Parley on the Front Lines - Anatomy of a Cutscene

Parley on the Front Lines - Anatomy of a Cutscene - FFXIV Lore

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@midge2946 4 ай бұрын

Always liked this cutscene a lot. Draws on a lot of established stuff and brings out plenty of the ugliness about the city-states that often went unmentioned. Stuff that would be given more serious resolution later on down the line, in the Alliance working more closely with the beast tribes and bringing their conflicts with them to an end. As reprehensible as it is, you can kinda get the sense why Varis would feel this was the only way to oppose the Ascians. To us, we'd dealt with an extremely burnt out Lahabrea and an Elidibus who'd mostly just been meddling in the background. It doesn't seem like it should be impossible for us as we are to deal with them. But then we have Emet, who is really just far more dangerous and powerful than either of them. And he's certainly not barking up entirely the wrong tree. It did take us one more rejoining, personally, to defeat Emet. It just came about in a way that Varis probably never could have imagined. I always wonder how Varis would have taken it to see both Emet out of the picture and the Alliance with a cure for tempering. I feel that is a lot more "talking the talk" of us keeping the peace and being able to deal with the Ascians on our own. But you also get the sense that he was a pretty twisted guy at this point, and probably would have fought to the bitter end the same as someone like Quintus. XIV has a lot of really standout villains, and Varis tends to get overshadowed a bit in the grand scheme of things, but I think this cutscene is him at his best. Still a little sad we never got that oft-discussed full Garlemald themed expansion that could have slotted in between Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

@madambutterfly1997 Ай бұрын

You watch as he descends into madness When a minute ago he was the most composed person at the table

@askel6498 4 ай бұрын

I still don't understand what Varis' big plan was. So he knows that the Source and the 13 shards were once one world, and he knows that all races were once one race (I guess the Ascians told him), and he knows that the Ascians want to rejoin the Shards with the Source via the calamities. And his plan to oppose the Ascians is...by doing the exact same thing they are doing??? Either I am missing something crucial here or there was a different plan of how the the story would've evolved but then it got changed into ShB->EW. Because whatever "Varis' big plan" was feels like a giant open plotline for me.

@seekittycat 4 ай бұрын

His though process: Ascians want to destroy humanity and treats then like toys. Human will is strong, but divided between nations and shards humans are too weak to fight ascians. Once the shards and nations combine together we will finally be equal to them and be able to kill them for good. His idea of "re-joining" simply means humans will get stronger and fall under his rule. There doesn't seem to be an understanding that the source will be sacrificed. Or maybe he thinks once we are all "complete" he can kills all the ascians before that iunno.

@TheNeoVariable 4 ай бұрын

@@seekittycat That is basically what he intends to do. More than likely once he took the throne and learned that he fought tooth and nail to become a figurehead, Emet-Selch probably gave him sparse details on why he built Garlemald and nowhere near mentioned that they would be sacrificed.

@bluesrike 4 ай бұрын

@@seekittycatI've got a couple of counter points against his plan or maybe even dismantles his logic altogether. 1. His empire has spent more time fighting everyone but the Ascians. He doesn't get to claim he's fighting for the greater good when he subjects the inhabitants of the conquered provinces to misery and fear. He doesn't get to claim peace and call us 'savages'. 2. Up to the point of where this parley takes place the Scions killed Nabirales and Igeyorm while Thordan killed Lahabrea, an Unsundered Acian. Remind me: How many Ascians has his empire killed so far?

@zjuraeventide8949 4 ай бұрын

@@bluesrike Even in the cutscene itself, Nanamo makes a good point on the things he says. If he's willing to sacrifice even his own people for some perceived greater good, he isn't fit to rule as emperor.

@futurepastnow 4 ай бұрын

It reads like accelerationism to me. He knows the Ascians aren't going to stop. He doesn't believe he could stop them even if he wanted to- let alone anyone else. He knows first-hand of their immortality. Get the rejoinings over with, rip the bandage off this broken world and its weak people. But he also has a severe case of Main Character Syndrome (and why wouldn't he), so he seems to think he or his descendants can survive what's to come.

@madambutterfly1997 Ай бұрын

The parley cutscene was my favorite. The emperor calls out the alliance on their hypocrisy as their Nations only came to be after doing what they accuse the Empire of doing

@WyrmLimion Ай бұрын

Its the kind of storytelling many games miss and I was so glad to see it happen. And you see them all grow and be better in the years to come which imo makes this scene all the more impactful.

@madambutterfly1997 Ай бұрын

@@WyrmLimion they have grown, but because of how recent this formed alliance was established much of that growth is still just surface level. What they have currently as a house of cards that can still crumble if the wind is strong enough.