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

[Lauront]

Even Zenos's revival... they ruled out any redemption arc from the outset. Still, he has a lot of fans, so I'm not sure how successful their attempt was.

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.

There was Yotsuyu. They amply expanded on her backstory and how it tied into how she was treated as a Doman. But you're right, a lot of this stuff is tied into side-quests, and that was the exception. There's certainly a lot of material that highlights that the average Garlean, whilst misguided/misled, is not necessarily evil (and conversely, that Eorzea/Othard has its own share of wickedness.)

Even in Nidhogg's case, whilst his rage was explained to us, he was so uncompromisingly destructive at the end, that nothing but death could resolve that story arc. Which, in turn, explained Thordan's motivations.

[Bright-Flower]

Even Zenos's revival... they ruled out any redemption arc from the outset. Still, he has a lot of fans, so I'm not sure how successful their attempt was.



There was Yotsuyu. They amply expanded on her backstory and how it tied into how she was treated as a Doman. But you're right, a lot of this stuff is tied into side-quests, and that was the exception. There's certainly a lot of material that highlights that the average Garlean, whilst misguided/misled, is not necessarily evil (and conversely, that Eorzea/Othard has its own share of wickedness.)

Even in Nidhogg's case, whilst his rage was explained to us, he was so uncompromisingly destructive at the end, that nothing but death could resolve that story arc. Which, in turn, explained Thordan's motivations.

Yotsuyu suffered aweful things. But she was also introduced as sadistically forcing peasants to murder eachother for her amusement. Yotsuyu was a huge missed opportunity. They could have used her as an example that maybe Doma wasn't so great before the empire took it, and maybe had her as a villain that believed Doma under the empire's yoke was better off than it would be governing itself, and ultimately making Hien and Doma itself face up to past failings and endeavoring to make a better Doma than they once were once liberated. But ultimately all Yotsuyu's unfortunate backstory contributed was a vain attempt to get me to sympathize with her in 4.2 and 4.3 rather than adding any actual nuance to the story. Even when we talk to the guy that used to pimp her out the story doesn't really explore it and nothing is done with him again.

[Lauront]

Yotsuyu suffered aweful things. But she was also introduced as sadistically forcing peasants to murder eachother for her amusement. Yotsuyu was a huge missed opportunity. They could have used her as an example that maybe Doma wasn't so great before the empire took it, and maybe had her as a villain that believed Doma under the empire's yoke was better off than it would be governing itself, and ultimately making Hien and Doma itself face up to past failings and endeavoring to make a better Doma than they once were once liberated. But ultimately all Yotsuyu's unfortunate backstory contributed was a vain attempt to get me to sympathize with her in 4.2 and 4.3 rather than adding any actual nuance to the story. Even when we talk to the guy that used to pimp her out the story doesn't really explore it and nothing is done with him again.

Mhm, although she still benefited from more of a backstory than most villains do. Idk if it's just to do with the limitations of how much of the story they can convey in an MMO due to their resource limitations. Still, at least there was more of an attempt in her case to bring the motives to the forefront. They sort of did it with Livia, as well, but it was tacked on at the end.