New Year's Poem 2018

[Balipu]

At the moment, my current favourite character overall is Hien.

No surprise there. Hien is awesome. I hope he gets lots of development next patch. I think Yoshida said in an interview that his favorite is Alphinaud, which clearly shows. I mean no character lacks character development per se, but we know most about Alphie as a person (womanizer, loves politics, afraid of ghosts, can't swim). I hope others get the same treatment as we go forward.

I think Varis may very well be an antagonist with valid reasons from his perspective. That said, I still expect him to be an antagonist thought maybe not THE antagonist when we deal with Garlemald.

Well he IS the Emperor so it is hard to think fo anyone else to be the main villain beside Varis if we ever go against Garlemald. Maybe he really does gets deposed. A new Emperor. Or Empress. Hell maybe someone brings back Solus to life as a cool zombie Emperor. Let's repeat the mistake of ancient Allag and make use of the cool Solus concept art.

Hey, maybe that is what Elidibus wants.
1. Somehow persuade Varis to make stupid unpopular decisions
2. Teach necromancy to people against Varis' rule
3. Cackle like a madman and quoth Death Note memes as people resurrect Emperor Santa
4. Profit.

Am I good or am I good?

[Theodric]

Yeah, Alphinaud's development has been consistently great and meaningful. He makes for a great travelling companion and plays off of other characters rather well. He is also proof that a character can undergo a massive amount of development over time...assuming they are kept around long enough to do so. As it stands, some characters suffer immensely for only being around for a handful of scenes before being killed off.

With that said, though, Stormblood has improved on that quite a bit so far.

[Belhi]

No surprise there. Hien is awesome. I hope he gets lots of development next patch. I think Yoshida said in an interview that his favorite is Alphinaud, which clearly shows. I mean no character lacks character development per se, but we know most about Alphie as a person (womanizer, loves politics, afraid of ghosts, can't swim). I hope others get the same treatment as we go forward.


Well he IS the Emperor so it is hard to think fo anyone else to be the main villain beside Varis if we ever go against Garlemald. Maybe he really does gets deposed. A new Emperor. Or Empress. Hell maybe someone brings back Solus to life as a cool zombie Emperor. Let's repeat the mistake of ancient Allag and make use of the cool Solus concept art.

Hey, maybe that is what Elidibus wants.
1. Somehow persuade Varis to make stupid unpopular decisions
2. Teach necromancy to people against Varis' rule
3. Cackle like a madman and quoth Death Note memes as people resurrect Emperor Santa
4. Profit.

Am I good or am I good?

I think we will go to Garlemald but I don't see Eorzea invading. It just isn't feasible for the size and power of the imperial land mass. Taking a provence is one thing. Invading Garlemald as a whole is another.

For me that means the most likely situation is someone in Garlemald comes to us for help, either because they feel that our actions have created a mess in Garlemald is the WoL's responsibility to fix, or because as an outsider we aren't tied to any particular political faction in Garlemald. I don't see it being Varis. I think Varis will have plenty of enemies but I don't see them him getting overthrown yet.

If Elidibus is there he has a plan afoot and because of their nature of using proxies I suspect whatever the plan is it involves Varis and potentially his political enemies. Varis is being very tyrannical but is he doing that because he is a jerk or does he have a plan/know something which makes him feel it is the only course of action. He clearly knows a lot about the metasituation of Hydaelyn and I would bet has a plan to 'save' the world. Our conflict with him may be less about what he is doing but how he is doing it.

As for who could be a big bad beyond him, that depends on what he has planned, who is involved, who is against him and what the repercussions of his plans are. I can easily see Elidibus playing Varis's enemies against him if it served his purpose or tricking Varis into releasing an even greater threat.

[Theodric]

I would not be terribly surprised if Elidibus arranges for Varis to be killed or ousted in favour of starting a new succession conflict. I would prefer the reason for infiltrating Garlemald to be a surgical strike against an Elidibus posing as Zenos or Varis. Extreme liberties have already been taken in regards to preventing Garlemald from truly being as imposing as it should be, so I would prefer a more measured approach where we get to see and explore Garlean territory through our own eyes, helping both Imperials and civilians alike along the way with their own local issues. Just like how we slowly warmed up to the Ishgardians and saw them do the same in turn.

