Is Bozja a failed storyline?

[Saefinn]

Regarding Misjia they make the common mistake of having her go too 'evil' during the 'evil' part of the arc to the point any sort of attempt to redeem them is laughable.

I don't care what Yotsuyu's sad backstory is or about her innocence via amnesia arc when she's introduced forcing peasants to murder eachother to get her jollies off.

I don't care that Mis comes around at the end after gleefully enslaving the Blades as tempered thralls and no qualms with mistreating Mikoto etc.

There are all too many story arcs where a character goes evil, does unforgivable things, and then they get redeemed at the end and like, one act of self sacrifice or heroism is supposed to redeem all that? No. Dying is easy. Living and working to make up for your mistakes is hard. And some things are not easily forgiven or swept under the rug by a sob story. If you want to redeem a character, or make them more sympathetic after doing evil, BE CAREFUL WITH WHAT EVIL DEEDS YOU HAVE THE COMMIT.

With Yotsuyu, I agree with everything you've said, but I like how they ended it for her at least (and I enjoy her fight), because I think there was a bit of a divide, those who of us who were like "kill her, we don't empathise with her character, villain must die" and those who were in love with Yotsuyu, in the end she got closure, which is an end I figure people who liked her would be satisfied with and we got to kill her off. And I guess you have that choice with Misija too.

However, there is a third character here worth mentioning, which is Fordola. She's not been fulling explored yet, but out of the three I feel like so far she could have the most potential to be interesting. But like much of Ala Mhigo she hasn't got much love/attention, but the current MSQ can change that. Fordola's motive made sense and her characterisation matches it and she reacts naturally to how things happen and her character remains consistent with her motive and she didn't devolve into "evil because evil" but does bad things because those bad things progress her goals and the bigger picture she's and that's equality with the Garleans - she buys into the meritocracy kinda like Misija does. But her tone does change once The Ala Mhigan Resistance and Eorzean Alliance show substance and that their way has merit, and her skepticism remains meaning she still wants them to prove themselves. But she steps down from being an adversary to try and better see things from another perspective, so a redemption arc I think would end up working better for Fordola. So I am interested to see what they do with that.

I also liked Gaius' redemption arc, though I say it in the past tense, but I feel like he's not reached the end of it, but gotten over the first few hurdles. Because hey, war crimes are big debt to pay. I didn't end up feeling much in the way of sympathy for him - maybe some because I think it's human to, however, he's been responsible for his share of suffering. I had more sympathy for his kids, Allie especially. Although I thought they were being dumb at the beginning, once we learned more about what they were doing & why it made more sense. But what I did gain from Gaius was perspective and a growing respect for his character, who I want to see learn from his wrongs and do greater things, like help rebuild what's left of Werlyt and help aid the people he once wronged.