[SPOILERS not hidden in SPOILERS] 2.55 Before the Fall Part 2

[Kellach Woods]

I wouldn't get your hopes up.

 

Hey if they swap MSQ with Hildi that might happen!

 

Yo, the lighting on Raubahn is boss. Kudos to whoever did that.

 

The part after that?

 

Less so.

 

Hey, Y'shtola actually DID something! Shit, maybe they're actually doing something about how fucking bland she is! ... NOPE SHE BITES IT!

[Oscare]

I, for one, highly appreciated the ending. It actually motivated me to look back on the older patches, and for watching them for the second time, knowing the whole story... it kind of made me appreciate things I would not have otherwise.

 

The most prominent example is Minfilia. I'll get into what I mean by this when I'm not trying to recover from emotional trauma and bulldoze through Kleenex tissue boxes.

 

Anyway. Now that Nanamo is dead, the Sultana wiped out, and the Flame's leader jailed, it leaves me with a couple of questions.

 

What will be the fate of the Immortal Flames?

What will happen to the Sultansworn? The city is practically in shambles now, and the leading figure and highly respected Raubahn are out of the scene... what's to happen to the? 

 

I'm excited. That ending revved me up for a lot of things. The Reconstruction for Ul'dah... the Warrior of Light trekking heavensward with nothing more than the memory of their beloved Scions in nothing but graves... I'm happy to see who will show up next. And the best part: how will this impact RP?

 

Heavensward cannot come sooner.

[Kellach Woods]

Oh, Minfillia.

 

You hardly delayed them.

 

Brennan confirmed Canadian.

 

Pipin now my favorite NPC out of this patch. Alphinaud needs several slaps upside the head. One for every single time he did something stupid.

[Aya]

The Au Ra roll out seems ridiculously anti-climactic.  She's a midlander with horns, not so different than a Padjal.  If she just told us that some Hyur from Doma looked that way no one would have blinked—why the mask?

 

 

Honestly, most of Eorzea's inhabitants are racist as all hell.  This is seen in countless examples throughout the game through Fates, random npc dialogue, and other means.  I'm pretty sure some of the more local people would /not/ have liked the look of Yugiri, or may have tried to kill her by the horns alone. In fact, I'm honestly more surprised Haurchefant wasn't in shock with Yugiri, but he's such a bro in the English dialogue.

A fair point, I suppose, though I've seen far more regional antagonism (i.e. against outsiders generally) than against different races in particular, but I may just not have noticed.  She just looks incredibly human to me.  Just like I didn't realize that the Padjal were non-human until I read that they were.

 

And... it may be time for this fox to go to ground, if things get any more out of hand!

[Unnamed Mercenary]

The Au Ra roll out seems ridiculously anti-climactic.  She's a midlander with horns, not so different than a Padjal.  If she just told us that some Hyur from Doma looked that way no one would have blinked—why the mask?

 

 

Honestly, most of Eorzea's inhabitants are racist as all hell.  This is seen in countless examples throughout the game through Fates, random npc dialogue, and other means.  I'm pretty sure some of the more local people would /not/ have liked the look of Yugiri, or may have tried to kill her by the horns alone.

 

In fact, I'm honestly more surprised Haurchefant wasn't in shock with Yugiri, but he's such a bro in the English dialogue.

A fair point, I suppose, though I've seen far more regional antagonism (i.e. against outsiders generally) than against different races in particular, but I may just not have noticed.  She just looks incredibly human to me.  Just like I didn't realize that the Padjal were non-human until I read that they were.

 

Well....Padjal are a special case. They aren't born that way. They're primarily Hyur (although there's an Elezen one too!) that are selected by the Elementals.

 

On topic though, I didn't really care for Yugiri's reveal. Something about the coloring of her horns felt weird. ...lthey didn't really resemble what we've been shown in other Au Ra scenes, but perhaps that's just a sign of how customizable they are.

[Kellach Woods]

On topic though, I didn't really care for Yugiri's reveal. Something about the coloring of her horns felt weird. ...lthey didn't really resemble what we've been shown in other Au Ra scenes, but perhaps that's just a sign of how customizable they are.

