Lets talk about villains

It's easy to like Gaius as, so far, he's the only notable Garlean to have accomplished something. Well, supposedly Zenos was the one who marched on Doma, but Gaius conquered Ala Mihgo, pushed back the Eorzean Alliance (let's. . . conveniently ignore the sudden angry dragon god interruption, lol), and even created a system for Ala Mihgan youths to aspire to something greater than just life as a sub-citizen of occupied territory. Calm, composed (even when all his work was literally blowing up in his face), and seemingly a bit more compassionate than the typical "I are Empire, you am Savages" Garlean, he's. . . likeable as a villain.

The fact that Zenos, a "blood knight" by design came to see us as a friend and kindred spirit kinda makes me stop and think "Wow, is THIS what people think of me?" I didn't dislike him, but I do feel that (so far) he was quite overhyped. Sure, we're tied 2-2, and he did embarass us pretty easily at first, but as of yet, he's got big shoes to fill.

Thordan deserves credit as a notably ambitious villain. While I feel the Ascian dealings were tacked on (to keep them as the relevant Shadows in the Dark), he propagated a thousand year war, built on lies that predate him, and when the time/opportunity arose, he sought to obtain a power to use and force peace for all (or else). Unlike any other villains, he (or rather one of his elites) legitimately did kill someone close to you, and he basically played the Lawful Evil card better than the Garleans do, just with less imperialism.

Special mention to Musosai for playing the role of mentor and target villain. Might have seemed a bit cliche at times, but it's WHY he did it that really struck a chord with me.

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Originally Posted by Amaeth

Nidhogg...i'm not sure about. I think partially because they just wouldnt let him die (a recurring theme in this game it seems) and...I don't know. I understand his motivations they just seemed in some ways a touch...bland? plain? It's like all he was all rage, he has no other personality or character. At he same time though, he felt threatening; powerful. Also the fact he was kinda in the right was a nice way to make him more understandable.

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You reminded me of something I forgot to mention before. It was subtle, but very well done to merge Estinien and Nidhogg into one. They were mirrors of each other already. Driven to rage by loss of family due to the war, both swearing revenge, even if they had to die, and both hardly willing to listen to reason (well, Estinien was a bit more reasonable in that regard). Their attack at Falcon's Nest was the perfect representation of how old hatred would be the one thing left standing in the way of Ishgardian-Dravanian peace, which is why the situation had to come to a head the way it did. And while we killed Nidhogg, metaphorically, we "killed" the hate-filled Estinien whose eyes saw nothing but revenge, and gave the man a new lease on life.

He's too proud to be a tag along, but expect him to be our "Sixth Ranger" from now on.

When Lahabrea died, I was legitimately upset. I feel like by that point in the game, he had almost become a Team Rocket-type figure: we know we're going to defeat him every single time he shows up, he's literally never managed to beat us, yet there he is again! I was kind of attached to having a villain who never succeeds and yet nevertheless refuses to give up and just keeps showing up in the story... T^T

I was actually that way with Zenos too by the end of Stormblood. Ha ha, right before the ending cutscenes of 4.2, I was actually like "Man, I miss Zenos." >___> I'm less interested in him as an actual villain on his own, although he certainly did plenty of bad things. It's more interesting to examine this character as a sort of "dark mirror." Even the Warriors of Darkness didn't really get to that point because they were still good guys at the end of the day, even if they were misguided. Zenos is bad, and serves as a (comparatively) more realistic example of what would happen if the WoL was pushed too far and went over the edge into becoming mad with power. It demonstrates very clearly the difference that circumstances can make too, given that Zenos could have utilized all that strength to a good end if he'd been born in a different situation. Makes the WoL seem quite lucky to have "normal" people to ground them...

But man. In terms of villains, Lolorito and Teleji Adeleji are the true standouts of FFXIV. They're not the classical "meet me on the battlefield" types, but that just made them more insidious. The fact that they orchestrated things so much behind the scenes and pulled so many strings makes them way more threatening than figures like Gaius or Zenos. There's a sort of certainty in fighting a combat villain--at the end of the day, you know the WoL is going to triumph somehow. The same isn't true for dishonorable manipulators who are capable of using the political and economic system to their advantage. The (plot-enforced) helplessness and impotent frustration of the WoL at the end of the 2.5x plot line was a huge player punch (for me at least) at the time, and is still so memorable to me even years later.

Id probably have to say Nidhogg.He was a persistant villain fueled by hatred but unlike most of the villains there was nobody pulling his strings.He was always in control.The primals,Garleans,Warriors of Darkness were being used as puppets by the Ascians and even the Ascians themselves seem to be strung along by some higher plan or being.

I dislike the villains in this setting.

The antagonists, however, I quite like. There's a major distinction to be made, I feel.

A villain is someone with little to no redeeming qualities. An antagonist is someone opposed to the protagonist but isn't necessarily a bad person and may simply be fighting under another banner.

