Quote Originally Posted by Rulakir View Post
Mostly because it feels like one step forward and two steps back. We're finally able to have the nuance with Venat that was so desperately needed throughout 6.0 only for Hermes to now be presented as having had a positive benefit. I appreciate your thoughts on the matter though. It's difficult to tell at this point what's intended anymore and after EW I tend to take the most negative view. Not to mention, if you haven't seen the discussions about it, there have been a substantial amount translation inconsistencies to the point that I'm having to run everything by a FR friend to see if I'm getting the whole story in EN.
Mm, I guess for me it's more like EW was like, six steps back, and this was more a step towards where it was before, if anything. It's not as though I had no dissonance towards elements of FFXIV's plot before EW - I just didn't feel they were egregious enough for me to log onto these forums and start ranting my head off until the Hydaelyn stuff. For example, I think Merlwyb and Hien are terrible people, and scoffed every time my WoL beamed at and played nice with them. So I suppose for me that this most recent treatment of Hermes is comparable to that - actually, probably a bit of a step up compared to the likes of Merlwyb and Hien, since it's still more "this person was terrible, but could there have been something positive to glean out of their bullshit once all is said and done if you tilt your head and squint?" as opposed to unabashed positivity.

Translation difficulties are pretty obnoxious, though, yes. I'm generally on-board with most forms of translation and localization freedom, but I'd hope it was obvious at this point what lore elements are going to be under extreme scrutiny by the fanbase and appropriate care is applied, lol.