Who is your least favorite major character and why?

[Lauront]

There's a number of cutscenes where our character literally just stands there and lets things happen instead of taking action or initiative that could have prevented the kupo nuts from hitting the fan.

As Theodric said, it cuts both ways and it's down to narrative choice. I agree it doesn't make all that much sense in some cases.

[Gameovers]

How so? I disagree.

He's one of the best looking male characters in the game. He also has very interesting ties to the Buduga.

Furthermore, he's unapologetic about doing what he sees as best for his people - even fully embracing moral greyness such as choosing to flood Doma castle and strongarm the Xaela into joining a fight that did not concern them in the slightest. His callousness towards Yotsuyu's plight is also refreshing since so many of the leader figures in this game love to pretend to care about all manner of issues when it benefits their cause only to completely neglect/ignore them whenever it isn't beneficial.

He wouldn't be doing anything if it wasn't for the WOL winning the tornament arc in Stormblood. I dunno.. I'm not a fan of him either because of that. Like he was gonna sit there and chill while his people were giving up on everything. It took Me to solve all those issues. Me=wol. honestly I think Lyse gets too much hate and Hien not enough hate honestly. Maybe I'm bias but ye---ah that stings for me.

Tho if I'm being honest.. ALL of the characters are like that. They can't do anything until I either start it or if they start it.. I finish it. I'll never forget how stupid it was just throwing the Nigghogg eyes off the cliff instead of I dunno.... killing them!

[MoofiaBossVal]

G'raha Tia. I loved the Crystal Exarch in 5.0 for being a competent leader, but then he took the hood off and became a raving fanboy who competes with Alphinaud (a much better character) for screentime.


G'raha Tia has three major problems.


First: G'raha trying to cut into the WoL's life.

By the time of Shadowbringers, the WoL is famous and lots of people want to know him, and he's being called by everyone in the realm to help them out. The WoL just doesn't have enough time to help out and hang out with everybody. The WoL already has a circle of friends that he's spent a lot of time, are his preferred crew to tackle problems with, and the people he prefers to spend his time with.

The WoL worked with him during the Crystal Tower questline for all of 1 or 2 hours. This was before the WoL had really formed a circle of friends with the Scions. So in Shadowbringers, you have G'raha - a stranger to the WoL - trying to cut into the WoL's life. "Take me on an adventure with you". I mean, yeah, by the time he says that in 5.3, I've known him long enough that it'd feel nature, but it feels really weird that he was harboring this desire during 5.0, and says it to you in Kholusia. It's like a fanboy seeing a celebrity idol at the mall and saying "please let me be your best friend!".


Second: G'raha Tia is NOT an old man.

I think the other problem with G'raha Tia is that... he's supposed to have come from a time period in which he woke up and everyone he knew was dead, and there was immense bloodshed and the new people he made friends with were dying left and right, and then he goes to the First and lives there for a hundred years... and he's known generations of people from their birth, watched them grow up, get married, grow old, and die. He should be a really old man, but he never ACTS like it. He acts like a fresh faced teenager. He TALKS about being an old man, but I never feel it. ​This is in the same expansion that had Emet-Selch, who felt like a really old man who had lost his civilization and his friends and his family. This is the same expansion that had Ardbert, who really felt like he had lost his civilization and his family and his friends.

It's also extremely bizzare that G'raha Tia just so casually leaves the Crystarium behind. He lived 20 years in Eorzea. He lived 100 years at the Crystarium. The people of the Crystarium should be family to him. This should be his home, more so than Eorzea ever was. I cannot believe a grandpa or an elder or an old man like that would just up and leave his community just like that to go adventuring with some celebrity he had met for 2 hours over 100 years ago in some far off land that was just a vague memory. Now, obviously once his body was crystalizing, stashing his consciousness into his body on the Source was the obvious thing to do, but he was clearly planning to go back to Eorzea long before then, otherwise he wouldn't have made the extra crystal.


Third: G'raha Tia is just the same character as Alphinaud.
​
G'raha Tia fulfills the same role as Alphinaud in the narrative: the bright eyed dorky little brother to the WoL/deuteragonist of the story who is a magus and the man with the plan. Literally the same character, just a different design and voice actor. It's especially telling that G'raha Tia and Alphinaud hardly ever talk in the same scene, let alone talk to each other... because that'd draw attention to the fact that they are literally the same. When one character is in focus in the narrative, the other has virtually no lines at all. I would've been content with Alphinaud being sidelined and G'raha Tia hogging the spotlight for 5.0 through 5.3... but then he survives 5.3, and continues hogging Alphinaud's place in 5.4. It isn't until 5.5 that Alphinaud gets back his role again... and it's rather telling that G'raha Tia has pretty much no lines in 5.5 and it's jarring. You have two characters both competing to fulfill the same role in the narrative and it's very jarring.

