24:20 Back in Garlemald Kyle said something along the lines of “sci-fi/fantasy is the best when ridiculous things are happening and it’s played completely straight.” When he said that, this was the moment I had in mind. A white lady riding on a golden long-hair dog chases an emo bird girl to the edge of the atmosphere (the dog flies of course) and once the bird girl turns into a sparrow and therefore flies faster than the golden dog, the white lady decides to throw an Obi-Wan style tracking device onto her so she can be found at “the edge of the universe.” And somehow it’s the most tense scene, and you’re on the edge of your seat hoping that Venat can catch her. I love it when this game just goes for it.

@SiresOrbwits-oi8mz

5 ай бұрын

Okay so there's this war in the desert between these gladiators and some robots right and the robot's have a leader whose an eight foot tall samurai with with swords in a golf bag right, anyways this guy has a lot of cake and a Sharingan... Also he eats a dragon then slits his throat with his sword and everybody starts singing.

@Jake9066

5 ай бұрын

@@SiresOrbwits-oi8mz That is the best Zenos description I have ever heard, take my like

You want to talk about a call back like the Alexander receiving a signal one? ARR, Crystal Tower. The radio that was lost in a cutscene, falling into the void. It was playing a message in Morse Code. The message? "THIS IS WRONG. THIS IS ALL WRONG." They knew what they were doing when they gave Bird-Girl that voice line.

@Kenosene

5 ай бұрын

Also, the game hinting the existence of Meteion back in Heavensward patch content, just right before Hydaelyn sends the Warriors of Darkness back to the First

@jonathanprice8684

5 ай бұрын

@@KenoseneEh, I doubt it. They didn't really have a solid plan that far back, just ideas for plans - and they left LOTS of plot hooks wide open to use. I just love that they USED the hooks in a way that makes sense after the fact.

@FinnFann

5 ай бұрын

That was actually intended for something in Eureka I believe. However, that idea was pulled. One thing FF14 does better than any other story I've seen is something called Recontextualization. It's retconning, but done right. Instead of changing anything they change the MEANING of something. In this case this fit perfect into this so...now that's what it was! If not this they could've used it for something else later. Heck they even did this to the lyrics of Answer and a BUNCH of other things. The plans for things leading to Endwalker only really started coming together for the writing team around Stormblood from what I heard.

@Vaeltis

5 ай бұрын

Another thing that they do is they pull the thread of "the ballad of oblivion" from the Bard job quest line and make it feel like it's a foreshadowing for Meteion.

@Keaton_Ambrose

5 ай бұрын

​@@Vaeltis They also do that with the dance of despair from the Dancer questline!

re: the Hindenburg comparison. Don't coat your hydrogen-filled airship with thermite = Don't drown your emotionally-charged bird girl hivemind in a universe's worth of existential dread.

@baronfuath5872

5 ай бұрын

HindenBird

@Final.Family

5 ай бұрын

@@baronfuath5872 take my like, dammit lol

@RabidJohn

5 ай бұрын

Thermite contains iron filings, which the aluminium paint covering the Hindenburg's skin did not. But yeah, the bright flame seen in the Hindenburg crash was the aluminium. Hydrogen burns with a dull blue flame.

@Maria_Erias

5 ай бұрын

@@RabidJohn "Hindenburg’s cotton-canvas covering was doped to keep it taut for aerodynamic reasons and to protect it from damage from water, wind, and small objects hitting the surface. The dope was a solution of cellulose acetate butyrate to which aluminum powder had been added. At the top of the hull, a layer of iron oxide was applied to the inside surface of the covering to protect the fabric from the UV radiation in direct sunlight (see color photo below)." It was those two things working together, the doping along with the iron oxide in the paint, that created the reaction. The Mythbusters did a whole episode about it, using the specs from the Hindenburg's construction and maintenance.

@RabidJohn

5 ай бұрын

Thank you. I am enlightened.@@Maria_Erias

I saw the switcheroo confluence thing a little more simple. Hermes and Hades were trading blows. Only Hades has the sight AND the power to pop the confluence in time. There was no way to get him to do so while Hermes full attention was on him. So Hythlo shared the plan AND stole Hermes attention in the opposite direction. The dog catch was just brazen improvisation. A simple plan, equal parts stupid, awesome, and "fuck it, we ball!"

@ericbright1742

5 ай бұрын

It's also a clear indication that Hythlodaeus and Hades have done this kind of shit before. They read each other like a book.

@victorvicg

5 ай бұрын

​@@ericbright1742 because they are roommates 😊

@ericbright1742

5 ай бұрын

​@@victorvicg I like that they left it vague enough to let the audience form their own headcanon. It's clear Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus, and Azem all loved each other. None of them wanted to imagine a world without the other two in it. Whether it was platonic or not is left as an exercise for the reader.

@victorvicg

5 ай бұрын

@@ericbright1742 sir is a joke..... even from the start of Endwalker.

