Do you view the Warrior of Light as a blood knight like Zenos?

[Zohar_Lahar]

Mayhap not as cruel or sadistic, but yet a thrillseeker longing for the time between the seconds. With each version update, we are given new challenges to face. Many of which are the deiform manifestation of someone else's grievances with the world we gleefully beat up for the thrill of battle (plus trophies like weapons).

Zenos asked the beast to live, endure, become stronger; and the Warrior of Light obliged. Zenos then hijacked the embodiment of Ilberd's boundless rage and bottomless despair, all just so you two could have a glorious epic battle at Final Destination the Royal Menagerie. All while the crimson liberation of Ala Mhigo raged below.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Could I just add a question? If there's anyone who views his or her WoL this way, I'm interested to know how you maintain the role, given that the majority of the plot developments portray the hero as the perfect, all-around do-gooder. There isn't really a lot of room, I feel, to imagine any hint of "greyness" in the WoL.

[Anonymoose]

This is one of those topics where the gap between "the" Warrior of Light and "my" Warrior of Light is going to be more apparent than is usual. Between the custom visage and cutscenes leaving a lot of feelings, interpretations, and motivations open for player projection <pause, stoic nod, pause> there will be a lot of nuances.

That said, my Warrior of Light is less a blood knight than an all-around restless soul. Similar? Sometimes. But not synonymous. I read closely, I do sidequests, I goof off. Thus he doesn't seem like someone eager to revel in the next climactic battle for its own sake. He uses force primarily when it's valuable to do so, not just when it's on the table. Often, he doesn't take the opportunity because puzzling it out another way has a preferable impact on the big picture. The same satisfaction can be found in overcoming a dangerous enemy or building an airship with a maverick Lalafell and some renegade Ixal just to see what comes of it. A puzzle is a puzzle, from a seemingly unbeatable threat to a geopolitical clusterfluff to a Vath who barely grasps the concept of individuality conspiring to start his own Adventurers' Guild.

My Warrior of Light is simply prone to wandering off and taking any odd job if the work, the person who needs it, or the outcome it leads to are even remotely interesting. He can only take tranquility on his own terms; silence and inactivity are akin to torture if not self-inflicted. You tell him to rest and relax, but as soon as exhaustion and hunger are vanquished, his mind wanders and he fidgets and before you know it he's out in the aetheryte plaza looking for someone who looks overwhelmed. Not necessarily a do-good-er, but a general do-er.

Even chosen of the Mothercrystal and volunteering to fight gods and getting wrapped up in political intrigue and the strategic influence of the history, put more than a turn of the sun between one objective and the next and he's out moving crates and synthesizing tonics, again.

I can't imagine why someone like me would read his Warrior of Light as someone like that.

[wanders past a table covered in tomes and loose pages to a wall with a giant map, connects two pins with a length of string, stares at it for twenty minutes]

[Kallera]

I think I'll try to word this as best I can.

throughout the game, I have at time voiced objections at doing particular things, often times they are met with a layer of "But thou Must"

"I don't want to join the Path of the Twelve.
"That's a shame, enjoy getting persecuted and killed with your gift then..."

"I don't want to go to Aymeric's gala luncheon."
"But you're his friend! please?"

"This isn't my fight, Alphy."
"Well, I appreciate your candor(leaves, comes back) pleeeeease?"

To that end, I've seen my Warrior of Light as someone that is regularly forced in their circumstances, if not forcefully strung around by the strings of fate.

My warrior of Light is someone that doesn't believe in Eorzea so much as "works" for Eorzea , and doesn't really enjoy their place in the world or what they are doing. Like Zenos, they were elevated heroes that would rather be doing something else.

This overlap is kind of what I've taken to for the character, seeing as how a major theme I've felt in my game experience is that I have to conform, and that the game values freedom more as a catchphrase to rally around.

[Vexander]

Could I just add a question? If there's anyone who views his or her WoL this way, I'm interested to know how you maintain the role, given that the majority of the plot developments portray the hero as the perfect, all-around do-gooder. There isn't really a lot of room, I feel, to imagine any hint of "greyness" in the WoL.

Have you done the DRK Job Quests, 30-50, per chance? You might want to.

[Zojha]

Considering we never really get to make any remotely meaningful choice in our journey and all our paths lead to the same results, I personally see the WoL as little more than a puppet of Fate with no free will. There is no such thing as refusal - even if you try to stray or escape, even if you run from your duty to go fishing in the shroud, time stops until you obey. There is no choice, no personality. You don't get a say nor voice - literally even. You just follow the destined path, for it's the only path open to you.

