SPOILER WARNING - Sorry SE, you've lost me with the latest story

[Riardon]

The story with the WoDs was rushed. WoDs were introduced in 3.1 and ended in 3.4. We were led to assume these will be our antagonists for a long period and they gonna bug us for some time. Instead we got rid of them so soon. Their story was ok Lore wise but storytale wise it was rushed. Although it makes sense they wouldn't fit with the Garlean theme and affairs coming in 4.0. They got rid of them to focus on Ala Mhigo and the Garleans. That being said SE didn't lost me in this patch. This patch was brilliant. It gave so much info and revealed so many things. It was pure Loregasm. I just didn't like how soon WoDs ended. We had no character development on those. It was rushed.

[Reynhart]

WoDs were introduced in 3.1 and ended in 3.4. We were led to assume these will be our antagonists for a long period and they gonna bug us for some time. Instead we got rid of them so soon.

As I said, you can't reveal that they're not that bad if you give them more and more situations where they're real antagonists. The Alisaie part is a bit weird, but before that, they actually didn't really do anything "bad".

It reminds me of another story (Spoilers for Bravely Default below)

After fighting Eternia for a long time, you learn that they're technicaly the good guys when compared to the orthodoxy. But it's really hard to admit, considering some of their high rank officiers actually burned innocent cities, sacrificed their own troops with chemical weapons, and abducted little children to make them slaves working as miners

[Felis]

i have just 1 thing to add in the 1.0 cutscenes the elezen is female yet the wod elezen is male (atleast the voice sounded male)

No, the elezen was always male. You can see him in the opening scene of 1.0 trailer.

There are 2 Elezen in the 1.0 opening, male (at the table with the Miqo'te) and female (with the Roegadyn and Lalafell in Mor Dhonna).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCi1F1OvFSo

[silentwindfr]

"But hey, now that I have this Avatar, a girl who was accidentally teleported for virtually no reason now that the story backed the fuck down, I can send her to your world to save it. I couldn't do this before, and this was totally the thing I needed and was waiting for. And even though Light is currently killing everything you love, totally trust me on this one."

Minfilia was never part of the teleport spell of y'shtola, and she did answer Hydaelin calling if you remember, how she did get there, it's not explaind and it's not needed. and it's more about saying that balance is needed, too much light is as much bad than too much darkness.

about the Warrior of Darkness act, they are desperate and heroes don't always do the right thing, time to time they must dirty themself for reach them goal. do i must remember you how many people our character did kill soo far? we are the biggest mass murder of eorzea.

want an example? kobold story, they had an agreement with limsa lominsa saying that they was the one having the control of the land.... but what they have done after the 7e catalysm? invade and slaughter kobold... leaving them with only them capital as place.... worst the place is always surrounded by troops of limsa lominsa. and what we do? we do help to slay more and more and more of them....

yeah the beastman did call them primal, but why they have done it? that important to know why....

the sylph, because the empire did invade them forest, in the V1 we had even to help to evacuate sylph cocoon from them forest part out of imperial reach. they was left alone to fend themself against castrum oriens, when them magic is mainly illusion.... great call.

sahuagin.... they need beach and some land for lay them egg.... what did the pirate of limsa lominsa have done? kill children and destroy every egg they did seen.

amalja and uldah are at war for ages mainly because uldah did take by force some part of the thanalan for them mine (and i will not talk of the corruption and how they threat the refugies of ala miggho, they here for 20 years and are still treated like shit.... seriously?)

you can go on like this.... no one is pure or heroic actually.... heroes are heroes because people call them like this, not because they are pure and perfect being that never get them hand dirty. the truth is often heroes are assassin or mass murderer that are simply in the camp of the victorious.

the action of the warrior of darkness are not that senseless.... between let them whole people disappear into nothingness.... they did decide to try to make them fuse with our dimension. it look crazy, but with the cycle of reincarnation in place it give them hope that them people will revive sooner or later. they are beyond desesperate.... and desesperate people must take hard decision that will not always be morale for save the greater number. is that fair? or normal? maybe no, but that how it work.

everything soo far have a multitude of degree of lecture.... you can simply look the story happening under your eyes or look at the whole picture and see that FF14 world is not full of light and darkness, is more a world of grey where it's hard to know what is good or bad anymore. maybe hydaelin is not good, maybe zordiarch is not bad.... they are simply part of two opposing power that are fighting over our world.... if one of them win, it will not be nice for us. it's sad, but the only way for us to survive is to maintain balance between light and darkness. that kinda what they was saying in this arc. that we are not bound to the light, but bound to our world and that we must do our own decision and see for ourself if the light and darkness are soo evil and good than we think.

don't get me wrong, i don't say that ascian are angel, they are as bad as can be the warrior of darkness (that are technically warrior of light like us) simply that too much light or darkness will destroy our world not save it.

