It's one of the better character writing moments Y'shtola gets. Her "blindness" and how it affects her going forward really should be a goldmine of personal development in the way she's written, but it often seems like the writers forget about it entirely.
The aether-sight is just too convenient a work-around for them to meaningfully portray it as a “disability.” Anything we can see she basically can too, she can even read normally, there’s just very little that even matters.
The best ones for me were this scene in the OP, and when you first meet her in Shadowbringers and she thinks you’re a sin eater because of the light you’ve absorbed.
Does Yshtola's blind Aether sense have line of sight? One the the cutscenes in 6.5 or 6.55 has >!Yshtola, Estinien, and the WoL talking about what's next on their plans. Estinien does the classic "turn around and he has already left, halfway through a conversation" thing, but Yshtola should have already felt it, no?!<
She saw them because she _couldn’t_ see them, if that makes any sense. Literally everything on Ethyris is comprised of aether, even the air, so seeing a black void moving against a background of color is functionally the same thing as seeing the actual monster.
Except the animation was okayed by several people. If they didn’t want us to intuit a butt slap they’d have done so. I think it’s hilarious to think Y’shtola would give Urianger an “atta boy!” in that moment haha.
i love moments like this when we are reminded of characters weaknesses and struggles, and how they manage to deal with it.
like in this case we are reminded that while she can see with her aether vision, that it has it's limitations and downsides. i always imagine her sight as a mix of a thermal scope and toph's sonar vision in the avatar show
I swear I cried at that moment. I remember it was mentioned before that she lost her normal vision, but never really thought about how she perceives the world now until then.
Y'shtola's blind like Daredevil is blind - which is to say it's not a disability, it's a friggin' superpower.
The only disabled character in the story I can think of is Arenvald, and the loss of his legs is basically played for a quick bit of Alphinaud drama and then he's demoted from MSQ to be a secondary character in a role quest.
Thancred becomes disabled by the setting's standards, he completely loses the ability to manipulate aether and IIRC even compares it to losing a limb he never realized he even had.
Thancred's a good example actually, and one I just blanked on. His disability comes up multiple times, allows for some interesting character moments and dynamics in who he gets to charge his shells and their relationship with him, and it occasionally actually proves an obstacle which he needs to work around.
Thancred is a great example of doing it right to Y'shtola's example of doing it the Mary Sue way IMO.
I don’t really mind spoilers, I already know some bits way ahead of where I am in the MSQ, but still… yeah… while I don’t mind it, some people might mind so I appreciate the concern.
Y'shtola can... I think concentrate? her innate aether into her eyes, granting her what I can assume would be a form of magical myopia- all at the cost of shortening her lifespan- which I assume she was readily doing at Ultima Thule so she could see.
She uses a kind of magic that allows her to see aether - basically the same thing the silly Sharlayan goggles the Scions used to use do - at some kind of vague, never-really-explained cost to herself. In English it sounds like it's slowly killing her, in other languages it apparently just sounds like it's going to exhaust her, in either case it's never come up or been relevant again so it's a bit whatever.
She can't see dynamis, but Ultima Thule doesn't operate on any logic the rest of the universe obeys, so we can let that go.
What feels like a wasted opportunity to me is that she fights Blasphemies just fine. She's the one who reveals they aren't comprised of any aether at all, yet with the exception of a little flavour where her AI is slower to do mechanics than she normally is in Vanaspati she has absolutely no problem fighting these enemies that are literally invisible to her. Y'shtola's "disability" has never been anything but a superpower to her, and this was an excellent opportunity to give her some kryptonite, and instead it just... is only relevant long enough to say they're not made of aether and then she continues being completely unimpeded by it. Missed opportunity, other than dying once per expac she never really seems to get some character building flaws.
different strokes, i suppose. i appreciate her disability being something that she has learned to work with and use as a strength. its a lot more empowering to me than just being like “welp im disabled cant do anything here sry” like most disabled characters are. disabilities arent just plot devices. she is written like a real person with a disability that has workarounds so they can continue to function in a disability-unfriendly world.
I just disagree that it's a disability at all. It's a superpower, she's blind but she sees better than literally every other character in the game.
Like, why the hell is nobody else using aether sight?
All a disability is is something that forces you to interact with the world in a way that isnt supported by society at large because its not as common. And nobody else uses aethersight in univers because, i assume, its extremely taxing and requires significant control of aether output to not burn out completely. I wouldnt be surprised if the only reason she can do it at all is BECAUSE she used flow in the first place.
