#3.2 trailer

[xadence]

dont tell me y'all aint seeing the similarity

[twilighthiro]

Me, watching the 3.2 trailer:

not mine, belongs Here.

[kazuverse]

I would burn the world down if she asked me to🥺😭

She must be protected at all cost😭😫❤️

[aha-chuu]

Uhh spoilers for the 3.2 livestream and some leaks (no plot stuff though)

I too watched the livestream. It's interesting and I had some thoughts.

First: trailer starts with the POV character opening their eyes - they're looking at Alhaitham's back, and he is doing the V.O. On a nearby desk, there are knowledge capsules (green).

We don't know whose POV this is. Most likely it is Traveller's, but we have had other POV shots before (in 3.0, we had the crazy eremite guy's POV). If it is Traveller's then I assume this is Alhaitham telling them his plan, after Cyno and Dehya have already left to play their roles. If it isn't Traveller, then it could be a Village Keeper - perhaps they've managed to restore their sanity with the knowledge capsules somehow? And I suppose Alhaitham would be a comforting presence (lmao) as a well known Scribe since the Village Keepers are all also from the Akademiya.

But this is an odd way to start the trailer. "Imagine, -" like, the V.O. is a hypothetical. If the POV is the Traveller, why does it seem like they're waking up? I don't think we'll be in the desert past the beginning of the quest, so we would have to be injured very early on to wake up like this.

What's weirder, though, is that the POV closes it's eyes again. Like this isn't someone waking up, but someone blinking as they lose consciousness. Maybe it's not, maybe that's just where Hoyoverse decided to cut it. But there are more interesting lines throughout the trailer.

We get very little non-Nahida non-Scaramouche stuff. We do learn from Cyno's V.O., however, that whatever plan they're following is one Alhaitham concocted. This makes logical sense since he's the 'brains' of the operation, and it's unclear as to whether or not the Akademiya know he's a traitor. While Cyno is in the desert here, the trailer shows Alhaitham casually strolling through the House of Daena (big library) -

(he's very tiny but you can see him on the left of the bridge.)

There's an elevator in this area that was previously inaccessible unless you glitched it. Assumedly, Alhaitham is going toward it and will enter the restricted section of the Akademiya despite working against them (keep this in mind).

We also have this:

I'm not sure who is speaking here - it could be one of the Sages (it's a male voice) and there is no clear indication of who they are speaking to. I believe it's Alhaitham, since we know that we're acting according to his plan, and "sacrifice" implies a level of loss. Like, if Dottore or Scaramouche were planning on killing the Traveller, I don't think it'd be a "sacrifice".

So here's my theory:

1) Alhaitham comes up with his plan and tells everyone else off screen. Whether or not he's entirely honest does not matter, the point is that everyone else is sent off to their assignments and Alhaitham tricks us (drugs us? Uses the knowledge capsules somehow?)

2) we end up in the rainforest again. Somehow. The Traveller doesn't know what's going on and we are mad about it.

3) Alhaitham makes a deal with either the Sages or the Fatui in the hidden room inside the library. If it's the Sages, then it could be selling out our location (hence "sacrifice" the Traveller). If it's the Fatui, then perhaps it's something to do with the dendro gnosis? You'd think Dottore would already have access to it since he can mess with the Akasha, but I can't think of anything else they'd care about. The deal in this case would include Dottore leaving Sumeru (with the dendro gnosis) and would explain why he's leaving so suddenly.

In return, Alhaitham might ask for a cure for Eleazar or maybe a way to treat the Village Keepers. Or something less noble. I really can't get a read on him lmao.

4) we think Alhaitham is a traitor. Cyno and Dehya know that he's not, since he is working for the 'greater good'.

5) Scaramouche and Irmunsul. Drama. I think we'll get reveals and such but it'll be pretty straight forwards.

6) Quest ends with Alhaitham fucking off somewhere. He's pretty suspicious and he very recently tricked the Traveller. The hypothetical he lays out at the beginning of the trailer could a) be him attempting to explain his reasoning, or b) he is cut off and we don't yet have the full picture of what he's talking about:

"Imagine this: we have orchestrated our plan and successfully rescued Lesser Lord Kusanali. We have changed Sumeru's entire political landscape." I just feel like it's cut right before he says 'but -'.

Supporting leaks:

Apparently, Alhaitham's banner will be 3.4. This gives time for the Scaramouche banner in 3.3 to resolve his character arc somewhat with whatever the story is, before maybe jumping into an archon quest interlude with Alhaitham for his banner? I'd enjoy it.

Also, it's rumoured that Kaveh (Alhaitham's roommate) will appear in 3.2. Most of his current in-game content (voicelines and the message boards) reference him exclusively with Alhaitham, so I figure if he shows up he's gonna have something to say about Alhaitham.

Anyway, I liked the trailer a lot. I'm not sure where all the connective threads are, but I think the focus on the Scara boss fight was to hype up the cinematics while keeping the plot itself vague. Unless that boss fight does truly take up 60% of the quest :'))

[kazuverse]

AHAHVSVDBDMDMZBZVDCGGDBDN

I'm so excited! I can't wait for Nahida🥺

[boccs]

YES!  Finally more Hildebrand quests!  I’ve been waiting this entire expansion just for his tomfoolery.

I also appreciate that Sephirot is using Atma’s theme from FF6 instead of the popular theory he’d use Sephiroth’s music from 7.  Because that’d just be awful.

[pudgy-puk]

so on the issue of why we seem to be fighting Raubahn in the trailer, I have a hypothesis. it comes in three parts:

1) Aymeric in Ishgard is trying to end the Dragonsong War, and as of 3.1 appears to be making real progress towards meeting that goal.

2) as of 3.0, Raubahn is now beholden to Lolorito--Ul’dah’s richest and most powerful trader king, head of a very organized and dangerous league of merchant princes--for saving Nanamo’s life and restoring Raubahn’s own freedom and position.

3)

...so yeah.

(and if they confirm that yes ul’dah does have a monopoly on mythril, which ishgard is known to import in quantities sufficient to make armor, which is VERY expensive, and solely for the purpose of withstanding dragonfire... well then).

[pudgy-puk]

when they said there was going to be an FFIV boss in the Antitower I was actually honestly expecting Lugae and Barnabas, rather than Calcobrina. That being said, I am still VERY PLEASED with the creepy dolls now being made even creepier in HD! I also want their unique boss music and a calcobrina minion pls and thank.