The WOL and Mass Murder

[Kukajoo]

Something that's been irking me for a long time is the sheer number of people we've killed as the warrior of light? We are people with inhumane power, the echo allows us to overcome any obstacle and so far the limit the top of the food chain. Should a stronger existence, Zenos for example, present itself before us, we simply surpass it. But what happens when the wartime comes to an end?When will the eyes of the people turn from admiration to fear? We have a veritable ocean of blood on our hands. I'd love to see more exposition on this, i want the WOL to be held accountable for his actions, i wan't our allies and friends have at least an arc where our ridiculous power level is a matter of concern rather than a fix-all-do-all solution

How do you guys feel about this? Do you think we should be reprimanded or should we keep getting a free pass for "justice" ? I realize we can't truly ever be held accountable, locked away, and so on as its an mmorpg in the end but at least a nod, or an arc encompassing it to some degree would be nice.

[Ilenya]

I mean, the DRK story touches on this for a bit...

Plus, at this point the average person wouldn't be afraid of the WoL, because we're still basically someone's loaded gun. If we started actively doing things for our sakes rather than someone else's, then maybe there could be an issue.

[Krotoan]

History is written by the victors.

However I think a storyline where the people who feel threatened by the alignment of the WoL with their opposition decide that they'll manipulate public opinion AGAINST us and turn former allies into enemies we have to fight (imagine a dungeon with each boss being a City Leader, Raubahn extreme for real!) would be real neato. People like us because we're doing what they think is good and the cost doesn't affect them directly. This is pretty much what happens to the WoD, in their world they're the heroes. If we're ever shown to be what equates to a mindless nuclear weapon, I'm sure we would have some bad days ahead of us.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Most of the deaths actually dealt by the WoL have been beastmen (who in most city states are not viewed as deserving of human rights), those who have been tempered (more beastmen, the drowned sailors in limsa, who are already dead, also the ones in thanalan, who some we are able to save, seen in some of the fates), rebels (ishgard storyline), and those who have evil plots in mind (ishgardian nobles, the heavensward, the private army of teledgi in ul'dah).

Otherwise, its known enemies of eorzea, the garleans we kill mostly, and even though some of them are eorzeans, they either chose to fight with the garleans, or did not turn their backs on them when we showed up.

There are very few instances of the WoL killing innocents, tho sometimes innocents have died while we try to save them, but that is the nature of war.

[Callinon]

Yeah but seriously what is anyone going to do about it? As you correctly said, if someone stronger appears before us we simply surpass them. We're a walking, talking, ever-evolving weapon of mass destruction. We kill gods for fun (remember the comment made to the Ananta?).

Personally, I still want my revenge on Alphinaud for making me spend my valuable time passing out shirts for him.

[SenorPatty]

Like Ilenya said, we're not killing nilly willy. The WoL works for Eorzea and its alliances. We're even part of a military of our choice. The only people who would hold the WoL accountable are Eorzea's enemies.

To put it another way, would you sanction a soldier who followed the mission's directive to the letter and applied judgement that would benefit the country he/she serves?

Disregarding that, what do you make of the people who went after the WoL's life for things smaller than politics? All living beings have the right to defend themselves when they're lives are threatened.

[Iscah]

I mostly justify it that although by the nature of it being a game, you have to defeat enemies, but if it was being told as a story (film, book, whatever) you'd be doing a lot more sneaking into places and dealing with the guards non-lethally. Binding spells or something.

[Kukajoo]

History is written by the victors.

However I think a storyline where the people who feel threatened by the alignment of the WoL with their opposition decide that they'll manipulate public opinion AGAINST us and turn former allies into enemies we have to fight (imagine a dungeon with each boss being a City Leader, Raubahn extreme for real!) would be real neato. People like us because we're doing what they think is good and the cost doesn't affect them directly. This is pretty much what happens to the WoD, in their world they're the heroes. If we're ever shown to be what equates to a mindless nuclear weapon, I'm sure we would have some bad days ahead of us.

This is what i mean! I would love an arc like this, and getting to fight our allies via raid, or dungeon or even trial would be amazing

[Musashidon]

no thanks i don't need fake DC/marvel logic, as it's complete trash.

we have helped everyone in eorzea and now others too, it's well known the WoL is good even when we were framed for a murder and treason people didn't believe it and accepted the truth afterwards when it was cleared up.

[Zuellni]

Would you sanction a soldier who followed the mission's directive to the letter and applied judgement that would benefit the country he/she serves?

I think that would depend on if WoL's group comes out on top and how the political and sociological views of the people change. In real life, following orders to a T to benefit to ones own country does not mean you're exempt from accountability if committing a war crime. I imagine if the Garleans were to be victorious in the war, WoL would indeed be charged as a war criminal and executed or imprisoned to siphon our powers.