Yoshida's latest interview, Comic Exhibition Taiwan 2025

A Garlemad expansion planned at one point but they never did it. And this is all I am adding to the topic, I am done with EW talk and have been.

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For combat balance, we assign each job a difficulty level and adjust its power accordingly. If a suggestion makes high-difficulty jobs too easy (e.g. 60 points worth of skills nets you 80 points of DPS), we aren’t not going to take the advices. But suggestions that maintain difficulty of the job while making gameplay more fun or fluid are welcome.

I always remind my team that our players paid money and time to play your game and some of them even give you great advices. That our team should always treat our players as partners for development and not to reject good ideas out of developer pride. If an advice makes the game better, it will be fine to fully adopt everything.

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Gotta give Yoshi-P one thing, utterly mediocre as a developer and producer, but he's amazing when it comes to spinning PR bullsh*t.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

Instead of expanding the story meaningfully, they recycle plotlines from other Final Fantasy games,

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they have done this from jump. You just used to like it

I cannot believe we were going to get a proper garlean expansion and it was cut because *looks at notes* the game was received too well? Nobody involved in making that decision is worth their salary

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Originally Posted by Villa101

they have done this from jump. You just used to like it

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Because they did it in a meaningful way which my statement implies.

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Originally Posted by Velthice

I cannot believe we were going to get a proper garlean expansion and it was cut because *looks at notes* the game was received too well? Nobody involved in making that decision is worth their salary

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I guess the game will have to do like ass financially for us to get anything good and for them to take their time with their storylines and treat them with care

yoshida talks about 'high difficulty jobs'.... seriously? wtf

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

I know I wouldn't have cared for a "sympathetic" Garlemald expansion, not after they spent ARR through Stormblood playing them up as a bunch of warmongering and genocidal mass-rapists, would have felt like a whole lot of apologist and eye-rolling nonsense and I would have been skipping cutscenes left and right to get out of there already. (Much akin to how some people just skipped straight through Dawntrail.)

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For real tho. An entire expansion on Garlemald? That was the sloggiest part of Endwalker lmfao I'm pretty glad we got in, got out, and got on with it. The empire destroyed itself before we could do anything or learn anything meaningful from it. Leadership had already fractured and mostly died in battle. We learned what we could from the survivors who didn't suicide themselves and then we left them to deal with their own problems like they wanted to. Yeah, it was a tragedy, many things in this world are. But many things can't be stopped or remedied, and Garlemald was so far beyond saving that by the time we got to it, it was fitting that it was beyond repairing too. Living and dying by the sword as it were.

Now the people who made up the empire, the installments and fortifications all over? I wouldn't mind learning about those people a bit and what they did after they learned that the empire had fallen. No governance and no more supplies coming, all on their own? What kinds of paths would those people take? Some would assimilate locally, maybe even using their military prowess to protect the small settlements from local threats (heroic emergence), maybe some would subjugate the local populations and have to be excised (malevolent emergence). Some might just become their own little settlements, become self-sufficient, try to live a peaceful life (peaceful coexistence). Some might collapse completely because they didn't have the knowledge or resources to survive and everyone died (tragic emergence). It goes on. And, get this, you can add a new variable to each of these wherein the writer asks themselves "how would the locals respond?" Perhaps some would rebel or otherwise admonish the stranded Garlean installments. Some would be accepting and loving. Some would leave them to starve or to suffer. Again, it goes on. So much potential. So much waste.

Almost like it could have been a side quest series, even...perhaps one with trials? Crazy idea, who would ever do that

And instead? Wuk Lamat :C

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Originally Posted by yesnt;6729102[QUOTE

]they recycle plotlines from other Final Fantasy games

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I'm convinced people that say this haven't actually played other Final Fantasy games. They recycle characters. And even then, they are almost never presented in the same way as they were in their original games.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

I feel like people overestimate how much people would have wanted a “sympathetic garlean” expansion.

