Thread: 3.4 speculation

Has the democracy bug spread to MMOs too now?

Originally Posted by Lauront

Has the democracy bug spread to MMOs too now?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking this.

Originally Posted by Lauront

Has the democracy bug spread to MMOs too now?

What's the old saying? Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the other ones? Something like that. Anyways, it's less pro-democracy (I think modern Ishgard is the only government that comes close), and more like the anti-imperialism and anti-fascism bug.

Anyways, we've been over this a lot recently, and I tend to side with Cilia. Imperial Garlemald is bad news bears, has only ever been presented as bad news bears, and while we may get sympathetic characters within/under Garlemald in the future, I doubt that the current state is going to get their actions pardoned by the narrative anytime soon. Not with the way this game has portrayed Imperialism thus far, anyways (it's not like the Allagans are painted in the most sympathetic light either). I don't think that "bloody conquest for bloody conquest's sake = bad" is a controversial (or even really debatable) position for the game to take, though, and there's lots of ways the game can play with shades of grey even with that attitude, so it doesn't especially bug me.

There are lots of reasons, many pointed out in this thread, that we would team up with Garlemald out of necessity down the road. There's also a lot of intrigue to be drawn from doing so with a bad news bears Garlemald (off the top of my head, a truce that involves pulling out of Ala Mhigo/Eorzea but none of their other territories creates tensions with the Doman refugees). We don't need to go Archadian with them, and I'm actually kind of interested to see where they're taken as a Gestahlian state in the narrative. As you've pointed out before, Theo, the game is generally good at not being black and white, and sympathetic villains aren't the only way to generate shades of grey.

Originally Posted by Hinoto-no-Ryuji

What's the old saying?

I don't adhere to that line of thinking, nor do I consider it true. It's just a platitude. Ishgard was more of a theocracy created out of necessity, so its reasons for abandoning that are to do with the fact that that is no longer needed. Had Thordan not maintained the myth of why they were fighting the dragons, it is likely morale would have depleted far sooner and the city would have fallen to the dragons, who were unprepared to forgive the Isghardians under any circumstances for the sins of their forefathers. At any rate, it would have been difficult to forge another monarchy out of it for those reasons.

Anyways, we've been over this a lot recently,

It's more that wholesale destruction of/war with the empire will involve more than just destroying its elite. So SE will have to find some redeeming qualities to it, and I am certain that won't be difficult. They managed to find some for Ul'dah (but as yet, none for Ala Mhigo.)