[ExKage]

No, the elezen was always male. You can see him in the opening scene of 1.0 trailer.

Koji Fox disagrees.

So yes, the Midlander male, Miqo’te female, Roegadyn male, Elezen female, and Lalafell female in the recent trailers are in fact the same ones that appeared in the 1.0 trailer! (Yes, the black mage is the Elezen female from the morbol party, not the snooty male from the Midlander’s party. The robe & hat conceal some of her more distinguishing features, and we all know there was no bust size adjustment feature back in 1.0).

[Kaurie]

STORY SPOILER - DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE HEAVENSWARD & 3.45 MSQ


We commenced the story with a Garlean invasion, accompanied by the introduction of major characters. Mysterious hooded villains pulling strings from the shadows. Culminating in the epic confrontation and rescue of a friend.

Betrayal followed, leading us to desperate departures, which in turn threw us into the centuries old battle of Ishgard. A tale of another betrayal, yearning revenge, sacrifice, and a final measure of peace.

All good stuff

Now, this Warriors of darkness, parallel worlds stuff. Ugh. People we are led to believe who fought valiantly to save hundreds or thousands of lives, irrespective of the fact that they knew them not.

These people would then want to kill hundreds and thousands of other people they didn't know. Try as I might, this latest addition to the story seems to be a bit of a stretch. Not quite up to the excellent story lines proceeding it

Really? In my opinion, the Warriors of Darkness story line has been the best story arc so far. The parallel to us is great and helps us to relate to their plight. It's very believable that people would do horrendous things to save their entire world, all of their friends and family, from complete destruction.

The stuff before with mysterious hooded villains from shadows, betrayal and battling the dragons seems like a story from a Saturday morning cartoon. I enjoyed 2.4-3.0, but 3.1-3.3 was blegh, now 3.4 was great again.

[SessionZero]

Now, this Warriors of darkness, parallel worlds stuff. Ugh. People we are led to believe who fought valiantly to save hundreds or thousands of lives, irrespective of the fact that they knew them not.

These people would then want to kill hundreds and thousands of other people they didn't know. Try as I might, this latest addition to the story seems to be a bit of a stretch. Not quite up to the excellent story lines proceeding it

I would imagine their desperation to save everyone they fought so hard to protect on their own world is what makes them so willing to slaughter people in our own world. They're not here to protect us, they're here to ensure our world saves theirs. We're cattle to them, a means to an end. Also, the fact that they literally died to come to our world and still operate with the knowledge that every moment they're faffing about in our world brings their own one step closer to oblivion... I would think that could drive even the most strong-willed among us completely bonkers.

This is just my interpretation, but I think the Ranger's "glee" is a misinterpretation on many people's parts. She sees Alphinaud and Alisaie and the WoL as an impediment to saving her world. She's not "glad" necessarily that she gets to riddle the wonder twins with arrows. It's just what needs to be done, and dammit, she's going to do it, for the benefit of her own world.

[Alleo]

I am not really sure why people suddenly think that the WoL in the trailers is the WoD? Other than the CGI trailers (and the one with the wrong dragon was a mistake by Yoshida) which looks a bit different, all the other trailers are always showing one WoL who is in the exact position as our character is when we play through it. The end of a era trailer is a little bit different since he shows a whole group of adventurers, but maybe they just split up after all that happened? Maybe its a little symbolic, maybe they wanted to use the party in the game, but I am not convinced that the WoD had anything to do with the 1.0 WoL's.

I am also not sure if the world of the WoD is a true parallel world to our own. I mean if that is the case wouldnt it be even worse that they shot down Alisea, nearly killed Y'sthola and more? They would have known these people in their own world, but they showed no signs that they are standing before look-alike's of their own friends. I mean the archer even mistook Alphinaud for his sister. I just cant imagine that they are that desperate/cold/ or good actors that they would not react by seeing those people again.

