Folks need to stop trying to portray Thordan as a mwa ha ha moustache-twirling evil villain. He was a LOT more nuanced than that.

Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post
We found out the truth thanks to our echo, which was also known by Thordan and we saw how he reacted when his own son spoke to him about this. He tortured and imprisoned his own son and wanted to use force to end this war which would have meant countless of deaths, lots of consumed aether and people that are living a "good" life thanks to being tempered.
First off, Aymeric was never tortured, as far as I can remember. After his conversation with his father, he was imprisoned to stop him from interfering - which was uncharacteristically merciful for the papacy who have been known to drop folks off cliffs merely on suspicion of sympathy toward dragons. Aymeric's claims, that Ishgard was the perpetrator of the war and that the dragons were the aggrieved party, were nothing short of heresy - officially, at least - and had Thordan desired it he COULD have tortured or killed Aymeric. But he didn't. Even when executing his son would most likely have been the wisest course of action at that point, he chose to imprison him instead, and that came back to bite him when his imprisonment prompted us to enter the Vault and bust him out. These are not the actions of a ruthless megalomaniac, but of a well-intentioned extremist. Or, at the very least, they are the actions of a man who draws the line at killing his own son.

Quote Originally Posted by Delily View Post
You completely missed a key difference between Thordan and Ysayle. Thordan knew quite well that the Dragonsong War was based off a lie. He was more than content to keep that lie going so long as it kept him in power. The Ascians provided him with a way to increase his power namely to become a primal and then end the war, which would drive Ishgard into a fervent state and allow him to wage a campaign of conquest. With war ended, he could shift to use the Garleans as his reason for conquering and "unifying" Eorzea. There was nothing redeemable about Thordan, he was a power hungry man who would use whatever means, including genocide, to get more power.
His conversation with Aymeric, too, reveals that he's NOT in this game for power for its own sake. He played the game to the end, well after it was clear the War was coming to an end, because he believed that revealing the truth to Ishgard would BREAK its people. He was willing to do anything to ensure that the truth remained hidden, that his people be allowed to believe that they'd been fighting and dying for a thousand years for a NOBLE cause. To ensure that the millennial lie remain the truth of Ishgard, he was willing to get primaled up in order to continue the holy war until none were left to contest the truth as the papacy told it. In truth, of course, Ishgard's people were stronger than that and (most of them) did not break under the weight of the truth, but Thordan had no way of knowing that would be the case. And, truthfully, neither did Aymeric or his allies - and their faith in the people of Ishgard paid off.

It's fine to believe, if you like, that Thordan was in it because he couldn't stand the idea of not being in power, that he wanted to lord it over everyone for his own ego. However, understand that this is only personal interpretation, and is not supported by the dialog in the game. The game paints him as a man BURDENED by his power, performing terrible acts for what he sees to be the greater good.