#normal raids

1) Themis is Elidibus

This one is pretty self explanatory, and I have to imagine a lot of people are coming out of these raids thinking the same thing.

Elidibus said he met us in Elpis, but didn’t appear in the Elpis MSQ, after all.

Elidibus is also the only non-retired Ancient who wears white robes, and we know that he was still a child at the time of the Final Days. Since Themis is the only child we’ve met, and also wears white robes, and meets us in Elpis, I mean. That feels obvious.

2) Elidibus is the one who developed the binding ritual for Zodiark, and as such, the Watcher is modelled on Elidibus.

Themis is learning (at a prodigious rate) how to cast immensely powerful binding magics. Assuming he took his “dear friend”s warnings to heart, it makes sense that he would develop an otherwise “inescapable” form of binding to keep Zodiark restrained and prevent the first Primal from destroying the people he so dearly loves.

The watcher wearing white robes could, of course, be a retiree like Venat, but I think there’s something very charming about the idea that even when he lost himself completely and fell to the point of total destruction, there was an Echo of him living on, helping his true goals persist.

3) Erichthonius is Lahabrea.

“Our” Lahabrea, that is. The motherfucker we keep punching in the face in Praetorium and murdering in the Aetherochemical research facility.

I began thinking this basically the second he made that sad weird face after I was like “lmao yeah I know the guy I could tell you some wild stories ayyy.”

And oof. It sure does make... every single dialogue from there on... hurt. And I mean, “thing which hurts the most” is basically always true with the Ancients.

4) The Lahabrea of the raids is Hephaestus.

First off, Hephaestus is the mythological father (biological) of the mythological Erichthonius, who was not meaningfully involved in the Erichthonius myth, while Athena very much was, as his mother (adoptive).

Secondly, this Lahabrea is lauded as an unparallelled engineer, able to bring to fruition a concept (Phoenix) which exceeds the capacities of anyone else who has tried. The foregmaster bringing forth the firebird just makes sense, aesthetically.

5) The Heart of Sabik

There’s nothing really to support this, as such, but I think if the Heart of Sabik was a corrupting force that broke Hesperos, or otherwise features but is not fully understood within the raid, that would explain a lot of why Lahabrea is so weirdly obsessed with it in ARR, but has no fuckdamn clue what it actually is, beyond “power without parallel.”

6) The dear friend is Azem*

I mean we all kind of know this one, since “a dear friend” is basically the only way anyone refers to Azem contemporaneously.

But here’s my twist.

7) Igeyorhm is Aphrodite

I think this is the Azem before “us:” Venat. After all, Venat modeled the watcher off a dear friend of her own. Knowing what she knows about the nature of the future, it makes damning sense that she might work together with Elidibus, not just to create Zodiark’s wards, but to condemn both herself and him to being the cores of the first primals.

Update: I obviously play a female wol. This is jossed, as anyone who plays a male wol can attest lmaoooo

I can’t imagine this matters to anyone in any way, but Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaestus and well known for her caprice, her violence, and her charisma, so if “our” Lahabrea is indeed Hephaestus and not Erich, I have to conclude that the champion of rhetoric is Aphrodite. If our Lahabrea is indeed Erich, then I’m inclined to keep it. Hesperos is just another name for Venus, itself a romanized Aphrodite, and Erichthonius has already made it clear that he held hesperos in highest regard.

Though, I suppose if it is Erich, then Igeyorhm could be Praxitheia? IDK, I think it’s funnier if Aphrodite fucked up the 13th.

SO!!!

Those are my Hot Takes!