@Eruvadhril

5 ай бұрын

Hythlo communicated very different information to all three people in the room with just a couple of sentences. He's very self-depreciating but you can see why he was considered a candidate for the office of Emet-Selch.

man, 10/10 whoever edited that intro. that was absolutely awesome.

@Amovetv

5 ай бұрын

@adelinefae

5 ай бұрын

agreed! it was so good!

Meteion's report switched Hermes from "I need to do something about my depression" to "actually my depression is an accurate relfection of reality and I need to make everyone else feel the same amount of despair as I do".

@seekittycat

5 ай бұрын

There is a "if mankind can learn to love all life and overcome despair" in there too.

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

Made funnier with the short stories as well. Making everyone as miserable as him didn’t make anything better. It just made more miserable people, funny that.

@the_starweaver_2024

5 ай бұрын

he is making judgement not wanting anything better😅

@Keira_Blackstone

5 ай бұрын

@@BlackfangDragonhe's not trying to make anything better at that point. it's justice in his mind. The ancients are uncaring gods who create life and snuff it out on a whim. He is subjecting them to an uncaring universe capable of destroying them on a whim just as they do for the living beings he feels they should feel more care and responsibility toward.

16:41 I'm always going to point this detail out whenever I can, I absolutely love how much detail the developers put in the trust companions. Like this fight for example, when the boss disappears and prepares for a sneak attack. With trust, you can see Venat assess the situation for a moment and then run towards the safe spot (same as the WoL) while Emet and Hythlo just teleports and basically ignores the mechanic 😂

@Tenkuu-san

5 ай бұрын

Emet-Selch is completely unimpressed by the boss throughout the entire fight, Hythlodaeus finds it interesting, and Venat just respects the hells out of it. However, they all (including the Scions who all react only to this boss in the entire dungeon) stop reacting to its hiding move after the second one. What I love most about this dungeon is Emet-Selch's general annoyance with the whole affair. He absolutely hates going through the cold area, views Hermes' warnings as just prattle, and declares that they're taking Meteion, all of it in the regions of the dungeon where one of them has the chance to speak.

I think it's interesting that Hermes who is super emphatic to the suffering of living things couldn't grasp that birb girl was suffering and scared. He saw her freeze up and it's giving "oh my computer froze that's weird". Just by being an ancient he couldn't hear her cries and to him she's a familiar that's acting kinda buggy after a scheduled update instead of a person freaking out and wanting space for a reason.

@Kekira

5 ай бұрын

It's worse if you read the short story on his and Meteion's relationship.

@Tioko

5 ай бұрын

He’s empathetic, but not immune to biases of his upbringing and society. What you stated is an example of that.

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

The thing is that his empathy is selective. The giant beast who cruelly kills wantonly and is know to rampage? He has all the empathy in the world for it as it’s dying slowly in agony due to not being ended instantly. Not even trying to heal the creature as it’s dying in agony behind him. But the creatures they killed? He never shows a single bit of concern. The two of them did the sidequest recently showing how it was the OTHER ancients who wanted to do something to honor those creatures that were killed by the beast, but Hermes never she’d a single tear for them. Only the beast.

@EmperorPylades

5 ай бұрын

Hermes created an intelligent life form, based on energy he didn't understand, and even acknowledged his negligence when he said 'he gave her wings but never taught her to walk.' He's aware of her inability to control her empathic abilities from her freaking out during the tea scene, but he's so self-absorbed that he doesn't care. Screw Hermes with a rake.

@Tenkuu-san

5 ай бұрын

@@Tioko Except of course for both the tale and the fact that we see him in Elpis, multiple times, noticing and reacting to her anguish by trying to spare her. Ultimately, Hermes ends up being the biggest hypocrite, treating his familiars as tools in a far worse way than any of his colleagues ever have.

As someone that knows bird law, I'm not sure that bird arrest was fully legal.

@ekvq

5 ай бұрын

Someone should call Harvey Birdman, Attorney-at-law

@igorchtidtah8050

5 ай бұрын

Ok, well, fillibuster

Spoiler: Hermes is really 3 Lalas in a trenchcoat.

@StarShadow9009

5 ай бұрын

😮

@ericbright1742

5 ай бұрын

Where are the sniping mods when you need them?

@Blitzwaffen

5 ай бұрын

More like 30.

@KMCA779

5 ай бұрын

He's the thaumaturge guild in a trenchcoat

The real mind blow is that Azys Lla, which was run my Fandaniel, is where the ixal, the bird people near Gridania, were created.