 

Looks like they're using the same toning as for hair for those horns. Interesting. Likely it'll be a two-tone thing like you can do for hair with base color and highlights.

 

Also, the clipping ughhhhhhhhhhh.

 

I am a bad person who skips credits.

 

Okay, yeah, the Urianger shit is just a home visit. Like seriously if he turns out to be a traitor we can point to this scene as the start of him going dark, but yeah.

[V'aleera]

I wouldn't get your hopes up.

NOPE SHE BITES IT!

Refer to my above comment. The chances that some, if any, of the Scions are dead is pretty much zero.

[Kismet]

[g0ne]

 

I knew it! I knew it!

 

I knew that Ilberd was the traitor! I knew he was treacherous! Never liked him from the beginning! Nuh uh!

 

I'M TELLING YOU! I ALWAYS KNEW HE WAS FISHY!!

[Kage]

After actually experiencing it...

 

I won't say the Scions are dead. Flashy lights and no bodies makes me suspicious. The ones I find more likely are Minfilia, Thancred and Y'shtola.

 

Also, hot damn Pipin. Vice Marshal Pipin. You be damn fine.

 

ANOTHER FUCKING LALAFELL I LIKE

 

First set of cutscenes (with a brief out of cutscene interaction)

40 min

 

Tataru, please stop crying. It makes me cry moar.

 

I will kill you Ilberd. I will destroy you. For Nanamo. And Raubahn. And everyone. I will kill you T_T

 

Also, lol pls not Answers. I've listened to it way too many times now because of 90ks and T13.

[V'aleera]

Another thing I haven't seen mentioned: Tataru can be spoken to after all the quests are done and indicates that she is in direct contact with Urianger and that they, along with Yugiri's shinobi, are looking for the missing Scions.

[Wymsical]

After going through it all (and wow, there sure was a lot), I'm left pleasantly surprised and a little staggered. It's a pity the other Scions will probably show back up again later. It would have been a fine send-off for them to go in such a way and leave room for new characters. 

One thing in particular actually stuck out to me; Alphinaud's arc. He'd been having a relatively smooth rise to stardom for a while and I was beginning to get worried he was going to be a ridiculously overpowered and obnoxiously 'perfect' character (Trahearne, anyone?) But no, it was all to rip it away from him for a rather spectacular fall and now I'm realizing there was foreshadowing for it this entire time. I've always been fond of the wonder twins and I'm really hoping this is going to be lasting character development for him.

 

Fingers crossed we see more of Alisaie too. She's clearly been up to things if she can figure out bad stuff is going on in Ul'dah and get a rescue to her brother in record time.

_{SquareEnix, please give us the minions of them... I need them both.}

[Kage]

Some Crystal Braves will arrest you and some won't. lol (according to NPC dialogue as one guy says he's going to pretend he didn't see you as others would arrest you.)

 

Others like Momodi are just hearing about the rumors and being shut up by the Brass Blades. Lots of rumors and yet everyone is acting as if the status quo is unchanged. Just, you know, with lots of guards on the street and all.

[Aduu Avagnar]

Outside the Rising Stones is a Brass Blade.... (for some reason) who wont tell anyone you are there, but also cant let you pass, because orders.

[Imo]

I have mixed feelings about this storyline. On one hand, most of it worked for me, it was very emotional, the fight between Raubahn and Ilberd was awesome, and I like Pipin already. On the other hand, there were a few things I don't like - I'm really not a fan of the "characters sacrifice themselves one by one to slow a pursuing enemy down" cliche, because most of the time they die pointlessly and it'd be much more effective if they all faced the enemy together, and here it was no different. Also, standard Square Enix maneuver: "Look at this cool fight scene! Wouldn't it be even cooler if you could participate in it? Well, too bad!"

 

Though really. I should say "sacrifice", because it's blatantly obvious none of the Scions are dead and we'll see them again.

 

After witnessing that fight between Raubahn and Illberd, there is no longer any doubt about aether enhancing melee fighters capabilities. There's no other way he'd be able to kick a pillar down.

 

So all of you RPing superhuman feats, feel vindicated.

 

It's very Final Fantasy.

