Our passive characters and why the 2.55 story fails (BIG SPOILERS) (rant warning)

[Noxifer]

However I disagree with your arguments.

Which you're perfectly free to do ^_^

These are the monetarists and corrupt blades we are talking about. The common people of Ul'dah loves neither.

And I'm sure that IRL there are cities where the common people aren't too fond of the police either :p I'd still say it's different from killing foreign enemies. But that's me ^^

On top of that, you would do it to avenge their beloved ruler.
If anything they would idolize the WoL even more after that.

It's possible. On the other hand, it's rarely the common people who make decisions (except by threatening riot and table-flipping :p ). And while it's the one-percenters who rule the monetarist section, there have to be a group of well-to-do and moderately wealthy citizens who actually have a shot at influencing things. And I'm not quite as certain those are as against the monetarists and brass blades as the common people.

Comparing scenarios in games with real life rarely works. That's because in real life we have this mess of complex rules and regulations and social interaction limiting our actions by a great deal.

I don't quite agree with that, though. While there's certainly a fair amount of hand-waving done by game creators, I'd like to think that there's a mess of complex rules and regulations limiting the characters (PCs and NPCs alike) in the game world. Such as the Seedseer and Admiral leaving at the prompting of their aides. While they'd like to stay and help their friend, politics won't allow them to. Not without severe consequences. So they withdraw. While politics tend to annoy me because I'm generally an impatient person, I have no issues with seeing the logic of that particular action.

That said, I agree with what many others have said, that it would have been good if there had been choices. Even if the choice to struggle and/or try to escape had in the end resulted in the same 'captured and thrown to the floor in the banquet hall' scene, even if the Scions had forced you to go on without them despite your arguments, it would have provided a little bit more of that individuality that so many players need. So on the whole I agree that the story ending could have been a lot better, but at the same time I can understand the (forced) events in the cutscenes. =)

[FrejyaAthenes]

Urgh. I tried to forget that they even had another character say "Go on, smile and nod like you usualy do" or something very similar to the WoL. I know it was probably meant as a joke, but still...

It was Thancred, I think. Something like "You could at least pretend to be heartbroken. No? Just gonna give one of your stoic nods?" Then you nod and, "...I thought so." And then there was when Alphinaud said that he'd "miss your sparkling repartee." Both were probably meant as jokes, true, but it seems like outside of beating stuff up people don't seem to have much respect for you.

[Oraiste]

What drove me crazy is the leaders of the other lands just leaving me there after I'd saved them how many times?! Can I just get rid of them, too? And what kind of mindset for people meant to unite everyone than to turn around and say things like "I won't do anything because MY people come first"... what is that about? If I felt the same way I wouldn't have helped you at all. Just put those leaders in a really shitty light, IMO.

[ElHeggunte]

snip

How you got yourself out of the situation does not matter. They're already trying to frame you killing the Sultana, I'm pretty sure the Syndicate would have no trouble tacking on more lies about you if they thought it would further their agenda. You could kill one guard and they'd blame you for the deaths of 100. You could give up peacefully and they could still blame you for the deaths of 1000 guards. The only people who would know otherwise are either one of the accused or one of the ones doing the accusing. Being cooperative in this situation does you no good.

Giving yourself up also assumes you would receive a fair trial or that they even intended to keep you alive long enough to put you on trial in the first place, both of which are highly unlikely given all of the other events leading up to the coup.

[Seig345]

I've never thought of my character as anything other than a catalyst to move things along in the story. All player characters are outsiders, non-native to Eorzea, a point the game makes early on. Because of this, I've never considered myself as anything more than a supporting character, and therefore I've been fine with the stoic nods. Minfilia, Alphinaud, Cid, the 3 leaders, and the rest are the main cast as far as I'm concerned.

[Nestama]

Yeah, I think the general populace would view the killing of a few Ul'dahn soldiers as a far worse thing than killing hundreds, even thousands, of dangerous enemies and animals.

It's not really a question of 'would your character be capable of killing them' or 'would your character see it as worse or equal to killing all those others' or even 'would you as a player see it as worse than killing all those others'. It's 'would Ul'dah's citizens see it as a worse crime'.

And then we have the Scions do exactly what we did not. Fought back and possibly killed or severely injured a few Ul'dahn soldiers. We didn't do anything, sure, but it's well known to most that we hang out with the Scions, therefore can be as guilty (made worse due to "Chinese whispers." One person says one thing and the person they whisper it to says something similar, but a little different and eventually blown out of proportion).

[RichardButte]

But since we have our own characters, even if there is still a plot, we have our own involvement, with different adventurers that come from all walks of life.

And that's good, because it provides investment in our characters and the story they are in.

I'm actually dramatically LESS invested in my character because of how much of a nodding idiot he is.

And Aion actually had your character speak with the voice you chose for them during creation when the situation called for it so it's definitely possible to do.

What would've been far cooler is if we had been given the option to choose to fight or surrender...

[Doki]

You know it's gonna have a total "None of us are dead, we just faked it all to flush out the villan, but we didn't tell you about our plans because reasons." in 3.0

[Neuflune]

My view on the whole thing is...

Back in Guardian of Eorzea, Alphinaud kept spouting praises at you. Then on An Allied Perspective, he's suddenly "on sellswords?!" with a very discriminative tone right there, as if THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT was not a SELLSWORD HIS/HERSELF. So yeah, I'm not really surprised that his character let that Crystal Braves thing get to his head and that things turned out this way.



As for the Scions, I'd have to disagree that Y'shtola was useless. Like the city-state leaders, it was a mix of shock and wtf seeing as the whole thing is a political issue and things can go horribly wrong either way. At least unlike the other Scions who just put their arms over their heads as if that would protect them, she put up a shield for the whole group. Might I note that the "evil" Braves and Blades were much dumber because the Chamber of Rule is a circular area... they could have just gone around the other side to chase the group instead of facing Yda and Papalymo.

And if I really could control my character, I would have:
- reported Ilberd to Raubahn or Alphinaud as soon as I noticed that he was way too chummy with Yuyuhase.
- helped Riol out more.
- slapped Minfilia for moaning about Moenbryda again when WILRED WAS JUST MURDERED.
- left the vial of whatchamacallit to the lover-resurrecting alchemist because I'm a level 50 alchemist instead of pocketing the weird thing.
- LISTENED TO THE DRAGON MORE.

Lastly, I would have thrown that mug of hot cocoa (or coffee) at Alphinaud's face just because.

[FrejyaAthenes]

Back in Guardian of Eorzea, Alphinaud kept spouting praises at you. Then on An Allied Perspective, he's suddenly "on sellswords?!" with a very discriminative tone right there, as if THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT was not a SELLSWORD HIS/HERSELF. So yeah, I'm not really surprised that his character let that Crystal Braves thing get to his head and that things turned out this way.

Yeah...I really wanted to smack him for that one. But of course, your character isn't really allowed to react to anything unless everyone already is.