[SPOILERS] Stormblood Ending

[Cilia]

... the protagonists, then.

Lyse
-She's... OK as a protagonist. Lyse was meant to be the main protagonist of Stormblood, and I get that - her arc was supposed to show her coming into her own both as herself and as a leader. Unfortunately, the massive amount of time we spent in Othard and how easily the XIIth gave ground in Gyr Abania kind of put a stopper on that. Despite having been told that it would be 50/50 between Doma and Ala Mhigo, that clearly wasn't the way things ended up - we left for Othard after the prologue in Gyr Abania and didn't return until the final act of the story. As a result the place Lyse really needed to be, needed to worry about and focus on and grow for, ended up being largely out of focus in comparison to Doma (though Ala Mhigo did get more focus on the overarching myth arc elements). I never really got the sense that she came into her own as a person or as a leader, and though 4.x remains to possibly illustrate that 4.0 failed at it in my opinion.

Hien
-Hien is a cool dude. That said, he doesn't seem to have much depth, and it feels like the writers are trying a bit too hard to make him the Warrior of Light's new best buddy. He doesn't even do much - he decides that whether Doma wants to remain an Imperial province or fight for its freedom will determine his actions, and after it's clear the latter is the case gets to work. With your assistance he goes on to succeed in all his endeavors, though it does require sacrificing Doma Castle and Gosetsu's apparent death. He feels much more like a military commander than a proper governor, but Hien's position does make him a good counterpart to Fordola - both born and raised in Imperial-conquered nations, but on opposite sides of the coin despite that. (There's also a bit of a plot hole surrounding Hien - Gosetsu says he's recalling Yugiri to the Far East during 3.5, yet the samurai doesn't seem to know where Hien is during 4.0 or what his plans are. Hmm...)

Gosetsu
-The ever loyal samurai, Gosetsu plays his part and plays it well. There isn't much more to him than that, regrets about failing Doma twenty five and five years ago besides. I kind of like him though, so I don't mind that he survived... even if I wanted to call him out on calling the Xaela tribes and their customs queer. (Yes, I know the word means "strange" and in context that's how he used it, but as my character is Xaela it's still annoying and disrespectful.)

Yugiri
-I was really annoyed with Yugiri in 4.0. She's a terrible ninja, seeing as she runs around the entire time in an outfit that screams "I'm a ninja!" She compliments you on not wearing traditional ninja garb while asking around Namai for information, as if being clandestine is an amazing feat for a ninja. She recklessly attempts to assassinate Zenos and you go along with it, then spends almost the entire rest of 4.0 offscreen (she came back to Eorzea with us to help, but does nothing to aid in the liberation of Ala Mhigo). Half the good she does comes from recklessness emboldening the Domans. I do feel kind of bad for her being unable to return to Sui-no-Sato because... Japanese Raen isolationism, but Yugiri's portrayal in 4.0 still annoyed me.

Yep, I was thinking about this the other day, near the start of stormblood you are given a choice of two quests to go on. One of them you run around killing Conscripts. Actually most of the empire's frontline or low ranking troops are probably conscripts from conquered nations that have little choice but to serve 20 years military service to become citizens. These people are posted away from their families in strange lands only to be killed by the Warrior of Light chasing the dream of freedom for themselves and their families.

Run the DRK 70 quest for the Warrior of Light's thoughts and feelings in regards to the blood on our hands. Long story short (and avoiding spoilers), s/he acknowledges that killing others for whatever reason is a sinful thing, but holds few regrets over having done so as doing nothing will lead to a higher death toll and is therefore the greater sin. One day we will face atonement, but until that day comes we can but carry on. Nobody said being a "hero" would be fun or clean.

... really, the whole quest almost sounds like the writers browsed one of the many debates surrounding the morals and ethics of the Warrior of Light's exploits we have on this board, weighed in on it themselves, and put it into canon. Almost.

[Alleo]

It feels like dismantling Garlemeld, especially under the auspieces of "freedom" and "liberty" would start to cause more problems than it would solve. Consider the ease of summoning Lakshmi, or that not everyone would see primal summoning as the same threat Eorzea does. What about countries that were just fine under the empire? The proliferation of magitek weaponry? Or those with considerable problems after the war ends from the fighting, or the people that find out their loved ones died at the Warrior of Light's hands...I realize those problems exist even now, but the notion of Eorzea being the world's sole superpower...that Hydaelyn exists and she's Eorzean... is scary.

Well isnt that always how war is? You will be always forced to kill the other side, even if those people are decent people, exactly how they would have killed you even though you are nice. Also we never truly saw a hint, that the Eorzea alliance wants to be the new Garlemald and conquer the whole world. They just took back, what was part of Eorzea before Garlemald came and took it. Seeing that they only choose to go to war because Ilbert forced their hand..I could only see them go against Garlemald itself, if they prove to be a big threat to the planet. (Lets not forget that it was thanks to them that Midgardsormr died and with it the seal of the lake broke..)

And if other conquered states go against Garlemald, thanks to our victory, then it would be those, that had it not that nice under them.

Also I see nothing scary with Hydaelyn. I would be more scared about a world where Garlemald is the sole ruler..seeing how people that are even born under their rule are not giving the same rights than Garleans..and seeing how they want to kill of every beast man and echo user..(and they have a really bad taste for buildings and are bad for the environment too)

... the protagonists, then.