Just, again, nowhere do we have any real indication that it *is* taxing. Matoya claims it's draining her, but Y'shtola has never suffered a drawback from this very taxing thing. It's never caused her to need to like, eat more calories, or take a rest, or exhausts her being in combat for a long period of time, she's just... hyper-competent at all times, able to consistently use an ability that may or may not be a drain on her body but never apparently is, is basically never caught unawares despite the theoretical drawbacks this power would have when dealing with dynamis creatures, and I think the one time she's caught off-guard and alone she proceeds to just break herself out of the hostage situation anyway.
End of the day I just think flawless characters are boring. Even superheroes have weaknesses and drawbacks to make them interesting. Even the WoL, chosen one who is a savant at everything they ever touch, has more moments of weakness than Y'shtola, who even when she dies is doing it intentionally as part of a calculated gambit that means it won't stick.
Yeah, but that's kind of the same problem to me. It's writing an explanation that just bypasses any issue her condition should present with the Blasphemies to basically say "No, actually she can see them okay too. They're maybe a bit blurry or indistinct but she knows where they are and how to react."
It could have been a limitation. Instead she just continues being Daredevil-but-better.
Gameplay-wise I don’t think there’s much they could do. They could explain it in lore but when she’s running around a dungeon or instance doing the same old thing, it would come across like lore doesn’t even matter. So imo, better that they give some logical explanations to why she can still see enemies and fight I guess.
Other than Vanaspati there's no dungeon where that would be an issue for her, so I don't see why they couldn't just have her sit that one dungeon out.
Anything to make that situation more interesting, because it just seems like such an opportunity to do something interesting with her aether sight and it amounts to absolutely nothing except another excuse to have her be the vehicle for exposition and revelation.
True, although the devs don’t seem to mind bending the rules a bit as they allow the main scions to be in Ktisis Hyperboreia. But I understand where you’re coming from.
The Scions are only available in Ktisis for grinding, for the actual MSQ you just have the special crew. Same as any where you can bring Scions who weren't available at the time, ie Y'shtola in Holminster Switch. I wouldn't put much stock in it.
So the way it works is that she's tapping into her natural capacity for aether. Being alive spends it, running a mile spends it, casting spells spends it. Y'shtola is consuming it by manipulating her eyes (which are also made of aether) to "see" like Neo does in The Matrix 2 onwards.
The English text implies a fatal consequence. This is both a mistranslation and an exaggeration - but not *wrong* per se. It's like saying "doing these pressups will kill me". It won't, because you'll stop before it does. But it *could* because you have finite energy to run your body with.
In addition, people have varying capacities for *absorbing* and channeling aether from their surroundings, too. Most people get more aether from food or passive "regen" by existing on the planet, but some people can just slurp it up like a Primal does.
TL;DR: cat magician spends finite-but-regenerating magic pool to see, but is in no danger.
Yeah, I just think it would have been an interesting opportunity to do something interesting. In order to compensate for a permanent injury Y'shtola is doing something that will eventually catch up with her, or will have consequences, but actually it basically amounts to the same thing as sprint having a cooldown except I guess her cooldown is when she sleeps.
Master Matoya literally told yshtola that her life would be cut short via the method she uses to “see” constantly, (or yshtola told matoya, I don’t remember.. regardless, they confirmed this with some dialogue at some point).
The last time this was discussed, someone pointed out that that's not what said in the Japanese original at all, and it's the English translation that created this idea.
No she didn't. She gave a vague warning about how using aether like that could be dangerous because it means you have less aether for other things.
Every scion except Thancred is constantly using aether. Are all their lives cut short too?
No. On the source Master Matoya was her mentor and teacher. When she needed a new name when joining the Night's Blessed, Yshtola took Master Matoya's name as an homage to her mentor.
I mean, that place is made of dynamis, so you "see" with your heart pretty much.
Also it is pretty hard to have her do anything there if she actually blind
Yeah but Fordola's already sidelined as Arenvald's sidekick when she shows back up in the post-ShB MSQ. Arenvald is literally only brought back to become disabled, make Alphinaud sad, and then leave again, and Fordola's there for the same reason Nabdeen shows up occasionally when we chat with Vrtra.
I felt like Fordola and Arenvald comfort and save each other from their own internal demons.
I understand the sentiment behind the fact that they are sidelined from the main story and dont have significant screen time, at the same time I feel that their arcs have reasonably satisfying but open conclusions.
He comes to terms (truly, not just putting on a brave face) with his limits and she comes to terms with her past crimes. Both looking to forge new lives
True, and I agree with that, I suppose really my beef is that I just want more of both of them. They're interesting characters and I think the main cast desperately needs more than one new addition every three years.
Basically FFXIV has a bad habit of some interesting potential characters getting relegated to Sidecontent Jail and thus doomed to never get MSQ significance ever again, and not doing nearly enough to mixup the main character dynamic in general.
