Gassy555: My favorite part was the secret cutscene where Golbez recommended anime to Zero.

Teh_Gaffer: Mike's point about Halmarut perhaps hoping that the WoL will find a way to save everyone triggered something in my mind. The Omega raids basically ended with Omega crunching the numbers and looking at the data and saying "By literally every metric, I am stronger, faster, smarter, and better than you, and yet you keep winning. How the hell are you doing this?" Halmarut taking a similar approach but rather than addressing our power, she sees our uncanny ability to save the day against overwhelming odds and going "If anyone can do the impossible, it's Azem's shard," would be really fun.

It also harkens back to a question that was asked to us by the Endless Sphene, which even appeared in Dawntrail's launch trailer but i feel never got a satisfactory response: "If it were you, could you have found another way? With your strength, could you have held fast to that which is dear without sacrifice?"

I think that, just as Endwalker's final cutscene had us standing in the Sharlayan harbour and remembering Emet-Selch's words, we will end Dawntrail in much the same way. We will think of the calamity to come, the Solstice, the cost of survival that the Winterer's strive for, and we will think of Endless Sphene's words.

Then, we will give our answer.

Yes. Yes, we will find another way.

mattporter3162: My take on Halmarut dropping Zenos' scythe is a warning, she basically tells us there was another person who single mindedly pursued their goal at the cost of the world and look how that turned out you're doing that.

kyumei_: jesse the voice of reason when it comes to the tank changes we dont even fully know yet

Bistai949: On the subject of "what was the point of dawntrail?" I think the entire idea of it is supposed to be the first act of the new story, in a similar way to how ARR was the first act of the initial storyline.

In a typical 3 act structure, the first act usually contains 3 elements: the introduction, the inciting incident, and the turning point. Put simply, the intro is meant to ease the reader into the world, the inciting incident introduces the main conflict, and the turning point represents the main character's decision to set out on their journey to resolve said conflict.

With this in mind and knowing what the general point of the coming story will probably be, we can look at Dawntrail and see that it actually fits these beats quite nicely. The first half of base Dawntrail serves as the introduction, in a sense. By seeing the MC go out on a fairly typical adventure through a new land, we create a sort of new baseline for the state of the world, and the characters, post Endwalker. It's calm and relatively low stakes. However, then the Alexandria plotline suddenly emerges, and the story transitions into the inciting incident. Suddenly, a shard has partially merged into the source. Why is this happening? What's going on? Who's responsible? By the end of the alexandrian conflict we have a pretty good picture of what the major conflict is for the next storyline, which brings us to our turning point in 7.5. Here, the player is clearly being given a choice. We can either set out on a journey across the shards, stop the Winterers, and find a better solution at the risk of dooming everyone., or we can just let the Winterers do their thing and possibly save some lives. Naturally, our choice will probably be to stop them, which is going to lead into Evercold, marking the beginning of the story's 2nd act.

It all sounds nice when I put it that way, and I do legitimately think that this was the intent of the writers from the very beginning. After all, these are some really basic storytelling ideas. The problem is that Dawntrail also needed to be good as its own story, and unfortunately, they didn't really do a good job of accomplishing that. I'm far less of a DT hater than most people, but Dawntrail's own structure, when viewed as a stand-alone story, it's all over the place. It has a plethora of its own core issues to the point where it just doesn't really stand on its own merits, hence the negative reception.

wrenreverie: I'm fully expecting an FF5 style rejoining. We got FF5 references in Occult Cresent, and an FF5 trial in 7.5.

Ziltoidia: It felt to me they were trying to make Calyx more sympathetic. Softer, more defeated voice acting. Saying things like “I just wanted to save everyone (something like that)” in 7.4. “You destroyed my life’s work”. I think Calyx has been defeated and subdued for the time being and will be an unlikely ally.

ShortChangeH3ro: I'm100% on board with the WoL failing to stop a rejoining and it being a reality check for us. FF14 needs and Empire Strikes Back ending to an expansion. However, if there is a rejoining then there will also be a calamity on the source. IF this happens, and this is just how I would write it, it would be at the end of whatever 9.x is. We save the 4th and in doing so we miss what happens on another shard and a rejoining/calamity happens which forces us back to the Source in 10.x and the Godless realms saga ends with us trying to survive a calamity and save the people that we do save through the saga.

Scottoest: Dawntrail in retrospect kinda feels like ARR where it has a story and sets up a few things, but the patches are where the longer-term story really starts.

stevenalvarez2924: Okay, jesse got Azems crystal slightly wrong. When the convocation became 14 to become part of the Zodiark plan, everyone was given a crystal/created a crystal. Azem was not given a crystal/made a crystal because he forsake the Zodiark plan. Hades/Emet created the Azem crystal secretly but never had the chance to give it to Azem. We receive the crystal in recognition of Emet that we are now as close to Emet as Emet was to Azem. So the crystal is real, but it was originally for Azem before the Sundering happened.

