Lets talk about villains

[CyrilLucifer]

Lahabrea is my favorite antagonist.

If Igeyorhm's entire background hadn't been relegated to the lore book (don't do this again SE, please) I'm sure she'd absolutely be number 1 for me, for characters following her particular trope are my favorite. I'd have loved to see her expanded. Instead she was thrown on the bus.

I like Yotsuyu in 4.0, as well, but hers is more of a like just because she's so over the top and fun.

[Theodric]

I dislike the villains in this setting.

The antagonists, however, I quite like. There's a major distinction to be made, I feel.

A villain is someone with little to no redeeming qualities. An antagonist is someone opposed to the protagonist but isn't necessarily a bad person and may simply be fighting under another banner.

I'm going to go with Regula van Hydrus as my favourite antagonist. He deserved much more screen-time and to actually have his story arc referenced in the MSQ's rather than locked away in side quests and then completely forgotten about the next time it came to dealing with Garleans.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Quick Notes on Sophia:

She was the Meracydian "Goddess" of balance, but she's effectively a True Neutral. Word of God (well, word of Koji Fox) states that all she cares about is balance. If the world leans toward too good, she's evil. If evil, she's good.

Her song, while nice, was revealed to be a pretty grim story about how when a Meracydian girl who's father died in the war against the Allagans prayed to her for help when her mother began to mistreat her out of grief, Sophia told her the only way to restore the balance of her family ("with balance will your worry part") was to kill her mother, then upon doing so, Sophia then said the loss of her mother only further imbalanced her family, and the only way to restore it was to kill herself. ("One last step only leaving, an empty hearth down by the sea.")

Garlean occupation of Ala Mihgo (since I saw a question about it):

To keep it short, call it bad (or good?) timing by the Garleans to have swooped in immediately after a civil war ended in the overthrow of Ala Mihgo's "Mad King" Theodoric. Weak from years of his madness and a bloody civil war, plus the Garlean's Magitek advantage, Ala Mihgo couldn't really fight back.

I forget where I read it, but Xelphatol and its harsh winds/Ixal threat is the only reason Garlemald didn't invade Ishgard first (it is further northeast of Eorzea, and remember Xelphatol makes up a rather large portion of the northeast of the continent).

[Caitlyn]

Garlean occupation of Ala Mihgo (since I saw a question about it):

To keep it short, call it bad (or good?) timing by the Garleans to have swooped in immediately after a civil war ended in the overthrow of Ala Mihgo's "Mad King" Theodoric. Weak from years of his madness and a bloody civil war, plus the Garlean's Magitek advantage, Ala Mihgo couldn't really fight back.

What about Doma and Othard?

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

What about Doma and Othard?

Doma is to Othard as Ul'dah is to Aldenard (namely City-State>Continent)

And from what it sounds like (memory of the lore book and lack of coffee are debuffing me atm), pure Magitek and military might advantage is what did it. Garlemald is also pretty fond of conscripting people from conquered nations then sending them to fight elsewhere, though it seems like being particularly good allows you to work from home for the sake of the empire (Yotsuyu, Asahi, and Fordola to name a few)

It wasn't either, Gaius was the one that instigated the entire civil war so he could capture the region with minimal resistance.

The situation was pretty much a powderkeg as is, with Theodoric being a pretty crappy head of state. It was a pretty bad turn for AM all around. Look what he did to his own family (Skalla).

[Addicted]

[B]To keep it short, call it bad (or good?) timing by the Garleans to have swooped in immediately after a civil war ended in the overthrow of Ala Mihgo's "Mad King" Theodoric.

It wasn't either, Gaius was the one that instigated the entire civil war so he could capture the region with minimal resistance.

[Lauront]

Quick Notes on Sophia:

She was the Meracydian "Goddess" of balance, but she's effectively a True Neutral. Word of God (well, word of Koji Fox) states that all she cares about is balance. If the world leans toward too good, she's evil. If evil, she's good.

She's also interesting because of her plan to subvert the Allagan empire with the help of Bahamut. Stylistically, Sophia and Sephiroth rank amongst the top primal boss fights, for me. I liked Zurvan's design but the fight let him down.

[MuseTraveller]

Unpopular Opinion, I enjoyed Teledji and I miss having antagonist with a very punchable face that personally provokes me. (maybe Asahi will change that?)

He didn't have any magical powers, he had political powers. While he was driven by simple greed he created sense of danger in me as I was going through 2.x like some big storm was coming.
There was something about the fact I could see him scheming but couldn't get the full picture while he'd totally lie through his teeth and smile like we're best of friends. Yes greed and power seem shallow but the fact he was planning such a big assassination and dragging us in was why I give him all my player love.

I just wish he had longer downfall than his swift end in 2.55 so I could be part of it rather than just watch Raubahn do what we all kinda wanted to do. And yeah, one can say, Lolorito is more or less the same but... not really. He is comfortable where he sits and he isn't going anywhere nor doing anything while Teledji was a megalomaniac and that made him interesting to me. (ok and I liked his design more, shoot me. I'm sad he is all forgotten now.)

I enjoyed Nabriales way more than Lahabrea. Lahabrea felt like this plot armor villain who just throws something on your way just because. He felt like the embodiment of Toto Rak - long tedious and I just want to be over with. Nabriales on the other hand felt so much more provocative and aggressive and at the end pushed us into extremes, something we... didn't really do with Lahabrea cause he was just kinda... there. I realize it's in the ascians' nature to be these lurking in the shadows figures but I really enjoyed having an aggressive ascian going straight at us.

Same for Ilberd. Absolutely loved him and the Griffin build up and honestly was absolutely excited at the idea of seeing more of him in Stormblood but yeah... there went that.

Nidhogg I enjoyed as an enemy but I didn't feel him as my enemy. I felt he was Estinien's enemy and all I was doing was to save my friend. I felt like a hero in someone else's conflict. Nevertheless I enjoyed him more than Thordan.

Zenos I enjoyed greatly cause I felt like he provoked me. I felt he was more interested in me than doing whatever evil thing there had to be done in the plot. I'm the hero, I like feeling provoked! He didn't have some large goal beyond a good fight with us but to me that was enough.
From story perspective, he doesn't seem like that great of a villain compared to the others, again I think because he didn't have any goal beyond... live for that one moment we delivered at the end of Stormblood.

[TwoOfEleven]

Nidhogg and the Griffin (had understandable motivation, did their job, and I liked the fights). Favourite primal gotta be Ravana though I like both Sophia and Garuda mentioned before.
Liked the idea od Warriors of Darkness, but found the realisation pretty meh. I rather the villains stay villains, redemption arcs given to popular characters often make them bland and lose whatever made me like them in the first place. Mixed feeling on the Ascians, I'm interested in how their thread develops, but I'm not too fond of them as of now.

[Khiinroye]

I was partial to Gaius van Baelsar and Regula van Hydrus. