In regards to something involving the main cast

[Denishia]

Maybe because it's all fantasy - but the constant micro-aggression style dehumanizing and patronizing about familiars from every single Elpis quest-giver stopped being silly world-building and got infuriating after the third or fourth quest, and while I could brush of any annoyance from similar hostile or belittling quest-givers in the Coerthas, Garlemald, or Ala Mhigan zones, with the Ancients it became the nail in the coffin for finding all of them insufferable. Never had I hated interacting with a zones' NPCs and found it a chore. Well, they worked as the natural culmination of the unfriendly Sharlayans, brainwashed Garleans, and clueless Loporrits, but I'm relieved that so far only Pandaemonium raids is returning to deal with any of them.

[Theodric]

I'm so glad that, even with my dislike for Gyr Abania's aesthetics, I somehow managed to make it through the four questing zones located there back in Stormblood without having a meltdown each time an Ala Mhigan NPC asked my character to do something for them.

[KizuyaKatogami]

snip

The ancients held funeral rites for their unmade and killed creations though. So they clearly did care enough for that, and some of the elpis npc’s even express concern over our well-being. As for how the WoL treats animals, we have that whole diadem text blurb stating that due to certain adventurer hunting in diadem(WoL), an animal species has almost been rendered extinct. That doesn’t seem very good, or heroic-like. Also don’t forget in ShB the whole thing with Bismarck and the bubble, which ended up causing a lot of that one ondo tribe to die and suffer from food shortages.And again, the sundered literally host colosseums where they watch animals be ripped apart and slaughtered for enjoyment and satisfaction. A colosseum might i add, that we partake in and help kill said animals and creatures. I don’t see how that’s any worse than killing some butterflies to make clothing.

[Rulakir]

Yeah, this was super offensive. The NPC before that called me adorable and the one before that commented on how intelligent I was. How dare they! Where's Asahi to tell me my face vexes him? :P

[PawPaw]

Yeah, this was super offensive. The NPC before that called me adorable and the one before that commented on how intelligent I was. How dare they! Where's Asahi to tell me my face vexes him? :P

Just for you.

[Tehmon]

I see the whole gang is here to back each other up and make fun of people whose opinions they disagree with.

[IkaraGreydancer]

From my perspective, it's less about what you did and more the approach to how you did it.

Hythlodaeus making the robes out of butterflies is a great example, because Leatherworker's story actually makes it pretty clear that they teach a deep respect for the animals you're getting the leather from; this is both in the actual teaching from the guildmaster, and later becomes a huge tentpole of the Stormblood storyline where you're doing taxidermy. Meanwhile, Hythlodaeus' response when you ask about that is, as others said, purely pragmatic; he doesn't really pay any mind to the life he asked you to snuff out for clothes, he thinks that there's no issues whatsoever with it. And this is Hythlodaeus we're talking about, perhaps the nicest and most considerate person in the Ancient world. If even he doesn't give a damn about the lives of animals, what does that say about the overall population's outlook on the same?

For the other example the OP gave with Y'shtola's familiars, I think the importance is more in how she reacts afterwards than how she acts at the time; she clearly actually does care about the nixies and feels terrible about the one she had to put in harm's way, even if she does put up her usual unflappable facade. It's completely different to the Ancients just watching their creations die and going 'welp, that didn't work, lesson learned'. Also I think the familiars might actually be extensions of her aether in the same way carbuncles are, going by how she dismissed them, so it might be less of a 'test these with animals' and more akin to 'I'm gonna stick my hand in there'.

I think boiling down deeds into purely 'heroic character did X, villainous character did X too, these are equal' is completely dismissing context, that the heroic characters both treat those around them better and typically have a benevolent (or at least neutral) end goal in mind. I've seen the same thing from people trying to argue that the WoL is an indiscriminate murderer because they killed members of beast tribes, in which they usually completely ignore the context of ongoing conflicts, imposing primal threats, or the at-the-time impossibility of curing tempering. 'A lost life is always a lost life' is a perfectly noble blanket thing to claim, but saying that the WoL killing a violent, tempered sahagin is cold-blooded murder on the level of the Ascians sacrificing planets' worth of people is disingenuous.

This is an amazing comment. Thank you. I think alot of people miss the details when it comes to these things and that's why (imo) folks hate/dislike Hyd for example

[EaraGrace]

I'm so glad that, even with my dislike for Gyr Abania's aesthetics, I somehow managed to make it through the four questing zones located there back in Stormblood without having a meltdown each time an Ala Mhigan NPC asked my character to do something for them.

Yeah, this was super offensive. The NPC before that called me adorable and the one before that commented on how intelligent I was. How dare they! Where's Asahi to tell me my face vexes him? :P

You can disagree without mocking folks.

[KizuyaKatogami]

This is an amazing comment. Thank you. I think alot of people miss the details when it comes to these things and that's why (imo) folks hate/dislike Hyd for example

I don’t think anyone missed the details. As my post shows, there’s just a plain double standard when it comes to peoples views of the WoL and co. vs the ancients.

[Jandor]

The ancients held funeral rites for their unmade and killed creations though. So they clearly did care enough for that, and some of the elpis npc’s even express concern over our well-being.

No they didn't, they moved the bodies out of the way and sped up time so they decomposed faster. They're not happy about it by any means, in large part because the creations involved never got chance to fulfil whatever purpose they were designed for, but it didn't remotely resemble a funeral until they asked for our input.