Edit: One more important thing, the lines Emet has etched into Azems crystal, with the Elidibus fight, makes it clear that Emet planned to give the crystal to his friend before the sundering OR after the "Joining" is complete. Given to the player/wol means that emet sees you as either Azem reborn or as close enough as a friend to Emet that the message, to Azem, is heard by the WoL.

supadude5000: I know there's a bit on GG about no one recommending the DT roles quests...but with all this talk about wanting a Legion of Doom or Rouge's Gallery...they should do the roles quests, lmao...even if it's more like the Legion of Dorks. At the end of it all, they might end up being the perfect send up of the Winterers concept before it even got started lol

catzalotATJ: I don't think the Azem crystal is hinted to be like, a projection or construct like Emet's Atlantarot.

TheSteveSchulz: There's six of us out there! John Fantasy, Jane Fantasy, Jeff Fantasy, Jill Fantasy, Joe Fantasy and Jade Fantasy.

Adam-777-o6e: 44:30 that's not LB, that's a regular ass Passage of Arms

lovelywillow90: Fun fact, if you emote at Chort it says “the chort” so there probably is more chorts out there.

Apparantly: I can't wait for the Avengers Assemble moment where we open up a path the the 13th and our demon lord army comes through to save the day.

Arlacent: Reflections aren't a place in space you can travel to, they are another dimensional version of the source. Also the "power" of the Azem crystal was simple memories, just like the other crystals were memories. Ethos is triggered by the Azem memories that know how to use it. I think the only reason others haven't been able to travel with us is because we have to have the memory revelation of how to take others with us.

moira4707: To answer Jesse's question about the Azem crystal : Emet has true 'summoning'. With the proper concept, he can (and does) summon stuff that are just real, tangible objects, and don't need a constant influx of aether to stay stable - see: the ruins of Amaurot in the first (not the Emet recreation, the actual, millenia-old ruins surrounding the sahagin nest.)

Logically, the crystal should be good forever unless something happens to it directly

ShortChangeH3ro: Honestly, I think I would be really cool if the new off-tank role was in charge of defensive buffs for raid parties. Tanks already have buffs like GNB's Heart of Light and I think it would be really cool to be more active with stuff like that. Imagine the main tank needing their own buffs (rampart or something similar), the off tanks buff and a shield healers shield just to survive a tank buster. The synergy would be a lot of fun to coordinate. I think it would be really cool.

TrollingPalico: Everything Jesse wants is the stuff I don't want

Ihatenamingnames1: I think that having the main zones of the expansion be flying islands is how they'll get away with having a partial rejoining still happen, because they can be displaced onto the Source relatively safely without severely intersecting with the existing landmasses and zones.

HanabiraKage: Honestly I feel like us defeating the manifestation of despair at the end of 6.0 wasn't so much of us being the world's strongest person thing, that was us being hyper buffed by dynamis with how much we wanted to save our planet and its people and how dominant dynamis was in Ultima Thule. The WoL probably actually peaked in power at around Lv83 and stayed there for the rest of Endwalker and Dawntrail (if we take levels as a gameplay conceit and a sign of narrative progression).

It doesn't change of course that the WoL intentionally pulls their punches and decides to play mentor to Wuk Lamat for most of Dawntrail because the whole succession thing really isn't their business and it's not like the world is at stake.

tameelah3839: So Australia is going to be hard because everything will have to be out to kill you. Plus all the stealth poison builds. :P On Swtor, my Jedi Knight waited for Scourge as female Jedi Knight options are just creepy.

Reshapable: In regards to the Ascian constellation crystals, they were not made alongside the phantom Amaurot. They were what Emet used to revive Ascian souls when an incarnation fell. It's what he used to awaken Amon to his Fandaniel heritage for instance. They are closer to (or straight up are) concept storage devices. Thus they are not inherently ephemeral. I do expect us to lose ours though, so we can surprise everyone with our ability to utilize it's magic on our own or some such.

brianreck5971: naw the rejoining will be creepy like the end of Dark Crystal...but with like 10 people instead of 2

phenik403: Halmarut doesn’t care how anyone survives so long as someone survives.

We are a winterer of hers willing or unwilling. Hence Calyx’s conversation with us at the end of the patch. He is sharing information as winterers do.

deth48: Chort... thats all you need to say about 7.5 and why its a great patch.

May 22 2026

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