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

[Seiryuukishi]

Let me explain some things as well as a few bits of common sense. Obviously this is a game, and while I am certain there is some sort of plot twist that will be played off of this. Having said that I can see no reason, logically speaking, to have made us so... timid. Now I will grant the nay sayers this much; indeed we had just come from a battle with a contingent of the Dravanian Horde so it does stand to reason that we were, in fact, tired. BUT the argument can be made that were we THAT tired we wouldn't have been able to make the trip from Mor Dhona to Ul'dah much less that side business with Momodi. So we could say that, in the interest of thoroughness, teleported but if we had teleported into Ul'dah how could we had not done the same to escape?

Most would contend that the reason behind this is to stand before the "world leaders" and that would, along with the lack of will to fight, somewhat prove our innocence. I could live with that had the circumstances been anything other than what we had been involved in. Laughably, some have contended that we had no real interaction with Nanamo so why get all wound up over it. For me it is the principle of the thing. Sure I will concede that from a total apathetic point of view it doesn't matter for the least involved storyline character to die off in order to further the story plot. But Nanamo, to me anyway, for the little interaction we get was a very tragic character who, despite her best and well meaning intentions would be thwarted by the likes of Lolorito. Just because you don't know the person that was murdered doesn't mean it's ok for them to be murdered in front of you, you take the blame like a blind, deaf, mute and go "Well, if I look stupid enough they won't believe it was me". I'm afraid that the argument works both ways and silence is not always golden.

Common sense would at least dictate that if those with such low morals and regard for others can murder their own monarch without a tiny shred of guilt, then without you or someone else having spoken up or acted in your defense you are as good as dead. What? Did you think before Raubahn jumped in that Teledji and the others were going to just let us go? That is the very definition of naïve. But the political implications! Really?.. They just killed their ruler for "personal" gain and framed you for it. Attempted to kill the leader of the Immortal Flames, which I am oh so certain has the army happy at the moment (sarcasm). There was already insurmountable political implications the moment Nanamo hit the floor. These fools have mercenaries for body guards/army. Please, tell me, how will the Brass Blades and Crystal Braves withstand an Imperial invasion? They won't. As soon as they find out they have Garlemald coming in droves to get a HUGE foothold in Eorzea they'd run quicker than crap through a goose. And the forward base already exists in Northern Thanalan. Yep, Castrum Meridianum. So tell me, how would we have made things worse by "clearing" the room? Oh yeah, no weapons... Raubahn solved that problem.

Lastly I am not a violent person by nature but the excuses for our characters to act like two year olds in a war zone are as full of holes as an anthill. Violence was needed from us and we were made to cower and run from the scum of Eorzea. Sorry if the reality of the situation upsets you but then again I've never much cared if people were upset by the truth.

[Delily]

snip

You're missing the point, completely. First, teleportation requires concentration and time. When you scale up the cast time to real world time, it's almost 2 minutes. Do you think Ilberd would just sit there and let us cast? Second, sure many of us wanted to strike out at Ilberd and Teleji. Luckily, our character is smarter than we are. We were caught off guard, out numbered, and out manned in a coup d'etat. Teleji marched into the Chamber of Rule, completing disregarding the law, admitted regicide, and started a coup d'etat. At that point, anything we could have done would have been useless. Any claims of innocence were unneeded, since no one believed we did it, and would be unheeded, since Teleji would just accuse uf of lying. Any attempt to fight back would be an excuse to kill us as Ilberd could say it was proof of guilt. The best thing to do was what we did, keep our mouth shut, not fight back, and let the situation play itself out looking for a chance to escape, but that's the only way we were going to get out free and alive. Neither the admiral nor the star seer could do anything as that would risk a civil war within Eorzea. Raubahn acted, sure, but look what it got him - one less arm and imprisoned.

We were simply outnumbered, out gunned, and out maneuvered, and when that happens, you shut up and look for a way out.

[Seiryuukishi]

Snip.

I missed no point whatsoever. Ilberd was busy soapboxing about how Raubahn was weakened by his service to Nanamo. Would that have afforded the time to teleport? Not in the slightest. I was stating that the "tired" argument has no basis and used an exaggerated example of a far fetched and yet viable situation from a plot POV. As far as Teledji and his thugs are concerned numbers are of the smallest concern considering allies were in the room, two of which were cowards who let their friend ride the storm unaided. Hang civil war for who would be left to proclaim war after the very heads of the rebellion had been removed? The Brass Blades? The people despise them already. The Crystal Braves? No more organized than a ragged band of thieves starved for money and lusting for the same. Civil war was already in the making, Carteneau, if you don't understand. In case you were unaware, the very object from the start until Raubahn stepped in was to kill us. The excuse was already there, Lust. Lust for power and money.

Once Teledji had spilled the beans it was no holds barred. Exfil is planned before action, action taken, then leave. Not the opposite. But I waste sense on those who will not hear of it. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch.

[Noxifer]

[...] but if we had teleported into Ul'dah how could we had not done the same to escape?

Easy. Teledji or whatever his name was, being the master trader that he was, opened up a trade window to interrupt our teleports. 0=)



As for killing a bunch of guards while escaping (even if we didn't do it personally)... IMO that's still different from personally attacking people while escaping. There always is the chance that one or more of said guards were simply doing as they were told and paid to do, instead of out of personal corruption. Attacking them would confirm that they're doing the right thing, cos we're obviously a danger to society and if we're that eager to potentially kill someone to escape, then who's to say we weren't actually behind the assassination? But when we just go ahead and give up peacefully, there's a chance they'd think 'but wait, if the WoL was guilty, would they really just surrender?' Admittedly a long shot, but... meh.

I'm not saying I'm happy with how events turned out, and I would have loved for there to be some kind of choice in the matter, but I can go along with how things played out.

Besides... I've played far too many JRPGs to have stayed unfamiliar with the whole "I've slaughtered armies single-handedly, yet now I'm 'surrounded' by six people, and decide there's too many of them to fight, despite having massive AoE spells" idea. It's the same as the classic "the only time people die permanently is in cutscenes" thing -- something I've even seen lampshaded for comic relief by people saying stuff like "It's ok, it wasn't an FMV" or "Just make sure you avoid the FMVs".