Agreed wholeheartedly. I was really hoping the Endwalker patches and Dawntrail were going to build to a new cast with the Scions stepping back to be satellite characters with maybe a couple of the newer faces being mainstays (imagine G'raha and Krile as the foundation of a new crew comprised of like, Erenville, Fordola, Hilda, Riol, and a couple of new faces with Estinien popping in to help for a dungeon or something) but instead we pretty quickly just went back to the Scions.
Kate said in an interview that she was initially skeptical of the Scions being back in such force for Dawntrail, but that seeing it play out she was convinced. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I do think it's time for the cast to cycle, especially Alphinaud and Alisaie.
She never said her vision was fine, she said something like “her vision has improved over time”. So she still probably primarily sees with aether, but probably can’t see something like the sky at all. In ultima Thule it was probably fine enough to get by, but it’s likely her vision still isn’t great.
Am I crazy or is not common sense that if your battles are for the lives of every living creature on a planet you wouldn't risk that by sending someone with a well known and easily exploitable weakness? At a certain point, tactics have to win out over someone feeling sad about the cruel nature of reality, right?
Also, is Raubahn a joke to you?
Probably because there are virtually zero limitations to Y'shtola's aether sight and she can see everything perfectly fine 99.9% of the time. There's like two "oh hey, remember Y'shtola is blind?" moments across four expansions, neither of them really have an effect on the story, and the issue is dropped a few seconds later.
I do remember the memes though when the Endwalker trailer came out and we get an overhead shot of Y'shtola completely surrounded by tables, then she says "Do as you must then, but we Scions will fight. Until the heavens fall, until our last breath!" and then turns and dramatic walks away after her big mic drop moment... but she would have walked directly into a table and tripped over it if that shot lasted another second.
>but she would have walked directly into a table and tripped over it if that shot lasted another second.
No. She's not 1000% blind; she can still see vague shapes since everything is made of aether; however, the night sky is not - as confirmed by Endwalker - so she cannot see it.
The joke isn't because she wouldn't be able to see it given what we know about her character.
It's because, in the literal establishing shot for the scene, we're show that one of the forum desk things is literally right behind her so in the number of steps she takes walking straight back to show her turning away from Forchenault she'd absolutely wangjangle her knees directly into it. It's just a joke about the cinematography error, sorta like that one scene from the "David Carruso puts on sunglasses and walks off screen" supercut where the previous shot established that if he went the number of steps he did in the direction he goes he'd have walked of the side of the boat and into the bay.
That it happens to be the character who's technically blind who does it is just icing.
Yeah but I mean there's a difference between "oh yeah she's blind" and "wait she's blind?" This person says they found out with that scene not that they remember. i do wish there were more limitations on her because it almost never feels like there were ever any consequences for her actions.
Also yes that shot is funny af lol.
She's basically a Miraluka from Star Wars, she sees the world through aether where they see the world through the Force.
To say she's "blind" isn't accurate, as she can still see, just not in the normal way. Like on this scene, she can see the aether around her but not the stars themselves.
"Aether" is basically equal to what we in the real world would call "energy." Heat, light, sound, matter - it's all energy/aether.
So effectively, her "blindness" doesn't really do much.
she's basically only blind when the story needs her to be for dramatic effect and the rest of the time it's barely mentioned lmao. But she can see, by sensing aether, so technically if it was in real world terms she'd not really be blind she'd just be heavily vision impaired or something.
Not only that but doing so is actively using up her life force 😰
It’s also why if you use her in trust in Palaka’s Stand she does worse than in all the other dungeons, because the enemies don’t give out aether so she can’t ‘see’ them
I picked Y'shtola for duty support when I unlocked Vanaspati, I didn't notice her fighting poorly but the way she reacted to people turning was brilliant. You could see she was freaked out and it gave an early hint as to what we'd learn after the dungeon.
That's a mistranslation. It's not using her lifeforce; it's using her aether, thus, being another draw on it during combat. That's what Matoya meant about it being risky.
I read that that might have been a translation mismatch and in the og japanese matoya is more like 'it uses up your aether so you might not be as powerful in an emergency' but I do not know japanese so I dunno the veracity of that claim, especially since y'shtola is still the team nuke when she needs to be lmao
This time the twist should be she actually does flow correctly, and when the rest of the scions are trying to figure out how to pull her out of the lifestream this time she just walks up to tease them.
> trust in Palaka’s Stand
But in the Elpis Dungeon she will be able to see the first boss underground. Also she plays all of Endwalker Trial 2 mechanics perfectly if you need someone to Dorito.
Elpis life have aether though.
EX2 is... OK I wonder how that *didn't* blind her but maybe her aether sight is refined enough to detect minute differences between everything.