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I know I didn't. They were a brutally totalitarian regime who only stopped oppressing others to wage civil war among themselves and their purpose was to make the word a worse place to be so the genocide wizards could create catastrophes that ended with the total extinction of other worlds. And as we've seen in Endwalker, they are so brainwashed they'd rather die that accept help, with the "sympathetic" general we do see willing to send his soldiers on a suicide mission where he expected them to all be slaughtered.

There is nothing sympathetic about them, since in the text, their sole existence was to be an instrument of misery.

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Originally Posted by DreadCrow

I know I didn't. They were a brutally totalitarian regime who only stopped oppressing others to wage civil war among themselves and their purpose was to make the word a worse place to be so the genocide wizards could create catastrophes that ended with the total extinction of other worlds. And as we've seen in Endwalker, they are so brainwashed they'd rather die that accept help, with the "sympathetic" general we do see willing to send his soldiers on a suicide mission where he expected them to all be slaughtered.

There is nothing sympathetic about them, since in the text, their sole existence was to be an instrument of misery.

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This, a hundred times. From the start the Garlean Empire was nothing but a boring clone of the Star Wars Empire. Nameless grunts cannot find their own bum with two hands in the dark, while every guy with a name is a complete psychopath. Only difference: When you talk to the named guys, suddenly it's all about "helping the greater good". They couldn't even admit that they just enjoy kicking other people's faces in the dirt. Highlight was the parley with the Emperor himself: "Hey Scions, I heard you also got problems with the Ascians? So lookie, I found the perfect plan: we will just do everything they ask from us. That'll teach them!" It's never a good plot twist when the leader of your enemies turns out to have the IQ of a potatoe.

Getting rid of the empire off-screen was the best they could do. I loved ShadowBringers, but everytime the screen got black and the subtitle said "Meanwhile in Garlemald" I rolled my eyes so hard, I just couldn't stand this annoying, arrogant, agressive lot any more. Well, until they turned into an annoying, arrogant, whiny lot... where I could stand them even less. If my WoL had anything to say in the story, they might be inclined to get themselves some Allagan spaceship, and nuke the Garlemald remains from orbit.

/rant over

Garleans suffered from the same twirly moustache villain syndrome writing ascians did in ARR. We didnt get much nuance to them until Gaius and the Bozja storyline. But I get it, I think the destruction was inevitable even in a full Garlemald expansion, but offscreen lol?

I feel like that about the ancients too after watching their incompetence, especially Hermes. Im glad they got nuked.

They were written to fit the theme of the expansion down to their personalities (unless they were named like Emett etc and looked like a bunch of todlers in the end.

Much like the population of Solution 9 now. Again. If they arent named. They should start writing believable societies instead of "muh themes" in the future.

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

Yeah, no kidding, the only regret about them being blasted offscreen was that we weren't given the option to glass them ourselves. Would have been an interesting capstone for being the "Warrior of Darkness" that we were finally done humoring their nonsense.

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That should've been the climax to Elpis. Imagine how many problems could've been avoided if we just killed everyone there.

Damn, I knew it. So sad that they actually confirmed EW being a rushjob, we knew it already anyways but now it's a hard fact.
And not only that, a Garlemald Expansion would have been soooo good. We were robbed. Massively. T_T

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Originally Posted by Aniise

Damn, I knew it. So sad that they actually confirmed EW being a rushjob, we knew it already anyways but now it's a hard fact.
And not only that, a Garlemald Expansion would have been soooo good. We were robbed. Massively. T_T

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The most baffling thing was "we were super successful... lets do a rush job" I dont get the logic.

And looking at how the rest of the interview Yoshi P contradicts a lot of their dev teams actions just confirms that he's not a trustworthy individual.

If we got the Garlemald story we still wouldn't know the eldritch horrors of Wuk Lamat

People are acting like Garlemald would have sucked and been all about a bunch of moustache-twirling idiot villains who were just gung-ho for genocide. Ignoring the fact that the Populares existed. Ignoring Gaius' change of heart. Ignoring the fact that anything written with thought and care would have been a lot more nuanced than "hurr hurr we all Nazis". People and societies are more nuanced than "we are all the same". Not every German soldier in the Wehrmacht was all about Nazi ideology, not every Union soldier in the Civil War was all about freeing slaves, and not every Confederate soldier was an evil racist who wanted to enslave "black people" forever.

