You know, if you apply XIV rules to WWII... The Holocaust actually becomes partly justified... We're dealing with a world in which religious extremists can literally end the world through worship... If a group summoned Moses and became tempered as a result, you don't think we'd actually kill them? We kill tempered people because it's "the only way", and Garlemald does the exact same thing, granted they go a bit overboard and lump everyone together fairly easily, which is definitely a mistake... At least they have a plan of action for dealing with Primals though... We sure as hell don't, not beyond a simple "Hope the Warrior of Light can kill the Primal and they don't summon it again", I swear, the only reason we don't see Ifrit more often is a development/gameplay issue, they really should all be FATEs, because if this was reality they'd be getting summoned constantly and the world would have died already... We're dealing with a world where religion can spawn literal monsters that corrupt not only peoples minds, but the very land itself... I'm sure there is also a fairly massive economic impact to fighting them as well, we're told the Immortal Flames suffered a lot of losses to down Ifrit without us, and we saw Bismarck eat an island... Religion is pretty damn dangerous, and our current policy of "Hope the Warrior of Light can kill it and then hope they don't summon it again!" is utterly stupid... Grab some crystals and believe hard enough, and your extremist movement has a f*cking WMD... If the Beast Tribes we've battled thus far had any sense, they'd have taken to summoning the moment we got distracted by Ishgard... We'd have returned to a wasteland if this was really happening...

Don't get me wrong, the Empire definitely over does it on the genocide plan, but we're really no better... Replace "Jews" with "Tempered individuals", and we've already got our own Holocaust going on... Ultimately the Empire is still in the wrong for their actions though, for the same reasons I gave Nidhogg so much sh*t... They attack everyone remotely associated with the "bad" group, as we saw with the Vanu Vanu... We were sent to, and given aid to slay Bismarck by the very same group of Vanu Vanu that the Empire was going to kill because the Vanu Vanu summoned Bismarck... Bravo, Regula... All they really achieve is potentially justifying the actions of the group that summoned Bismarck, the same way Nidhogg slaying Ishgardians for the actions of 14 men solidified the "Nidhogg is bad" narrative the Church used to manipulate a nation... It's not an ideal solution, but again, what's our solution? Let them have the land and hope they don't summon again? Then when Garlemald seeks to acquire the technology to actually solve the problem, we step in the way... There is a reason Regula calls us savages, from his perspective we're utter morons... I still want to stop him having that technology of course, because the Garlean military has not left the best impression and Garlean occupation is a big unknown for me at the moment (no, I don't take refugee accounts as absolute fact...), but we're not just stopping them having that technology, our aim is to completely prevent its use... Like... Really? If I actually had a voice in the game I'd be demanding Cid reverse engineer this stuff so we can trap Ifrit/etc. and just seal them as best we can... We'd be like the Ghostbusters, except hopefully not susceptible to a forgettable reboot!

I actually hope Regula ends up repeating the sentiments Lahabrea and Igeyorhm left us with, because it's pretty damn accurate and fairly meta; We very much do want Primals to keep appearing, we want something to fight, because in a game that is what we find entertaining... If this was real life though? Christ... I'd sign up with the Empire in a heart beat... I wouldn't even need to see how exactly they treat their territories... I'd honestly be too f*cking terrified of religious fanatics ending the world to care... When they've conquered the world and Primals are a distant memory, then I'll start worrying about their other policies... Seriously, when the neighboring group of giant lizard men can summon a gianter fire demon and I don't have a infinite respawns anymore? Maybe not even the Echo? Nope. Nope nope nope. I might not even join the military, that's a bloody terrifying world to live in, but if I was going to fight Primals anyway? It certainly would be for the group that has a solution, rather than the one that's just going "Maybe they wont summon it again this time !", OK building better relations with beast tribes is also a solution I guess (which they're failing horribly at), but how quickly do you think that relationship would break down when we suggest the very real fact that their "God" has robbed them of free will and our current solution to this is insanely barbaric? I doubt the Eorzean Alliance would even be a thing honestly... Garlemald would be occupying ruins and any survivors would probably be damned grateful...

So yeah... If you want to make real world analogies with Garlemald... Try considering what exactly they're fighting and how utterly terrifying that world is to live in... They're still bad, at least the military given I haven't seen anything else of them, but Jesus H Christ, Hydaelyn is bad, it's an utterly terrifying place to live... I really don't think, in a realistic version of this world, there is any room to be as idealistic as we've been in game... The Scions of the Seventh Dawn would have fallen at the first hurdle and anyone with any sense would be labeling them as a cult of moronic savages... I hope that's the angle they eventually go for with Garlemald... Make the world somewhat more believable, rather than this utterly impossible tale of a hero of heroes... There is no Warrior of Light in Othard, any Primal that shows up is going to make people thankful for the big bad Empire throwing themselves at it and stamping out the cause of the problem... Hopefully that is reflected when we go there, slap us in an advanced city, then send us to the frontier where a Primal has put whatever Garlemald may or may not have done to Doma (since I've not been there to confirm refugees claims) to shame... If Garlemald is just going to be "The Evil Empire", then the story will be becoming as shallow as the rest of game (hopefully I start eating those words tomorrow, don't disappoint me, Edda-chan!)... If the game is going to have cartoon villains, can it please be the Ascians? They already look and sound the part, and the whole cosmic feud is so detached from reality... Garlemald has much more potential for an interesting narrative if we look at it through another lens... It's a real shame Gaius calling out our hypocrisy was so short lived...


Man, I'm so getting banned from the forums for this post... I've had warnings for less... Seriously though, I haven't seen the new Ghostbusters movie, so you can ignore this 7,000 character review, please don't ban me... I opened this post with "The Holocaust actually becomes partly justified", I'm already going to Hell, isn't that enough?