Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
Ah, the worst sort of literary critic. The sort that acts as if supporting a fictional character or faction is equal to doing so in the real world. To say nothing of the deliberate overlooking of nuance - of which there is much to be found in FFXIV.
By engaging with a fictional narrative, you're accepting that it's "real" within the bounds of the story - in which case it's only natural to apply your thoughts on real morality to the characters' actions. It's how we define heroes and villains (or lack thereof) within a story - we judge them by the same criteria we would if real people acted the way they do.

It's one thing to say "I can see why the character acted this way even if I don't approve of their actions" and even empathise with them because of that, but that's not the same thing as condoning it because it's "only fiction".