We do know that Hydaelyn was/is really weak since she is loosing for quite the time. It was quite implied that she, like Zodiark cant do much on herself, other than maybe shielding people in danger, and that she needs others to do it for her. But since she was so weak that she even had to use Minfilia as her Word she could not do anything to the other world. As soon as she got more power from 6 crystals of Light she sends Minfilia with them to stop their world from dying. The WoD was just angry at her because she did nothing but sadly she was in no position to even help. She clearly loves her children but is not free of mistakes. Its not really her fault that the WoD did a great job and thus creating a imbalance. They even said that it was the people that called for help (like they do with us) and that they just defeated any bad guy/evil thing that they found.

Minifila was part of the teleportation spell, thats why she ran back into the tunnels. She used it to get to the aetheric realm and after not hearing Hydaelyns voice, she wished for help.

You know I can understand the WoD to some extend but at the very same time I dont. Yes they are desperate, saw everything they worked for on the brink of destruction, but they should know how the Ascians are..If they are truly our counterpart they should have known that there always might be another way to resolve things and maybe get it done withouth mass killing people of another world or even going so far and trying to kill the only hope left, us the WoL..I mean if the original world fails and Hydaelyn dies than all will fall into a void..so they would have solved nothing. Maybe I would feel more about them if they first tried to talk to us instead of trying to kill us as soon as the knew who we were..

And I also see quite difference between having to choose the lesser evil and kill some innocent people to save more people but hating every second of it, or enjoying it. And the bard and paladin really did look like they enjoy it..

We as the WoL might have to kill too but we mostly do it out of self-defense. And lets not forget that there is a difference between gameplay and story. We do not go around and kill x amount of wildlife for x amount of skin. We dont run dungeons x times or go into Galearn territory and mass murder everyone there every second day. Thats just something we do because its still a game.

We do fight and kill in the story thats true but I do believe that our body count is not that high.

The situation with the beastman is also not that black and white. True Limsa started it again and the kobolds only tried to help themselves, but we dont go around and kill kobolds without any reason. We even trust a small kobold child and save his life and we only attack the kobolds if they are trying to summon titan again which is bad for the people but also Hydaelyn herself.

The sahagin did loose some of their breeding grounds for their eggs thanks to the catastrophe and are going further onto Limsa's land to have a chance for survival, but it was not Limsas fault that they lost their first grounds. And please lets not forget that we learn that the first sahagin pirate did go around and killed people...and that as a revenge got nearly all of his eggs killed.

So yeah I agree the city states are not without fault, but the beastman are also not innocent. Neither deserves to be killed by the other side. But we as the WoL really try our best to help them both. We take care of the primal problem and at the same time we befriend the parts of the tribe that wants peace and help them out too. I mean most of the beast man that we kill are done while doing the beastman quests. But our WoL has never really showed delight in killing an enemy. And this is the problem that I have with the WoD.

And so in the end I wish that they had not rushed that story part and gave us more of a chance to learn about the WoD and their world (Echo power ftw).

[Knahli]

While adding my own voice to the group that feel their plotline was very rushed, what got to me the most was not that they did arguably evil things in a desperate attempt to save their planet - that I can accept and appreciate - but rather that NOTHING about them in earlier patches showed any hint of them having any decency to begin with. They were cocky and had an attitude about themselves. They had no respect or hope in the WoL and that they might be able to help them instead of relying on Ascians of all people. Instead we get a miqo'te who is a total B word that taunts characters about how she was sure they should have died from her arrow and proceeds to show no remorse when she realises she presumably murdered a twin sibling.... all while intending to offer the same fate to Alphinaud. Oh, and wasn't she looking rather disappointed when she was told not to attack? Some hero she was. Her and her little allies who all happily abided her attitude.

Desperation turning good people bad is a cool concept I can definitely get on board with, but the WoD were anything but heroes to me. It makes no sense that you can just flip a switch like that and take glee in murdering innocent people. If she wanted her world back, it was for her own gain, not anyone else's.

[SessionZero]

They had no respect or hope in the WoL and that they might be able to help them instead of relying on Ascians of all people.

I think an important distinction can be made between working with Ascians in general and working with Elidibus. It's been made quite apparent that Elidibus is something of an enigma and has been shown before to have conflicting interests with his brethren. For all we know, Elidibus is the only one working towards a true balanced reunification of the reflections, as opposed to the Ascian's supposed general plan of "darkness for everyone."