Political Ideology and Storytelling Within FFXIV

[Caurcas]

Having now watched the XIV story unfold over the past eleven years how to y'all feel XIV has handled its approach to politics and storytelling? I for one think it's been a mixed bag. HW was the best handled in my opinion, particularly the plot line dealing with transferring from a aristocratic backed theocracy to a modern republic. SB had some interesting ideas, but all nuance was thrown out the window. SHB has been rather apolitical, so not much to discuss. Thoughts?

[OranKells]

I haven't seen any major hot button political issues raised or addressed in the MSQ at all. It's all very generic down with tyranny, freedom for the people stuff. which up until the last few years has been something I think most people took for granted.

That being said if you find some of that to be political or controversial I would suggest you readjusting your Overton window

[BaconBits]

In an expansion that was all about revolution and liberation, the 60-70 Samurai job quests were pretty anti-revolutionary lmao.

[Theodric]

I thought the Samurai quests were a refreshing change of pace. It's neat when the status quo is allowed to remain intact.

[StriderShinryu]

I think they've done a reasonable enough job in the game so far. One thing I do find a bit bothersome is a tendency towards lack of consequence for action. Unless you're a Big Bad, you usually get off fairly free in a direct or at least hand-waved manner when you do something bad. The Eulmorean citizens are pretty much the biggest example of this though there have been examples throughout. I'm actually currently fearing that we'll see this with Zenos seeing as how some people are actually wanting him to essentially end up a Scion, even if it's not part of a full on face turn, and the developers definitely seem to be coddling his continued existence.

I also would like the game to take more of an open stand on equality, identity and discrimination but I understand this is a challenge given that the game needs to be sold to a global audience. Thus I end up just sort of appreciating it when and where it is done such as with the Fae rather than expecting them to do more.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Not a fan of politics personally and i kind of play the game to get away from them, however one of my favorite factions is Garlemald and i hope we see it expanded upon in the future, as i do quite like empires.

[BaconBits]

I want Legatus armor, I will do anything for Legatus armor, I will challenge Yoshi-P to Hell in a Cell for Legatus armor.

Also, I kinda hope that the entirety of Garlemald isn't a completely burnt out shell of what it used to be before we even reach it.

[Rowde]

Yeah... I wouldn't say this game is apolitical at all...

From ARR through to now we've been dealing with primals all throughout the land. Primals are often referred to as deities to those that summoned them, tempering their followers into zealots. Questioning god and religion is standard fare for JRPG stories though.

However, in ShB we've now been introduced to the concept of ppl not being tempered to a god, but to a nation... and in addition, previous god-like figures we've encountered before in the story also can fall victim to the power of this tempering.

Which I personally take as a commentary on nationalism and religion, how the two conflate, and which perhaps... is a stronger force to reckon with.

[Lanadra]

Heavensward handled it pretty well. You could see how much difficulty the people of Ishgard in general have been having with not only coming to terms with the truth of their thousand year long war, but also the enormous shifts it has caused within the Holy See.

Stormblood was disappointing, just a bunch of stark raving mad types where there really wasn't that much nuance involved. About as much as we got was the usual Garlean rhetoric of 'Eorzean savages'.

Shadowbringers didn't really have much in the way of politics in it's narrative.. the battle lines were pretty quickly drawn and war was commenced without really giving that much in ways of nuance or politicking.

As for some of the other posters.. I don't believe Caurcas meant handling real world politics issues but rather the politics of the setting itself, or the lack thereof in some expansions.

[MoofiaBossVal]

The political storylines were only really handled somewhat well in the ARR patches with the Ul'dah situation. The audience might be inclined to want to help the Ala Mhigan refugees but Nanamo is confronted with the fact that Ul'dahn citizens who were made refugees due to the calamity have to come first. Further tensions arise when she favors the newly arrived Domans over the Ala Mhigans. Also the Syndicate stuff. Sadly those storylines were thrown in the garbage come Heavensward. The politics after that have been very childish, with dragons and Ishgardians just magically forgetting their thousand year war with each just like that. The other resistance groups that had different visions for a new government were never brought up again. We don't get to see post-occupation resentment towards those perceived to have been collaborators. Hien is never called out for flooding Doma castle. Centuries of war with the beast tribes are magically forgotten overnight. Limsa was stripped of the culture that made it interesting in the first place. Gaius became American Shogun of Werlyt and was forgiven just like that, with zero people hating him. Also Garlemald was thrown away offscreen.


If you mean "political messaging in FFXIV" then, I guess I'm not a fan of the democracy wank. Out of the 5 nations the WoL helps establish a new government in, 4 of them became democracies (Ishgard gets a House of Commons. Ala Mhigo, Eulmore, and Bozja become democratic republics), and the story bent over backwards to demonize monarchy and glorify democracy. And we also have Charlemand's custom delievery questline, where he is a high ranking stogy noble who - within just a few quests - leaps to wanting every Ishgardian citizen to be equal? What? Going by this pattern, Lord Nerva (if he survived) won't become Emperor of Garlemald and it will just become yet another democratic republic (though in lore it started out as a republic, but I digress). Out of the other 2 nations that had alternative governments, Limsa was stripped of its unique political system of pirates and racing, leaving just Gridania and their prophets who interpret the will of the Elementals.