Is anyone else dying to get to Garlemald?

[Elladie]

I hope it wasn't my original comment about the Garleans being pushed around and picked on because they had no magic that led to any of this acrimony! I'd like to make it clear immediately that I was putting that forward as a 'reason' for their behaviour - one that we can possibly understand even though we don't condone it - rather than an 'excuse'. There's a very real difference. IMO there is no excuse for becoming a bully and worse even if you've been bullied (although I can understand that is the reason some people do become bullies).

We're still on shaky ground in some areas though ... I'm prepared to accept, for example, that some Garleans (Gaius for example) genuinely believe that their mission to rid the world of primals (and possibly any kind of religious belief) is the right & moral path; that the Eorzeans are deluded and superstitious fools if they resist this. I am NOT saying that Gaius IS right, just that he - and many other Garleans too probably - thinks he is. So we're up against a conflict of moral imperatives. We believe (the Eorzeans) that we're right to resist and to encourage and help those who also wish to resist. But Gaius & others like him think that just shows how misguided & foolish we are. They think they have a moral mission to teach us the error of our ways. Imposing your belief system by force is something I find personally unacceptable, but then I have to be VERY careful to make sure I'm not guilty of doing exactly the same ...

Also I was profoundly disturbed by Xenos & his storyline. I thought he was brilliantly written. I loathed him. And yet at the same time something about him moved me deeply. I pitied him very much. I couldn't help imagining some horrendous childhood (which is of course no more an excuse for monstrosity in his case than in Yotsoyu's) that made me want to inflict severe physical violence on his father! And his suicide horrified me. If i could have saved him at that point, I would have, even if he turned around and betrayed my 'kindness' in the next second. I was very very conflicted about Zenos, and i guess that's added to my ambivalence about the Empire. I just don't see wiping out the entire Garlean nation as a solution (or in the least bit practical)

But I'm thrilled that the story has all these nuances instead of being WoL and friends = good guys, Garlemald = bad guys

EDIT; I blame Lyse and her comment about Xenos being a baby once for my reluctant sympathy for him ...