Quote Originally Posted by Edax View Post
I generally oppose this idea. I love it when Final Fantasy actually pulls from history as an inspiration. When writers go FULL Fantasy, the world's are often poorly written and realized and the story often struggles to say anything meaningful when there's no real life analog to pull on. This is why I don't like garlemald, it's "generic fantasy bad guy".

You take one look at this guy and the moment you ask "How does he go to the bathroom?" and the immersion is ruined. And he probably bangs his head on the ceiling everytime he walks through a door. This is what happens when you let the "fantasy" elements completely take over. The writers and designers don't have time to make the fantasy "real".
I mean, the Garlean Empire has pretty clear historical roots as well. It's a reference to the Roman Empire, specifically: republic turned empire under one man's rise to prominence, tendency to subjugate large swaths of territory and a generally condescending attitude to their populaces, even as they recruit large numbers of them to serve their military, and so on. Heck, the more recent patch's revelations hint at the idea that there is a cultic view of the Emperor, driving near outright worship. Not to mention the other similarities to other tyrannical regimes in the past.

And yes, the armor is ornate and over the top and doesn't make a lick of sense in terms of real world armor, but the same can be said about pretty much every major group in the game. Aymeric wouldn't have any easier of a time relieving himself in that outfit he always seems to be wearing.

Note that this doesn't mean I don't appreciate the historical roots of Ishgard's portrayal; I think they did an excellent job with that. But the Garlean Empire has similar historical roots; their questionable portrayal at times lies more with how they're presented at certain points than their historicity or lack thereof.