Awfully weak story... or is it? [WARNING:SPOILERS]

[Borfin]

Even the worst villains have the best intentions at heart.

No evil conqueror is conquering for the sake of conquest. They do it because they have a vision, something they have reasoning and justification to believe is better than whatever they're conquering.

But conquest is still conquest and that doesn't mean all of his ideals are carried out righteously. Look at the people he employed - his right-hand men were ruthless murderers. He put them in a position of power because he believed they were the best for the job. Guess how they handled it?

Moral ambiguity is something we don't see often in video games. It's here, and I LIKE that it's here. Remember, ultimately Gaius awakened Ultima Weapon and was prepared to crush any opposition in order to reach his goals.

[BlueMage]

Look at the people he employed - his right-hand men were ruthless murderers. He put them in a position of power because he believed they were the best for the job. Guess how they handled it?

Livia was pretty ruthless and evil, but the Roe general was a pretty cool guy (in the dialog before his fight, he told his troops to flee instead of throwing their lives away trying to help him while he tried to hold you off), and Nero wasn't evil - he was jealous of Cid, but Nero didn't actually do anything evil other than stay loyal to his country.

[Gumiho]

I think Gaius is dead now, but Nero left the area alive

TBH I want Gaius alive, he is not evil at all

PD: Nero looks handsome

[BlueMage]

I think Gaius is dead now, but Nero left the area alive

TBH I want Gaius alive, he is not evil at all

PD: Nero looks handsome

Everybody knows that in fiction, if you don't see a corpse - you can pretty safely bet the next plot twist will be that they survived.

I imagine the HM Ultima and new main story quests involving it will have to do with Nero. Nero helped work on restoring Ultima before.

[Enkidoh]

Ala Mhigo was known as a belligerent military power who conquered their neighbors. The last time the Grand Companies were formed was to stop Ala Mhigo because they were trying to stomp Gridania under their jackboot. The "rightful government" of Ala Mhigo wiped out an entire religious order and made worshiping Rhalgr illegal and making the worship of The Spinner the state religion. Ala Mhigo was no better than Garlemald - they're just sore losers that someone bigger finally came along and did to them what they did to others. And even if Garlemald left, who would rule Ala Mhigo? The Ala Mhigans were slaughtering each other in the streets with their civil war before the Garleans arrived. And if you have a problem with killing Ala Mhigans, then you should hate your character, because all non-armored Garleans are Ala Mhigans. Gaius took over Ala Mhigo about 20 years ago. All those young soldiers are Ala Mhigans who were born and raised as Garleans.

You don't seem to have a problem either with the atrocities committed by Ishgard to it's own people (a brutal religious dictatorship that regularly executes people in brutal ways under false pretenses), or Ul'dah (where the soldiers regularly brutalize and extort their own people, a cartel rules the city, and their past of wiping out the nation of Sil'dah and seizing its land and wealth), or Limsa Lominsa (Admiral turned it into a police state and they've attempted genocide on the peaceful Kobolds to steal their land).

The Garleans aren't innocent or perfect, but they aren't any more evil than the people the players are fighting for.

Pfft, no more evil? Hello - just look at Nael and Dalamud. Summoning a moon (to say nothing of the sleeping dragon Primal inside it) to crash into Eorzea? I don't think you can get any more evil than that. And who instituted Project Meteor? Surprise surprise, the Garlean Empire!

Sorry, but you are coming across as more and more in denial of just how malevolent Garlemald is made out to be. SE has made great pains to paint the Garleans as the antagonists in FFXIV - no matter how much you try and trivialize it.

[Naunet]

Pfft, no more evil? Hello - just look at Nael and Dalamud. Summoning a moon (to say nothing of the sleeping dragon Primal inside it) to crash into Eorzea? I don't think you can get any more evil than that. And who instituted Project Meteor? Surprise surprise, the Garlean Empire!

That plot wasn't endorsed by the Empire. Nael was explicitly told to stop what he was doing, but he continued in secret because he was quite literally going mad with the primal's power. A whole lot of Garleans died at the Battle of Carteneau when Dalamud fell, too, y'know.

[BlueMage]

Pfft, no more evil? Hello - just look at Nael and Dalamud. Summoning a moon (to say nothing of the sleeping dragon Primal inside it) to crash into Eorzea? I don't think you can get any more evil than that. And who instituted Project Meteor? Surprise surprise, the Garlean Empire!

Sorry, but you are coming across as more and more in denial of just how malevolent Garlemald is made out to be. SE has made great pains to paint the Garleans as the antagonists in FFXIV - no matter how much you try and trivialize it.

Even if you disregard that Nael was possessed and deceiving the Empire, what Nael did is pretty irrelevant to Gaius, considering they were political rivals and Gaius actively opposed Nael's plans. As mentioned in the story, there are several Legatus' (people of Gaius and Nael's rank) who are all vying to be the next Emperor, as the current Emperor is very old and his health is failing. Gaius actually helped the players stop Nael in 1.0. As stated multiple times in game, his motivation is to free Eorzea from impotent dictators who cant protect their people (minor NPCs make it a point to mention that beastmen didnt summon their Primals once they found out about Ultima, and only resumed summoning once Ultima was gone) and create his own Empire where humans create their own destiny instead of being bound to the will of Gods.

Granted, he, like Nael, was ultimately tricked and failed, but unlike Nael, SE made great pains to show that Gaius wasn't a 1-dimensional villain who did evil for the lulz, and SE made great pains to show that all of the city states are guilty of their own crimes and wrongdoings, but I guess you'd rather trivialize those parts of the story.

But hey, way to not follow the conversation and explode hysterically.

[Raskbuck]

Summoning a moon (to say nothing of the sleeping dragon Primal inside it) to crash into Eorzea? I don't think you can get any more evil than that.

I don't know about you, but these guys summoned a moon to crash into the land and destroy their enemy, yet they are treated as the good guys :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAcbSvmixPw

[Enkidoh]

My point was, the Empire started it regardless - Nael just took it to the inevitable conclusion (you can't tell me that no one realized that summoning a moon was a bad idea?). And it was stated that at the very least the Emperor did endorse it in principle. Ironically only Gaius was the only one to be against it, for reasons I already mentioned.

[Reynhart]

This is from FFXIV:ARR, and only from FFXIV:ARR. On the other hand, FFXIV apparently got build up for all these characters mentioned above. This means all the observations I made could have been significantly wrong. It feels like I'm playing a sequel, but it's not suppose to be a sequel.

Sorry to disappoint you, but storywise, ARR IS a sequel. The main plot of FFXIV was the Meteor Project mentionned a lot in ARR. As for the characters, FF XIV did have a proper introduction to most of them.

We saw the Grand Compagnies reform, the alliance being forged and the empire rising. Even Gaius was far better introduced in v1.