The Road to 5.0

[Alleo]

I am putting the Garlemald posting under spoiler because its kinda off topic. Will also be the last one about it here otherwise it will just end in another long discussion.

Thankfully we can take comfort in the fact that everything on that list is blown out of proportion and conveniently missing the wonderful nuances that are so very common in FFXIV's story. Eorzea is no saint and had been involved in atrocities across the ages, both past and present. .

What atrocities did Eorzea do in the last couple of years? Because all of my points from the list are from recent years alone. So please either give examples too or just accept that maybe the government of the recent Garlemald is far from fine. Also what exactly from the list is blown out of proportion? We know that they wanted to drop the moon on Eorzea and that this was not something completely done by Nael herself. It was only thanks to Bahamut that this did not happen. But in the end Garlemald started another Calamity with that. The poison and experiments are part of the main story or side stories. (We have one scientist that cant remember his past that developed the poison) So again how are they blown out of proportion? The envoirement pollution can be seen in the game itself in that zone and the fisher quest ist all about it too. The non existent freedom of speech is shown with the theater group and how Varis does not even allow certain Art. We also got to know through the story that people need to serve under Garlemald to even get a chance at being a normal citizien but we saw through the echo that some soldiers still look down on them and Gaius was kinda a exception in that but he too was all about conquering the land from the savages. So please if you want to argue against the list do it with examples and not just say that its blown out of proportion. That does not make a compelling argument.

Regula was not well known and one scene does not change the fact that he would have done genocide if Varis had wanted him too. Also he only did it because it was good for Garlemald too. Other than that we cant say much about his character either. Fordola is not a Garlean and still needs to work hard for her redemption and Yotsuyu was never redeemed. Her only chance at life was through memory loss and becoming Tsuyu but never through her old self. Also just because some have gotten something like a better light does not mean that all of them will get one. We have more than enough other villians in this story that still got no better view.

Also FF14 is not all the other FF so I cant see a reason to take them into this discussion..just because they did stuff there does not mean that it will happen here and look at villians like the lala that got cut in half. There was nothing good for him and he was just truly black. The same with Zenos. So no FF14 does have those too and we cant just simply say who will land there. But Varis and his rule (which is the evil part of Garlemald, not necessarily every person that lives there) cant be seen in any good light right now. Heck people like the theater group had to flee their own country thanks to him.

Anyway on topic:

I just thought about the part with the balance more while in bed and honestly I still believe that Elidibus is not truthful and I kinda wonder if we truly need a balance.

First: What exactly is meant with a balance? How is it achieved? What is there to say that its enough and fine?

For example the world as we know it, is fine right now even without a balance. But Zodiarks freedom seems to be bad for us and Hydaelyn and honestly I do question if balance would even be possible with him around. He was stronger than Hydaelyn (if we believe her words) thus why should he suddenly be fine with being balanced with her? Also we did not exist in that balance, only his banishment seems to have created us so what does that mean for our lifes?

Also Elidibus himself always go around and talk about balance, yet he took the WoD out of their world, lied to them and tried to let them create another calamity. Yet when the WoD decided to screw that plan and just kill us, he never stepped into that..and our death as the last beacon of Light would have been devasting for Hydaelyn..thats far away from balance imo. Also for someone that seemingly has all the informations he surely does not talk about it.

Another point about Light and Darkness. I honestly dont understand the concept of it. Seemingly if we look at the history and actions of FF14, Light seems to be the good side. The WoD created a flood of Light by being too good at their job and since they are similiar to us they must have defeated bad guys a lot. Our WoL also does a lot of good deeds and tries to get rid of the bad things that plague the realm. Thus WoL and WoD who are on the light side are being good. The Ascians that are representing the Darkness are trying to destroy everything. They rule in the shadows and start lots of conflicts in the worlds and hope for a calamity. That one female Ascians overdid that and caused a Flood of Darkness (seemingly also because they did not have great WoL). So again it looks like the Ascians are bad or doing evil things. So it feels hard to not believe that Light = Good and Darkness = Bad..thus its hard to understand how doing too much good would be bad..

Yet we also know from the game and certain jobs that you can use the Light and Darkness for good and bad things..so here they are not strictly seen as either.

Next to that confusion I just kinda wonder if its really that bad to have too much light because Hydaelyn was able to save the realm of the WoD by taking the light back. What should stop her from ever doing that again if it happens in other realms? But her saving that world also begs the question of how the realm is now save even though nothing was changed in it..shouldnt it be flooded soon again? Or did she magically create more Darkness by simply taking a lot of Light with her? And again if that happens, wouldnt that be the best solution in the end? Just have her swoop in and take the Light away if its too much after we defeated the Ascians and Zodiark? And since we are mortal we wont live forever thus our good deeds will come to an end somewhere..and if we are gone she just need to not create another WoL thus no excessive light but also no calamities and Ascians too. A balance you might say.

As you see from my wall of text, I have a big problem with understanding this concept in FF14 and how it really makes sense..and honestly I really hope that this wont end in the "you played right in his hand", "all your good deeds help the evil all along", "lets kill both crystals for reasons...even though we only exist thanks to her".

Maybe someone can enlighten me on this one..or maybe I am not that wrong with my assumptions? Would be great to know, especially since the german version too seems to hint at it being good and bad again..

Edit:

We can always conveniently focus discussion on the "recent years", in the knowledge that if you go even as far back as a 100 (really, no need to do so for Ishgard), it'll shatter the delusion that the city-states are much better.

Well yes if you use current deeds as arguments (which should be a huge part of it because its always the current government that shapes the future) you should also only use the current deeds for other nations too, otherwise it will get quite unfair. And in my argument you will only find current deeds. And none of the city states of Eorzea have such deeds in the recent years. They are not morally white either but far from the point that the other state has..(And its not like Garlemald was some nice nation in the past either so its not getting better if we take some years back ) But anyways..its getting a bit off topic and both sides have said their thing. Hopefully someone can point out the balance problem for Light and Darkness for me..