[Belhi]

I would not be terribly surprised if Elidibus arranges for Varis to be killed or ousted in favour of starting a new succession conflict. I would prefer the reason for infiltrating Garlemald to be a surgical strike against an Elidibus posing as Zenos or Varis. Extreme liberties have already been taken in regards to preventing Garlemald from truly being as imposing as it should be, so I would prefer a more measured approach where we get to see and explore Garlean territory through our own eyes, helping both Imperials and civilians alike along the way with their own local issues. Just like how we slowly warmed up to the Ishgardians and saw them do the same in turn.

Again I don't see Elidibus ousting Varis but at the same time I think when we go to Garlemald we will generally be assisting imperials. Were we fight imperials, I expect it to be either factional or military groups we come into conflict with. As I said, I expect us to be invited to Garlemald by someone with influence, not invade. That said, our journey there could very easily be under the radar. Most Garleans would have no idea what we look like. Hell, most Eorzeans don't recognise us on sight.

I don't see Elidibus seizing power directly though. The Ascian MO is almost always to work through proxies. Taking direct power seems out of place and frankly considering Varis has political enemies, probably not necessary. If we see Elidibus instigate a power play, I would bet it would be through a proxy. Perhaps even one who thinks he is working to save the Empire from a tyrant.

I think between Regula and the folks we meet on the Prima Vista they are clearly priming us to see a different side to Garlemald. I found it interesting that Cid claimed to still have a deep love for his homeland even if he disagreed with its policies. I wouldn't be surprised if when we go to Garlemald the Ironworks crew is involved. There families are all there after all. God I hope Nero stays on our side and doesn't go villain. I love that guy.

[Apoptomon]

Between the Ironworks, Lucia, and the Lexentales, I'm struggling to think of an 'in' into Garlemald (the Lexentales seem the best positioned to be allies on the inside, but they're relegated to side-story). I'll just have to hold out hope that if more city-states slip through Galvus' fingers thanks to the Scions actions in Gyr Abania and Doma, the frontier unrest inspires a well-positioned figure to embark on a "diplomatic mission" to Aldenard

[YianKutku]

I think we will go to Garlemald but I don't see Eorzea invading. It just isn't feasible for the size and power of the imperial land mass. Taking a provence is one thing. Invading Garlemald as a whole is another.

For me that means the most likely situation is someone in Garlemald comes to us for help, either because they feel that our actions have created a mess in Garlemald is the WoL's responsibility to fix, or because as an outsider we aren't tied to any particular political faction in Garlemald. I don't see it being Varis. I think Varis will have plenty of enemies but I don't see them him getting overthrown yet.

My completely wild and unsupported speculation is that the tales of our heroism against "safe" targets like Primals and voidsent will have spread to Garlemald, thanks to both the efforts of the Doman Shinobi spreading unrest in provinces, and possibly the Prima Vista crew performing of our feats in Ivalice.

So with this fame, possibly fueled by the utterly inept propaganda efforts the Garleans appear to be attempting that will obviously backfire, the non-pureblood people of Garlemald, especially those in conquered territories, inadvertantly summon a WoL Primal.

At which point Garlemald has to roll its eyes and grudgingly invite the premier Primal-slayer in the world, ie us, to go handle this situation that can be said to be indirectly our fault.

Notably this provides for a situation where Garlemald allows us in its borders to do whatever we need to do, but once we're done, they can go "now get out, and don't come back", and everything returns to status quo.

[Balipu]

Notably this provides for a situation where Garlemald allows us in its borders to do whatever we need to do, but once we're done, they can go "now get out, and don't come back", and everything returns to status quo.

And surely everyone will obey this request and no hotheaded response will make things worse. Definitely no chance of that happening.

[YianKutku]

And surely everyone will obey this request and no hotheaded response will make things worse. Definitely no chance of that happening.

At least they can say they gave it a fair go.

(I don't even think it would last a patch update. It would completely blow up in the very same MSQ update the request is made in.)

[Balipu]

At least they can say they gave it a fair go.

(I don't even think it would last a patch update. It would completely blow up in the very same MSQ update the request is made in.)

Update? It wouldn't get past the cutscene