[Spoilers] Garlemald is a wasted opportunity

[MirronTulaxia]

I felt like they handled Garlemald really well. Honestly most FFs the empire kind of collapses anyways, at least this time we know why it did and get to see it after. I still feel Quintus was unwise though, as well as Alphinaud not having a rebuttal being silly.

Garlemald was already on the ropes. It was stretched really thin, and the civil war/towers pretty much ended things, along with the Eorzean and Eastern Alliances pushing things. I expect we will see them rebuild like Eulmore did in the post story stuff.

[Shurrikhan]

The zone itself also felt really small to me. Thing is though, is that unless they made it a city zone it was going to have enemies everywhere. They could have made it like Peaks 2.0 where there’s a corner we can go to that’s still built up and the rest has enemies, but the writers seemed very insistent on blowing it up and killing most of the civilians off.

The zone still exists though so unless the 6.X patches decide to completely ignore the new zones, we’re going back and the majority of the city exists just out of reach in the background and could theoretically be rebuilt just like how Doma Castle was destroyed.

I just hope that they give us a third eye glam piece. They didn’t even bother with making a new model for them and most Garleans are still elezen with hyur ears or straight up midlander.

I really hope we get a side-content zone where we clear out the existing blasphemies, perhaps some of which are able somehow (liberties taken for gameplay reasons) to make more. Destroyed city warfare in place of the bland pure desolation that was Bozja? Sounds good to me. (But, really, please no Bozja/Eureka/Diadem-dependent relic farm this expansion. Please.)

[Cleretic]

I think the main disappointment for me about Garlemald is that they executed it so well, only for it to essentially be the excuse to line up The Real Plot. A real plot I hardly disliked, mind you, but I felt like there had to be a bit more juice in that Garlean fruit before we tossed it.

I loved that they didn't pull punches with Garlean sentiments; they all hate us, for reasons that certainly aren't nothing even if they aren't wholly justified, and that sentiment never really goes away, nor should it, narratively-speaking.

[Coulvre]

After having some days to think about it, I kind of agree. I don't think that Garlemald in itself was badly written, but it really needed more time and space. Having a single zone per region worked fine for Norvrandt, but when it comes to the capital of the empire we've been fighting for nearly ten years of the game's existence, I wish we had seen more. We arrive somewhat abruptly, without much of a sense of time or travel, the zone itself doesn't have all that much in way of variation, and we leave again in the same manner, with a lot of plot points that feel like a set up for something cool (such as the solo duty before the dungeon, Anima, etc.) suddenly becoming irrelevant again for the rest of the MSQ.

I would have really liked to see the empire tackled in its own expansion, to be honest. We could have travelled there more gradually through former occupied territory across the continent, which would have made finally arriving there so much more impactful and allowed the events that took place to carry more weight. I enjoyed Endwalker's plot overall, but one of my main criticisms of it is that I feel they tried too hard to compress it all into a single expansion's story so they could get things wrapped up rather than giving the different elements involved more space to themselves.

[Nekaru_Infitima]

Probably unpopular opinion but if Garlemald rebuilds I kinda hope Gaius ends up ruler. He's gone through his regret, his redemption, his depression, and even turned down saving it in favor of not what it needs right now.

Like they did with Chai-Nuzz talking him into being ruler as the one suited for the job, despite his previous actions, I hope they do with Gaius. He already agreed to lead Werlyt back to better times. He was the only higher-up in Garlemald that detested outright destroying people (black rose, meteor, Ultima's last attack) and wasn't racist against non-Garleans when they conscripted people. Yes his actions were wrong, but he never saw it as 'conquer and destroy villain' mentality. He saw it as bringing people under one ruler, so all can prosper together. Even if his ideals were wrong to do, they weren't evil in themselves. People sometimes say he was Hitler, but Gaius was never against other people, he didn't want to make a one-race, he just wanted a one-empire.

So I think if anyone outside of Cid (and we know he won't want it) can build Garlemald back up, it'd be Gaius with Julius as a lead man, and the twins as advisors.

Just my hopes/thoughts.

[Zoliru]

Yeah I was kinda hoping for the capital of Garleans, even when destroyed to still be huge, it is the seat of the power of the main empire in Eorzea, a tiny city within snow covered wasteland doesnt scream capital.

[Jandor]

I kind of just automatically assume the capital is bigger than we see, and that even what we see is something of an abstraction.

I mean, I've always assumed that to be the case to a degree, but in Garlemald especially, the characters seem to emphasize it more than in previous areas. Constantly making out like a 2 minute run across the map is actually some sort of massive undertaking across a vast expanse.

[SaitoHikari]

The main story is most likely going to move towards what the Garleans are going to do next. You can't really ignore close to a decade of buildup just to dump ALL of that tension because they had little to do with the real big bad in the end.

I think most of Garlemald is just walled off, like with Ala Mhigo. Our perspective is just skewed by that giant ugly ass tower behind the walls making everything else (destroyed) underneath it seem way smaller in comparison. The remaining Garleans are definitely going to want to tear that tower down ASAP.

[Cleretic]

Probably unpopular opinion but if Garlemald rebuilds I kinda hope Gaius ends up ruler. He's gone through his regret, his redemption, his depression, and even turned down saving it in favor of not what it needs right now.

Canonically Gaius is off leading Werlyt right now (if you did the Weapon quests), and that seems to be where he wants to be. He was actually never a man motivated by personal power, he wants to see the right thing done by his own moral compass, and right now that means 'undoing his own atrocities'.

I'm sure he wants Garlemald to have a good, strong leader, but he likely doesn't want to be that.

[Nekaru_Infitima]

Canonically Gaius is off leading Werlyt right now (if you did the Weapon quests), and that seems to be where he wants to be. He was actually never a man motivated by personal power, he wants to see the right thing done by his own moral compass, and right now that means 'undoing his own atrocities'.

I'm sure he wants Garlemald to have a good, strong leader, but he likely doesn't want to be that.

If you had read more than just one sentence of most post rather than immediately jumping to tell me off for being wrong you'd see I addressed Werlyt, and the he wasn't motivated by power. But okay, be a know-it all.