Yugiri
-I was really annoyed with Yugiri in 4.0. She's a terrible ninja, seeing as she runs around the entire time in an outfit that screams "I'm a ninja!" She compliments you on not wearing traditional ninja garb while asking around Namai for information, as if being clandestine is an amazing feat for a ninja. She recklessly attempts to assassinate Zenos and you go along with it, then spends almost the entire rest of 4.0 offscreen (she came back to Eorzea with us to help, but does nothing to aid in the liberation of Ala Mhigo). Half the good she does comes from recklessness emboldening the Domans. I do feel kind of bad for her being unable to return to Sui-no-Sato because... Japanese Raen isolationism, but Yugiri's portrayal in 4.0 still annoyed me.

Run the DRK 70 quest for the Warrior of Light's thoughts and feelings in regards to the blood on our hands. Long story short (and avoiding spoilers), s/he acknowledges that killing others for whatever reason is a sinful thing, but holds few regrets over having done so as doing nothing will lead to a higher death toll and is therefore the greater sin. One day we will face atonement, but until that day comes we can but carry on. Nobody said being a "hero" would be fun or clean.

... really, the whole quest almost sounds like the writers browsed one of the many debates surrounding the morals and ethics of the Warrior of Light's exploits we have on this board, weighed in on it themselves, and put it into canon. Almost.

I do have to say that I found Lyse way more annoying than Yugiri but I was also quite surprised that the level headed Yugiri suddenly decided to finish Zenos off. And it was a nice kind of twist that the villagers somehow decided to fight again. I truly thought that they would be the reason that we lose because they would go against us to save their village. Maybe she acted that way because she was afraid that she would lose her master since he wanted to give his head if the people did not want to fight, and maybe she was just so shocked and angered about the bad stuff that was done to the villagers.

(I was kind of surprised that she suddenly went with us again and how they did that, since Tataru only reserved four and not five seats on the ship. And yet she was only relevant in the last fight anyway..and how did Hien get to Eorzea that fast?)

I am not really sure if there is something like atonement for us after death. I mean it seems like there is nothing like a heaven or afterlife, since it was often shown that the soul is simply reborn again, and I am not quite sure that Hydaelyn would punish her dear daughter/son.

[PArcher]

She compliments you on not wearing traditional ninja garb while asking around Namai for information, as if being clandestine is an amazing feat for a ninja.

Personally, I took that line as extreme sarcasm rather than a compliment. Was definitely not dressed to blend in there...

[Cilia]

Personally, I took that line as extreme sarcasm rather than a compliment. Was definitely not dressed to blend in there...

In context, you were supposed to be disguised as a traveling merchant. Wearing foreign garments is entirely fitting. (I don't know what kind of merchant wanders about wearing spiked red plate mail and carrying a gigantic golden sword, but hey.)

[Skyclaw726]

2.0 Gaius "Dies"
2.1 Elidibus appears

Coincidence? i think not.

[Zohar_Lahar]

2.0 Gaius "Dies"
2.1 Elidibus appears

Coincidence? i think not.

It is starting to look that way.

[Daralii]

2.0 Gaius "Dies"
2.1 Elidibus appears

Coincidence? i think not.

Doesn't an ascian possess a corpse in one of the Summoner quest chains? It doesn't mean Gaius is alive if Elidibus is possessing him.

[Misutoraru]

I loved Gosetsu but bringing him back (and that evil bitch) is a bit of a head scratcher. It takes away his sacrifice, a defining trait of his character

this bringing him back from dead is making his sacrifice in Doma Castle so "Cheap", especially all the scene prepare before the doma castle
if a NPC die, let him/her die
and a little rant, he is shot by pistol multiple time, crash by a castle, drown by the water, yet he live, our friend in HW got pierced by aether spear and we know what happen, yeah let Gosetsu live

[Misutoraru]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. While I smiled at Gosetsu's reveal, seeing Yotsuyu alive actually soured a lot of the ending for me. As the only one with actual genocide in her repertoire, she was arguably the worst of the two psychopaths faced. But she survives because...? Because she triggered an echo and spent fifteen minutes on top of that telling us her sad backstory and that's supposed to make us feel bad? Because she played her lady card and cried? Gimme a break.

I have very strong resonate with her actually
probably people like me who grew up in countries with such strong male dominant
i could understand her hatred and her despair
but i do agree she is better stay dead, there will be no redemption for what she did, no matter how broken or sorrow her background was


and Zenos, I was hoping for more Zenos, after fighting him, i start to understand him, he is simple broken, broken in a way that i start to
sympathized him, he is really a true friend and enemy at the same time, he understand us, unlike those Scions

[Fenral]

this bringing him back from dead is making his sacrifice in Doma Castle so "Cheap", especially all the scene prepare before the doma castle
if a NPC die, let him/her die
and a little rant, he is shot by pistol multiple time, crash by a castle, drown by the water, yet he live, our friend in HW got pierced by aether spear and we know what happen, yeah let Gosetsu live

It's called "irony." He raised his own death flags knowingly (and knowing we knew after so much MSQ), having idealized the "true samurai death" for so long, but when it came time to die the will to live he had been fostering all these years waiting for his right "time" ended up saving him again. (Besides, everyone knows how weak MCH are right now, those bullets barely scratched him.)

It seems to be easily forgotten, but no matter how FFXIV (and XV) have portrayed it, the point of a heroic sacrifice is not to directly "choose" to die in order to produce an outcome directly resulting from your death, as human death is never a direct causal requirement of anything outside of the realms of fantasy and magic.

Gosetsu made a choice with a high probability killing him, because he was the only one with any chance of accomplishing it and living. He actually says right out before before Yotsuyu shoots him that he would figure out his own escape once the others got out from under the roof. (Should've had extra dialogue for male Roes, but w/e. Catboy would be a pancake.)