I'm going to go with Regula van Hydrus as my favourite antagonist. He deserved much more screen-time and to actually have his story arc referenced in the MSQ's rather than locked away in side quests and then completely forgotten about the next time it came to dealing with Garleans.

Possible Spoilers in my Response

My favourite villain was probably Nidhogg, thus far anyway. His motives were understandable, and he was felled in a believable manner, which applies to virtually no other villain in the game.

Notable mention #1: Gaius van Baelsar was great until Praetorium. His whole "I AM INVINCIBLE" routine - right up until the moment he wasn't - very much bored me.
Notable mention #2: Zenos yae Galvus, like Gaius, was great until the end. He was built up as being this calm, quiet, menacing figure, who was then revealed to mostly be... bored with the relative ease of his life. I mean, seriously? This was a terrible turn in the Stormblood story.

As an aside, separate but related to the whole villain thing: when is Stormblood going to live up to its name? Thus far, Heavensward killed off at least two semi-major characters (Ysayle and Haurchefant), and confirmed the death of another major character from ARR (Minfilia). Stormblood, despite being advertised as a dark, blood-soaked sort of struggle, hasn't even matched its predecessor. We're in desperate need of a new major villain to lift the storyline out of its doldrums (I haven't played 4.2's storyline missions yet, so maybe one has already been introduced, but as of 4.1, it's been a fairly sad state of affairs).

Nidhogg and Regula van Hydrus by far.
An antagonist that actually did things for a real reason (and was believably powerful) and Regula was just a bro. I love him.

Everyone else is meh. I sincerely don't understand the hype behind Zenos. He was really boring and borderline obnoxious.

Gotta go with Nidhogg, he was hell bent on destroying everyone and everything, including the universe by extension of achieving the former.

Echoing Theodric's point, I never saw Regula as a villain, so much as an antagonist. The same could be said of Gaius, Varis, the WoD, maybe Ilberd (debatable since he seemed insane) and I suppose Thordan, since their aims conflicted with ours, more than it being a case of wreaking destruction for its own sake, like Nidhogg had wanted to do given how possessed with hatred he was.

Elidibus is a trickier case, as although he is seemingly benign compared to the other Ascians, part of me thinks he is simply that much more cunning and intelligent, so I will wait to see how he evolves further.

I think my favourite villains so far, though, were Igeyorhm and Lahabrea. I do wish they'd made the fight harder and not some silly dungeon fight, to reflect the relative power the Ascians possess, but all the same it was epic in other terms, like their speech, their lines, and the fusion into the Ascian Prime.

Nidhogg is a close second, purely due to how formidable a foe a draconic primal is, and I loved the music and the fact that there was no other way it could end due to his uncompromising nature.

Nabriales a third, although I think his end came way too soon.

Yotsuyu was probably my favourite in Stormblood. They tried too hard to make Zenos semi-sympathetic and I don't think he's in fact as unrelentingly cruel as she was. Also enjoyed her style and quips.

Zenos again is a case of wait and see. I enjoyed him up until his defeat at Castrum Abania, with his crazy thirst for the hunt. I'm still not sure what to make of the scenes thereafter.

Lolorito may be crafty but I don't hugely care for him.

Asahi's too blatantly crazy/zealous. Needs more work.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

Possible Spoilers in my Response

My favourite villain was probably Nidhogg, thus far anyway. His motives were understandable, and he was felled in a believable manner, which applies to virtually no other villain in the game.

Notable mention #1: Gaius van Baelsar was great until Praetorium. His whole "I AM INVINCIBLE" routine - right up until the moment he wasn't - very much bored me.
Notable mention #2: Zenos yae Galvus, like Gaius, was great until the end. He was built up as being this calm, quiet, menacing figure, who was then revealed to mostly be... bored with the relative ease of his life. I mean, seriously? This was a terrible turn in the Stormblood story.

As an aside, separate but related to the whole villain thing: when is Stormblood going to live up to its name? Thus far, Heavensward killed off at least two semi-major characters (Ysayle and Haurchefant), and confirmed the death of another major character from ARR (Minfilia). Stormblood, despite being advertised as a dark, blood-soaked sort of struggle, hasn't even matched its predecessor. We're in desperate need of a new major villain to lift the storyline out of its doldrums (I haven't played 4.2's storyline missions yet, so maybe one has already been introduced, but as of 4.1, it's been a fairly sad state of affairs).

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Zenos may well make a comeback. If not, I could see Yotsuyu not being redeemed and turning into some form of primal or similar entity if/when that mirror granted to her by Asahi kicks in, particularly if it is enchanted in nature.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

Quick Notes on Sophia:

She was the Meracydian "Goddess" of balance, but she's effectively a True Neutral. Word of God (well, word of Koji Fox) states that all she cares about is balance. If the world leans toward too good, she's evil. If evil, she's good.

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She's also interesting because of her plan to subvert the Allagan empire with the help of Bahamut. Stylistically, Sophia and Sephiroth rank amongst the top primal boss fights, for me. I liked Zurvan's design but the fight let him down.

Grynewaht for most memorable antagonist! Oh wait, he already is.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM