In regards to the "Warrior of Darkness"; how far is too far?

[Bright-Flower]

The Warrior of Light has always been a powerful political tool for the Eorzean Alliance and its close allies. I suspect that will be played up even further as of Shadowbringers - and hopefully the Eorzean Alliance is forced to adhere to the same standards it insists on holding others accountable for. If Fordola firing on her own troops in a panic is a war crime and the use of chemical weapons is also a war crime then one has to wonder why Hien condemning many a soul in Doma Castle, with no warning, to a painful death through drowning is not also classed as a war crime. It's an incredibly cruel fate and realistically Doma Castle would have been home to non-combatants as well as a significant number of indentured conscripts. Yet for some reason Hien is given a free pass to use such tactics in the name of avoiding bloodshed on his own side, yet when other factions use the exact same reasoning they're condemned for it.

Fordola was called out for firing on her own men but that was an order from Zenos. She wasn't put in jail for that though. The reason she's hated is for what she and the Skulls had done to other Ala Mhigans during the occupation.

I think the msq mentioned something about only imperials being int he castle, but I could be wrong about that...I'd need to double check that part of the msq to be sure.

I'm also surprised that nobody ever seemed to take issue with Hien going into the Steppe and participating in the Nadaam with the intent of dragging the Xaela into Doma's war. The empire apparantly hadn't bothered the Xaela for twenty five years since Doma's fall and there was never any attempt to convince the Xaela the empire was a mutual enemy. In fact the empre only ends up attacking the Steppe at all in SB because they were chasing the WOL.

[Vidu]

I think the msq mentioned something about only imperials being int he castle, but I could be wrong about that...I'd need to double check that part of the msq to be sure.

...even if it was only imperials in the castle, I cant help having this line from Revolutions (Stormbloods Title Theme, after all) stuck in my head: "One mother's pride is another mother's sorrow".
I always understood that as a reminder that while we may be victorious here, we're still taking lifes - of people who had a family. Who might be imperials, but didnt want to fight and die in a foreign country. Its rather convient (and most likely intentional - and maybe not only for the whole modeling process) that all Garleans we fight (and kill!) are just faceless creatures, hidding under helmets...

[Lauront]

...even if it was only imperials in the castle, I cant help having this line from Revolutions (Stormbloods Title Theme, after all) stuck in my head: "One mother's pride is another mother's sorrow".
I always understood that as a reminder that while we may be victorious here, we're still taking lifes - of people who had a family. Who might be imperials, but didnt want to fight and die in a foreign country. Its rather convient (and most likely intentional - and maybe not only for the whole modeling process) that all Garleans we fight (and kill!) are just faceless creatures, hidding under helmets...

Or monstrosities, as in Castrum Abania.

I keep thinking about how ShB’s poster job is DRK, and I think back to the original 30-50 DRK storyline.

IMO, the direction of the DRK quests at level 70 present a very nice segue into where the story might be headed, since a lot of it involves self-reflection on your deeds, without wanting to give away too much. It could almost have been a MSQ story.

I don't think we'll be doing anything the First's Warriors of Darkness did. They were from a Shard that was going to be returned to the Void (Flood of Light) and Elidibus told them they had to cause a Calamity on the Source to save it. What Elidibus probably "failed" to mention is what may happen to a world that goes through the 'Rejoining' process. While the threat of the Flood is gone, what happens to everyone/thing that lives on that Shard (based on what was said in 4.5, it's implied they cease to exist)? If it wasn't for Urianger, Zodiark would probably be revived and the First, Warriors of Light and Scions present during the fight would have likely perished.

For our characters, it's probably just gonna be fighting/killing as many light-based things as possible so there can be balance. Watch Minfillia end up being the final boss lol

Regarding the First, it's not yet confirmed it's no longer under threat. Given that there is a looming calamity on the Source as well, it may be the case that the excess light Minfillia is absorbing is spreading throughout it rather than just going into Hydaelyn. When you add to this the effect the WoL's actions are having, it could be resulting in an imbalance in both worlds. Elidibus's primary aim is the revival of his god. One can speculate as to the why's and wherefore's of it, but I am beginning to lean towards the notion that the Ascians aren't just doing it for the hell of it and there may be deeper reasons as to why they took on this cause. We'll have to wait until 5.0 to find out more about these beings, which I speculate may, too, have once been WoLs, then WoDs, then what they are now. Hydaelyn herself had also neglected to mention what was going on in the First and I am hoping they reveal why in the future.

[Bright-Flower]

...even if it was only imperials in the castle, I cant help having this line from Revolutions (Stormbloods Title Theme, after all) stuck in my head: "One mother's pride is another mother's sorrow".
I always understood that as a reminder that while we may be victorious here, we're still taking lifes - of people who had a family. Who might be imperials, but didnt want to fight and die in a foreign country. Its rather convient (and most likely intentional - and maybe not only for the whole modeling process) that all Garleans we fight (and kill!) are just faceless creatures, hidding under helmets...

See, I'd love it if there was some moral ambiguity in SB, but they seemed to go out of their way to avoid it. That song had me pretty hyped for the war story, but it felt to me like SE was too afraid to actually have the good guys do anything quesitonable. The main questionable thing to me, dragging the Xaela into the war, was never presented as questionable in the story. They made Zenos a monster to overcompensate for people that wanted to side with Gaius.

The story never really explores any of these things. Sure many of the imperials we kill are probably just conscripts who didn't particularly want to be there, but at the same time, they ARE soldiers in an occupying army that oppresses the local people.

The SB DRK questline tried to make this point, yet the msq doesn't really have any tragic figures that we killed to show off, instead only having Gaius' henchmen (lieutenants in an army trying to subjugate Eorzea), the warriors of darkness (who we didn't kill), the heavens' ward (who had to be stopped), and freaking Ilberd.