On Themis [6.4 SPOILER]

[Brinne]

While I do love a good, unrepentant villain, I'm not sure if Athena is meant to be seen as a "feminist" figure? FFXIV's setting as a whole is generally pretty feminist, between the core three city-states all being led by women and the general prevalence of women in positions of power (i.e. Roswen and the Sanguine Sirens, Lucia as the second-in-command of the Temple Knights, Livia as a Tribunus, Vergilia as Legatus of the IIIrd Legion e.t.c.). But Athena isn't really that? I guess she's in command of her own actions in pursuit of megalomaniacal self-empowerment, but she's not really a role model in any way?

I'll admit to not really reading things through a feminist lens much of the time, but I don't think sociopathy, megalomania, and general selfishness are traits to aspire for in a feminist figure. The subversion of the expectation that she must have SOME sympathetic reason for her actions makes her an interesting villain akin to Zenos, but again, I'm not sure if her lack of maternal instinct (or empathy in general) makes her someone to admire and emulate.

Ah, when I say feminism, I don't mean that FFXIV was deliberately crafting a "feminist" character in Athena. I'm sure that wasn't the specific goal of the writers. I'm talking about my personal perspective on feminism, especially when engaging with media, and part of that is, to me, understanding that women are just as fully capable of covering an equally wide range of emotional, moral, and intellectual capacity as men do, including the lack thereof and the uglier possibilities. My feminism isn't about "what to emulate" or role models, most of the time, it's about respecting that women are full-fledged People and everything that that entails, good or bad.

Women are more frequently hit, in general, with what you said about "there must be some reason..." in a way that men usually aren't shackled to by default - and that I think often feels condescending and "comforting" to an audience in an obnoxious way to try to indicate that women are fundamentally "softer" creatures, who, if they turn to evil, must have been Wounded from that default in some way - and you only need to look at FFXIV's own array of female villains prior to Athena to see that, I think.