The fact that the WoL is "our" character, yet his path is so narrow, makes him seem very tragic to me. Through us, the players, he has a will independent from the scribes of Fate and thus the unique ability to make his own decisions, only to never be given a choice, an opportunity to use it. Even his feelings are forced on him.

And due to that... if the scribes decide for him to be a blood knight, then he shall be a blood knight. Not through choice or desire, not because he wants to, but because he has to be.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Have you done the DRK Job Quests, 30-50, per chance?

I have. It's an interesting take on the WoL's innermost state.

But one job quest line out of so many others, alongside the main story quest line, doesn't go very far, you know?

I'm genuinely curious as to the role-playing ideas various players bring to this game. It is a Final Fantasy, after all, a franchise that has never dealt much with dark, introspective stories and character development.

The one attempt to take a numbered title down that direction ( FFXII ) provoked severe backlash among hardcore fans, who felt it wasn't "Final Fantasy" enough.

Moreover, most Final Fantasy titles since FFIV featured named main characters, whose story and development you'd personally experience through the game. I don't recall any title FFIV that actually gave the player to chance to create an "original" character, other than FFXI. That original MMORPG provided more lore-based freedom for your character to be whomever you wanted him or her to be, I felt. And, to a certain extent, so did FFXIV v1.0.

But with a main plot line taking a more dominant role since A Realm Reborn, there really isn't much leeway for such expansive role-playing. I never expected this game to be Skyrim, so it never occurred to me to take my character's development in less orthodox directions. I wonder why other players expected something different.

[Kallera]

@TinyRedLeaf. Maybe its because they played 1.0 and identify more with making their own character's story than accepting The Warrior of Light, who may or may not even be a mortal person, much less one wreathed with nigh impossible feats and divine favor.

I'm not tasked by God to go do my work and kill people on a regular basis. That is not, in my opinion, what people should aspire to.

[AmandaLashaquoa]

Short answer cause im at work:
My PoV is that Zenos wasn't plain evil, I don't feel like there's an "evil" in FFXIV, just like in Star Wars, there are just different perspectives, some say (in-game NPCS) that the WoL is a blood seeking warmonger; IMO, we're not too different from Zenos, he wants the best for his people, we want the best for Eorzea (and sometimes, just sometimes, the whole world) and we're not afraid to get our hands bloody or slay absolutely anything that gets in our way.
They leave it pretty clear that the WoL is more about Eorzea than the world itself, so yes, answer to your question, I do view the WoL the same way as I see Zenos.

[Vexander]

If we're describing what "Our" Warrior of Light is...

My Warrior of Light is an Adventurer, pure and simple. He started out wandering Eorzea, looking for the next adventure, the next challenge, the next reward. He has dreams of a home, maybe even a family some day. He tries every new opportunity for skill and knowledge that appears, and works on them all when he has the time. Joining the Scions of the Seventh Dawn felt like a great way to achieve that goal. Finding himself able to stand up to the likes of Primals and Ascians? Some part of him couldn't really sort that out internally. Rather than staring at it in the face, he compartmentalizes it and stores it in the back of his mind, something he doesn't -want- to face. He doesn't accept that he really is -that- much more powerful than most everyone else. Most of the time he manages to convince himself he's not more or less powerful than most Adventurers out there, but that the Echo and Blessing of Light don't make him more powerful, but protect him from certain situations that would normally mean doom for everyone else. An easy enough thing to believe as for so long that was the direct function of those powers, until Stormblood where we begin seeing things like the HP regen buff for being the Warrior of Light.

So I guess my Warrior of Light is more or less living in denial of the full scope of his powers and his destiny, and lives for the moments between the battles rather than the seconds, where he can adventure, make friends, fight enemies, and have a good time living life to the fullest. He's not good, nor is he evil. He's a hedonist with a taste for new experiences and knowledge.

I'll be honest, whenever some kid asks him how he got so strong he always answers that it was adventuring, but internally he looks at that shadowy corner in the back of his mind where he blocks off thoughts about the Echo and Blessing of Light.


All the above having been said, I don't think Zenos was necessarily right about us. The Warrior of Light at least acts in the interests of his friends if nothing else. Zenos, however, was quite clearly out for entertainment and nothing more. He didn't fight for Garlemald or his people, he fought for amusement. While the Warrior of Light -can- be amused through combat, its not the purest motive behind our actions.