Lament of the Second Rate Warriors

[lord_naarghul]

I always get the feeling, based on what I am seeing, that characters who were not the original "Warriors of Light" are always going to be second rate. We weren't there at Carteneau and thus despite our efforts and our accomplishments, we simply are not the heroes of old who fought for the realm five years past. Thus, we will never have the same recognition. We keep hearing over and over "you remind me of them" But I am not them. I am my own adventurer. I have my own experiences, but I am not the savior of the past. And the fact is, we ultimately have not accomplished what the Warriors have.

It's a depressing thought. We are not, and never will, be as important, or as well respected, as the originals. Even if we fight side-by-side with them, we will always be regarded as followers and they the leaders.

How is this to be resolved?

[Sephirah]

I always get the feeling, based on what I am seeing, that characters who were not the original "Warriors of Light" are always going to be second rate. We weren't there at Carteneau and thus despite our efforts and our accomplishments, we simply are not the heroes of old who fought for the realm five years past. Thus, we will never have the same recognition. We keep hearing over and over "you remind me of them" But I am not them. I am my own adventurer. I have my own experiences, but I am not the savior of the past. And the fact is, we ultimately have not accomplished what the Warriors have.

It's a depressing thought. We are not, and never will, be as important, or as well respected, as the originals. Even if we fight side-by-side with them, we will always be regarded as followers and they the leaders.

How is this to be resolved?

Have you not beat the current story?

Spoilers:

They totally regard you as a warrior of light at the end of it. Not one of the originals, but a warrior of light nun-the-less. Minfilia calls you one, not that you remind her of one, but you are one at the end end. Additionally, all the cutscenes with Hydolin or however you spell the crystals name, you're totally a warrior of light.

Edit: and just to play devil's advocate, 1.0 players SHOULD feel special, you ARE following in their footsteps.

(and before you go thinking I'm an original 1.0 warrior of light, I'm not. I do have a legacy character, but I didn't play the story required to get the "original" warrior of light story, none of the npcs thought i was "familiar" or anything like that.)

[lord_naarghul]

Have you not beat the current story?

Spoilers:

They totally regard you as a warrior of light at the end of it. Not one of the originals, but a warrior of light nun-the-less. Minfilia calls you one, not that you remind her of one, but you are one at the end end. Additionally, all the cutscenes with Hydolin or however you spell the crystals name, you're totally a warrior of light.

Edit: and just to play devil's advocate, 1.0 players SHOULD feel special, you ARE following in their footsteps.

(and before you go thinking I'm an original 1.0 warrior of light, I'm not. I do have a legacy character, but I didn't play the story required to get the "original" warrior of light story, none of the npcs thought i was "familiar" or anything like that.)

We may be tied to Hydaelyn, but the fact remains that we are second rate. Merely the followers. Calling us "warriors of light" is mere platitude. the fact remains that our legend is not our own.

[Enkidoh]

I wouldn't say the vast majority of players' characters are classed as 'second rate' simply because the narrative didn't put us at Carteneau (or literally we didn't play 1.0/didn't play it enough).

As the actual identities of the 'true' Warriors of Light is to my knowledge, never actually revealed in the 'main' storyline (that is, the story a 'new' or 'non Legacy opening 1.0' player got) , so as far as the story goes, the Warriors of Light is more an ideal or metaphor anyway as something adventurers should aspire to be like - the willingness to put their lives on the line to defend Eorzea where others would run and hide, the idea of courage, tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds, and the desire to put the greater good before their own.

In some respects, it's analogous to the line from Answers: "Look to those who walked before, to lead those who walk after."

[Anonymoose]

As far as Warriors of Light are concerned, the entire reason they did the story this way (having everyone forget about us) was that by the time everyone remembered who we were, the second wave would be on equal footing with us. We're all moving forward as one - Hydaelyn's Chosen. From a development standpoint, it saves them a lot of time. They had to do minimal alterations to the base story, and expansion packs will require no alterations at all. Yes, 1.0-Created players "set the standard," in the eyes of storyline NPCs, but 2.0-Created players met that standard. Yes, we faced challenges you didn't, but just because you're the second wave doesn't mean you're second rate. It's not, "I wish I was in the 1.0 Club..." it's "WELCOME TO THE CLUB, 2.0!"

(Awesome use of the line from Answers, by the way. I'm sure there's a smiling Ahriman out there, somewhere, right now...)

[Nahara]

In a way, this kinds reminds me of the situation with Nero and Cid. According to Nero, no matter what he did, he was always second best when it came to Cid, always considered to be "following" Cid when he ever accomplished anything.

[Nialle]

It's a depressing thought. We are not, and never will, be as important, or as well respected, as the originals. Even if we fight side-by-side with them, we will always be regarded as followers and they the leaders.

Well, technically they weren't that great, since they failed to stop Meteor. If it wasn't for Louisoix sending them into the future, they'd all have been toasted and as dead as everyone else that was in the valley of Cartenau. We will surpass them by actually saving Eorzea and defeating the Empire this time. =P

[Liger]

Well, technically they weren't that great, since they failed to stop Meteor. If it wasn't for Louisoix sending them into the future, they'd all have been toasted and as dead as everyone else that was in the valley of Cartenau. We will surpass them by actually saving Eorzea and defeating the Empire this time. =P

LOL..
somehow as a legacy I do not know how to defend that fact we failed to stop the Metoer. You know during the final event, the server crashed since too many players tried to log in at the same time. So... I blame SE for this failure since we could not finish the fight because the server crashed and the Meteor ended up on the ground XD.... Jking

[lord_naarghul]

snip

Here's a question, though. What really have we done to be on "equal footing" with the Originals at that point? We've defeated a conspiracy theorist's group for the time being, faced off against Primals, and fought and defeated a legatus. Despite that, things have yet to reach the kind of head they reached five years prior. What have we accomplished that the originals have not already on a much grander scale? The fact remains that the Originals were there at Carteneau. We were not. You have seen Bahamut. I have not. We may be in the club, but we are the greenhorns.

We are those who came after, but the eyes will ever be on those who walked before.

[Anonymoose]

Here's a question, though. What really have we done to be on "equal footing" with the Originals at that point? We've defeated a conspiracy theorist's group for the time being, faced off against Primals, and fought and defeated a legatus. Despite that, things have yet to reach the kind of head they reached five years prior. What have we accomplished that the originals have not already on a much grander scale? The fact remains that the Originals were there at Carteneau. We were not. You have seen Bahamut. I have not. We may be in the club, but we are the greenhorns.

Speaking for our characters' experience lore-wise, before the Sharlayans came forward to give Eorzea a point of reference, we didn't know if we should side with the beast tribes against the Empire or vice versa; we just knew that neither would make a very good ally against the other. We knew something had given us the Echo and that something might be working against us from behind the curtain, but we put all that aside to become loyal soldiers of the Grand Companies and fight off a maniac hellbent on dropping a space rock on us.

Louisoix kept the truth - that we were part of the prophecy that would see the world through the Seventh Umbral Era - from us. We didn't know that we were Warriors of Light, or that it was Hydaelyn who set us on this path, or that the Ascians were behind everything. Frankly, it's debatable what he knew, considering that the other members of his group discover these things early on in 2.0 - he probably took a lot of this on faith.

What I'm getting at is that, yes, we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime story, but we didn't do it as Warriors of Light. We did it as confused, vaguely special Grand Company soldiers. We saw Bahamut for all of a few seconds before we got shipped to Time Limbo and we didn't learn much truth until we got back. We became aware of what we were around the same time you did, and together the two waves discovered their purpose, and from here we move on as one.