Thread: Our passive characters and why the 2.55 story fails (BIG SPOILERS) (rant warning)

Originally Posted by Elmeron

What? No. The Crystal Braves and Ul'dah don't even make up enough guards to take on both Gridania and Limsa Lominsa. I don't know if you somehow think that the Crystal Braves and Ul'dah guards are now everywhere in Eorzea, just ready to slay random civilians (which would be really obvious...), but they aren't. Or did you fail to see the stream of soldiers coming out of Ul'dah? That is where they are residing in since they aren't even allowed in Gridania or Limsa Lominsa (you learn this by talking to NPCs in both of those cities).

You also cannot explain away the utter abandonment of Raubahn by both Kan-E-Senna and Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, just by saying "politics." They'd been working with Raubahn for years, he was someone they had experienced traumatic events with, and someone that they were friends with (probably Raubahn won't want anything to do with either of them if he is ever freed... I know I wouldn't, but knowing FFXIV's writing it'll all just somehow be glazed over). What they did was turn their backs on someone who obviously needed them. I can't even look at them with any respect now, and it's sad because I liked both of them before.

Here's the thing, Merlwyb and Kan-E-Senna were not at their home nations, and the Crystal Braves have just been shown to be compromised. They're not at home, so it's possible all it could easily take is 1 Linkshell call and the highest authorities outside of them in their city-states could be killed by people they aren't aware of could be assassins.

The best thing to do in this situation is to bow out and make it seem like you're not getting involved, else Limsa and Gridania could be lost in a matter of hours, long before the two leaders get back to them. They saw the cards dealt, and folded rather than continue into a losing situation. They made the right call, as much as it hurts me to say it.

But know that because they saw the Syndicate's hand and bowed out, they can now make countermeasures against the Crystal Braves without losing the City-States immediately, and thus start planning ahead to helping free Raubahn and prove the innocence of the Scions. Mark my words, sometime in Heavensward and its patches, they will help us prove our innocence and help us reclaim Ul'dah from the Syndicate.

*sighs* you really believe our character alone can face a whole army? seriously?

even in the dragon and primal fight we was never alone! the scion by themself are not as strong as us. indeed they have some flashy movement... but nothing much. other point, our goal is the peace and protection of eorzea.... going around killing eorzean in uldah... is maybe not the best move. without forget, we don't know if all the soldier are part of the plot, some npc talk seems to say the inverse. since they wasn't able to arrest us, they are in a tight spot.... they can't openly arrest us and say: "they have killed Nanamo a few day ago".

seriously the situation as it stand have become a total mess even for the traitor. i'm sure if they had them way we will have been executed swiftly after everybody was arrested. but now that we did flee and alive, they can't really act without create a situation extreme.

you give them too much credit. Neither Merlwyb nor Kanne-E-Senna have done anything to actually help you up to this point. It was Merlwyb's second in command who came up with, and executed, the Leviathan plan. All she did was complain about how she didn't know what to do. there isn't a single useful female character in any position of power. They're all figureheads.

Originally Posted by Elmeron

That is where they are residing in since they aren't even allowed in Gridania or Limsa Lominsa (you learn this by talking to NPCs in both of those cities).

This only happened after the whole event. Before it even started, you could find quite a number of crystal brave NPCs around the other city-states.

Originally Posted by Elmeron

You also cannot explain away the utter abandonment of Raubahn by both Kan-E-Senna and Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, just by saying "politics."

They've just been told that the Sultana is dead. From that point on, the Syndicate is the one that calls the shots - not Raubahn. If you payed attention to the cutscene, Merlwyb looked as if she was eager to help, but is unable to which is signified by her cursing after being told to leave. They made a good choice. Otherwise they'll only be adding fuel to the fire.

Originally Posted by Cailae

Alright, allow me to re-phrase: Why am I still SUCCESSFULLY solving theirs and now Ishgards problems?


And you're ignoring that immediately after that, we killed an ascian.

And how did we kill that ascian? please do explain because you'll see that it wasn't by any means through the warrior of light we helped but that was all Moenbryda.

Well hmm. Think about something: the theme (at least that I read) of Heavensward is "Betrayal". And yeah, our characters were betrayed.

Kan-E and Merl just left you to die. Political reasons aside, they still abandoned you. The Syndicate forced them to abandon you (ingenious little buggers).
Brass Blades betray you for obvious reasons.
The Crystal Braves betray you.
You could say the Scions even betray you. I woulda gotten everyone out. It wasn't the place to play hero.

For Ul'dahn characters, this is especially painful. The beloved leader is killed ( I say beloved because I think we can all agree we all liked her). We're exiled from our home and forced to gain asylum from the one place we'd least expect it. The only thing that makes the sting less painful, and only just, is that if you are a Flamer/Ul'dahn, Raubahn actually defended you and set you free.


So SE wanted us to feel betrayal, and they did. I certainly feel betrayed. Could the story be better? Sure, but the point was made.

"Vengeance is a powerful motivator."

The whole thing makes no sense for the fact that the scions are politically untouchable. After the sheer number of primals that we've killed, no one would dare turn on you, especially grunt-level soldiers who would only need a gentle reminder that the next time ifrit shows up, it'll be them who have to fight and most definitely die. It'd be pretty straightforward for any one of the scions to make that threat and it'd be a chance to make some of the more useless ones like Minfilia do something useful for once. Given that we aren't held captive in the end, the first plan to come to mind to overthrow the monetarists is simply wait for the next summoning of ifrit and use it to force them to kneel. "Oh, what a shame that ifrit was summoned, sure wish I could help but the monetarists have made up charges of treason against me, I can't go back to Thanalan even if I wanted." You'd better believe there would be blood if the smallfolk were conveniently notified that they were being needlessly sacrificed.

Given the remarkable frequency of primal summonings since 2.0 it would be insane for any city state to not give you their full backing in all circumstances, unless if they like risking an Achilles in his tent the next time one shows up. At this point, I wish I could help a beast tribe summon one and use it as blackmail. God help them if the scions/WoL run interference with their defensive efforts.

Originally Posted by Kallera

Ah, no. A lot of us would have chosen how differently. Walking in with the evidence wasn't the only way to get into the banquet. Abandoning folks without even a multiple choice bit wasn't the only way out of it.

There were other ways to have played out the cut scene and its effects.

The Brass Blades are not above planting evidence. They do it for Ul'dah's opening, and I don't recall them actually pulling the bottle off of you. He pulls it out of his own pocket to show everyone. It would have never mattered if we picked the bottle up or not. They probably had a spare one on them.