Politics

[EdwinLi]

The previously poorly executed political storylines and the fact that the writers are so hastily trying to distance themselves from all existing vaguely political narratives is what makes me believe that the succession contest is going to either be a nonissue or immediately pushed to the side for 80-90% of the expansion. I don't want to spoil the Endwalker role quests in their entirety, but all five of them and the Role Master quest had an air of frantic housekeeping to address any remaining cultural divisions so they can close the shutters on Eorzea and her allies for the foreseeable future. Not what I would have liked, but it seems it's where we are. I imagine it's one of the reasons Bozja got shelved with that massive hook left open at the end, too, and Garlemald is by far the worst example, as you alluded elsewhere in your post. I want to hope that this is a tacit acknowledgement that political intrigue isn't FFXIV's strongest suit, and that all those unsatisfying conclusions to long arcs weren't to just trade them in for another mediocre matters-of-state story.



I really thought that after the chat with G'raha the ultimate conclusion was going to be "I'll come along with you, but we're going for Krile first", especially since Wuk Lamat didn't really give any indication that there was a ton of urgency to give her our answer immediately.

I say Aymeric had the better development when it came to understanding him as a political leader. We got a good amount of time to understand his personality during 2.X, then we understand his political stance in Ishgard through 3.0, and we finish off his rise to being Ishgard current leader in 3.X which during this time he provided concerns about being picked as the leader with among concerns involving people's views of seeing him being maybe a puppet for the Eorzea Alliance or that him taking up position as the new leader of Ishgard may see it as another attempt for political power between family members. Of course in the end the majority of Ishgard voted for him as their new leader.

Hien on the other hand, we never did get much time to know him as a person, political leader, and his stance on how he will handle his leadership long term with any potential concerns he may have. It was rather rush to get him to being the new leader for Doma due to the Plan for causing a split in Garlean's Forces so we have a advantage in Eorzea taking back Ala Mhigo. However, as we have seen in Post-Stormblood events, he has been free to develop his country the way he intended without any outside influence. Of course the major problem he is dealing with mostly comes from the people who are far too use to the old ways of things and events involving the people of Doma who were conscripted into the Garlean Forces since the people have mixed feelings for those who became conscripted into the Garlean Army returning to Doma.

I think it's helpful that Wuk Lamat is clearly pretty genuine and honest. We've seen how bad she is at lying, after all. We clearly don't have the full picture and we've got the text of 'try to figure out what's going on before getting involved', but by both Erenville's vouching and our experience of Wuk herself, she clearly isn't the reason we don't have it. Partially that's because she's our human(oid) face of Tural, but I think it helps give a bit of soft assurance.

We're inevitably allying with Wuk Lamat... but we can also be confident that she's not manipulating us, and that she's going to be just as mad as we are when we learn who is.

While she is open and honest, she does give me the feeling that she is "the last person the people of Tural will pick as a leader" trope type character. She does show some of those classic signs being fearful during certain moments that can end up fatal, probably not the smartest of the candidates, way too open for the more subtle game of politics, and way too ready to start a fight.