History Fridge / FinalFantasyXVI

* How it is possible for Cid to conceive the idea of being not reliant on Crystals for everyday-life when for a common Valisthean it is an unthinkable idea? Well, he hails outside Valisthea where magic is simply not possible outside the Mothercrystals' influence. With him already having experienced how it is to live without the Crystals, this idea comes easy.

** Also, magic that isn't amplified by a crystal or by being a Dominant just isn't that powerful in Valisthea. Base level offensive magic in this game basically does ScratchDamage without charging it, to the point that Clive typically does the bulk of his fighting with his sword or Eikonic power. To say nothing of the fact that Bearers are implied to number very few.

** Joshua is less battle-hardened then Clive. There's a reason why Clive is his Shield in the first place.
** Joshua becoming Phoenix is due to a TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening in where he saw his friends and family get murdered in front of him. His psyche isn't really ok in that situation. His initial words as a giant flaming bird deity is tell Ifrit to ''leave him alone''.

** Phoenix's abilities while powerful, is much more tailored for healing and defense. Ifrit is more focused on damage. It is like making a support fight a DPS.
** Anatomically-wise, Joshua is having more trouble being Phoenix due to being a bird. Meanwhile, Ifrit is bipedal with working hands which makes it perfect for Clive.

* Why didn't we see [[TheGhost Leviathan]] or even a Dominant and nation corresponding to it? [[AwesomeButImpractical Because it is too dependent on external factors to make it work]]. In the ocean, it is pretty much unbeatable. Leviathan will just drown any of the other Eikons (unless they can fly) fighting it, to say not of any navies stupid enough to attack it in the ocean. If there is any danger, it can just hide in the deep ocean and wait things out. On the other hand, assuming that Leviathan can move inland like in ''XV'', its powers are heavily limited to it's own water supply, giving it a disadvantage to the other Eikons. If Leviathan cannot move inland, it is a sitting duck that can be blasted from afar. There's a reason why most major cites in ''XVI'' are inland, to get out of Leviathan's more destructive ''range''. Anyone who tried to form a nation around Leviathan most likely realised this and decided not to bother, as being an island chain or fully coastal nation are the only viable options to make it work. The only known islands are already taken up by the Iron Kingdom, who hate everything about Dominants and Eikons. No wonder we didn't see Leviathan at all. It couldn't find a Dominant!
** Another option as to the lack of Leviathan in Valisthea is the possibility that those that could inherit Leviathan are extinct or outside Valisthea, where the presence of the Mothercrystals are lacking which in turn makes magic practically non-existant for non-Valistheans. Cid came from outside Valisthea and he became the Dominant of Ramuh. The Thousand Tomes directly and indirectly implied for Cid and Barnabas that they descended from certain tribes which makes it possible for them to become Dominants of certain Eikons.
* In the side quest "Priceless", Jill mentions that when she was still living in Rosaria as a child, she had overheard the adults discuss her "marriage prospects". As a (former) princess with royal blood of the territory Rosaria had conquered, wouldn't they just assume she should be married to Joshua or even Clive, since they would be raised together and likely have a higher affinity? This actually would have been reasonable to want to avoid, as it was possibly she could have leveraged that marriage to reclaim her homeland.

* In the hideaway(s), even though they are a community of mostly Bearers, you seldom see magic being used, even to make their lives a bit easier. This is probably because of Cid's discovery of what use of magic does to Bearers over time, as well as the fact that his plan to destroy the Mothercrystals will cause [[TheMagicGoesAway magic to fade from the realm]] and he wants them to be used to not having access to it.

* Another sad thing about Annabelle's actions is that they were the impetus that allowed the world to be saved. If she had treated her former children like a good mother then the events of the game might have played out worse with Ultima winning.

* Ultima's own influence over the world, via spreading its aether across the world and creating a ZombieApocalypse by turning humanity into the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Akashic]] is ''eerily similar'', if a bit more showy and blatant, to the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Tempered]]. Given that game has had a different Ultima's influence, which itself implies a prototypical form of Tempering, it raises a lot of horrific questions about whether there's links between their species as [[AGodAmI god-like]] aliens influencing entire worlds for their own ends.