What if derplander... (Spoilers)

Deleted...

I do agree that there's something happening behind the scenes that's influencing the Derplander and his friends. Although, I don't agree that what he's doing is born from of some righteous or noble cause. My idea is that they are being influenced (Possibly tempered) by the Dark Crystal, and are setting out to collect the elemental crystals to empower it, just as we did for our crystal. But as Hydaelyn wants to cast out all darkness, the Dark Crystal wishes to do the same to light. It isn't about balance, but rather exterminating the opposing force.

If he came to some sort of revelation as you suggested, I don't think he'd be relishing the conflict with another Warrior of Light like we saw in the story. He would do what was necessary to balance the contending forces, but as a former Warrior of Light himself I don't think he'd enjoy having to fight us. He's become cynical, and mocking. Getting a twisted enjoyment out of challenging us. Perhaps as a warrior of light he grew jealous of our accomplishments? Perhaps it was these feelings of resentment that the Dark Crystal called upon to twist their minds.

Whatever the cause, I do believe there is something far more malevolent at work.

Light and Darkness always want to exterminate one the other. In theory neither can win even if it turns more towards the one or the other and this is what we call "balance". The emo party (WoDs) are already confirmed by Yoshi that they were both generic characters who represented us in the game and real characters in game. He simply came with the idea to actual use those models to create some more drama and surprise the fans. I think when they created that CGI long time ago they didn't have in their minds to use those characters as actual npcs in game and they came with the idea later on. I don't think there is an alternative universe or such. They are just warriors who joint the dark side at some point. Maybe after the Calamity. We will learn more about them soon either way.

I've been thinking something similar. SE had deliberately kept Derplander as the generic WoL representative all this time - why suddenly introduce him and the rest of his crew as antagonists?

We saw them returned after the time skip in the opening movie to 2.0, and he was there at the start of 3.0 as well. What if the Ascians got a hold of them from the universe where they were the Warriors of Light, and flung them into this one to try to stop the future?

FFXI used this sort of storyline in Wings of the Goddess and in Abyssea.

The protagonist and the antagonist in WotG were the same girl from different universes - Lilsette from the universe where Shadow Lord was defeated, and Lady Lilith from the universe where Shadow Lord was victorious. It turns out that the first universe was a false future created by Altana's meddling via Cait Sith and Atomos - the Goddess did not want her creation destroyed and chose Lilsette and the player characters to go back in time to alter the past. Lady Lilith came to this timeline to stop us and protect her own future.

In Abyssea, your player character lost the final battle with Promathia at the end of CoP, an earlier expansion, and the Apocalypse happened in their universe. Joachim found a bridge between timelines/universes just like Lady Lillith, and recruited the player characters to stop the reign of Shinryu (who was formed when Promathia consumed the power of Phoenix/Sel'teus.)

And that's not even touching on FF8 and Time Compression.