@Cellybeans

5 ай бұрын

Say what now

@HatMachine

5 ай бұрын

@@CellybeansSo we've got the Ixal myths and legends stating that their race was born in the sky. Ok, bird people think they're from the sky. That's cute. But then we've got Azys Lla, an Allagan scientific research outpost. And specifically the optional dungeon The Fractal Continuum in which we see creatures and read notes implying these are the genetically engineered proto-Ixal. And through exploring previous Allagan ruins (the Binding Coils, the Singularity Reactor) we know that the late-stage Allagan empire was all about genetic engineering. And who was the chief architect and lead scientist of the late Allagan empire? Amon, a sundered shard of Hermes and later inheritor of the seat (and memories) of Fandaniel. So through this series of references and optional dialogs, we can draw the conclusion that the soul of Hermes, in whatever shape and age it's in, just can't get enough of creating bird people.

@mikloskoszegi

5 ай бұрын

@@HatMachine the Ixal tribe questline is about this if i remember correctly. You are helping them build an airship so they can reach their holy land, and in the end they learn about their origin.

@TakahataStrify

5 ай бұрын

@@mikloskoszegi i learned about it when i did the Fractal Continuum questline in Stormblood.

@KMCA779

5 ай бұрын

it's also implied Lalafel are a creation too... but that one isn't as concrete as the Ixal

It's kind of crazy that Hermes thought that casually initiating first contact with THOUSANDS OF OTHER CIVILIZATIONS without letting anyone else know was a good idea to begin with.

@SiresOrbwits-oi8mz

5 ай бұрын

It's called isolation syndrome.

@Spectacular_Insanity

5 ай бұрын

Using an envoy that barely had self-consciousness and utilized a type of energy that wasn’t fully understood.

@ZephWraen

5 ай бұрын

Clearly the society of the Ancients didn't have enough Sci-fi.

@desdenova1

5 ай бұрын

It's reminiscent of Gaius from ARR. Bro built a primal-gobbling mech and didn't intend such devastation?

@davidjohnstone3846

5 ай бұрын

Hubris, the ancients never found a problem they couldn’t “fix” with creation magics. He probably didn’t even consider he would experience a problematic outcome.

The thing that absolutely bowled me over when i hit this point, "Live, Die, Know" in that exact order, its mentioned post Ktisis that returning to the lifestream returns all past and current memories to the soul, regardless of if the soul actually remembered any of them in life. Motherfuckers managed to take the opening song from the game's initial marketing trailer and make the whole song snap into abrupt focus

The edits just keep getting better and better on these vids. The transition with the music/meteion's eyes, Emet Snap, chase montage lol, and of course "remember us". Properly hype that intro was.

“Hermes is in the zodiarc”. You say it like hes a gundam and that made me really excited

I had a revelation about Hermes' Caduceus staff when watching your stream. I main PLD and my favorite sword and shield set are the Heavensward relics Priwen and Aettir. They feature imagery of the Caduceus staff on them which I used to think nothing of until meeting Hermes in Elpis and seeing him wield the staff. At first I thought it was weird but then I realized that the relics in heavenward are tied to Azys Lla which is just Amon's Elpis. Such a cool connection. I feel very sympathetic toward Hermes and Metion so the connection makes me love the sword and shield even more. Carrying it feels like continuing to show them my answer to the question.

@Tioko

5 ай бұрын

I wonder if Amon built Azys Lla before or after regaining his memories… Would be cool if it was before. Like, traces of memory of that place are etched upon his very soul… Sorry for waxing poetics 😂

@ggflowen

5 ай бұрын

@@Tioko I like the idea that it was before as well.

Considering Hythlo’s word that one only “gets naked” before the closest of friends and family members puts the Dying Gasp in new light.

@ericbright1742

5 ай бұрын

Shows how his morals are so far twisted, and warped, after millennia of watching from the shadows.

@siyrean

5 ай бұрын

*short story spoiler* or his "never fails to impress me" line.

@seekittycat

5 ай бұрын

And in the EX he even gets an HD phase 😳😳

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

@ericbright1742 It was respect. Emet threw away all title and pretense to show their “true selves to one another”.

19:37 Hades was always very close with the underworld. His ability to perceive the color of souls is one example of that closeness. He was raised to the seat of Emet Selch _because_ of that closeness. There's no coincidence here. He had uniquely qualifying traits.

Hermes and his actions are a source of strong debate if he’s good or evil, convicted or weak, brave or a coward. In the end the one consensus is he’s very, very flawed as a person.

@rivenoak

5 ай бұрын

we are perhaps biased, as he was a boss in one of the crystal tower raids already; thus we know he is off the rocker and cannot be trusted. the sundered version of Hermes/Fandaniel was and is nothing but a pain in our butt.

@Maria_Erias

5 ай бұрын

@@rivenoak He did also unilaterally decide to create an empathic being and send it out into the universe to make first contact with every alien civilization it came across in order to answer the pretty flawed question of, "Is there anything to hope for?", and did so without consulting any of his people, and with no regard for anything even remotely resembling safety or with any thought given to whether any of those civilizations might potentially be hostile.He basically put himself and his entire civilization at risk just to assuage his own feelings, and did so with not just no regard for everyone else, but also with a mind towards keeping Meteion's true purpose a secret.

