winwin. Or
to use another example: the Seat of Sacrifice encounter. Elidibus is doing so much cool
shit in that fight, yet it also hits hard emotionally, doesn't it? That's basically
what i think could have happened with this Zodiark/Hydaelyn fight. Not style over substance,
but rather style accompanied with substance! I say them not including this fight puzzles
me, but I do have an idea that rationalizes the decision in my head, though this is once
again pure speculation about the development behind Endwalker. See, one might easily assume
that the choice to make this cutscene symbolic instead of a real retelling is a purely artistic
one. And that could very well be. I myself choose to believe however, it was a deliberate
choice made due to a lack of time and resources. In an interview, lead scenario writer Natsuko
Ishikawa had mentioned that there were originally meant to be 2 distinct expansions. One that
heavily featured Garlemald, and would have ended with Anima, and one featuring the Zodiark/Hydaelyn
story. In other words, a decision similar to Stormblood was made, to condense two topics
into one expansion. There are certain ways that this decision is quite apparent, as I'll
no doubt go more in detail in my Endwalker analysis, but for the purposes of today's
topic, I think one part that may have taken a hit was precisely this whole sundering scene.
A real retelling of the events would have required a lot of work, not to mention a whole
encounter between Zodiark and Hydaelyn. It stands to reason that they had to axe things
to roll out such an ambitious expansion within 2 years, whose development was partly affected
by a pandemic as well, and I could easily see this being one of the things being on
the chopping block. I admit I have no real evidence for this, it's really just a gut
feeling based on analyzing that sundering cutscene. When you actually look at the scene,
you can see how efficient it is with its assets, such as everything happening in the Amaurot
dungeon or the re-used animations. Mind you, I'm not trying to downplay the efforts of
the development team, I am sure they still poured a lot of love into this scene, but
there's just this feeling I have it was made with some constraints I want to end this segment by emphasizing
that despite these complaints, I still absolutely loved this scene, and if my theory holds any
water, then that makes it all the more impressive that it managed to convey such strong emotion.
It's still one of the top scenes without a doubt, so please don't mistake this criticism
as me pretending it's a trashy scene or anything like that. Rather, the reason for this segment
is simply me feeling that this scene had a ton of lost potential in my eyes, and I think
it's a damn shame. And it may sound like I'm extra harsh, but it's mainly because this
is such an important scene, I mean it's literally the single most important event in-setting,
so it's natural for someone to hold it to a higher standard than, I dunno, a scene where
G'raha is enjoying a burger. Alright, now let's get to talking about the
real shit: the Hydaelyn fight!! Honestly, feels like this video was just an excuse for
me to gush about this encounter. You know, after the Seat of Sacrifice in Shadowbringers,
I was really eager to see how they could top that fight, since for me, that was something
I had never seen before from an MSQ boss fight. And out of the 3 fights we got in Endwalker,
I personally found that the Hydaelyn fight managed to top it! That's why I want to dedicate
an entire segment to talking about the fight. So first of all, I just want to say that conceptually,
I love the fact that we fight both Zodiark and Hydaelyn in this expansion. For a story
that took so many twists and turns, it's kind of funny to me that the one thing that was
easily predictable, did happen. In the famitsu Endwalker interview, the devs confirmed this
and said yeah, that was very much intentional. They wanted to make parts like this to be
more predictable, to balance out the plethora of unexpected developments that happened along
the way. As some of you may have gathered from some of my videos, I'm not a huge fan
of how many writers today go for the whole idea of oh we gotta subvert their expectations
no matter what, so they pull some garbage twists that make no sense. As such, I really
appreciate situations like these where the writers can take a step back and realize "oh
yeah, sometimes it's good to go for the more logical and predictable". I also think that
the way you encounter Hydaelyn makes for a nice contrast to Zodiark. When you fight Zodiark,
you are shocked. "We are fighting this guy now!?" But with Hydaelyn it's more like you
see it coming, you accept it. Now, another thing I want to comment on is
simply her appearance. Originally it was intended that Hydaelyn's face closely resembles Venat,
but the devs were like "I mean Zodiark doesn't look too much like Elidibus either" and they
instead wanted to make her appear closer to Yoshitaka Amano's concept art. According to
Mr Yoshida, it took about one month of adjustments to finalise Hydaelyn's model based on Mr Amano's
art. That is some serious dedication! And it definitely shows in the final product.