Beyond that, though, I think people are forgetting that , prior to Shadowbringers, the Ascians themselves were just moustache-twirling villains who were just gung-ho for genocide and chaos.

Remember that. Shadowbringers has so thoroughly retconned the Ascians/Ancients that I think people forget that the Ascians initially were just crappy Organization XIII knockoffs with seemingly no plot in mind for them. They were literally just cartoon villains til some thought and care was put into them. I'm sure the same could have been done with Garlemald, too.

The Garlean Empire got the ending it deserved. It would be nice if some side content kept following the survivors and their rebuilding / moving on. Nero on the moon? Hello?

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

People are acting like Garlemald would have sucked and been all about a bunch of moustache-twirling idiot villains who were just gung-ho for genocide. Ignoring the fact that the Populares existed. Ignoring Gaius' change of heart. Ignoring the fact that anything written with thought and care would have been a lot more nuanced than "hurr hurr we all Nazis". People and societies are more nuanced than "we are all the same". Not every German soldier in the Wehrmacht was all about Nazi ideology, not every Union soldier in the Civil War was all about freeing slaves, and not every Confederate soldier was an evil racist who wanted to enslave "black people" forever.

Beyond that, though, I think people are forgetting that , prior to Shadowbringers, the Ascians themselves were just moustache-twirling villains who were just gung-ho for genocide and chaos.

Remember that. Shadowbringers has so thoroughly retconned the Ascians/Ancients that I think people forget that the Ascians initially were just crappy Organization XIII knockoffs with seemingly no plot in mind for them. They were literally just cartoon villains til some thought and care was put into them. I'm sure the same could have been done with Garlemald, too.

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The whole of ARR had some great worldbuilding, for every nation and area. But damn were the villains whitebread. Down to the "nyahahaha" laughter. It was so comical I couldn't take it seriously, the whole banquet betrayal and Heavensward brought nuance to the writing.
Yeah people are kind of conveniently disregarding that the ascians were equally cringe to the Garleans, until we got all the side content and Gaius. Bozja was very nuanced on the Garleans, the royalty in Dalmasca and Bozja treated the commoners like crap, Garlemald gave them opportunities and even plucked out orphans into schools. Some were against the empire, others took the opportunities. HECK, the Bozjans even adopted some of Garlemalds policies into their new constitution because they WORKED. Populares are a thing. Every legion might've been completely different. Heck, Gabranths legion seceded from the empire to fight for a new land of equal rights without looking at race, creed or religion.

Garlemald deserved to be extinguished in its current form, but they deserved the screentime and to be treated by a writers pen, not an offscreen eraser. We can clearly see in the current material that they are struggling to write anything with nuance. Tural barely had any strife and Solution 9 is full of themebabies that just follow the theme of the expansion or whatever the plot demands of them, they aren't actual living breathing citizens. "Oh now I fear death" "Oh now the Queen is back yay"

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

People are acting like Garlemald would have sucked and been all about a bunch of moustache-twirling idiot villains who were just gung-ho for genocide. Ignoring the fact that the Populares existed. Ignoring Gaius' change of heart. Ignoring the fact that anything written with thought and care would have been a lot more nuanced than "hurr hurr we all Nazis". People and societies are more nuanced than "we are all the same". Not every German soldier in the Wehrmacht was all about Nazi ideology, not every Union soldier in the Civil War was all about freeing slaves, and not every Confederate soldier was an evil racist who wanted to enslave "black people" forever.

Beyond that, though, I think people are forgetting that , prior to Shadowbringers, the Ascians themselves were just moustache-twirling villains who were just gung-ho for genocide and chaos.

Remember that. Shadowbringers has so thoroughly retconned the Ascians/Ancients that I think people forget that the Ascians initially were just crappy Organization XIII knockoffs with seemingly no plot in mind for them. They were literally just cartoon villains til some thought and care was put into them. I'm sure the same could have been done with Garlemald, too.

