FF16 Ending Theory and Themes (BIG OL’ SPOILERS)
Having now completed it, I’m gonna summarize my ending theory and what I think ultimately are the two core driving themes presented by the end
1. “Duty and obligation ties people together, sometimes to a detriment”
2. “The wills and wishes of people usually come to fruition even if it can take generations to achieve”
So we’ll start with the themes
1. As we see the Undying obligated to serve Joshua/House Rosfield sometimes to a fault, which Clive says basically verbatim to Cyril. Regardless, of whether they have noble intentions or causes, people can be led to a tragic or ruinous course quite easily by obligation and duty.
Clive himself, is duty-bound to serve by Joshua’s side, and he strives to carry on Cid’s goals of creating a more egalitarian world. This, despite Jill’s protests to him that he puts a large burden to do so, upon himself.
Side-note: I have seen some criticism that Jill gets side-lined in the third act (yes, absolutely) but that by giving Shiva to Clive it robs her of agency. I think she made it very clear it was her choice to do so. Mind you, her other option was to keep using Shiva until she died, but I think Cid would agree that in itself was a choice as he wanted to create a world where people could choose the terms of their death. She still gives Clive shit afterward about him struggling to lean on others, and I think she has a clear an defined arc of seeking atonement herself. Jill is probably one of my favourite characters, period.
The narrative choice though ultimately of side-lining her unfortunately made a fair bit of sense in the third act, as she, like Joshua would’ve succumbed to the curse. Is it fair that narratively we let Joshua suffer longer? Perhaps not, but I think Jill chose to live, while Joshua expected to die and said as much (especially right at the end, and Clive just accepted his choice)
Gameplay-wise I would’ve been fine having a de-powered Jill as a party member, I mean Byron still kicks all kinds of ass despite being the most normal dude.
Interestingly, Ultima parallels Clive in that he, like Clive, does everything in his (it’s?) power to protect his people. Ultima falls prey to duty as much as Clive does, Clive in the final battle calls Ultima out for being as flawed, and prone to poor decisions as his creations.
2. This one I really liked because the wills of people Clive is constantly defending, and I realized it amounted to people’s “wishes” or goals. Cid has clear goals, to free the world of class strife, that is his wish/will. Jill begins the game, by making a wish upon Metia and the game is book-ended by Metia disappearing from the night-sky, implying Jill’s wish that Clive would safely return to her came true (strongly foreshadowed in several quests including Priceless where Jill essentially spells out the ending: when the dawn breaks , you always come back to me or in another quest for Hippocrates where Clive receives a quill pen, and Hippocrates says he wishes Clive will someday be able to ‘put down the sword and pick up the pen’ and Clive replies by saying he’d like to write a book someday)
Similarly to Clive carrying out Cid’s wishes, or Jill’s wishes being implied to have come true, Ultima asks Clive what happens now that he has won? Clive anwers humanity will struggle, and things will not be easy. To which Ultima replies was it worth all the effort then? Clive [paraphrasing here] answers this by saying it may take generations and years but we will achieve what we set out to do
Essentially they’re saying collaboration and unity is possible but it will be a long hard-fought road and will come from the collective will of the people
which brings it full circle back to the more basic initial themes of “brotherhood” and “unity”
Now, my theory on the ending:
Well, I kind of covered it partially in the section on the ‘wills and wishes of the people’ I’ll elaborate further here
It’s pretty clear Clive probably survived, there’s a ton of foreshadowing (covered above) and there’s also the book in the after-credit scene to consider.
The author is Joshua Rosfield, but I don’t think the actual Joshua had survived. We can infer from all that foreshadowing Clive is likely the author, and using Joshua’s name as a pseudonym like how he used ‘Cid the Outlaw’ to perpetuate Cid’s goals and to honour him. So it’s to honour Joshua most likely.
The family we see I think may just be Rosfield descendants who passed down Clive’s book in the family
The only clue to whether Dion survives is that his Active Time Lore entry does not change, and we have seen Dominants survive worse situations. Narratively, I think it would be perfectly acceptable for him to have survived anyhow.
Our two suggestions to whether Joshua survives would be Clive’s insistence to never break a promise again and his attempt to heal him after the battle with Ultima.
Based on the line that Clive says that not even Ultima’s power was enough, it’s likely Joshua didn’t survive.
Also, I think Joshua having survived would undermine his own choice of having died on his own terms, he wanted Clive to accept it and carry on. Which I think Clive did.
I mean mid-battle, Clive takes a moment to grieve his brother, if Joshua survives, that moment also loses a fair bit of impact.
But that’s just my interpretation. I think I’m gonna let this game’s story stew in my head for a bit as I really loved it but don’t want to overvalue it due to recency bias but damn, this one is sitting quite nicely.