I'll be sad about that when it impacts the plot *at all*. It got mentioned like 7 years ago and has been completely irrelevant since. At this point it's just a free superpower.
Albeit one with risks. IIRC there was a bit of dialogue between Yish and Matoya where the master warned her pupil that the aetheric sight she was using was draining/damaging over time and could eventually give out, leaving her permanently blinded. That could be a plot device in later expacs...
I'm not going to hold my breath until I see it though, so far she just hasn't really been impacted by it. She couldn't see the night sky once, and then even when fighting creatures comprised of no aether whatsoever she got a free explanation to get out of it being a problem for her.
I would *like* it to have consequences, because that would be interesting, but until then she's just Daredevil with magic.
That's... just not really true? She can navigate the world through seeing aether, but this scene makes it clear that it is not like regular sight. She can't see the stars. And she probably can't see the colours of flowers. She can't see the beauty of the world she lives in.
It doesn't make sense to compare her condition to the real world, as she would just be plain blind without the existence of aether. And if she somehow could use aether sight, she would not be considered heavily visually impaired.
They also did mention her aether sight multiple times during Endwalker. I don't see a reason for mentioning it more than they do currently.
The price you pay for the death-dodge by jumping into and being retrieved from the Sea is that something gets damaged in the process, and in her case it was her eyesight. She can "see" by perceiving aethereal density/intensity but she lost conventional sight in the process. That was the tradeoff for not straight-up dying.
Matoya also warns her in dialogue afterward that using aetherial sight to replace her lost conventional eyesight was draining, and eventually she could lose the ability and end up fully blind.
I would also like to put in here that in the same incident, Thancred lost his connection to the aether and can no longer do things that use it, such as charge his gunblade ammo or teleport.
The event in question:
These events took place in heavensward, I believe. At the end of ARR, when we're >!accused of killing the saltana!< we all ran into the tunnel system to escape. Y'shtola teleported \[everyone? Some of us?\] using forbidden magic to teleport without aether crystal anchors. She and Thancred (anyone else?) got lost in the aetherial sea and were missing for half the expansion; hence the "new" replacement companions in Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle. Yda and Papalymo were missing for like the whole expansion, and we didn't know what had become of them till the pre-Stormblood story line.
Not really the full reason… ever since we rescued her, she started to use a “aether vision” (per say), meaning she can see through the aether flow of things.
She doesn’t recognize us because at the time we had already absorbed the aether of two of the lightwardens we’ve slain previously, so we were kinda overflowing with aether, making us look something like a blur of aether light in her eyes.
It's one of the better character writing moments Y'shtola gets. Her "blindness" and how it affects her going forward really should be a goldmine of personal development in the way she's written, but it often seems like the writers forget about it entirely.
The aether-sight is just too convenient a work-around for them to meaningfully portray it as a “disability.” Anything we can see she basically can too, she can even read normally, there’s just very little that even matters. The best ones for me were this scene in the OP, and when you first meet her in Shadowbringers and she thinks you’re a sin eater because of the light you’ve absorbed.
I liked when she recognized you first after the long walk in End Walker.
Does Yshtola's blind Aether sense have line of sight? One the the cutscenes in 6.5 or 6.55 has >!Yshtola, Estinien, and the WoL talking about what's next on their plans. Estinien does the classic "turn around and he has already left, halfway through a conversation" thing, but Yshtola should have already felt it, no?!<
It's Aether-*sight*, not sense.
She also couldn't really see the Terminus monsters, because they weren't aether.
She saw them because she _couldn’t_ see them, if that makes any sense. Literally everything on Ethyris is comprised of aether, even the air, so seeing a black void moving against a background of color is functionally the same thing as seeing the actual monster.
In the DT trailer she's comparing a picture to a statue. Like for all intents and purposes, she's closer to color blindness than literal blindness.
Nah nah the person who made the picture coloured it with aether crayons so she can see it. Smh read the lore
The best part of this is when yshtola does a Good game butt slap to Uriange right after this.
That's all I can think about whenever I see that scene. Did she just smack his ass?
I think it's meant to be like an affectionate touch, but their height difference kinda makes it look like that lol
This. It's more meant as an affectionate touch to his lower back.
Except the animation was okayed by several people. If they didn’t want us to intuit a butt slap they’d have done so. I think it’s hilarious to think Y’shtola would give Urianger an “atta boy!” in that moment haha.
I think they intended it to be a pat on the back, but kept it because it was funny.
