About the Emperor [Major Spoilers for 4.4]

[Bright-Flower]

I admit I was a bit worried that I was skirting the edges of Godwin's Law, but just how many blatant parallels do the writers have to throw at us before we call a spade a spade? Dear lord, when the Garleans rounded up Domans in Namai to march them off to be laborers (with the implication they were to be worked to death, which is why we stepped in to save them at great risk to our covert operations), I was just shaking my head. Yes, SE, we get it. We can see who the Garleans are supposed to remind us of.

It's among the reasons I bristle when folks try to compare the nuanced, grey morality brilliantly portrayed by the antagonists in FFXII to the ham-fisted Evil Empire in this game. The writers aren't even TRYING to portray the Garleans as having a legitimate point of view - and what flimsy rationalization they had (we're saving the world from Primals!) just got the rug yanked out from under it, with the rationalization that it was Ascians leading them by the nose all along. (Not that that revelation made me at all happy... Can't we have at least one pie without any Ascian fingers in it?)

Yeah. The Empire was POTENTIALLY interesting once upon a time. But even 1.0 had the Meteor Project. We had Gaius but we also had Nael. We had Hydrus but we also had Zenos.

The framework of a compelling antagonist is there. A legitimately good goal of stopping Primals from slowly killing the planet. Being driven out in the past to give them a beef with other lands. But not only was the foundation already deeply damaged by the Meteor Project in 1.0, but even Gaius' approach was undermined by his alliance with the obviously evil Lahabrea who used his plan to almost bring about another calamity.

And then we come to Stormblood. Yoshi apparently didn't intend for people to relate to Gaius as much as they did. So they over corrected. They made Zenos INTENTIONALLY unsympathetic so people wouldn't want to side with him. And now the reveal shows that even the good intentions of order and stopping primals was a lie.

This isn't FF XII, it's FF VI where the empire may have some good people within it but as an organization is evil and bad to the core. There's someone on another board I've had frustrating conversations with because they seem to think that Garlemald is the roman empire bringing order to savages as if they buy into the in lore propaganda, dismissing stories of abuse from ala mhigans as non credible sources, playing up the supposed virtues of the empire and downplaying the faults. It's really hard to have an actual discussion with someone with such deluded headcanon who sees the Empire not as it's presented in lore but how they want it to be.

[Cilia]

There's someone on another board I've had frustrating conversations with because they seem to think that Garlemald is the roman empire bringing order to savages as if they buy into the in lore propaganda, dismissing stories of abuse from ala mhigans as non credible sources, playing up the supposed virtues of the empire and downplaying the faults. It's really hard to have an actual discussion with someone with such deluded headcanon who sees the Empire not as it's presented in lore but how they want it to be.

Going off-topic for a moment here, if you'll forgive the digression...

Welcome to any discussion about Garlemald ever on the Lore Forums! Your experience is not unique, I assure you.

Just remember to call red herrings and that "agree to disagree" often means "I can't refute your argument, but I refuse to concede as well" in context, and maybe, just maybe, you'll get out with your sanity intact.

Erm. Back on point - yes, the Garlean Empire is an evil organization (Lawful Evil, to be exact), and parallels the Gestahlian Empire of VI much more than the Archadian Empire of XII (and this is coming from someone who only brushed the former and got bored halfway through the latter), even if not everyone in the Empire is evil. Zenos was made almost comically evil to bring the point home after so many thought Gaius had the right idea.