[SPOILERS] Stormblood Ending

[Theodric]

I'd definitely like to see one of the leaders of the Eorzean Alliance be ousted or screw up so badly that they're forced to step down. It's a little too convenient that everything works out perfectly for them even in the face of adversity. Especially when they criticise other individuals and organisations for taking a tough, controversial approach to their own problems because they do not have the Warrior of Light to fall back on as a convenient solution to most of their woes. There's barely any criticism of the decision to use Omega to combat Shinryu, for instance, despite Omega now essentially holding all life on Hydaelyn hostage. Then again, it's likely that nobody beyond a select few individuals will ever know about it.

Yet if it were Garlemald that activated Omega out of necessity to defend against an Eikon and it ended up causing problems further down the line then I have little doubt that there would be no end to the criticism, especially if the result was the same - namely humanity being held hostage for the sake of Omega's experimentation.

[EdwinLi]

Garlean Empire desire to conquer all the land and leave religion out of culture is mostly, at this point, because there really is no long term solution to the Primal threat. The WoL is literally the only person in the entire world that is known to be able to defeat Primals without serious consequence during the encounter beyond being just killed but he or she is only one person and thus only favors the area he or she lives in.

Conflict is a natural event in the world, through natural resources or expanding of territory, and it happens everyday without Garlean involvement as we learn in 2.X. Even without the Garlean Empire provoking things Primals will be still summoned through other means and from what we learned in 4.0 it is possible to be summoned by accident through personal emotions. A Person just need to be in a state of extreme emotional state through emotion from pure anger or despair and then poof out comes a Primal.

Unless a army of WoL can be created to fight Primals at a Global scale only the area where the WoL currently resides will be safe from Primal threats if the WoL lives through the encounters. Every where else without the WoL will just burn at the hands of the Primals.

[Cilia]

Again - Dalamud was not a project that received heavy support within Garlemald itself. Nael van Darnus was very much acting against Garlemald's interests.

... oh?

... I do not discriminate where wealth is concerned. I have dealings even with merchants of the Empire. Through them my influence reaches the Garlean elite, with whom I thought it possible to negotiate a peace.

Alas, their leaders are set upon the complete annihilation of Eorzea. A point upon which there is scarce room for compromise.

Once the truth of this became apparent, we Monetarists granted our support to Raubahn and his Immortal Flames...

Source.

Garlemald - or at least its upper crust - was very much in agreement with Project Meteor. They had no problem turning Eorzea into a smoking crater, killing every man, woman, and child living there, and consigning its culture to memory if it meant being rid of the eikons summoned by the native beast tribes. Nael van Darnus was very much acting within Garlemald's interests and with its support (even if she went batshit insane in so doing) - it was actually Gaius van Baelsar who went against Garlemald's interests in that instance, discreetly aiding the Warrior of Light to put an end to van Darnus' mad scheme. (Again, because ruling over a smoking crater full of corpses wouldn't be fun.)

Believe what you will, but know the truth.

[Theodric]

Varis was against the project as well, though - and given that he later became Emperor that's proof enough that there were those even higher up than Gaius who were opposed to it. 1.0 lore is also not necessarily canon as a lot of aspects of the game's story have changed since then.

[Kallera]

Varis was against the project as well, though - and given that he later became Emperor that's proof enough that there were those even higher up than Gaius who were opposed to it. 1.0 lore is also not necessarily canon as a lot of aspects of the game's story have changed since then.

This is also Lolorito talking.

It sounded like there was considerable debate going on about the project, and that Nael, who had possibly had their head messed with by bahamut by then, kicked it off before said debates were finished.

[Cilia]

Lolorito might not be the most trustworthy person, but it should be remembered that he is motivated solely by profit - and there is more profit to be made if things stay peaceful. (This is why he didn't kill Nanamo and take direct control of Ul'dah.) Militaries are expensive; he would not have paid for reigniting the Immortal Flames if there were a cheaper option. He also makes it pretty clear the Garleans - or at least their upper crust - was dead set on Project Meteor. Even if Varis was against it, enough were for it that it went through.