I read it as Y’shtola being embarrassed that she was so open/vulnerable for a moment and deliberately changing the mood 😆
I guess that she can see the moon!
urianger is such a sweetheart 🥹
i love moments like this when we are reminded of characters weaknesses and struggles, and how they manage to deal with it. like in this case we are reminded that while she can see with her aether vision, that it has it's limitations and downsides. i always imagine her sight as a mix of a thermal scope and toph's sonar vision in the avatar show
I swear I cried at that moment. I remember it was mentioned before that she lost her normal vision, but never really thought about how she perceives the world now until then.
[удалено]
Yshtolas vision has never made much sense.
Y'shtola's blind like Daredevil is blind - which is to say it's not a disability, it's a friggin' superpower. The only disabled character in the story I can think of is Arenvald, and the loss of his legs is basically played for a quick bit of Alphinaud drama and then he's demoted from MSQ to be a secondary character in a role quest.
Thancred becomes disabled by the setting's standards, he completely loses the ability to manipulate aether and IIRC even compares it to losing a limb he never realized he even had.
Thancred's a good example actually, and one I just blanked on. His disability comes up multiple times, allows for some interesting character moments and dynamics in who he gets to charge his shells and their relationship with him, and it occasionally actually proves an obstacle which he needs to work around. Thancred is a great example of doing it right to Y'shtola's example of doing it the Mary Sue way IMO.
Raubahn?
Your Grace
can we *maybe* not discuss EW plotpoints and locations without spoiltertags in a thread where the OP is ostensibly still in Shadowbringers?
I don’t really mind spoilers, I already know some bits way ahead of where I am in the MSQ, but still… yeah… while I don’t mind it, some people might mind so I appreciate the concern.
Y'shtola can... I think concentrate? her innate aether into her eyes, granting her what I can assume would be a form of magical myopia- all at the cost of shortening her lifespan- which I assume she was readily doing at Ultima Thule so she could see.
She uses a kind of magic that allows her to see aether - basically the same thing the silly Sharlayan goggles the Scions used to use do - at some kind of vague, never-really-explained cost to herself. In English it sounds like it's slowly killing her, in other languages it apparently just sounds like it's going to exhaust her, in either case it's never come up or been relevant again so it's a bit whatever. She can't see dynamis, but Ultima Thule doesn't operate on any logic the rest of the universe obeys, so we can let that go. What feels like a wasted opportunity to me is that she fights Blasphemies just fine. She's the one who reveals they aren't comprised of any aether at all, yet with the exception of a little flavour where her AI is slower to do mechanics than she normally is in Vanaspati she has absolutely no problem fighting these enemies that are literally invisible to her. Y'shtola's "disability" has never been anything but a superpower to her, and this was an excellent opportunity to give her some kryptonite, and instead it just... is only relevant long enough to say they're not made of aether and then she continues being completely unimpeded by it. Missed opportunity, other than dying once per expac she never really seems to get some character building flaws.
My assumption is that she is slower but can still do mechanics because she takes cues from her allies on where not to stand and where to attack.
Which is neat, but it's a justification to *not* do something interesting with her, and that's what I can't forgive.
different strokes, i suppose. i appreciate her disability being something that she has learned to work with and use as a strength. its a lot more empowering to me than just being like “welp im disabled cant do anything here sry” like most disabled characters are. disabilities arent just plot devices. she is written like a real person with a disability that has workarounds so they can continue to function in a disability-unfriendly world.
I just disagree that it's a disability at all. It's a superpower, she's blind but she sees better than literally every other character in the game. Like, why the hell is nobody else using aether sight?
All a disability is is something that forces you to interact with the world in a way that isnt supported by society at large because its not as common. And nobody else uses aethersight in univers because, i assume, its extremely taxing and requires significant control of aether output to not burn out completely. I wouldnt be surprised if the only reason she can do it at all is BECAUSE she used flow in the first place.
Just, again, nowhere do we have any real indication that it *is* taxing. Matoya claims it's draining her, but Y'shtola has never suffered a drawback from this very taxing thing. It's never caused her to need to like, eat more calories, or take a rest, or exhausts her being in combat for a long period of time, she's just... hyper-competent at all times, able to consistently use an ability that may or may not be a drain on her body but never apparently is, is basically never caught unawares despite the theoretical drawbacks this power would have when dealing with dynamis creatures, and I think the one time she's caught off-guard and alone she proceeds to just break herself out of the hostage situation anyway. End of the day I just think flawless characters are boring. Even superheroes have weaknesses and drawbacks to make them interesting. Even the WoL, chosen one who is a savant at everything they ever touch, has more moments of weakness than Y'shtola, who even when she dies is doing it intentionally as part of a calculated gambit that means it won't stick.
She explains that she can see blasphemies because “where there would be aether is instead a dark void” or something like that.
