Do you feel empathy towards the Warriors of Darkness?

Yes and no. Yes because of their plight and that of their world, no because they appeared to have learned nothing from it until they're talked down.

They apparently started the flood by rushing into every obstacle without thinking, then when that backfires on them they keep doing it with the only difference being they do it on targets set by the Ascians.

Hear, Feel, Think. They failed every point of the only instruction we're ever given by Hydaelyn and at no point did doing so ever cause any amount of introspection on the responsibility of their own actions.

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Originally Posted by Cybylt

Hear, Feel, Think. They failed every point of the only instruction we're ever given by Hydaelyn and at no point did doing so ever cause any amount of introspection on the responsibility of their own actions.

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I think the same could be said about the WoL and Scions. They know doing everything right would lead to a Flood of Light, yet they still defeated Primals and other potential sources of darkness. The mysterious man kept telling the WoL and Scions to stop what they were doing in regards to fighting Garlemald (not that they knew) and eventually intervened in during WoL vs Elidibus.

Hydaelyn's instructions by the end of 2.0 was to "spread light through all creation" and to not listen to the Asciens. The WoLs of the 1st failed on the 2nd part, but they did as they were told, especially once Hydaelyn became silent.

To be fair, the plan they were going with would have worked when the rejoining put the lifestream of their shard into the source's. And it wasn't until Uriangr's plan unfolded that anyone had a workable alternative.

I actually read the Encyclopedia before I got to that point in HW, so I knew going into their story what their deal was and why they were acting the way they were. But I definitely feel like the perspective flip on them came too quickly; or rather, they were acting too evil in their introduction. That could have been dialed back.

I'm really looking forward to the role quests though.

nope they werent around long enough for me to invest anything into them.

Nope. Really, the only memorable parts of their arc for me is Alphinaud's "Carbuncle, defend me!" and Urianger posing with his book. Like, that's really it. Forgot the WoDs even existed to be frank. Just can't be arsed to care about them or the First, since much like the Ala Mhigans there's no reason to care other than that we're obligated to due to the plot.

There's a word that perfectly describes that mental state where you try to feel empathy for someone who just wants you to die, and is doing everything in his power to make that happen right now, even though you've done nothing at all to affect him in any way.

That word is "dumb". Don't be dumb. Self-defense laws exist for a reason.

No, for the exact reasons the OP stated. You can blame it on the "rush job" of their arc, but their personalities and characterizations were cliche' villains with sinister facial expressions and actions right up until they suddenly weren't when the plot suddenly deemed it necessary. Are we about to travel to a new world to attempt to bring balance swaggering-around looking malicious, shady and sinister while exclaiming how entertaining it is to kill people who mean no ill-will? I highly doubt it. Their situation sucks, yes, but don't expect me to take pity on them after they're beaten and only then decide to expose their situation after being purposely menacing (and smug) without a hint of diplomacy.

I'm rewatching the WoD cutscenes tonight in preparation for ShB and one scene I had forgotten about was actually rather nice. The bit where Arbert and Urianger are talking in Thanalan, and he shows how stressed he is about his situation and a hesitance to kill the WoL. It actually did make me feel for him more than I had earlier today.
Unfortunately the storyline also had scenes like the Xelphatol one where they were super cliche villains. The Miqo'te especially.

Seeing it also made me realize that before we learned their names the class titles they were identified by were all FF3 classes. That's really cool in retrospect with ShB featuring Crystal Tower.

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Originally Posted by Cidel

No, for the exact reasons the OP stated. You can blame it on the "rush job" of their arc, but their personalities and characterizations were cliche' villains with sinister facial expressions and actions right up until they suddenly weren't when the plot suddenly deemed it necessary. Are we about to travel to a new world to attempt to bring balance swaggering-around looking malicious, shady and sinister while exclaiming how entertaining it is to kill people who mean no ill-will? I highly doubt it. Their situation sucks, yes, but don't expect me to take pity on them after they're beaten and only then decide to expose their situation after being purposely menacing (and smug) without a hint of diplomacy.

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I mean, given that we do have players who want to side with the Ascians/wanted to be Warriors of Darkness when before SHB was announced because they wanted to not be goody two-shoes, as well as quite a few dialogue options in SB letting your WoL be not quite the goody hero (The one about with the Vira when talking about having to reach Lakshmi comes to mind)...yeah, I could see some wanting to do that.

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Originally Posted by JeanneOrnitier

I'm rewatching the WoD cutscenes tonight in preparation for ShB and one scene I had forgotten about was actually rather nice. The bit where Arbert and Urianger are talking in Thanalan, and he shows how stressed he is about his situation and a hesitance to kill the WoL. It actually did make me feel for him more than I had earlier today.
Unfortunately the storyline also had scenes like the Xelphatol one where they were super cliche villains. The Miqo'te especially.

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I think whichever lore book has their profiles also shows the Miqo'te being the least moral of the five. Like, still not actually evil but if we were to go DnD she would be Chaotic Neutral.