Stormblood had a similar problem with Lyse and Alisae. They were the same character both competing for attention: the spunky bash bro sister who flips out at the drop of a hat. Fortunately Lyse was written out of the story by having her leave the Scions, so Alisae is able to fulfill her role uncontested. I don't know why the writers forgot to do that with Alphinaud and G'raha Tia. More than one character per role is redundant. Get rid of one. I prefer Alphinaud to G'raha, but G'raha Tia is clearly preferred by the current writer and no way he's going to die after surviving 5.3, and if killing off Alphinaud means we don't have this content anymore and scenes can be written naturally, then so be it. I just don't want this conflict anymore.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I mean, if other characters were going to go out and solve their problems without the WoL, we wouldn't really have much of a game left to play.......

[TTiscancer]

I mean, if other characters were going to go out and solve their problems without the WoL, we wouldn't really have much of a game left to play.......

I would spend my time racing chocobos, playing TT and spending my winnings on catgirls.

[ItMe]

That has always been the FF way of storytelling, you're not playing from the characters POV. Think of it as an interactive book from a 3rd person perspective.

Outside of combat, you're not playing the WoL, from a story-telling perspective.

That's true.
In FF7 you are piloting the character of Cloud (& co.)
In FF15 you are piloting the character of Noctis (&co.)
It just hits different here because the game pretends I'm making my own character when really, outside of glamming, I never really get to BE my character.

I'm also no stranger to games where your character is a blank slate you can project onto.
However, those games generally aren't as story focused as FF14, and I'm disappointed that in FF14 they didn't cook up a more compelling way to involve US in the narrative.

If I were to think of FF14 were like an interactive book... that's an interesting angle. That's cool, and I like visual novels just fine. But that doesn't fix my issues with our hardly existant protag.

[TTiscancer]

That's true.
In FF7 you are piloting the character of Cloud (& co.)
In FF15 you are piloting the character of Noctis (&co.)
It just hits different here because the game pretends I'm making my own character when really, outside of glamming, I never really get to BE my character.

I'm also no stranger to games where your character is a blank slate you can project onto.
However, those games generally aren't as story focused as FF14, and I'm disappointed that in FF14 they didn't cook up a more compelling way to involve US in the narrative.

If I were to think of FF14 were like an interactive book... that's an interesting angle. That's cool, and I like visual novels just fine. But that doesn't fix my issues with our hardly existant protag.

But see, you're not the protag, you're just the guy/gal they hired to kill shit

[Rinhi]

How so? I disagree.

He's one of the best looking male characters in the game. He also has very interesting ties to the Buduga.

Furthermore, he's unapologetic about doing what he sees as best for his people - even fully embracing moral greyness such as choosing to flood Doma castle and strongarm the Xaela into joining a fight that did not concern them in the slightest. His callousness towards Yotsuyu's plight is also refreshing since so many of the leader figures in this game love to pretend to care about all manner of issues when it benefits their cause only to completely neglect/ignore them whenever it isn't beneficial.

because his existence sidelined yugiri and gosetsu into a background role, who were leading and helping domans escape while hien was sitting on his butt in the steppe, for which he claims that we won the tournament when it was in fact us, and us alone, and yet he's the one that's treated as if he had won it
also, letting yotsuyu, an amnesic pow, roam around without supervision so that she can run away to summon a primal and yet, he gets no blame for that despite it being his fault (meanwhile, lyse gets a lot of hate for a very similar thing, despite the fact she had no way of knowing the guards were enthralled and aiding the rogue snakewomen, that's on her for trying to be diplomatic, right?)
there are various other things that completely put me off the character that I can't remember right now, but those two are the major ones

I don't care if he's good looking and has a well spoken voice actor because that doesn't make or break a character for me

[Kozh]

Lyse, her transformation from Yda to Lyse was literally without any character developement. They just needed a strong figure for the ala mhigo liberation front and basically made Yda/Lyse in two quests from a funny goofball into a omnipotent monk which uses limitbreak on every encounter in stormblood and rules over ala mhigo without having any experience at all.

Felt like they didn't know what to do with papalymo and yda so they killed one off and butchered the other one for their stupid writing. Let us be honest, stormblood was in general just boring bad writing.

How very nice of you to completely ignore her character development throughout SB. You want a character who has zero development? It's y'sthola. Compare her in arr to ShB, and you'll see she only 0.1% changed (though the same could be said to urianger as well).

Lyes is written having a realistic flaws and all, and she kinda manages to outgrown it. She has little experience with leadership, she knows it, and she's afraid because of it. Yet she keeps trying to get better. After 4.1, we see her being better than at the start of 4.0. The fact she gives the Ala mhigo leadership over to raubahn is to show that she knows her limit and act accordingly to that.

People like to use the "she has no development" excuse, when they mostly just hates her for different reasons. Some hates her because they prefer yda personality, some may hates her because she's hot headed; and I say it's okay, I also have characters I hate just because, but don't use the "she has no development" excuse.

And really? Her using LB is problematic to you? Y'sthola has been using the equivalent of lb3 ever since SB despite being blind (using the dangerous draining technique), yet no one has problem with it.

[Aneshda]

Ryne cause I don't like her girly style, whenever I see her i need aggro managment not to kill her. I would if I could.
Rynes new bestie Gaia. The moment those 2 starts to giggle i realise the whole World is lost.
Cid he is 0815 and super boring, wonder what happend to him. A Cracker has more spice as him and Nero.