They nailed her in-game model perfectly from the ARR cover art! I just love how the Warrior
of Light, Hydaelyn and the Endsinger are all such amazing depictions of the Amano art style
put into the game, you can really tell the developers worked their ass off to replicate
the work of an artist they deeply admire, I love it! Now, let's talk about the fact that you can
do this fight with Trusts, which is probably the biggest thing that impressed me with this
fight. I mean damn, just recalling the first time I did this, and then I hear all the characters
making their speeches. I was like "ey this is pre typical JRPG stuff, characters reflecting
on how far they've come, how resolved they are blablabla just before the final boss"
then stopped to think, "but hold on, isn't this usually the part in which they are supposed
to give us an excuse as to why they cannot participate?" then when the game said you
can enter with Trust I was mindblown! At one point, Mr Yoshida was asked if they
will do more trials/8man fights that can be done with trusts. His response was basically
that doing this fight was very brutal, which is why the other trials werent usable with
trusts. Apparently a full on boss fight is way harder to program the AI to work than
a simple dungeon, which is why they aren't doing it, as it would require lots and lots
of effort. Yet, they chose to do it anyway, for this one trial. Now let's be real here.
They didn't have to do this. They could've just made this like any other trial and call
it a day. But the devs chose to go the extra mile just because they felt this fight was
special. This is the kind of magic in game development that I just adore! When you have
passionate people working on a project who choose to really go above and beyond to deliver
something that they truly put their heart and soul into! I can imagine the conversation
went something like: "Can we implement trusts into this fight?"
"Ehhhh, I dunno, we never done it before and it would take a ton of trial and error."
Then someone steps in and goes: "Yeah but we are having the characters fight Hydaelyn
to test their resolve. This one deserves to have a complete experience with the Scions!" Then everyone goes "hell yeah" followed by
them probably sleeping in the office the next couple of weeks!! But no, when I think of
a fight that needed trusts, I can't think of a better choice than the Hydaelyn fight.
It could have been so easy for them to only focus on the journey of the Warrior of Light.
How you needed mommy's protection to stand a chance against the Atma Weapon and Lahabrea,
to then defeating powerful opponents like Thordan, Shinryu, Emet-Selch and Zodiark,
3 of them basically on your own. But it's important to acknowledge the journey of the
rest of the main cast. Alphinaud, Alisaie, Y'shtola, Thancred, Urianger, Estinien, G'raha
Tia. You've spent such a long time bonding with these characters, watched them grow and
overcome their own trials, their own sorrow and despair. That is why Hydaelyn speaks about
each and every one of them and their triumphs. It's to emphasize that point that just as
you have the faith to overcome despair itself, so do they. As they've been through so much
shit and you've watched them come out on top. And just as you've taken on more powerful
opponents, so have they. Remember that these guys were struggling to fight the Garleans
at first and they always had to back out of any meaningful conflict while you go deal
with it. They went from that to holding their own against powerful sin eaters, lightwardens,
Emet's recreation of the Final Days, souped up transformed Telephoroi troops, a slew of
lunar primals including Lunar Bahamut, to defeating Anima and fending off all its thralls,
to then fighting the actual terminus beasts of the Final Days and now they are squaring
off with Hydaelyn herself. You could pre much say that all of Shadowbringers and Endwalker
leading up to this point has been that anime training arc for the Scions. So this point is essentially the culmination
of all the struggles they have went through. Both their personal conflicts as well as them
becoming stronger in pure combat capability. And that is exactly why, if there had to be
only one fight that could be done with Trusts out of the entire FFXIV story, this had to
be it. Some could intervene and ask what about the final boss? Since it's the final obstacle
to overcome, wouldn't that have been more fitting? The way I personally see it is that
the real payoff for all they have been through IMO happens in the Hydaelyn trial. And that
Ultima Thule and the Endsinger fight were more just a cherry on top for the party. Like
a formality, if that makes sense. And that rather, it felt more like a personal conflict
for you, the WoL. After all, you personally deal with both Meteion and Zenos at the end.
