What is with the constant mistreatment of the Garlean story?(6.1 Patch spoilers)

[Lauront]

Matsuno said it was deliberately cut short (and at the time had no chance of being revisited) specifically because the story proved to be so unpopular. Matsuno himself was also on record as saying he wanted the zones to look prettier (which was another common complaint) but I don't think that would have been enough if the Japanese fanbase had such a strong negative reaction to the plot and the NA and EU fanbase didn't have a correspondingly incredibly positive response to the plot.

EDIT, found his tweet:



There is a language barrier, so it's possible that the response was more mixed, but using "the worst" seems to indicate people that hated it absolutely hated it.

Thanks. I'd like to know what it was they disliked about it specifically but I imagine that level of detail isn't available. Personally I do find myself wondering where they get feedback from and what exactly is being said.

[Atelier-Bagur]

My only argument with this, characters can have their lighter moments. I welcome them as if the characters are still fun then I'm having fun. My only thing is that its still within the realm of plausibility and the situation makes sense. Some folk seeing that G'raha being a fanboy or Gaius or Aymeric dressing up for the festivities as character assassination and nonsensical I find that in of itself nonsensical. Theres reasons why they do the things they do and it fits well within their characters.

[MoofiaBossVal]

It's about gravitas. Gaius is supposed to be a man who was once a great leader who believed in a glorious empire, only to see it perverted and ruined. His men slain, his comrades gone. There is a tragedy here. It is undermined when he is seen walking around for cheap gag comedy.

[Jennah]

But consider this: if there was a whole expansion based on Garlemald, we'd have spent the whole time with Zenos. Eugh.

[KizuyaKatogami]

It's about gravitas. Gaius is supposed to be a man who was once a great leader who believed in a glorious empire, only to see it perverted and ruined. His men slain, his comrades gone. There is a tragedy here. It is undermined when he is seen walking around for cheap gag comedy.

I think as well, a part of it again, is the timing. If this occurred in day 7.0, i don’t think it would be that big of a deal at all. But right now his home is destroyed, his people trying their best to survive in horrible conditions and could use all the help they need, so even if it’s not-canon, it just looks a bit…weird that he’s hanging out with his daughter at some light hearted easter event when his people are suffering and they need him the most. We’re told in EW i believe the only reason he hasn’t gone there is due to him not knowing how his people will treat him knowing he defected(which is horrible reasoning but i digress), but now he should know what’s happening, he should be there.

[Rulakir]

I was never a fan of Garlemald/Garleans, but I sympathize with their fans. They went from not having an expansion, to not being on the preferred list of people to save during the Final Days, to unceremoniously being either killed off screen or sent to the moon in a role quest. It's almost like the writers themselves had disdain for them and just wanted to be done with everything about them.

[PawPaw]

I think as well, a part of it again, is the timing. If this occurred in day 7.0, i don’t think it would be that big of a deal at all. But right now his home is destroyed, his people trying their best to survive in horrible conditions and could use all the help they need, so even if it’s not-canon, it just looks a bit…weird that he’s hanging out with his daughter at some light hearted easter event when his people are suffering and they need him the most. We’re told in EW i believe the only reason he hasn’t gone there is due to him not knowing how his people will treat him knowing he defected(which is horrible reasoning but i digress), but now he should know what’s happening, he should be there.

I think his exact reasoning was that one half of Garlean society believed he had murdered Varis, so to enter at the head of an Eorzean army would be terrible for peace talks. And he feared that the other half would try to make him a figurehead for beginning a new war. If anyone else remembers differently, please feel free to correct me. But yes, I agree that now that the crisis has been averted that there is no reason why Gaius should not be able to return to his people and help to rebuild Garlean society. From what I've heard that idea gets thrown out the window in favor of the Garleans joining the rabbits on the moon though, so so much for the not-stupid approach.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I kind of get the feeling that the writers just never had a plan for resolving the Garlemald conflict in the first place. They were supposed to be a monolithic empire with nigh-unstoppable technology, who hadn't conquered Eorzea entirely yet only because they were too busy putting out fires elsewhere to bother. Unfortunately, the resolution for the entire war is.....Zenos and Fandaniel.

It's a shame, because the Empire was always interesting....when it wasn't the main focus. Post-ARR, I liked getting glimpses of it. Things like Varis taking the crown, Regula's appearances in the Warring Triad story, the small stuff that built up the weight and threat of Garlemald. But then Stormblood happened, and thanks to Zenos's apathy, the Empire started to look like a joke. All the nuance of the Empire goes out the window so we can follow a dead-eyed sociopath.

Maybe if we'd had more interesting Imperial characters in the spotlight, it might've gone differently. For every Zenos or Valens, we've had a Gaius or Regula. (And Eorzea's hardly without its own slimeballs. Teledji Adeledji, Thordan and the Heavens' Ward, Ilberd.....the list continues.) But the writers just didn't seem to have enough interest to do much with it, so we got a rushed and rather unsatisfactory conclusion to one of the story's big conflicts.

[Brinne]

As far as the question of "Is Garlemald unpopular?" is concerned, one data point of interest might be that NHK poll that really put Emet-Selch on the map:

https://www.nhk.or.jp/anime/ff/ranking/?cat=series

Among the FFXIV characters, the only Garleans who ranked at all were Zenos and Asahi, who is a meme character in Japan. Keep in mind Minfilia, generally acknowledged as a very unpopular character, managed to rank near the very bottom.

[Nilroreo]

I kind of get the feeling that the writers just never had a plan for resolving the Garlemald conflict in the first place.

Perhaps this was done to wash their hands of their last major remaining link to 1.0 and all the baggage that came with it. Linking their origins to the Ascians already seemed like a not so subtle attempt to kill two birds with one stone.