Revolutions Hype Thread

[Lauront]

Muh man Zenos!

Doman lady looks interesting, too.

Don't care overly much about the rest.

What makes you believe that to be the case, out of curiosity? They already had him 'betray' the Scions once already though that was due to being under the direct influence of an Ascian. I'd be very pleased if they were bold enough to have a major Scion become an outright traitor, especially if it was due to concerns over atrocities committed and/or supported by the Eorzean Alliance in the name of 'freedom'. Chances are, though, if an ally 'betrayed' us it'd just play out like the situation with Urianger. Which wasn't bad, per se, but it would be very tiresome if we got another 'oh, they're actually a double agent, lol' scenario.

In regards to Zenos, it seems he goes up against Lyse, Y'shtola and Yugiri directly. Here's hoping at least one of them dies at his hands because we really need to see the major antagonist of the expansion shown to be a considerable threat. He'll likely meet his end at the hands of the Warrior of Light but it's going to be very dull if he is beaten back by individual Scions, too. There's a power creep in terms of their effectiveness which risks rendering major antagonists an empty threat.

I'm hoping Lyse or Yugiri. I kind of like Y'shtola. Those two, not so much. I'd like to see a Moenbryda type death, though, with Zenos completely overpowering one of them, like Nabriales did with her.

Part of the issue, I think, is that we could have someone like Regula to interact with and show us that not all Garleans are terrible people, or we could have someone like Livia to slaughter the Scions and shoot one of her own men regardless of the actual tactical value.

(I'm leaving aside Nael, who was clearly way off the deep end even for Garlemald.)

And there is very little, based on what we have seen, that implies the Empire prefers Regula-type to Livia-type. Even the descriptions of the Garlean(-allied) higher-ups we've seen in the Stormblood lore page prime us to believe both Zenos and Yotsuyu will be pointlessly brutal and sadistic, and this will be sanctioned (via apathy, if nothing else) by the Empire in general. I will concede the possibility of a bait-and-switch, but to do so would strike me as a bit too baroque.

One can certainly make a case that some of the Eorzean organizations have done plenty worse (Lolorito and Teledji spring to mind), but we rightly condemn them too.

I am not convinced that either Zenos or Yotsuyu will be "pointlessly" sadistic. Particularly the former, he is governing a region populated by an arrogant, warfaring nation that on multiple occasions sought to conquer its neighbours. Now they're all uppity because it happened to them. I don't sympathise much with Ala Mhigo. I don't even sympathise much with the city-states. They're spoilt, and reliant on the WOL to do their dirty work, whereas Garlemald has actually taken effective means to deal with a real threat, without the aid of some deus ex machina. They're also more than willing to lie about their contribution to stabilising Eorzea post-Calamity. There is no real verdict on what the Empire prefers, other than in dealing with recalcitrant regions it considers to be dangerous. Lest one forget, the Eorzean city-states take exactly the same attitude with the beast tribes as Garlemald does with them, and quite frankly, justifiably so, as on more than one occasion now they have seen attempts to summon dangerous primals in their midst, not by beast tribes but by "respected" members within them, and could only contain them via the WOL.

E.g. Ilberd, as part of the Resistance, summoned an Eikon that could well lay waste to the majority of Eorzea; ironically, it'd be less threatening to Garlemald, with its Allagan-derived know-how, than Eorzea. Another example, Thordan. Yet another, Shiva. Doma, in trying to rebel, which I do not see as different to the beast tribes summoning primals due to their 'insecurities'.

They can either indulge in one-sided, Manichaean drivel, or they can up the quality of their writing and avoid turning Garlemald into an irredeemable villain, especially when they are non-committal in that regard. Their writing on Garlemald in the lorebook makes me hopeful that it'll be more than some evil pinata to beat upon. Much like they've not presented the by far more diabolical Ascians in a completely negative light.