What happened to SB (story)?

[Theodric]

Stormblood's story was great...for the most part. It did feel a little rushed in places though and the decision to disallow the protagonists to try and seek peace with Garlemald feels like a major case of executive meddling given that Yoshi-P is on record as saying that he is 'surprised' that people sympathise with the likes of Gaius. Which unnerves me as I do not want another dull tale about how a ragtag band manage to take down a mighty Empire. I want Garlemald to be handled the same way as Archades in FFXII so that we eventually make peace and do not seek to destroy it.

Lyse was the weakest link of the expansion for me. Her shifting from 'Yda' to 'Lyse' felt too forced and distracting. Zenos not caring about Garlemald at all and sabotaging his own side's efforts is also too convenient too - because the protagonists should have caught on that if they reached out and tried to be diplomatic then they could probably have found people who did not agree with Zenos' actions. They already know from Regula that there are high ranking honourable Garleans but he was killed off and forgotten about which is a bit disgusting unless it plays into the plot later on.