We need an expansion centered around Hildibrand

[DragonSlayer45]

No. The entire point of Hildibrand is to contrast with the dire and rather dark main scenario. The only thing I see happening is if Godbert gets a role in a future expansion since he is a member of the Ul'dah syndicate, but that's about it.

[Enkidoh]

No. The entire point of Hildibrand is to contrast with the dire and rather dark main scenario. The only thing I see happening is if Godbert gets a role in a future expansion since he is a member of the Ul'dah syndicate, but that's about it.

^ This. The whole reason he was even added to the game in 1.0 was to help lighten the game up when the whole setting of the game was becoming increasingly dark with the Seventh Umbral Era story, and thus his bumbling antics were some much needed comic relief. Now however, his quests are a nice sidestory, but his whole narrative now seems to exist in a kind of bubble separate from the actual game's story, where aspects of the lore are.. ignored for comic value or handwaved away.

There was also a saddening tendency to drag his antics down from bumbling slapstick into utter farce (Godbert prancing around in nothing but short shorts just made me cringe every single time, even when he was swinging monsters around without a care), which makes the player's participation in it seem even more awkward. And as final insult it seems that the whole Hildibrand questline now is a convenient way to add fanservice trial battles in without affecting the wider world (Gilgamesh and Ultros/Typhon).

Don't get me wrong, I loved his series of quests, I just preferred how he was originally portrayed in 1.0 to some of his more ridiculous and farcical appearances in ARR. He can be made funny, but he worked better when he had dignity and his good heart and determination weren't just pushed aside to show him being chased around Road-Runner style.