Quote Originally Posted by Boblawblah View Post
I thought I was as well, but what I am more tired of is sadistic mustache twirling villains that turn sympathetic in a single cutscene. The Warriors of Darkness were a perfect example. They were just straight up psychotic killers and then started crying and somehow we were supposed to care about them suddenly. Gaius/Nero/Fordola/Yotsuyu all have similar issues, hell, they're even trying to make ZENOS of all people sympathetic now. Seriously? WoL thinking about 'friends' and they picture Zenos??

They could show us a more balanced look at villains, but it's always just evil, evil, evil, evil, GOOD! It's like playing duck duck goose or something, it gets old.

What I'd love to see is the WoL in a fish out of water, behind enemy lines sort of situation where they're forced to experience what the enemy is actually like, and starts to emphasize with them. THAT would make a more compelling sympathetic villain imo.
I think they did that with Golbez. I was full on expecting that either in his defeat he makes us sympathize with his motives, or he was being controlled by Zeromus the entire time. What they did instead was double down on his villainy when he revealed his master plan. And while I wouldn't say Golbez is pure evil, he is beyond redemption now after his atrocities in this patch. He joins a rather small ensemble of FFXIV villains that includes Teledji Adeledji, Ilberd, Asahi, and Fandaniel. These are all FFXIV villains who take no rest in making you hate their guts.

Quote Originally Posted by Zebraoracle View Post
My biggest issue with the story was the WoL just stands there and lets Golbez pick up the dragon and feed her to the void energy or whatever it was. I'm so freaking sick of forced incompetence (in this game, other games, other media, whatever). It'd be one thing if the darkness itself reached up out of the pit and yoinked her away, but as it was? We literally just kicked his ass, STOP HIM FROM DOING THAT WHAT THE HELL?
What did you expect the WoL to do? He/she already bested Golbez in combat, and spent a great deal of their own aether in doing so. This is confirmed in the MSQ log after the conclusion of the cutscenes when it is stated that Golbez puts up one hell of a fight, but the WoL ultimately wins the clash. Besides, anything the WoL could have done might have risked inadvertently killing Azdaja in the process. If there is a forced incompetence, it's that the WoL didn't kill/finish off Golbez in the first place. That was the condition set by Azdaja when we talk to her above the Dark Throne. The mission objective was the extraction of the great Wyrm, and it resulted in failure. In order for this part of the story to take place, incompetence was key. IOW, we can't win them all.