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

@Maria_Erias: Same for the Creations as well. In the end they’re all acceptable causalties to Hermes in order to inflict his test upon the Ancients as well. In the end their lives were expendable to him the moment it was convenient.

@iantaakalla8180

5 ай бұрын

All I feel that he has convictions towards being the worst version of himself he can be. He has convictions of being weak and confused; he bravely stays a coward; he is unempathetically empathetic in that he basically chooses when to turn on the waterworks about feeling conflicted about killing things. Honestly, as much as half of Hermes’s behavior is a change in perspective meaning he is weird and therefore depressed about having a viewpoint vastly different than anything else, Hermes is just a validation-seeker. He wants to be correct, and he wants people to acknowledge him as correct. That is what makes Hermes so disgusting - he pretends he is having the existential moral quandary of his life, or maybe is really like that, and then you see how Hermes and Fandaniel and Amon is like, and more than wanting to die, he wants validation. Hermes wanted validation that the Ancients weren’t playing god. Fandaniel wanted validation that killing everything is the correct position. Amon wanted validation that Allag could still exist with a strong leader. Hermes and all versions of him are so infuriatingly one-dimensional.

9:20 "What's my purpose? To freak out when you find despair." 😂

There actually was, I believe Morse code, in Alexander which said "It's all wrong", something Meteion said when she started giving the report.

@ericbright1742

5 ай бұрын

It was at the end of the Crystal Tower. When Nero dropped his little scanner off the cliff, the morse code started playing in the fade-to-black.

@siyrean

5 ай бұрын

that was crystal tower and was intended to be use for Eureka, but they then went a different direction with that. i like to think that since Ishikawa wrote the crystal tower raids, she had that pinned as an idea that can still be tied to something just waiting.

Greek Hermes is the messenger god who can fly. FFXIV Hermes works with flying creatures and sends out Metion to deliver messages across space. Hades becoming overseer of the Underworld, is not the only naming convention that’s a bit on the nose.

@Keira_Blackstone

5 ай бұрын

honestly it would have been weirder if they named him Hades and he had absolutely nothing to do with the underworld.

"The bubble stays on during Selch." God dammit Garrett I was drinking.

Hermes goal at the end of Kitesos is to put his people through the danger process as what they put their creations through, to survive an experiment. Because of it's ok to do that to the creators they create then it's ok to do it to them. He's a broken idealist, he sees the suffering of his and his fellows creations and hates it and when he finds out there is nothing better than that outside of their world he snaps.

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

Of course this ignores that 1) The Meteia make clear they don’t care if they pass some arbitrary trial, their goal is to kill everyone regardless so no one could ever succeed, and 2) The Ancients live amongst and study their creations and try to learn as much of they can to see if they can be released into the world. Even their lives can be in danger if they are careless as Hythlodaeus nearly getting jumped by a shark till Venat saved him shows. While the Meteion have isolated themselves in a place where almost no one could reach them. Much like releasing the Meteia into space to begin with, his “Test” was never designed to succeed, whereas the Ancients do want Creations to succeed even if some are too Blaise about failures.

the storytelling inherent to the hide and seek section did not occur to me, thank you for pointing that out

Fun fact when talking about references to past events: During the Crystal Tower raid series Nero talks about the tower being a reciever and at the time this all seems to be connecting to the 13th and the world of darkness. But during the final cutscene as graha goes to sleep and the wol looks up at the tower and if you pay attention like one player did during 6.0 and noticed for the first time but its been there since 2.5 the tower is picking up morse code from space. A signal Xande and Amon picked up. The only thing across all of creation they could find. "Its. All. Wrong."

@coaster1235

5 ай бұрын

how do you know xande and amon detected the signal?

As someone who has been keeping up with you guys since the start of this journey, it's a bit surreal sometimes to realize you guys are finally here.

I forget which Elpis scene it's in, but I think Hermes says he hopes the answers the Meteia find would be able to help his people grow and be better. So I think he's completely intending to tell everyone all about it, and in a way his later actions to allow Meteion to escape are a kind of twisted way of still "sharing" her answer with his people.

@MrAce2493

5 ай бұрын

It's in the scene where you use the Echo with Venat when you are trying to find out what Hermes is up to.

Yes, underworld is lifestream. I think Hythlo said it somewhere in Elpis xD

I think it's in the Fractal Continuum(?could be wrong) but i love how there's a note explaining that the Caduceus in Coils was made by Amon. Great little lore tie in.

There's a good amount of cooking going on in this video. I can't wait for you guys to find out which of these dishes make the cut as you play through the next section of story 🙂

After the end of Elpis, I ended up binging the rest of the MSQ, and didnt stop until the end.