So no, it's not out of place for the penultimate boss to deserve special treatment compared
to the final one. As for the implementation of the trusts in
this fight it's just phenomenal, what else can I say. Let's start off with how the fight
demonstrates the personality of each character. They deliberately changed some of the AI around
to reflect how these characters think and behave, and they put in so many moments to
allow these characters to shine in their own way! Estinien starts out the fight very aggressive
and greeds a lot, though calms down and plays it safer as the fight progresses. Y'shtola
is the only character to not get hit by something you can dodge, because of her aethersight
and she went into the fight most careful. Thancred will actually let you tank Hydaelyn,
and will focus instead on mitigation. Urianger looks like an absolute chad when he's using
collective unconscious during the ultimate. Alisaie gets her opportunity to fire an LB3
in the fight and has a badass voiced line to go with it. During the adds phase, Alphinaud
is the only character who actually gives a response to Hydaelyn's call, while the rest
focus on the situation. And G'raha Tia will call out the player by their name at the end,
encouraging them to go on. And then we have the dialogue. Oh my gosh, there's so much
dialogue it's insane! And the dialogue isn't just the characters reacting to what's going
on, but they also help each other deal with the mechanics and are encouraging each other.
The true camraderie that exists between them really shows through their comments! I mean,
this all of this, is what we love about video games, right? When developers take full advantage
of the ability to interactively tell a story. This kind of stuff, where it isn't just a
cutscene but rather very organic characterization, is simply awesome, there's no other way to
describe it. Love it! Alright, let's talk about the fight itself,
cos I want to mention a few points. First off, her opening line is sick! "I, the last of my kind, shall test thee." I'm so glad they put in this line. On one hand, it's an acknowledgment by the developers that the story of the ancients is about to draw to
a close. On the other, it's such a fitting line from Hydaelyn. And for the player, the
WoL, it places great emphasis on the fact that yes, she really is the last ancient.
If you go through with this and kill her, that will be the end of their race. It's almost
like the final opportunity to back down. But of course you are resolved to go through with
it, even if it comes at such a great cost. Although it's funny to consider that the WoL
essentially finished off 2 entire civilizations, the ancients and the Omicrons, by defeating
Hydaelyn and Omega respectively. In addition to trusts, there's another unique
mechanic to this fight, and it pairs with the Trust system quite nicely. If you die,
you can get revived x amount of times, which goes up every time you wipe. See, as I had
just explained, one thing they wanted to achieve with this encounter is to show how capable
your party members are. That they aren't just getting carried by the overpowered Warrior
of the Light in all things. But doing the fight this way presents a challenge: if the
trusts can do the mechanics, what about players who do it first time and might get hit a lot?
Then they die and it does indeed make the Scions look really capable in contrast, to
the point that they appear better than the WoL, which obviously doesn't make narrative
sense. It's like, then why am I even here? So their solution to this was to introduce
this mechanic I had just described, where the player can get knocked out and still come
back, through what is essentially sheer power of will. It's so cool and a very interesting
solution to the aforementioned problem! Not to mention metal as hell for the Warrior of
Light to basically say "nope" to getting mortally wounded over and over. But what about when she says the thing though?
You kno what I'm talking about, it involves 3 verbs! Alright, let's talk about easily
the most memorable aspect of this fight: A year later and I still think
this was pure genius. Getting the full context of "Hear, Feel, Think" delivered in such a
way in the fight aiaiai, the feels, man, the feels! I also want to mention the significance of
this ultimate. She does the Hydaelyn kick and proclaims you must flee if you cannot
withstand it. This is basically her test of your resolve. This attack is basically the
same sundering move she used on Zodiark all those ages ago. And even though it s obviously
significantly weaker, it s really quite impressive that you managed to withstand it. And not
just you, but everyone else as well. It s at this point she realises you are the real
deal, and the rest of the fight is more just a test of your endurance, stamina and strength. Finally, the visuals. They really pulled all
the stops when it came to this fight, the animation work is so smooth! And the arena
background is stellar. It actually changes quite significantly and a few times, depending
on what she s doing. Now, dynamic backgrounds have been in the game for a while, but never
to this extent. It s such good eye candy! Oh and as a side note I love a quote she has
in EX. If you reach her enrage, she'll say: Which I found kind of a terrifying thought.