 

Was there ever any doubt? I always scratch my head when some people think that spellcasters can do anything, but melee fighters are limited by real world physics. This is Final Fantasy. All those flashing blade beams are IC.

[Gabineaux]

PLEASE YOSHI P LET MINFILIA AND HER FART SKIRT BE DEAD FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER,

 

AMEN.

[Seriphyn]

That whole sequence was very potent. Gawd, I feel mindfucked by the lot of it. Everything you were comfortable with! SE aren't afraid to go as far as they want.

[Berrod Armstrong]

I feel absolutely dead inside. I just. Can't even. 

Illberd was my favorite. 

 

I have however always disliked Urianger. I knew that pompous son of a knife-ears' up-to level was at "no good" 

I suppose he could still turn out good but.. for now. Grr. 

 

I hope the crystal braves person with the eyepatch (im terrible with names) is going to come through alright though.

I smelled treachery from him the moment they introduced him as a benevolent soldier bro. I liked him, but I did not trust him at all. I'm really satisfied with how he turned out!

[Kellach Woods]

Refer to my above comment. The chances that some, if any, of the Scions are dead is pretty much zero.

 

Yeah but it'll take them a while to resurface. Potentially with new character designs and a new outlook from their experience that makes them less bland.

 

I smelled treachery from him the moment they introduced him as a benevolent soldier bro. I liked him, but I did not trust him at all. I'm really satisfied with how he turned out!

Riol, from what I understand, isn't dead but I wouldn't be surprised if they sacrifice him stupidly down the line. He too good for this world.

 

Also, for those of you who are looking for more light-hearted stuff, I urge you to do postmoogle. First, you have Wymond's backstory as an informant and... well, a ginormous explosion. Second, to wash the bad taste of betrayal out of your mouth, a short tale of the Company of Heroes, and then, MORE MOOGLES and the Postmoogle cap!

[K'nahli]

Why is everyone jumping to the conclusion that Urianger is evil?

[allgivenover]

I'm not sure, accepting an invitation to parlay is not that same as being a traitor, but people are jumping to all sorts of conclusions about Urianger for some reason.

[K'nahli]

Not to say it's impossible or anything but I certainly didn't get such an impression from that meeting(though even if I had, I could well believe the potential for it to be a total ploy after yesterday's events).

[Kage]

I only said traitor because I was relaying one of the first posts on reddit. That was before I even got home from work, etc.

 

Did anyone else catch the person mentioned by Y'shtola at the end? It's her sister or lover ( ;p but I'm pretty sure it's sister.) She's from the summoner quests!

[Ryanti]

That whole sequence was very potent. Gawd, I feel mindfucked by the lot of it. Everything you were comfortable with! SE aren't afraid to go as far as they want.

 

I figured that out when Mr. Evil Lala got brutally murdered. Like, brutally-eye-moving-kind-of-weird-because-he's-dead-as-hell murdered. I mean like the-shoes-came-off completely and utterly ultra dead.

 

And then Raubahn got his FRIGGIN' ARM CUT OFF! :dazed:

 

My face just went completely And I was like "Welp, this game is now rated M."

 

And that was before the castration insult...

[K'nahli]

That whole sequence was very potent. Gawd, I feel mindfucked by the lot of it. Everything you were comfortable with! SE aren't afraid to go as far as they want.

 

I figured that out when Mr. Evil Lala got brutally murdered. Like, brutally-eye-moving-kind-of-weird-because-he's-dead-as-hell murdered. I mean like the-shoes-came-off completely and utterly ultra dead.

 

And then Raubahn got his FRIGGIN' ARM CUT OFF! :dazed:

 

My face just went completely And I was like "Welp, this game is now rated M."

 

And that was before the castration insult...

 

Funny you mention that. A friend of mine who was watching it around the same time is the type who dislikes rude jokes and never swears herself be it irl or typing... and in the midst of all that emotion I was experiencing, just as Ilberd made that remark, I STILL managed to get that familiar sense of anxiety that was just like:

 

"Ugh wait.... that was too rude a term for her to be reading. I hope she doesn't under-....*sigh*.....of course she's going to understand it" 

 

hahaha ;;;  I'm super sensitive about that when it comes to her unfortunately.