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5.3 ramble below bc i cant shut up about ardbert
i know it's insanely unlikely cause the end of shb was a really neat tie off to ardbert's story, but i cannot drop the fact that they're also setting up his revival if the writers so choose to take that route in 5.3 and onwards
like, IT'S CONFIRMED Ardbert is still kinda 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 in the wol when Y'shtola said she recognized the wol's soul was still as bright as it was before.
i cannot help but recognize the signs, i rly cant:
1) his soul is proven to be preserved, or at the least, remnants of it are there
2a) unlike all his friends, who's bodies we saw disappear and therefore confirm that they were all dead, his was never found
1) his soul is proven to be preserved, or at the least, remnants of it are there
2a) unlike all his friends, who's bodies we saw disappear and therefore confirm that they were all dead, his was never found
2b) and with 5.2 out, we know his body is alive and well, there's just someone else walking around in it atm.
and with the Lahabrea thing from 2.0, we know it is COMPLETELY possible to rid an Ascian of a body without harming the actual body too much
and with the Lahabrea thing from 2.0, we know it is COMPLETELY possible to rid an Ascian of a body without harming the actual body too much
3) Ardbert was expressing a LOT during 5.0 msq that Norvrandt has changed so much from when he was alive and it's all practically foreign land to him again.
can you imagine the payoff of Ardbert being able to re-immerse himself in his home, THAT HE HELPED SAVE, after helping beat up the guy who has not only screwed him over MULTIPLE times, but picked up Ardbert's corpse out of the ground and used it to manipulate the people he saved?
not to mention, i really thought the WoDs kinda got shafted when Stormblood started taking center stage. post-heavensward was all about peace between dragons and mankind IS achieveable!! and the WoD were a sideplot that we'd see more of later!!
but then stormblood kinda appeared.
but then stormblood kinda appeared.
and we didn't really see anymore of the WoD, not even hints of them, until the very first quest of Shadowbringers (if you don't count a certain job quest arc). that's an entire expansion where this plotpoint got shafted and wasn't even relevant.
and also not to mention, Ardbert himself was a semi-major character all throughout ShB, but his backstory with his friends, who are arguably just as important as Ardbert himself, were hidden behind role quests that you needed to level other classes to do
i already had a ton of classes leveled and ready to do the role quests. but i have several friends and mutuals who just don't have the motivation to level those other classes and opt to just look up the story. which is really sad to think about.
an entire potential arc about a major character for shadowbringers is kept in the dark because the objectives to unlock said arc aren't motivation in themself to get them done.
that rly sucks.
that rly sucks.
so i'd like to believe that the writers wont completely drop Ardbert's story after all this, and that the patches are a build-up to him getting a second chance at being a Warrior of Light. maybe even helping the Scions in the Source, or just living out his days in the First
which leads into all my dumb headcanons and ideas for what'll happen in 5.3 but i'll shut up about that until i finish my breakfast owo