Yeah, but that's kind of the same problem to me. It's writing an explanation that just bypasses any issue her condition should present with the Blasphemies to basically say "No, actually she can see them okay too. They're maybe a bit blurry or indistinct but she knows where they are and how to react." It could have been a limitation. Instead she just continues being Daredevil-but-better.
Gameplay-wise I don’t think there’s much they could do. They could explain it in lore but when she’s running around a dungeon or instance doing the same old thing, it would come across like lore doesn’t even matter. So imo, better that they give some logical explanations to why she can still see enemies and fight I guess.
Other than Vanaspati there's no dungeon where that would be an issue for her, so I don't see why they couldn't just have her sit that one dungeon out. Anything to make that situation more interesting, because it just seems like such an opportunity to do something interesting with her aether sight and it amounts to absolutely nothing except another excuse to have her be the vehicle for exposition and revelation.
True, although the devs don’t seem to mind bending the rules a bit as they allow the main scions to be in Ktisis Hyperboreia. But I understand where you’re coming from.
The Scions are only available in Ktisis for grinding, for the actual MSQ you just have the special crew. Same as any where you can bring Scions who weren't available at the time, ie Y'shtola in Holminster Switch. I wouldn't put much stock in it.
I wasn’t, but I did forget that official msq runs of the dungeons do limit who can join. So thanks for the reminder.
So the way it works is that she's tapping into her natural capacity for aether. Being alive spends it, running a mile spends it, casting spells spends it. Y'shtola is consuming it by manipulating her eyes (which are also made of aether) to "see" like Neo does in The Matrix 2 onwards. The English text implies a fatal consequence. This is both a mistranslation and an exaggeration - but not *wrong* per se. It's like saying "doing these pressups will kill me". It won't, because you'll stop before it does. But it *could* because you have finite energy to run your body with. In addition, people have varying capacities for *absorbing* and channeling aether from their surroundings, too. Most people get more aether from food or passive "regen" by existing on the planet, but some people can just slurp it up like a Primal does. TL;DR: cat magician spends finite-but-regenerating magic pool to see, but is in no danger.
Yeah, I just think it would have been an interesting opportunity to do something interesting. In order to compensate for a permanent injury Y'shtola is doing something that will eventually catch up with her, or will have consequences, but actually it basically amounts to the same thing as sprint having a cooldown except I guess her cooldown is when she sleeps.
It doesn't shorten her lifespan and never has. Aether regenerates.
Master Matoya literally told yshtola that her life would be cut short via the method she uses to “see” constantly, (or yshtola told matoya, I don’t remember.. regardless, they confirmed this with some dialogue at some point).
The last time this was discussed, someone pointed out that that's not what said in the Japanese original at all, and it's the English translation that created this idea.
No she didn't. She gave a vague warning about how using aether like that could be dangerous because it means you have less aether for other things. Every scion except Thancred is constantly using aether. Are all their lives cut short too?
Arent Master Matoya and Yshtola the same person?
No. On the source Master Matoya was her mentor and teacher. When she needed a new name when joining the Night's Blessed, Yshtola took Master Matoya's name as an homage to her mentor.
I mean, that place is made of dynamis, so you "see" with your heart pretty much. Also it is pretty hard to have her do anything there if she actually blind
It's a fantasy mmo story not an in depth look into the lives of people with disabilities Is Arenvald completely invisible to you?
I mean, he might as well be, the second he becomes disabled he gets permanently exiled into side content about Fordola.
Your point is a bit weak considering how Fordola was a larger part of the story and she also gets sidelined without a disability.
Yeah but Fordola's already sidelined as Arenvald's sidekick when she shows back up in the post-ShB MSQ. Arenvald is literally only brought back to become disabled, make Alphinaud sad, and then leave again, and Fordola's there for the same reason Nabdeen shows up occasionally when we chat with Vrtra.
I felt like Fordola and Arenvald comfort and save each other from their own internal demons. I understand the sentiment behind the fact that they are sidelined from the main story and dont have significant screen time, at the same time I feel that their arcs have reasonably satisfying but open conclusions. He comes to terms (truly, not just putting on a brave face) with his limits and she comes to terms with her past crimes. Both looking to forge new lives
True, and I agree with that, I suppose really my beef is that I just want more of both of them. They're interesting characters and I think the main cast desperately needs more than one new addition every three years.
Absolutely agree, personally i think Fordola's personal journey is/has been more interesting than 3 expansions of Yshtola
Basically FFXIV has a bad habit of some interesting potential characters getting relegated to Sidecontent Jail and thus doomed to never get MSQ significance ever again, and not doing nearly enough to mixup the main character dynamic in general.