@castoputa

5 ай бұрын

Yeah big same, after THAT CUTSCENE I couldn’t stop, I needed to know!

@zkng

5 ай бұрын

That’s crazy. I had to stop and decompress/process all my emotions after Elpis.

Meteion, like the WoL and everyone else after Venat sundered the world into shards, is aetherically thin compared to the ancients. That's why we/they are able to interact with akasa/dynamis. The ancients are too aetherically dense to use it.

@melissas4874

5 ай бұрын

Meteion was created using Dynamis. The theory is that the entire universe was not split, just Etheirys. Hermes was obviously able to manipulate dynamis if he could create her? And maybe that is also why he is more emotional compared to the rest. Or maybe creating her made him more susceptible to it? That is probably going to be more a personal lore decision since it is a chicken/egg thing.

@Maria_Erias

5 ай бұрын

@@melissas4874 For comparison, we can't see or manipulate individual atoms or even molecules, but we've created technology that can both let us see (or at least detect) as well as manipulate them. I don't see why Hermes, knowing that dynamis existed, wouldn't have come up with a way to manipulate it indirectly even if he couldn't do it directly. In fact, it seems the sort of thing a familiar (which is aetherically light) could be purpose-made to do.

@MAKExEVIL

5 ай бұрын

@@melissas4874 "Hermes was obviously able to manipulate dynamis if he could create her?" Where do you get this assumption? Where is it stated that they use dynamis for their creation magicks? Meteion was simply one that he made that was thin enough aetherically to interact with it.

@melissas4874

5 ай бұрын

@@Maria_Erias I agree - which is why I say this is kind of chicken and egg? Did he have enough Dynamis to do this? Or did he create a machine and then by manipulating it he became more emotional? I have a science degree (I assume you do by your example) and it would be like someone using an NMR in the early stages and not realize they need to shield themselves from the radiation?

@melissas4874

5 ай бұрын

@@MAKExEVIL Um, the game? They literally say she was created by Dynamis and even Maria's response to me should make it clear that I'm not the only one with this so-called "assumption". And if the ancients had no dynamis? Then she could not have brought the final days on them technically since they wouldn't have responded emotionally. So they obviously had dynamis and were largely unaware of how it could be used or Hermes would not have unintentionally created a WMD with it.

Oh thank god! I was TERRIFIED of the lack of mebtion of 'The Walk'. The bit at the end saying itll be its own video made me actually cheer out loud.

Have Kyle and Garrett not realized that Dynamis is out Limit Gauge? We, as the Warriors of Light, use Dynamis to fuel our Limit Breaks and that what the Limit Gauge is, it's a measure of Dynamis you've accumulated.

Another fantastic video guys. Your cataloging of this journey has been amazing. Kudos as well to how perfectly the editing lined up the action with the beats of the music. Really well done.

The opening edits continue to be top tier! As a long-time watcher, I still love watching you guys work through the events and connecting threads. Looking forward to watching you catch up.

I'm very glad to see you guys being emotionally literate enough to understand and empathize with Hermes as a character. The hate from a lot of the fandom is real.

I feel you, Garrett. FFXIV has taught me that a lot the tropes I thought I hated (amnesia, time travel, etc), I don't actually hate if they're done well. Also, damn Kyle, I didn't even notice the Alpha/Meteion star thing.

Emet-Selch's reaction to you telling the story has an interesting facet when you consider two things. His later line that as a member of the convocation he would have been able to tell if Hermes were lying and the fact that the "echo" is a fragment of a power all ancients have. He knew you were telling the truth because he saw it when you told the story. His reaction was just horror and denial. "Do not squander it" was the next line after "Remember us". He knew.

I keep loving seeing these two bros in the same room

Gorgeous intro! These are beautiful recountings of the different parts of the game we all went through. KZread treasures for posterity, heh. Thanks!

I loved hearing about your opinions on Hermes' motivation for his judgement at Kitisis, all valid and also so very different from what I took away. It's great to see many facets I hadn't considered and is the greatness of this sort of longer lingering content!

You guys somehow topped last week's video. I've been loving these videos about Elpis. I'm glad you guys understand the story so far, and appreciate how the Elpis section is so pivotal to the story.

@Amovetv

5 ай бұрын

Aw, serious thanks for the compliment.

it's really cool how this game predicted that twitter would turn evil, change color to black, and try to kill us all

@iantaakalla8180

5 ай бұрын

Even better, it did so by not only glutting itself on both the negative emotions of everybody it came in contact with and the amplification of that negativity, the owner repurposed Meteion such that her killing instinct was always the point. Meteion couldn’t be a better metaphor for Twitter if we tried.

I saw Hermes' motivation less as that he hates his fellow Ancients and more that he felt alone and like he was the only one asking the question "Who are we to put our lives above all our creations?" Insert joke about how men will literally initiate the heat death of the universe than go to therapy but I get the feeling that therapy wasn't a common necessity in The World Unsundered.