I mean... if we can just ignore, bend, speculate on, or declare truths non-canon so they support our point of view... I don't think a discussion or debate will be very productive.

[SilverObi]

I mean... if we can just ignore, bend, speculate on, or declare truths non-canon so they support our point of view... I don't think a discussion or debate will be very productive.

Yeah I was taken aback by this as well, since when is information from 1.0 not considered just as canon as 2.0 onward?

[Chewy2nd]

Even the Garlean's under Varis have gotten up to questionable activities, given that Inferno in Castrum Abania has a Garlean third eye, the Hypertuned soldiers, the resonant and what they did to Grynewaht. Perhaps this was going on in secret, under Zenos' rule only, but this doesn't bode well, when a Viceroy can do whatever the hell he wants with no oversight from Garlemald.

[Daralii]

Lolorito might not be the most trustworthy person, but it should be remembered that he is motivated solely by profit - and there is more profit to be made if things stay peaceful. (This is why he didn't kill Nanamo and take direct control of Ul'dah.) Militaries are expensive; he would not have paid for reigniting the Immortal Flames if there were a cheaper option. He also makes it pretty clear the Garleans - or at least their upper crust - was dead set on Project Meteor. Even if Varis was against it, enough were for it that it went through.

I mean... if we can just ignore, bend, speculate on, or declare truths non-canon so they support our point of view... I don't think a discussion or debate will be very productive.

Varis's support is also based heavily in the military if his coronation is anything to go by. It's possible that, while the nobility was heavily in favor of Project Meteor, the other legions outside of the VIIth were opposed.

[Pomo]

I'm actually really annoyed that gosetsu and yotsuyu survived the doma castle part. I actually thought it was a fitting death for both of them.

Gosetsu fulfills his final duty as a loyal samurai and gives his life for his lord, inspiring Hien to be an honorable and loyal king, maybe even name his first son Gosetsu.

Meanwhile yotusyu gets a terrifying and painful death as she is crushed and drowned, a just punishment for everything she'd done up to that point. Bad life or not, she still made the choice to do what she did.

Them surviving ruined it in my opinion.

I agree. Their character arcs ended nicely in Doma. There's really nothing left for them to do now and keeping them around feels like the writers are just beating on a dead horse. Gosetsu had his moment with Hien and his sacrifice was well done. Yotsusyu was an irredeemable villain that met a fitting end with the castle crushing her. I'd say Zenos has a greater reason for redemption than she does when you consider he was created to be a monster rather than to be Varis' son. Her crocodile tears just made it seem like she was still trying manipulate you when she had just shot Gosetsu from behind when he was trying to keep the entire palace from collapsing. If I could do, I would treat her more as an evil Edda character where the effects of abuses are still felt long after she is gone. Her not-literal specter could still haunt Doma and cause a great deal of distrust between Hien and the people once the honeymoon period is over. I was hoping Zenos would have gone for a round two and that would have given Estinian an opportunity to enter the msq by putting him down, but not kill him. There's a ton that could have been done with an imprisoned Zenos. You could have conflict in the alliance over whether or not to kill him or lock him up forever. You could get more Imperial lore out of him, which would help set us on the path for 5.0. You could even play with his line of "You were my first friend. My enemy.". Zenos felt like a character that was underused. He had the whole "I did it to feel" shtick, which is fine, but not on its own. Gaius felt like a much more developed villain than Zenos.

I still don't see what purpose Yotsusyu or Gosetsu will serve now. The whole "show how corrupt Doma was before the Imperials" angle is much better shown to us rather than having Yostsusyu give us a sob story. It could even be shown that there are a ton of Yotsusyu-esque people out there and that would better serve to take us down that path than to bring someone back that has already served their purpose.

In general, the story was good. I liked some parts more than others, but it's what I've come to expect of shonen.