Like imagine if this was a game with multiple endings and this was one bad ending, where
you can't prove yourself and have to flee. Damn. All in all, the reason this one is my fave,
I wanna say really comes down to the insane attention to detail and innovation. You can
definitely tell that the developers truly wanted to make this fight as memorable as
possible, because it shows in every aspect you could look at! More fights like this, please! This then conveniently segues us into Venat's
death scene, aka the point where they play Flow and start printing tears from the players! This may be a bit of a weird way to start
this but I find it worth noting that Venat chose to die. This is an important distinction,
because in the case of, say, Emet-Selch, he fell to us in combat, because both sides were
100% ready to kill the other. However, that was not the case with Venat. She could have
stopped the fight at any point and said "ok yeah you have proven yourselves". In fact,
it's likely she got her answer after the party survived her ultimate. In that sense, she
could have done the same thing she did in the 1-on-1 against the WoL, where after the
ultimate she could have been like "ok yeah that's good enough", or heck, she could have
just stopped halfway, 75% through or whatever. But she chose to go hard till the very end
and burn all of her soul in the process. There are a few ways we can interpret as to why,
all of which I'm inferring from what she says after the fight: She felt like it wasn't a true trial unless
she tried her absolute hardest and went all the way. She does mention after the fight
that it was a true test of your strength: She probably did genuinely want for you to
outdo her, as she says afterwards that you have surpassed her expectations, and her as
well: She most likely enjoyed the fight. I mean listen
to her after the fight: Even some of the lines she has during the
fight suggest she's really getting into this. And no wonder. Remember that she's Azem. And
she's AFK'd for thousands of years waiting for this brawl! Man, I keep telling you, these
ancients are fking nuts! No other way to get dopamine so she has to wait over 10k years
to have a fight to the death with her biggest fan to feel something. Now, that was discussing it from an in-setting,
in-character point of view. But from a writing point of view, her death was more or less
guaranteed. On one hand, I'd like to applaud them for actually killing a character off
for once, but this was such an obvious one to do, almost a low hanging fruit, so I'm
not sure how much I'm willing to praise them here.
Nevertheless, her death was still really well executed. For one, I didn't expect them to
go that ham into it by giving her an actual permadeath. As I've stated earlier, in FFXIV's
setting, the worst consequence you could give to a character isn't actually death. Rather,
there's still a tier below that, which is when someone dies, with no chance of rebirth.
Venat's death here was such a case. They even straight up said in a Q&A just to make sure
there is no misunderstanding or wiggle room: she is dead, soul and all. Damn. But I do agree with their choice. Ultimately,
Venat was such a grey character, it does make sense to give her such a harsh punishment.
Though all the ancients had a tragic story, she may have had the worst ending from a purely
logical perspective. Actually, there is one character that could contest it, who I would
say had a more raw deal to boot, but that'll be the topic of another day. What I like about her death as well is how
its thematic to how she originally didnt want to return to the star because she felt she
could still help people. But now she felt like she had truly fulfilled her purpose so
she dies happily - in a sense, she honored that particular tradition of the ancients
and made that whole thing come full circle. It's just satisfying seeing a character work
towards such a huge life's goal and after a long struggle, finally achieving it and
then the elation as a result! In general though, her death scene does hit
pretty hard, regardless if you saw it coming. They basically waited the whole expansion
to play Flow for this moment, and it works so well. Apparently Naoki Yoshida had to cry
over and over as he was checking the scene. Poor guy! I was already a wreck after having
to rewatch it once for this analysis! Last point I want to mention are the 2 dialogue
options at the end. Though I expressed earlier that there could have been more variety in
general with Hydaelyn's dialogue options, I actually thought this last choice was perfect.
For those of you who watched my Zenos video, you know I love gushing about dialogue choices,
so let's do this! There's basically 2 things going on here.