Studio setup is looking great these days guys. super professional

The first thing I thought about all of this was Star Trek's Mccoy's I'M A DOCTOR NOT A ENGINEER. Hermes is basically a biologist that created a biocomputer and messed up his programming. Then it decided to do the equivalence of universe scale Skynet.

I really enjoy these recaps you do and I feel like the over all quality of the videos is going up which I also very much enjoy :)

So, now that you have all gotten this far. If you go WAAAAAY back. To the end of Crystal Tower raid series. At the very end. Nero throws his energy sensor down into the the Syrcus Trench. There was a bit of Morse code. Translated as: "It's all wrong." Beeping out of the sensor just before the screen goes dark. People were speculating what it meant for years. FYI, Ishikawa, the MSQ writer for Shadowbringers, and Endwalker also wrote the Crystal Tower series for 14. Another interesting side note: It's still there as of the first patch of Shadowbringers, if you go into the trench where you first started the Shadowbringers quest, you can see Nero's device at the very end of the trench in the background.

I think your use of the cameras was really great in this video! It felt a little awkward at times during the last one, but the potential was there and it seems you've honed your presentation since.

Remember what Amon said. "The man I was would *weep* for the man I have become." He knows. He knows what he becomes, he knows it's his own antithesis. And yet here he goes, giving everyone 'okay just one more chance'.

I really enjoy the recap edits, they're done so well

2:30 The only way you could've made that intro more epic is if you followed up the "do not squander it" line with Emet's "you cannot be entrusted with our legacy" line from EW. 30:00 IIRC the bubble doesn't affect registered Ktsis personnel, which includes Hermes. Which is why he was dungeon boss level and it took four of us to beat him.

You should play some of the Elpis side missions for some insight into the attitudes of other Ancients. It might be enlightening.

Gotta love the boys making what are essentially AMVs for every intro

Literal chills at the intro, I love it

Your intros are always great, very nice music switch in this one

Deltascape is FF5, Sigmascape is FF6, Alphascape starts with FF1 and then three XIV specific fights.

I don't know if this will be the first comment, but hoping that all the peeps that might read this refrain from leaving spoilers on the comment section ❤ Don't ruin someone else's play experience, thank you!

@Alissandre_Iskander

5 ай бұрын

I hope this gets pinned, honestly.

@aerialdive

5 ай бұрын

@@MAKExEVILthe boys themselves ask for no spoilers in comments as well. dont be weird

@melissas4874

5 ай бұрын

If only the live chat read this stuff. I will say that I don't see a lot of spoilers in live chat, but I think many sometimes forget what point a streamer might be at. I've done it myself in a streamer's chat. I find it best to say nothing and just enjoy the chaos.

@pastdueyt

5 ай бұрын

@@MAKExEVIL aren't you gatekeeping by saying they shouldn't be reading comments?

@MAKExEVIL

5 ай бұрын

@@pastdueyt No, that would require me telling others what to do.

Good video! but yea, not surprised Venat walk is a separate video. its HEAVY

Hermes *desperately* wants to find some value in life, even at the deepest point of his nihilism. He doesn't *want* to be right that nothing has meaning. This is why he tries to make things "fair" for Meteion's escape when he could have excluded himself from the wipe to ensure the Ancients fell in totality. Remember, without Hermes the Convocation would have never realized the aether currents were stagnating, meaning they would have never been able to come up with the idea of utilizing Darkness to restore those currents, and everything on that planet would have died even had WoL and Venat escaped with their own memories intact. Even as Fandaniel he does things in such a way that leaves room for chance, for his plans to fail, when he could very easily kept things airtight since no one knew what he was really trying to do until it was too late. Dude needed therapy, the one thing Ancient society never bothered to invent.

Really enjoying the cooking in this video! Side note (?): can confirm the Underworld is the Lifestream - different word for the same thing.

19:17 Kyle, it's not "a problem" amd it's not "convenient"....it was his DESTINY😂 Awesome video, guys! So glad you're taking your time with these discussions❤🎉

Hermes is that crazy person who would kill ten people to save one hamster, a completely damaged mind that you can only pity. Really enjoyed the dungeon, and the flavour of it. The fight with mother beforehand was so damn cool as well, it was wild how *(REDACTED)*.

18:46 Garrett, my sibling in Zodiark, Kyle _literally_ had on a scouter during the various runs of Catsneezes Hyperbole on-stream!

“The bubble stays on during Selch” Jesus CHRIST Garrett 😂

GG with the cliffhanger at the end. Peak content.

For Garrett: I interpret the "Protect them all" as Meteion sees no point in life as it only leads to sadness and despair, so by killing everyone, she's protecting them from sadness.

I really have a hard time sympathizing with Hermes. I'm with Emet on the "That is Sophistry and you know it." Line.