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Ishikawa's even acknowledged that and said that everything around Amaurot required them to soft retcon most of the existing Ascian lore.

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

People are acting like Garlemald would have sucked and been all about a bunch of moustache-twirling idiot villains who were just gung-ho for genocide. Ignoring the fact that the Populares existed. Ignoring Gaius' change of heart. Ignoring the fact that anything written with thought and care would have been a lot more nuanced than "hurr hurr we all Nazis". People and societies are more nuanced than "we are all the same". Not every German soldier in the Wehrmacht was all about Nazi ideology, not every Union soldier in the Civil War was all about freeing slaves, and not every Confederate soldier was an evil racist who wanted to enslave "black people" forever.

Beyond that, though, I think people are forgetting that , prior to Shadowbringers, the Ascians themselves were just moustache-twirling villains who were just gung-ho for genocide and chaos.

Remember that. Shadowbringers has so thoroughly retconned the Ascians/Ancients that I think people forget that the Ascians initially were just crappy Organization XIII knockoffs with seemingly no plot in mind for them. They were literally just cartoon villains til some thought and care was put into them. I'm sure the same could have been done with Garlemald, too.

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Doing that with a place and doing that with characters are two very different things. And the former requires being interested in that place full of people enough to expand on it. And its clear they have not been interested garlemald since zenos was created.

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Originally Posted by FuturePastNow

The Garlean Empire got the ending it deserved. It would be nice if some side content kept following the survivors and their rebuilding / moving on. Nero on the moon? Hello?

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Also this, the fascist crumbled under the weight of the bed it made. Exactly what it deserves. There was nothing you were going to get out of a garlemald expansion

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

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There is one more aspect to that: The entire nation was propaganda'd into believing their actions were necessary, all constructed by Ascians who pulled the strings from behind the curtain. Garleans did not wake up one morning and said "yeah, lets go conquer everything", their leadership all told them that Eorzean faith would have been the end to everything (which granted, summoning a primal does have that risk, but that too has been orchestrated by the Ascians). Having a Garlemald focussed expansion would have been interesting to help uncover the truth of what is happening to the masses of the land (similar to how Heavensward pulled back the curtain on the 1000 year war), and it would have been interesting to be undercover and act as someone we are not (considering the Garleans think of us as an absolute monster for killing so many of them). It could have shown how the regime handled those opposing their political views, too. So really, I think the "killing it offscript" approach the devs went with was a lot of wasted potential.

I would have hated an entire expansion on Garlemald. And I felt what they did with Garlemald was perfect. I'm also not a fan of garlemald, so I don't understand what more people wanted from the area.

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

As Hallarem said, there has been plenty of people saying over the years, "NUH UH THEY DIDN'T HAVE A GARLEMALD EXPANSION PLANNED YOU'RE JUST A FASCIST WHO WANTED THEM GLORIFIED". Especially since I could never quite find the interview where it was previously mentioned that this was true. It was always dismissed as a fanwank "rumor". Now here it is, in print and indisputable.

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In the interview you're referring to, they spoke about how a Garlemald expansion came up when they were on their story retreat but they ultimately decided against that path. So we do know from their own words that it never got out of the story concept stage.

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Originally Posted by All_Nonsense

Honestly idk what the issue was with him being the Exarch. Why did he have to become this uwu anime boy when we brought him back, as if he didn't lead the entire world through its destruction and towards a place where it had a future. The man who sacrificed everything he had, degrading his body for a century until he crystalized completely, unsure if he would ever be revived, all for a world that he wasn't native to, all so he could prevent a calamity on his home world that scorned him, and one he (at the time) could never return to. Knowing the grief he put his adoptive daughter through, the uncertainty that it would throw the world into, just to stop a threat that was beyond the understanding of almost everyone he was trying to save. All of that development and character potential thrown in the trashcan so he could be shy anime catboy coomerbait. If he retained his dignity and all that stuff and was still mature, and had a "borgar cat" moment, that would be fine. All of the silly shit would be fine, why not. But erasing his identity has always sat poorly w/ me

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He's not the same person. He's the 20 something guy we met back in crystal tower now with all of exarch's memories. What happened with him is similar to the minfilias fusing or us fusing with ardbert. Exarch is there but not as he was on the first. Also, there was a bunch of talk of exarch regressing mentally or seeming mentally unstable before the fight with Elidibus. So it could be the bubbly fanboy was his true self. And the Exarch was a mask or role he took on so that the people of the crystarium could feel safe.

