The WoL, Fray, and Dark Knights, knowing what we know now. [ShB Spoilers]

[Rannie]

Rightfully angry is not what I would say of the merchant who begged the WoL to go save said merchandise for him because he did not even hire any type if guard to go with him . So rightfully angry that he demanded that said WoL compensate him for HALF the value of said stolen property after all the fighting the WoL had to do just to get said merchandise back and could have died while retrieving it. That's not being rightfully angry that's being an ungrateful douche.

[Rosenstrauch]

And I wouldn't call it saving the merchant's goods if I chose to soak the merchant's goods in blood because I think it's funny or something. At least in the Japanese script, it's clear that it's not my fault the goods are tarnished, and not to such a ludicrous extent.

Edit: Seriously. If I were to help somebody for free, and then either intentionally or accidentally ruined something of theirs (like breaking a television or taking a crap on their carpet), not only would I not be surprised or outraged over them getting angry, I would fully expect to have to compensate them for it. Especially if they're not a friend or family member. I also don't see how throwing a temper tantrum over that, like Fray (actually yourself?) did, is supposed to make him look cool or express my "innermost thoughts".

[NessaWyvern]

I always read it as our darkness reanimating a corpse with the will of our darkness, but some scenes really were iffy.

[Edax]

I mean that I found Esteem's whole "crass egotistical edgelord who may or may not exist" deal to be so awful that it ruined the story line for me. I also didn't appreciate the game's attempt to portray my character as a psychopath via Fray shouting that merchant down over him being rightfully angry with me for soaking his goods in Qiqirn blood. Knowing that the Japanese version is nothing like that is a relief.

What proof is there that we knowingly soaked his goods in blood?

[Rosenstrauch]

What proof is there that we knowingly soaked his goods in blood?

It's implied. The merchant's goods, iirc, were contained in a large crate, and the player is under no obligation to fight the Qiqirn present while close to that crate. That, coupled with FF14's typical bloodless carnage, leaves me to believe that we weren't brutalizing those Qiqirn so thoroughly that they were gushing blood in high pressure streams or exploding into chunks or anything like that. Which leaves me with only two possibilities: Either we intentionally soaked the merchant's goods when we retrieved them, or we absentmindedly did so (example: By removing them from the crate with blood soaked gauntlets).

Either way, we fucked up. At least in the English script. In the Japanese script, the merchant is complaining about the Qiqirn dirtying his goods, and then tries to fleece us. If that had happened, I could understand the outrage Fray expresses on our behalf.

[Edax]

It's implied. The merchant's goods, iirc, were contained in a large crate, and the player is under no obligation to fight the Qiqirn present while close to that crate. That, coupled with FF14's typical bloodless carnage, leaves me to believe that we weren't brutalizing those Qiqirn so thoroughly that they were gushing blood in high pressure streams or exploding into chunks or anything like that. Which leaves me with only two possibilities: Either we intentionally soaked the merchant's goods when we retrieved them, or we absentmindedly did so (example: By removing them from the crate with blood soaked gauntlets).

Either way, we fucked up. At least in the English script. In the Japanese script, the merchant is complaining about the Qiqirn dirtying his goods, and then tries to fleece us. If that had happened, I could understand the outrage Fray expresses on our behalf.

The merchant still demanded that we kill on his behalf and complained that his goods loss value because of those kills. He never had a leg to stand on.

[Rannie]

Or a qiqirn while bleeding fell over or staggered over onto said crate and died while bleeding out and the WoL was too preoccupied to move them off while fighting a crap ton of others that where swarming about. Nope the merchant has absolutely no idea what had happened and made an assumption that it just HAD to be all the WoL fault. Hell even we can't say it was the fault of the WoL. Btw what are you expecting the WoL to do step up to them and go "pardon me I'm here to fight you for that crate but before we do let's move off some distance as to not bloody them, shall we?"

[YianKutku]

My read of that whole situation was that the merchant was indeed being at least slightly unreasonable in demanding compensation from us for dirtying his goods, but the way we exploded upon him in anger (in the English version; in Japanese, it was Fray who yelled at him) was basically going from 0 to 100 immediately.

In the 80 quest, the merchant did apologize for that. I kind of wish we could also have apologized for how we yelled at him while in the middle of our mental break.

Which is kind of the disturbing thing about the DRK questlines, in that apart from 50-60, all of it is due to the WoL having some sort of emotional breakdown multiple times. Being so guilty or angry that we literally manifest part of our aether into a separate being is probably not healthy.

[Edax]

My read of that whole situation was that the merchant was indeed being at least slightly unreasonable in demanding compensation from us for dirtying his goods, but the way we exploded upon him in anger (in the English version; in Japanese, it was Fray who yelled at him) was basically going from 0 to 100 immediately.

In the 80 quest, the merchant did apologize for that. I kind of wish we could also have apologized for how we yelled at him while in the middle of our mental break.

Which is kind of the disturbing thing about the DRK questlines, in that apart from 50-60, all of it is due to the WoL having some sort of emotional breakdown multiple times. Being so guilty or angry that we literally manifest part of our aether into a separate being is probably not healthy.

At the same time, the merchant never offered compensation. He was demanding payment from the person he was begging for charity. That's beyond rude, it's almost extortion.

[HyoMinPark]

Which is kind of the disturbing thing about the DRK questlines, in that apart from 50-60, all of it is due to the WoL having some sort of emotional breakdown multiple times. Being so guilty or angry that we literally manifest part of our aether into a separate being is probably not healthy.

To be fair, look at what our character goes through. Multiple Wars and the loss of multiple friends. Look at how many people we have also killed or had a hand in killing. Yeah, a lot deserve it. Yeah, many were "kill them or they'll kill us", but there was also a lot of collateral damage: innocent lives lost that weren't lives of our enemies. Such an emotional breakdown is entirely plausible for anyone with a conscience, and the mind will do whatever it needs to do to try and find serenity. So I think it all makes sense. I know all of this would weigh heavily on Hyomin, at least.