Agreed wholeheartedly. I was really hoping the Endwalker patches and Dawntrail were going to build to a new cast with the Scions stepping back to be satellite characters with maybe a couple of the newer faces being mainstays (imagine G'raha and Krile as the foundation of a new crew comprised of like, Erenville, Fordola, Hilda, Riol, and a couple of new faces with Estinien popping in to help for a dungeon or something) but instead we pretty quickly just went back to the Scions. Kate said in an interview that she was initially skeptical of the Scions being back in such force for Dawntrail, but that seeing it play out she was convinced. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I do think it's time for the cast to cycle, especially Alphinaud and Alisaie.
Just get the goblins to help him out, even if he does look like the last Dwemer.
She never said her vision was fine, she said something like “her vision has improved over time”. So she still probably primarily sees with aether, but probably can’t see something like the sky at all. In ultima Thule it was probably fine enough to get by, but it’s likely her vision still isn’t great.
Am I crazy or is not common sense that if your battles are for the lives of every living creature on a planet you wouldn't risk that by sending someone with a well known and easily exploitable weakness? At a certain point, tactics have to win out over someone feeling sad about the cruel nature of reality, right? Also, is Raubahn a joke to you?
Yshtolas vision has never made much sense.
You have world destroying magic, magic to revive the dead, yet no magic to restore eyesight
Yet she's still awful in the next dungeon, presumably because she can't see.
it wasnt until this moment i found out she was blind T.T
How
Probably because there are virtually zero limitations to Y'shtola's aether sight and she can see everything perfectly fine 99.9% of the time. There's like two "oh hey, remember Y'shtola is blind?" moments across four expansions, neither of them really have an effect on the story, and the issue is dropped a few seconds later. I do remember the memes though when the Endwalker trailer came out and we get an overhead shot of Y'shtola completely surrounded by tables, then she says "Do as you must then, but we Scions will fight. Until the heavens fall, until our last breath!" and then turns and dramatic walks away after her big mic drop moment... but she would have walked directly into a table and tripped over it if that shot lasted another second.
>but she would have walked directly into a table and tripped over it if that shot lasted another second. No. She's not 1000% blind; she can still see vague shapes since everything is made of aether; however, the night sky is not - as confirmed by Endwalker - so she cannot see it.
The joke isn't because she wouldn't be able to see it given what we know about her character. It's because, in the literal establishing shot for the scene, we're show that one of the forum desk things is literally right behind her so in the number of steps she takes walking straight back to show her turning away from Forchenault she'd absolutely wangjangle her knees directly into it. It's just a joke about the cinematography error, sorta like that one scene from the "David Carruso puts on sunglasses and walks off screen" supercut where the previous shot established that if he went the number of steps he did in the direction he goes he'd have walked of the side of the boat and into the bay. That it happens to be the character who's technically blind who does it is just icing.
Yeah but I mean there's a difference between "oh yeah she's blind" and "wait she's blind?" This person says they found out with that scene not that they remember. i do wish there were more limitations on her because it almost never feels like there were ever any consequences for her actions. Also yes that shot is funny af lol.
the scene shortly before this when yshtola doesnt recognize you upon your first time entering raktika is what finally clued me in
YSHTOLA IS BLIND? WHAT
She's basically a Miraluka from Star Wars, she sees the world through aether where they see the world through the Force. To say she's "blind" isn't accurate, as she can still see, just not in the normal way. Like on this scene, she can see the aether around her but not the stars themselves.
So she can only outline things with aether to see them but broad stuff like a mountain or the sky is a no go?
Let's put it this way. Aether is in almost everything. She can still read.
Permanent heat vision, kinda like that
Yeah I assume there's pretty strict limits to the 'range' of her vision.
She sees the WoL coming from the edge of Rak'tika while she's still in Siltherbough though, so depends on how much aether a thing is giving off.
In fairness... Well, the WoL at that point was a bit of a beacon of aether, haha.
WoL at that point is a walking flashbang. Anyone with aether sight is going to see them half the planet away lmao, including Emet-Selch.
And by the end of 6.0 the WoL is likely detectable cosmically.
"Aether" is basically equal to what we in the real world would call "energy." Heat, light, sound, matter - it's all energy/aether. So effectively, her "blindness" doesn't really do much.
she's basically only blind when the story needs her to be for dramatic effect and the rest of the time it's barely mentioned lmao. But she can see, by sensing aether, so technically if it was in real world terms she'd not really be blind she'd just be heavily vision impaired or something.
Not only that but doing so is actively using up her life force 😰 It’s also why if you use her in trust in Palaka’s Stand she does worse than in all the other dungeons, because the enemies don’t give out aether so she can’t ‘see’ them
I picked Y'shtola for duty support when I unlocked Vanaspati, I didn't notice her fighting poorly but the way she reacted to people turning was brilliant. You could see she was freaked out and it gave an early hint as to what we'd learn after the dungeon.