The way you bid her farewell, as well as how you choose to address her, both change in
these 2 choices. I'll start with the way you address her. You can either call her Hydaelyn,
or Venat. I think it's quite natural to go for calling her Venat, as it's much more personal,
as only you know her by that name while for everyone else she's Hydaelyn. And I'm pretty
sure that this was by far the most picked dialogue choice. But I think calling her Hydaelyn
has its merits too. Referring to her as Hydaelyn could be considered a much more respectful
approach, if that makes sense. Hydaelyn represents those ideals she wants you to carry on now,
so by specifically calling her Hydaelyn, you appeal to those ideals. And because Hydaelyn
is what she's become, and has been for the last few eons, you are commending her for
her job as the will of the star. In a sense, it's like the difference between calling someone
by their name vs their title. Call them by their name and it's a lot more personal, or
call them by their title and you show respect to their position and their achievements.
And if you recall how referring to people by their titles is ancient custom. Since Hydaelyn
could be considered her new title, if you choose to call her that, you are honoring
that ancient tradition. Or if you choose to call her Venat, then you are eschewing that
custom, which is also fitting since obviously Venat was very different in many respects
from the ancient norm at the time. The other difference is well, what you actually
say. In the first option, you show your gratitude. In the second, you give her assurance, and
it's also a nice callback to one of your exchanges in Elpis: Which additionally reaffirms to her that you remembered. I think here as well, it's really a matter of taste. Do you want to thank her for all her sacrifices or show her your conviction? You could also argue
that one way or the other, both sentiments are implied either way. There's a minor difference in her own reaction
as well. She has this cry of happiness in both scenarios, though when you call her Venat,
she's clearly a lot more emotional, which makes sense as that option is a lot more personal
as I had just described. And so, that marks the end of Venat's story.
But with her approval to go after Meteion and her spirit to guide you along, you feel
like you can take on anything and press on! She may have been the last ancient to live,
meaning their story is now truly over, but through you, they live ever long. So may you
ever walk in the light and remember, that they once lived. Since you all seemed to like the symbolism
segment in the Emet video, I figured I'd do it again here, as there's a fair bit to share
regarding Venat. You could consider this chapter as kind of a cherry on top of the video! I'm
just going to share some tidbits that may not be relevant in the grand scheme of things
but I figured would be worthwhile sharing. So here we go! I would first like to point out the significance
of Hydaelyn being in the cover of both ARR and Endwalker's collector's editions. She's
also the only character present in both the intro as well as the credits sequence of the
whole saga. This signifies her role as kind of an Alpha and Omega, aka an omnipresent
god throughout the whole game. Venat's name has caused a bit of confusion
among people who have tried to make sense of it. Unlike most of the ancients, such as
Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus and so on, Venat's name doesn't follow the convention of naming
them after ancient Greek gods. Some people have speculated that she could be named after
Venus instead, but this isn't true either. The name Venat comes as a reference to Final
Fantasy XII, where you have an ancient that turned their back on their kind. So in my Emet video, I mentioned that each
of the major ancients' eye colours symbolize something. For Venat, the answer is rather
boring but yeah she has blue eyes after the crystal, since she's basically crystal mom.
Yeah, not a huge revelation, I know! Though, beyond that, one could obviously extrapolate
a lot as there are a million interpretations for colours. One interesting link I think
is blue being most commonly tied to the sky or the water. And Venat's theme song, Flow,
is fittingly water themed. I think that bit may have been intentional. Also, blue is often
used to depict wisdom, which is rather fitting for Venat. Venat has 3 weapons which she uses in the
solo instance fight, as a Trust member and of course in the Hydaelyn fight. I personally
think the significance behind these weapons isn't so much the weapon itself, but rather,
to which class it's tied to and what it typically represents. My own interpretation is thus:
The sword, Paladin, represents fortitude. The staff, White Mage, represents faith. And
the chakrams, Dancer, represent inspiration. All combined, this basically symbolizes how
she had the fortitude to remain in solitude, the faith that humanity would surpass her
through the WoL, and inspired humanity and the WoL through hope. Many of you no doubt noted the similarity
between Argos and Minfilia, which is a neat detail. But there's also a few more things
to mention regarding Argos: first, the dog breed itself. Argos is an afghan hound, which
