Why do the writers hate Foulques?

[Ayuhra]

This isn't so much a discussion about the Lancers being racist and that being an issue as it is about them (or their previous incarnation anyway) being racist and the game doesn't address it. It brushes against the topic but never quite goes there.

[Aralyne]

When I first started playing FFXIV, I had a friend who had been playing FFXIV for a while and she warned me that when levelling up my class, I'd have to do quests to acquire new skills and to advance in general.

Well, I can say I certainly did not expect the lancer quest to be so involved (story-wise) and that I, too, like some of you in this thread, would feel sympathetic towards Foulques who was supposed to be the "bad guy". I was so sympathetic towards him and felt so bad for him that after I had complete the final lancer quest and Foulques ended up dead, I rambled for ages to my friend about how unfair it was, that I didn't want him to die and that I hoped my dragoon job quests wouldn't be this depressing.... Fast forward several character levels and you fight bloody Estinien.. and I groaned and rolled my eyes and thought "Here we go again.. another character I'm interested in is about to die...".

Thankfully, Estinien doesn't die as we all know XD But you know? After the lancer quests, I just go into class and job quests now expecting someone to die at some given point and try not to get too attached to characters >_>

td;lr - yes I felt sorry for Foulques and felt that his story could have been written better. Poor guy deserved a second chance in my opinion.

[SpiritMuse]

This isn't so much a discussion about the Lancers being racist and that being an issue as it is about them (or their previous incarnation anyway) being racist and the game doesn't address it. It brushes against the topic but never quite goes there.

Yeah I'm quite flummoxed by the complete lack of reaction to my characters Duskwightness everywhere I go. Most of the time I forget that Duskwights are supposed to be discriminated against, in Gridania at least.

In to he case of this story, I was disappointed more than anything else, really. Foulques was by far the most interesting character there. Especially being a fellow Duskwight I was really feeling sympathetic towards him and it seemed like he was working towards some sort of redemption in the end. But just when it seemed we were actually getting through to him he accidentally stepped off a cliff. And even then I thought maybe we'll get to him in time and be the hero and save him despite everything he's done to us and get through to him that way but no. He just died. I mean, I get not being able to save everyone but this was just... after all that, a random accidental death? Too anticlimactic.

By the way, that must be a sight, having Gale up against Foulques.

[Ayuhra]

By the way, that must be a sight, having Gale up against Foulques.

Enough of a sight that I think Foulques thought Gale was mocking him.



The fact that my character ended up looking so much like Foulques is probably part of why I had a knee jerk reaction to the Lancers. But when I think about it my real issue is Foulques is interesting and the Lancers aren't. The Archery quests have similar themes of bigotry and racism but the characters are all pretty well explored. Foulques is the only fleshed out character in the Lancers Guild and we spend more time with him than Ywain. We know him, we know his suffering and his motives, but we don't know anything about the group that we're supposed to be allied to other than they stab things with spears.

All of that said, as a Duskwight fan I am always eager to see how people feel about Duskwights in the game world. There are very few Duskwights... I think Foulques of the Mists and Jandelaine the Aesthetician are the only named Duskwights I've come across, at least that I can remember. Lancers could have been a good place to explore the racial divide between Wildwoods of Gridania and the Duskwight but it wasn't.

Maybe someday we'll learn more about that.