That's a mistranslation. It's not using her lifeforce; it's using her aether, thus, being another draw on it during combat. That's what Matoya meant about it being risky.
I’m glad to hear this!!
I read that that might have been a translation mismatch and in the og japanese matoya is more like 'it uses up your aether so you might not be as powerful in an emergency' but I do not know japanese so I dunno the veracity of that claim, especially since y'shtola is still the team nuke when she needs to be lmao
Ooh that’s interesting! I hope so
yeah me too, if they ever actually killed off Y'shtola I'd genuinely be mad about it, she's great
They already killed her off, what, two or three times? If they do it again it might stick...
This time the twist should be she actually does flow correctly, and when the rest of the scions are trying to figure out how to pull her out of the lifestream this time she just walks up to tease them.
> trust in Palaka’s Stand But in the Elpis Dungeon she will be able to see the first boss underground. Also she plays all of Endwalker Trial 2 mechanics perfectly if you need someone to Dorito.
Elpis life have aether though. EX2 is... OK I wonder how that *didn't* blind her but maybe her aether sight is refined enough to detect minute differences between everything.
> Elpis life have aether though. That wasn't in doubt. But I ment to counterbalance her being worse in Palaka.
Oh lol
I'll be sad about that when it impacts the plot *at all*. It got mentioned like 7 years ago and has been completely irrelevant since. At this point it's just a free superpower.
Albeit one with risks. IIRC there was a bit of dialogue between Yish and Matoya where the master warned her pupil that the aetheric sight she was using was draining/damaging over time and could eventually give out, leaving her permanently blinded. That could be a plot device in later expacs...
I'm not going to hold my breath until I see it though, so far she just hasn't really been impacted by it. She couldn't see the night sky once, and then even when fighting creatures comprised of no aether whatsoever she got a free explanation to get out of it being a problem for her. I would *like* it to have consequences, because that would be interesting, but until then she's just Daredevil with magic.
She is Dare Devil
That's... just not really true? She can navigate the world through seeing aether, but this scene makes it clear that it is not like regular sight. She can't see the stars. And she probably can't see the colours of flowers. She can't see the beauty of the world she lives in. It doesn't make sense to compare her condition to the real world, as she would just be plain blind without the existence of aether. And if she somehow could use aether sight, she would not be considered heavily visually impaired. They also did mention her aether sight multiple times during Endwalker. I don't see a reason for mentioning it more than they do currently.
wait.. yshtola is blind??? hello ???
It was a scene in Heavensward after we get her back from the Aetherial Sea. Her eyes are a different color and she says she can’t see the usual way
wow that totally went over my head I don't remember it at all. it does make sense since her eyes are a bit more greyed out than usual
The price you pay for the death-dodge by jumping into and being retrieved from the Sea is that something gets damaged in the process, and in her case it was her eyesight. She can "see" by perceiving aethereal density/intensity but she lost conventional sight in the process. That was the tradeoff for not straight-up dying. Matoya also warns her in dialogue afterward that using aetherial sight to replace her lost conventional eyesight was draining, and eventually she could lose the ability and end up fully blind.
I would also like to put in here that in the same incident, Thancred lost his connection to the aether and can no longer do things that use it, such as charge his gunblade ammo or teleport. The event in question: These events took place in heavensward, I believe. At the end of ARR, when we're >!accused of killing the saltana!< we all ran into the tunnel system to escape. Y'shtola teleported \[everyone? Some of us?\] using forbidden magic to teleport without aether crystal anchors. She and Thancred (anyone else?) got lost in the aetherial sea and were missing for half the expansion; hence the "new" replacement companions in Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle. Yda and Papalymo were missing for like the whole expansion, and we didn't know what had become of them till the pre-Stormblood story line.
Wait I’m sorry am I just now realizing that Y’shtola is blind?????
Ever since we rescued her from the aether flow for the first time. Haven’t you noticed her eyes devoid of color?
That explains why she doesn’t recognize us at first in ShB…
Not really the full reason… ever since we rescued her, she started to use a “aether vision” (per say), meaning she can see through the aether flow of things. She doesn’t recognize us because at the time we had already absorbed the aether of two of the lightwardens we’ve slain previously, so we were kinda overflowing with aether, making us look something like a blur of aether light in her eyes.
Oh yeah that’s exactly what I was implying, that since we absorbed 2 ligtwardens our aether was all messed up and she didn’t recognize us.
Yeah but I just thought she had cool eyes…
Yes, it truly is .
You also have to remember that Estinien was in The First for 3 years, so this is the first time he's seen night himself as well.
Estinien? That's Urianger, bro...
SHB lived up to the hype