is one of the most ancient dog breeds, which is fitting for someone who is an ancient. And to make up for Venat lacking an ancient
Greek mythology tie-in, we do get it in Argos, who was of course Odysseus' faithful dog! The decision to explore Hydaelyn's call - Hear,
Feel, Think - came from Natsuko Ishikawa herself. She was fascinated by the inclusion of "think"
in there, so when she wrote the MSQ, she wanted players to not only see and hear, but also
think about what they've experiend up till now. In-setting, this line is also interesting,
as it turns out that Hydaelyn actually got the line from Meteion. This reaffirms what
I said earlier about Venat truly paying attention to Meteion's report. Her using those 3 verbs
against Meteion is her basically trying to use her own logic to defeat her. And it worked! There's also many instances of Hear, Feel,
Think throughout the game. We hear it as we fire up the game, it's in the song Answers,
it's heard again in Shadowbringers when Elidibus is awakening people through the star shower,
we then hear the Meteion version in Endwalker, and then later Hydaelyn's full interpretation
during the Hydaelyn fight. The latest one was snuck into the side story that featured
Hydaelyn as Hearken, Feel and Understand. There's also an interesting contrast between
Venat's "Hear, Feel, Think" and Emet-Selch's "Look, learn and remember", which really emphasizes
the difference between these two characters, so I'm pretty sure this was intentional! It's
also cool that if you combine the 2 messages, these 2 ways of thinking, you get something
that is arguably a bit more whole: Hear and look. Feel and remember. Think and
learn. Next, let's nerd about some of the songs associated
with Venat. Answers has always been my favourite song
in the game bar none, and Endwalker did nothing but bolster that position by recontextualizing
it and giving it a second meaning! Additionally, the song is titled "Your Answer", because
just before the fight, Hydaelyn is asking your answer for the question she posed to
you in Elpis. "Has your journey been good? Has it been worthwhile?". What I love about
this is that you never answer her, not in Elpis, nor in here. But you indirectly give
your answer in the fight itself. You fought with a tremendous amount of conviction, faith
and courage. As such, your journey must've been worthwhile for you to strive so. Then we have Flow and Flow Together. I love
the contrast between these two. Flow Together features warm instruments, signifying Venat's
warm, motherly nature. Flow, however, features the piano, one of the coldest instruments
and fittingly plays when Hydaelyn is dying. This is basically her passing her spirit onto
you, so the song has more of a sad tone. Flow does play a second time, in your encounter
with Meteion after defeating the Endsinger, which at first might be a bit odd since this
is supposed to be Hydaelyn's song. But it actually makes sense, because this song plays
when Hydaelyn asks you to teach her a brighter melody. In a sense, this song represents that
brighter melody, so when you meet Meteion again, you are sending Venat's spirit onto
Meteion through this song, just as she asked! In the credits sequence, Venat looks back
on the WoL. Similarly, in the ending art, Venat is in the first group, the ancients,
but likewise looks back towards the second group, the main cast. This symbolizes her
being relieved that she was able to pass the torch to the WoL and the world can go on without
her. She's also the only character who faces forward towards the audience, which further
emphasizes the importance of her role in the story. And please keep this artwork in mind, as I'm
not yet finished! I'll bring it up again in my Hermes video, you can count on that!
Alright, those have been my observation on Venat! Now, since this analysis has been a bit more
mixed between critique, minor though it was, as well as the usual praising or neutral tones,
I want to end the video with this: Whether or not you agree with the character's
choice, view her misrepresented as a hero or whatever, I hope we can all appreciate
the hard work the developers put into her character. Whether that be the dialogue, the
voice direction and voice acting, the multiple high quality songs dedicated to her character. Or the awesome fights, plural, we got with
her, and the extra mile the developers went through to implement features such as Trusts
in that fight. They put in all that effort because they wanted to provide us a story
that is not just entertaining, but truly memorable in it's themes and message. I'm saying this
because it's sometimes all too easy to get carried away when criticising something you
are passionate about, but at the end of the day, it's a game we've all enjoyed. Or at
least i hope so, I don't know why else you would be watching such a long video on one
of its characters! Unless you really like my voice in which case I'm humbled, really
:) Moreover, I plan to talk about the rest of
the ancients, so next up would be Hermes and then Lahabrea and Elidibus after 6.4. But
same as last time, It'll probably be a while, as there's so much to talk about with these
characters, hence creating the video can be a little exhausting. Nonetheless, if you are
into these in-depth analysises, I recommend subscribing so you can be around for when
I drop that video! Have a nice day!
