Warrior of Light: A Mindless Killer

[Mysterysword]

The fun part is: The Warrior of Light is a mindless drone, beholden in service to someone else's will. That someone being you, the player. Every step the WoL makes, everything they do, everything they say, every fight they get into, every attack they make, it's all decided by you. You were the one who decided to take on that sidequest, to talk to that NPC, to fly up that cliff and poke around those nests and kill that mother bird.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

The fun part is: The Warrior of Light is a mindless drone, beholden in service to someone else's will. That someone being you, the player. Every step the WoL makes, everything they do, everything they say, every fight they get into, every attack they make, it's all decided by you. You were the one who decided to take on that sidequest, to talk to that NPC, to fly up that cliff and poke around those nests and kill that mother bird.

You can look at it that way, and see what you want to see. I'm looking at it from a purely narrative perspective. Assuming that the WoL is his/her own person, and that each action taken was their own doing.

You also have to assume that the WoL accepts all tasks given to them, because from a narrative stand point, you can't experience the whole story if you ignore some of the quests. It would be like skipping pages in a book because you didn't like what the character did on those pages.

[Miyha]

You can look at it that way, and see what you want to see. I'm looking at it from a purely narrative perspective. Assuming that the WoL is his/her own person, and that each action taken was their own doing.

If everything like this was fleshed out and apparent for you then there would be no point in having the WoL be your own character. If you wanted something deeper/more direct than what the DRK quests had to offer, an exact answer as to why or their reasoning or a deeper justification, then you may as well play a RPG with a fully developed, "pre-made" character as the protagonist. Your character is yours: they leave some of this vague/open to interpretation on purpose. If they layed all of this out there would be absolutely zero room to make your character your own, and I can see a lot more people upset over the fact that they can't decide for themselves what their motivations are, or how to justify what they must do.

It's a MMO, but it's also a Final Fantasy game. They're trying to strike a balance between having a set story to follow and having it progress in a certain way while also trying to allow some kind of creative agency to the players of their own unique characters. Because it's still a MMO, you really can't take everything at face value or look at everything "purely from a narrative perspective", as you put it.

I short, you decide what your character's reasoning is. You decide their motivations, how to justify their actions. If you think they're a mindless killer or drone, they are. If not? Choose another path.

Also... sidequests are... sidequests. It's a MMO. There are lots of "kill x amount of y" quests in MMOs. I never really took them as being any significant part of the story or the WoL's (or rather, my WoL's) development. There is plenty of room for you to make your character more than the "mindless killing drone" you're describing. Your questions regarding Hydaelyn and such will likely be answered as the story progresses, but expect some level of vagueness to remain.

[Kohdo]

Friendly reminder that the Garlean Empire did nothing wrong.