23:09 Endwalker is chock full of mirror references, starting from the box art. And you're right, it is delicious writing.

Love the new format you guys, also dopppee video! ❤

So this is one of those moments of talking about fun game things- the Dungeon, Ktisis Hyperboreia, is one of those with unique Duty Support NPCs- you can fight alongside Venat, Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch. What you may NOT realize is that if you queue up for it as a Healer, Venat is a Dancer, a DPS. Seems like "okay, and?" at first blush, but in the final fight, where you have access to LB2, and Hythlodaeus doesn't use the generic one, Venat will use it instead and it's the big move she used against YOU at the end of your one-on-one fight to impress Argo. It is REALLY damn cool to see it but my god if Hythlo isn't the ITCHIEST trigger finger you ever did see with that LB2...

I'm just vibrating in anticipation of what's coming next for y'all.

I think it’s interesting that Hydaelyn and Zodiark’s relationship is less black vs white, but more yin yang. One holding up physical reality and the other holding up the spirit. I also think it’s an absolute tragedy seeing the ancient society go from people who felt peaceful towards death to desperate and afraid. Who knew a god like race would have serious issues towards vulnerability?

@OddManeuver

5 ай бұрын

I mean Hythlodaeus is so bad at manipulating aether, he’s basically a cripple in this society. Yet he still sacrificed himself for his planet. Probably just buying Emet more time.

@siyrean

5 ай бұрын

all the people at peace with the idea were the ones that sacrificed themselves. Everyone that was left were the ones who were afraid. No wonder they turned to zodiark.

@Maria_Erias

5 ай бұрын

I don't think the Ancients were desperate and afraid of the Final Days because the Final Days threatened them with death; I think that they were afraid of the Final Days because they caused a loss of control. This was a society that could literally do anything, but which was rigidly structured and controlled so much that even their creations of whimsy had to go through a bureaucracy in order to be approved. This also explains why Venat, who tended to be looked down upon for not following those strict rules (as such was mentioned how it caused a bit of an uproar when she didn't return to the star after stepping down as Azem, for example), didn't give in to the Final Days, and chose to fight against the return of that world that had been lost. It's also interesting to think that maybe Emet-Selch would have stood beside her if Hythlodaeus hadn't volunteered to be sacrificed to summon Zodiark. Once that happened, Emet just gets bent on doing everything he can to return Hythlo - and everyone else. No matter the cost.

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

@@Maria_Erias No they absolutely were afraid of death itself. One of the things we see, and as the Convocation shows, is that the souls in Zodiark are still alive and themselves. They retain their self with Zodiark, and that’s why the Ascians and the populace wanted to offer new life to bring those ones back. Likewise a big part of why the Ancients didn’t fear death is because they chose to go on their own terms. It was their choice as beings who were functionally immortal(there’s numerous stories about how much Immortality sucks when you can’t die on your terms) and so they embraced death as a friend and a rest, while a new version of themselves they knew would be born who would enjoy life with the same wonder and splendor they once did. It can’t be said enough just how pivotal that would be to a species knowing Reincarnation exists. Emets story is literally about how miserable being immortal is and how he would literally rather be dead if it didn’t also mean condemning those within Zodiark or Elidibus to do the job by himself. The Final Days took all of that away. Exploring whatever the “Sound from within the Earth” that scared people, creating monsters that horrifically killed them and took the ability to die on their own terms.

@BlackfangDragon

5 ай бұрын

Also forgot to add that one of the things that defined the Ancients was their duty to the Star, and as far as they knew the Star itself was dying. So the Final Days was a permanent death where there was no second chances.

I like to think of Meteion more as a sponge that gets soaked with Dynamis/Akasha. So she kinda was forced to absorb all the negativity and calamities and deaths of the other stars and filled up negative. And I like to think of her not directly as a villain but more the consequence of an act of villainy since Hermes still could have reached out a hand to "save" Meteion. But now you have to do something about a billion depressed twitter birds that got taken over by Ascian Musk.

@Maria_Erias

5 ай бұрын

Kind of like how the sin eaters' ability to 'procreate' is explain: a powerful sin eater infuses a person's aether with a seed of Light anima that eventually corrupts them. In the same way, Meteion gets infected by the negativity of all the dead, depressed, dying, and stagnate civilizations she's comes across. Add in the fact that it's hinted that she's empathic in order to facilitate non-verbal communication, and that's a recipe for disaster. It just goes to show that she and her sisters weren't the product of a well-thought-out, meticulously-planned experiment, but were instead the clumsy, secretive product of a troubled mind.

@mstitek7679

5 ай бұрын

@@Maria_EriasYes, the whole story is just a great example of why every research organization has to have ethic board that approves experiments like this. So Hermes, as a chief, did absolutely horrible job of overseeing the facility. He's fully guilty of negligence and scientific misconduct.

