When I was in college, I met a girl who was absolutely amazing. I was dating someone at the time (not my future wife, for the record), but this girl had me absolutely enraptured with her. It didn’t help that the person I was dating at the time was just… not someone I connected with on many levels, that in many ways we had remained together from inertia more than anything. It felt like the universe aligning, and I entertained the idea of splitting up from her to pursue this other woman, to see if maybe she would consider being with me after all despite how little I thought of myself, to believe that I didn’t have to settle for the first person who would be interested in me.
And then she transferred schools and absolutely nothing changed whatsoever, nor did I learn any lessons from that. It was also unconnected to my eventual split from my girlfriend at the time.
Did that story feel unsatisfying and completely lacking in any sort of resolution, meaning, or anything that would approach a point? Good! It was supposed to because this week we’re talking about the stories in Final Fantasy XIV that – regardless of how they start and progress – wind up just ending with a total lack of proper resolution. There are a few of them!
The IVth Legion
The first part of the Ivalice storyline in FFXIV is much more focused on the backstory of the region, the Zodiac Braves, and sorting out the truth of what happened in Ivalice and with Delita. It’s really the only part that’s expressly about Ivalice itself. But Noah van Gabranth appears at the very end as a hint about the enemy that players would face in the future. And sure enough, Bozja came around, and we were fighting Gabranth’s subordinates. Once again, though, Gabranth himself had other goals… and it was clear that he considered all that he lost in Bozja was worthwhile for what he acquired. Obviously, he was being set up as a major antagonist for the third installment…
…except then the story was completely told via the character biographies, with a whole lot of stuff that seemed to be hastily explaining why we weren’t ever going to see an actual resolution to the plotline.
Now, it’s a little unclear exactly what happened here. Statements by Yasumi Matsuno imply that his story wasn’t particularly popular with the Japanese playerbase, and so the whole thing was being cut short partly as a result of that. No one else has really said anything about it, and it honestly doesn’t totally track to my perception. After all, he said that after Bozja was finished, but it seems like that’s the sort of thing that would have been determined at the same time, and the writing would have been done before then. So it feels a bit disjointed, to say the least.
Whatever happened, though, the net result is the same. The story was going somewhere, but it got cut short, and now it feels like we’re never going to get to find out where. While the technical story of Bozja was complete, there are a lot of holes in there that were left as followup for plots that it seems we’re never going to actually see. The narrative cuts off halfway without real resolution, and reading a text summary doesn’t really work – even if we do eventually get a follow-up.
Zenos and the Artificial Echo
Zenos viator Galvus is very, very dead at this point. It couldn’t happen to a nicer piece of abject garbage who deserves to be dead at the end of the universe. But do you remember how there was a whole plot about him getting the Echo artificially, which is why his dying the first time didn’t actually result in his never coming back ever again? It was a whole thing that also explained why Fordola now has the Echo?
Yeah, we never actually resolved that plot, huh?
It’s not as if the writers forgot about it or something; the most horrifying quest in Endwalker revolves around this being a thing that Zenos can do. It’s still definitely a thing! And yet the whole idea of an artificial Echo was completely dropped and never got brought up again. The vague implication that it might have long-term effects on Krile? Utterly dropped.
On the one hand, I think this one may actually have a more reasonable explanation that makes a lot of sense. While I have no doubt that a fair number of decisions had already been made regarding how the Echo worked by that point, I also suspect that some things were not yet fully set in stone, and that probably ties directly into the fact that once we had a clearer picture of the Ancients, the whole “artificial” part felt a little weird. It’s not clear how it works, and since the researcher who started that work is already dead, we can all just politely move on.
At the same time, it was built up as a big mystery that wasn’t really resolved so much as dropped. And that’s what we’re talking about here in the first place.
Oh, right, Y’shtola is dying
So Y’shtola is blind. We get regular reminders of that fact. She can use aether to perceive things around her – and somehow to read, although we don’t quite know how that works – but it means that she doesn’t “see” things the same way as everyone else. It’s why she saw the Light infusing us so early in Shadowbringers, for example.
Also, the first time she sees Matoya in Heavensward, her old mentor mentions that what she is doing will literally diminish her aether and is shortening her lifespan. It puts a tremendous strain on her and serves as a ticking clock. Except… it hasn’t. It’s never come up again in any situation.
This one almost seems as if it may have been forgotten somewhere along the way because Y’shtola is quick to offer her own aether to Zero in 6.2 despite the fact that she is with several people whose aether is not compromised like her own. Heck, Vrtra’s aether might even be a better bribe, and while she would have to obtain his consent first, it’s only belatedly brought up after she’s already consented to feed everyone’s favorite edgy reaper lady. She doesn’t seem to be bothered by it in the least.
Now, let me be clear: It is not inherently a problem if Y’shtola is not dying or she figured out how to solve the problem. The point with elements like this is to provide some sort of ticking clock, and it’s perfectly valid to say that said clock just wasn’t interesting and doesn’t reflect where the writers want to go. But it does feel odd that this was brought up as a major plot point and then just got… completely dropped, never to be mentioned again for any reason.
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week, we’ll be talking about the live letter, of course. Yes, on Boxing Day. Fortunately for you all, I will be paying attention.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
