will we get Garleans Race?

[Hank_Hotspur]

I agree with all your points, but I wanted to expand on this one a little specifically.

We likely won't get Garleans as a playable race in large part because of the time bubble, and Garleans being specifically the bad guys in 2.0. Basically, the time bubble means that new races added were "always there", we just never "saw" them before they were mechanically added into the game's code. But they were always there. Viera? Hrothgar? Yup. Always there.

Garleans? How would we always have had Garleans around? It was such an enormous plot point that Cid was a Garlean, for example. He even hid it from us for a long time, and still more or less wears googles that hide it even now, because of how the general public would likely respond. Yes, we know he's a good guy, but the implication is we had to learn that about him before we knew what race he was, or we might not have given him that chance.

How would the writing team hand-wave this if Garleans were added, keeping in mind they must observe the time bubble rule (time bubble expands, time does not really pass). Every player picking the game up at 2.0 gets the same play experience as a player picking it up in 2.0 vs. someone picking it up now with everything available. The story stays the same.

The only way to insert Garleans as a playable race would be to dismiss the time bubble they've fought to keep for years. It would be hand-waving away an experience that Yoshi-P values heavily that all players have. It would suck the emotional beats out of a lot of the story around Cid and hell, even later, other characters, if just anyone could roll a Garlean.

I think the time bubble can be kind of thrown out as an point of argument. I remember Yugiri being revealed as an Au Ra back at the tail end of the pre-HW content was a big reveal, as they were supposed to be very rare in Eorzea, yet the very next expansion had them hang around like no big deal, despite the expansion after saying their homeland is in the Far East. Viera are also supposed to be very rare, with so far only Fran from the Ivalice raid series and the Garlon Ironworks lady from the Save the Queen questline being the only ones seen on The Source, yet apparently the playable characters can appear in abundance.

Sympathetic Garleans can very easily be slotted into the game, like our Scion Echo buddy Arenvald was born from the (very unwilling mind you) pairing of a Alah Mhigan Highlander and a natural born Garlean. He even stated that he wears his face paint to hide the scar his mother carved into his head because she feared she saw the development of a Garlean third eye, so perhaps this was more common than previously though. Bastard children from lands conquered the Garlean Empire who have been blessed with the Echo could be a good adventurer hook.