The greek names are esp fun with having some greek myth knowledge. Like with Hermes's part in the Pandora myth, it fits very well with Meteion and ffxiv Hermes.

that "Auspices of a higher power" reference really makes me think "this is what would have happened if Zodiark just got his way forever without opposition"

I enjoyed this cooking. Great job guys! Can't wait for you to continue xD

@29:35 that "remember us" line was important, but how could you forget the transition between "You're not worthy to inherit ANY star!" to "Do not squander it, the legacy I leave you", lol EDIT: Oops, paused it too soon lol EDIT2: That, and you know, you do kinda hold your own against *VENAT* of all people *OUTSIDE* of Ktsis when she doesn't have a bubble on her.

In an interview at some point after 6.0, it was mentioned that when she wrote Hermes, Ishikawa believed about 80% of the playerbase would hate him and 20% would love him. Of course, it isn't _entirely_ clear her meaning because you can also "love to hate" a character. Still, at the very least she knew he would get mixed reactions.

Fun fact I only realised relatively recently; Fandaniel as Zodiark uses some of Hermes' attacks, namely the big wind streams, even with similar symbols while casting, along with some other fun little hints as well to some other things XD

@Tenkuu-san

5 ай бұрын

Even more interesting: Zodiark uses a snake attack and the minion that drops from the Ktisis dungeon is a tiny snake minion of Hermes' that served as a messenger in Elpis.

“More like a bird girl balloon” KYLE, STOP.

I'm so happy for Kyle on this last leg of Endwalker!!

Make sure you do the Best Tribes someday for Endwalker!

That whole "do not squander it" line makes me cry every single time. No matter what. Kills me. Also am i late to the "hindenbirb" party? i'm guessing that joke's been made a zillion times by now lol

On the topic of Emet seeing us as an equal, consider that the original timeline Emet witnessed 10,000 years of mortals being foolish, backstabbing, forgetting. Emet of that past didn’t have the experience that made him bitter and judgmental. Yeah, I think he saw us as an equal.

The intro is so sick oml

I ❤ these types of videos! Nice job

Hermes was tired of how his society was treating the lives of the creations, but I think he was more concerned with the general apathy of his people (like how they reacted when hearing the previous Fandaniel was passing, and how the flowers always bloom white). He also didnt like how the Ancients glorify dying as if it is something beautiful. I do think what the writers were trying to say is the Ancients as a society is deeply flawed, they will grow to be unsympathetic, apathetic to life itself and seek their enjoyment or purpose with something else, just like the Allagans.

34:40 Beard-sama would care. Perhaps King Moggle Mog, as well.

About the bubble: Bubble only dampens unauthorized entities. Hermes, as Chief Overseer, is authorized and therefore is unaffected by the bubble.

Hey guys, that AMV was awesome!!!

I like your discription of Meteion being a balloon filled with dynamis! Makes 100% sense. Entelechy just means they can manipulate dynamis and make it their own like how ancients create with ether Meteion can create with dynamis. She probably eats dyamis too i bet lol. 🙂

I think the association with Hades and the Underworld is reversed here: He was not called Hades because he was involved with the Underworld, but we associate the name Hades with the Underworld because this was the dude in charge of the Underworld when the world was sundered. Kind of the way the FF14 "Gunblade" became the source of the word "Gun", rather than named after it.

If you hate amnesia plots but want to be surprised by a good one, please consider trying Octopath Traveler II!

Oh you sweet summer children. I'm excited to see how the rest of this expansion goes for you. :)

Also I loved the Hindenburg and Fast and Furious comparisons. It made me laugh so much. And thank you for seeing us, the shippers, Garrett. You're welcome for the upcoming deluge of "who tops? Hades or Hytlo" debate. Or the "it's a throuple with Azem" claims. Lol

@Reinshark

5 ай бұрын

I'm not a "shipper" generally, but I think interpreting Hades and Hythlodaeus as being romantic partners makes perfect sense.

@darkedge221

5 ай бұрын

@@Reinshark Definitely. Even if they're platonic, they're definitely life partners for sure. Hythlo confessing to un-aliving himself once Emet-Selch (and Azem) decided to "return to the star" just so he could join them. Emet-Selch knowing Hythlo would know everything in that fake Amaurot. I'd like to think it's Emet-Selch teleporting Hythlo with him during that duty support. And so much more that I couldn't discuss because it might be spoilers. ;u; They're really giving the "comes in pairs, do not separate" vibe. Their relationship is so amazing ;u;

@Tenkuu-san

5 ай бұрын

@@darkedge221If nothing else, I'm pretty sure it was Emet-Selch who broke all of our chains in Ktisis.

Am I the only one who sees a bit of lagging in the video whenever the camera is only on Kyle? As they are in the same room they should be on the same internet connection so I'm confused why he lags. Maybe check if there is anything going on with the camera? Unless it really is only me and Kyle causes my eyes to lag :P

Great intro. Love it.