I dunno, I paid $39.99
I don't know, for me it's just weird that of all peoples and places in the story some would identify themselves with they choose an evil militaristic empire that kills people for fun, do countless atrocities and subjugate other nations and treat them terribly just because they're powerful and can... or for revenge I don't know if that's deeper. But I don't really care, it's just a game.
It's a fictional nation and whether they're 'villains' is very much a matter of perspective. I'm not sure how liking the place equals 'romanticisation', either. I live in Europe, where much of the Roman's history can still be seen and touched to this very day and the Garleans are based directly off of the Romans with a bit of Russian influence thrown in for good measure.
I'm not unused to people making sweeping comments implying 'concern' about someone liking or disliking the 'wrong' thing in a video game. It reminds me of the unhinged players who insisted that if someone played the Horde in World of Warcraft, they had to be a bad person. So bizarre!
The devs didn’t intend anything many years ago though. They themselves said they don’t plan in advance, they take everything as it comes. Considering what they’ve told us too, it seems there are constantly a lot of rewrites so who knows how the story would have turned out had we got a garlemald expansion. For example, originally Eden was meant to be the final boss in ShB and not Emet-Selch. So the story already would’ve been immensely different at that point.
People are disappointed because the expansion was advertised as the end of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc, yet both of them got the least amount of screentime and depth than most characters. People are disappointed because it was advertised the final days would actually be a threat and one that affected the world. Instead we only see the final days in full effect in two zones….
Also, a lot of loose ends they didn’t even tie up. They just either dropped them or didn’t explain them whatsoever during the story and had to actually just say it during an interview LOL. Important things like how the the 3 unsundered escaped the sundering, what Azem was doing during the final days etc. We didn’t even learn anything about the 3rd set of sacrifices or venat’s followers.
Curious how any of this is different from people identifying themselves with say...a place that promotes and indulges in slavery and committed mass genocide for fun (Uldah), or identfying with a place that promotes and indulges in sex trafficking for fun(Kugane), or a place that revolves around piracy, assassinations, mass slaughtering a beast tribe and taking their land etc(Limsa.)
everyone didnt need to die but we should have lost atleast 2 people and honestly we should have lost y'stola but yet again for the 4th time she pays no price for basicly living again AGAIN she is pulled out of the flames ..
yes she went blind but big deal she came out more op than all of us so what if she is "blind" but can see better than rest of us
They're a military dictatorship that invaded other countries, enslaved and/or oppressed its citizens, respected nothing but military might, and held complete contempt for the beliefs and way of life for those of outsiders. Given what we've seen them do throughout these expansions. calling their villainy a "matter of perspective" is quite romantic, to say the least.
As I also mentioned before, the only thing the Garleans have in common with Romans is their name. Unlike the Romans, the Garleans were not content to simply conquer a place and collect taxes from it. They were a colonial power focused on outright destroying other cultures due to their hatred for religion and outright contempt for anything outside of military strength. They were closer to 20th Century Fascists than they were to the Romans.
Again, i ask, how is this any different from Uldah that still participated in slavery to this day, their mass genocide of Sildih and zombifying them, the mass slaughter of kobolds done by limsans and their acts of piracy and assassinations, or the place that promotes sex trafficking. There’s an interesting double standard here i have to say. Either way though, it’s a fictional race, fictional countries, fictional people.