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Originally Posted by BunnyBrat

He's not the same person. He's the 20 something guy we met back in crystal tower now with all of exarch's memories. What happened with him is similar to the minfilias fusing or us fusing with ardbert. Exarch is there but not as he was on the first. Also, there was a bunch of talk of exarch regressing mentally or seeming mentally unstable before the fight with Elidibus. So it could be the bubbly fanboy was his true self. And the Exarch was a mask or role he took on so that the people of the crystarium could feel safe.

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No he's like The Doctor, from Doctor Who. All his previous incarnations are still in there. Everything he ever knew or has felt is still there. You can see it in moments where he acts silly, then in another moment he has a thoughtful speech. You see it in the moment the Blasphemies are running wild in Radz-at-han and the Satrap dies, and G'raha immediately assumes temporary authority to prevent more terror from spreading. He's supposed to be an amalgamation of the two, it's just... with these writers, it comes off more as multiple personality disorder.

After DawnTrail, I can imagine an expansion with Garlemald, a look into the past, and also Meracydia with its dark secrets.
Maybe even a rebuilding of Garlemald. What if Ryne and the WoL create another crystal, similar to the one from the first shard in the Empty, that changes the weather in Garlemald so the Garleans can rebuild? Surely that can be incorporated into the story somehow. Yes, I know the crystal in the Empty was created with the help of Eden. In Garlemald, it could perhaps be done with the Tower of Babil... Anima may be gone, but what's in all those cocoons? Plenty of material to write a truly dark story like that.

The only feasible realistic place they could go with Garlemald as of right now, is a War of Succession where we back the side that isn't full of Nazis, then a rebuilding.

the Players would revolt.

ya'll are already extra dramatic about Dawntrail with its Succession Contest, to go with another one would make you all lose your minds even more than you already have about Dawntrail.

my assumption is that Garlemald will just be forgotten and left to rot.

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Originally Posted by JMadFour

The only feasible realistic place they could go with Garlemald as of right now, is a War of Succession where we back the side that isn't full of Nazis, then a rebuilding.

the Players would revolt.

ya'll are already extra dramatic about Dawntrail with its Succession Contest, to go with another one would make you all lose your minds even more than you already have about Dawntrail.

my assumption is that Garlemald will just be forgotten and left to rot.

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Because Dawntrail was the most boring expansion yet.
Being a puppet for Wuk Lamat was neither a vacation nor an adventure.
There wasn't a single place that called for vacation, summer, sun, fun, swimming, or lying on the beach.
All we had was Wuk Lamat, a bunch of childish nonsense, and a boring tour of Dawntrail with a lot of boring people.
The older players among us want excitement, fun, drama, adventure ... we're too old for kindergarten.

Even the post patch is boring. Same boring characters and premise.

I know everyone loves to glaze ShB and its story nonstop, but as an ARR enjoyer, the StB patch story set up some of the most hype plotlines imaginable, and imo none of them were done justice during ShB or beyond.
My heart shattered when the Black Rose and Emperor Varis plotlines were resolved offscreen in cutscenes, and I will never forgive the writers for throwing away the Gaius redemption arc that was set up so beautifully from the moment he walked towards us with Alphinaud in his arms, Ascian masks in tow.

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We put the garlemald expansion and the final days expansion in a blender and called it Endwalker. Why? Because of a sudden surge of popularity.

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That is just depressing.

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Originally Posted by ovIm

There is one more aspect to that: The entire nation was propaganda'd into believing their actions were necessary, all constructed by Ascians who pulled the strings from behind the curtain. Garleans did not wake up one morning and said "yeah, lets go conquer everything", their leadership all told them that Eorzean faith would have been the end to everything (which granted, summoning a primal does have that risk, but that too has been orchestrated by the Ascians).

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When they say they condensed Garlemald's story due to the unexpected reception of 5.0, sometimes I think they're talking specifically about Emet-Selch LOL. Sure, we could have more meaningfully explored Garlemald's history and background in an effort to help them move forward, but then we'd have to acknowledge exactly who was responsible for manufacturing not only their beliefs but everything else that led to their suffering and downfall… and explicitly addressing that truth in a serious capacity might have made our little fanservice adventure to Elpis just a little bit awkward. Personally, I would have preferred a Garlemald expansion that really got into all that and treated it with the weight it deserved

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Originally Posted by Aneshda

After DawnTrail, I can imagine an expansion with Garlemald, a look into the past, and also Meracydia with its dark secrets.
Maybe even a rebuilding of Garlemald. What if Ryne and the WoL create another crystal, similar to the one from the first shard in the Empty, that changes the weather in Garlemald so the Garleans can rebuild? Surely that can be incorporated into the story somehow. Yes, I know the crystal in the Empty was created with the help of Eden. In Garlemald, it could perhaps be done with the Tower of Babil... Anima may be gone, but what's in all those cocoons? Plenty of material to write a truly dark story like that.

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Or maybe a story where they get to return to the land they were run out of and that their songs express longing to go back to. Home Beyond the Horizon isn't about Garlemald. It's about the ancestral homeland Corvos.

Given there were hints they might have originally have come from Goug, I wouldn't mind seeing that dived into more in a future story.

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Originally Posted by eloralora

When they say they condensed Garlemald's story due to the unexpected reception of 5.0, sometimes I think they're talking specifically about Emet-Selch LOL. Sure, we could have more meaningfully explored Garlemald's history and background in an effort to help them move forward, but then we'd have to acknowledge exactly who was responsible for manufacturing not only their beliefs but everything else that led to their suffering and downfall… and explicitly addressing that truth in a serious capacity might have made our little fanservice adventure to Elpis just a little bit awkward. Personally, I would have preferred a Garlemald expansion that really got into all that and treated it with the weight it deserved

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Totally agree, I've been saying this for years. I believe they were planning a Garlean expansion that would have explored their history and the reasons behind their current mindset, ultimately portraying them as a flawed but sympathetic nation whose prior vulnerability left them wide open to Ascian manipulation... only for said Ascian to become a huge fan favourite that brought the game unprecedented popularity. Highlighting what he did in Garlemald and the atrocities committed in his name or under his orders would have put him in a much less favourable light and risked jeopardising everything that Shadowbringers had brought to the table, which is why Endwalker dealt with the matter by blowing it all to pieces and placing all the emphasis on Zenos and the civil war in order to prevent linking anything meaningful back to him.

I also think that's why Zenos' backstory fell off a cliff - between what happened with Vauthry and Fandaniel's "did Emet-Selch find a way?" line, I think they were dropping hints he'd been experimented on as a child, but baby experiments probably wouldn't sit well with the playerbase so it wound up hand waved as a "genetics" thing. In any case, the decision was a poor one, made by concerns for profit margins rather than the story's integrity, and sparked off a chain reaction that brought the game to the low point it's in today. It's quite ironic how its success eventually became its downfall.

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Originally Posted by bundythenoob

I know everyone loves to glaze ShB and its story nonstop, but as an ARR enjoyer, the StB patch story set up some of the most hype plotlines imaginable, and imo none of them were done justice during ShB or beyond.
My heart shattered when the Black Rose and Emperor Varis plotlines were resolved offscreen in cutscenes, and I will never forgive the writers for throwing away the Gaius redemption arc that was set up so beautifully from the moment he walked towards us with Alphinaud in his arms, Ascian masks in tow.

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They didn’t throw that away

It’s just mostly explored in sorrows of werlyt

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

It’s just mostly explored in sorrows of werlyt

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I'm referring to how Gaius disappeared from the events of the MSQ after making it seem like he was going to join the Scions in what felt like the beginning of a potential Garlemald arc.
Werlyt was extremely good don't get me wrong, but I felt betrayed that he wasn't more involved in the main story and future expacs.
I thought he was going to play a similar role to what Yugiri did back in ARR and HW, given how he had one of the most incredible re-introductions and was a major player during the later end of the StB patch story

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

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If people are rioting over fictional villains you might as well stop telling stories all together. Why arent people out protesting Star Wars' empire.
Oh nvm! They cosplay as STORMTROOPERS and march. Because guess what, its all fiction and it wont hurt anybody. And if we really get down to the nitty gritty, they are way closer to the Romans down to the faux latin language they use, LEGIONS etc. Who were horrible in their own right. But guess what, so was every army in history.

So what do we do? Erase every exploration of nuance and just label all Garleans as bloodthirsty conquerors, Ala Mhigans used to be conquerors. All of Limsa were bloodthirsty pirates. Ishgard is built on the blood of a bunch of knights eating a dragon after killing her not to mention throdding down on their poor. Where do we draw the line?

Just enjoy the fictional fantasy universe that is NOT REAL and hope for more nuance to your villains. Because telling a story is key here.

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

If people are rioting over fictional villains you might as well stop telling stories all together. Why arent people out protesting Star Wars' empire.
Oh nvm! They cosplay as STORMTROOPERS and march. Because guess what, its all fiction and it wont hurt anybody. And if we really get down to the nitty gritty, they are way closer to the Romans down to the faux latin language they use, LEGIONS etc. Who were horrible in their own right. But guess what, so was every army in history.

So what do we do? Erase every exploration of nuance and just label all Garleans as bloodthirsty conquerors, Ala Mhigans used to be conquerors. All of Limsa were bloodthirsty pirates. Ishgard is built on the blood of a bunch of knights eating a dragon after killing her not to mention throdding down on their poor. Where do we draw the line?

Just enjoy the fictional fantasy universe that is NOT REAL and hope for more nuance to your villains. Because telling a story is key here.

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All the allied nations are good and have never done anything bad. Gridania's racial conflicts, Limsa's piracy, everything the Syndicate did, The Autumn War, The Dragonsong War, etc were all just simple misunderstandings. Even the Sixth Umbral Calamity was a simple misunderstanding with the Elementals, who actually loved us all the entire time. All the hostile nations are evil and have never done anything good up until it's time for a forgiveness moment like Alexandria, where using harvested souls and memory manipulation to ensure immortality(except for things like old age) and eternal happiness is simply part of their culture and beyond our judgment.

Oh a 100% I actively advocate for people to be hostile towards Garleans in roleplay and not forgive them because we shared soup with them in the MSQ. The scars are way too recent. I'm just fighting the hypocrisy here of singling out the Garleans when people are squeeing and taking selfies with Emett whose gang and race are the REASON for this whole mess. Emett created both the Allagan AND Garlean empire. The Allagans were even worse in their human experiments. Also where is this pinpointing into r*pe coming from? I dont remember such an emphasis put on it aside from Arenveld maybe? And it being a side-effect of what a usual f'd up conquering force does. Or are we gonna talk about the Sirens in Limsa forcefeeding a guy oysters against his will keeping him in, or is that a "haha" moment? and call all citizen of Limsa r*pists. You know one Garlean officer who deserted got together with a local Ala Mhigan in a quest because he was a good egg. Nuance. Bozja, Werlyt nuance.

Most of the time they were written one-track evil, but a lot of the time with the Populares political struggle, the Legions rebelling, them allowing non-Garleans into their universities, orphanages there was a glimpse of nuance. So a Garlean expansion mixed with Thavnair would have 100% been possible to write. Heck they made the ancients somewhat symphatetic as much of a manbaby I think Hermes was and most of their population