The Road to 5.0

[Alleo]

Not to speak for Cilia, but in my mind the question of who is genuinely evil comes down to the personal motivations for their actions. If you're doing evil things for selfless reasons (save the world, protect a loved one, promote the growth of a nation) you are not necessarily evil, wherein if you do them for selfish reasons (you want somebody's stuff, you take joy in the suffering of others, you enjoy having power over others), you're most likely evil. There can certainly be some overlap; you can persecute a group of people because you see them as a genuine threat to your own people and ALSO enjoy watching those people suffer.

I currently see characters like Varis and Elidibus as not evil, even if their actions are evil. They're doing them for what they believe to be good ends, and I don't see them as having actual malice toward the people they harm.. Yotsuyu was definitely evil; she did evil deeds purely for personal satisfaction - and having a tragic backstory explaining why she became evil doesn't change the fact that she is. Lahabrea is likely a combo; he, like Elidibus, is working toward what he sees as a good and necessary end, but clearly enjoys lording it over the poor mortals he torments.

But then you could have someone that only cares for example about their own family member and to help them survive they would be ready to murder a whole city/nation/world. That is imo quite selfish because they chose the life of one person to be more important than quite a lot more. I could see it more if its like "there is no other way we need to destroy this city otherwise the whole world will burn". Then maybe its a horrible act but at least with some understandable reasons. But Garlemald already started to conquer other lands before they knew of primals thus there is nothing selfless there. And even with the primal threat there are many more ways to deal with it. Like banding together with all the nations to find a solution.

@ObsidianFire: I honestly hope that this will be the case too. I am getting a bit tired of the "we need to kill god"tropes (especially if like in one certain game they still need someone else to become the new god because they would not be able to exist otherwise...its like..so you still kinda need one..)

Hydaelyn right now as done nothing bad imo. Yes some could argue that the part with Minfilia was not that great but as we were told, Miniflia still had choice in this. So having a huge turn around would just feel a bit annoying for me. I am alright if we would find out that she may have been a little guilty too about the banishment of Zodiark but right now I will 100% take the side with the crystal that wants us just to live and that will help if big help is needed and if she can help.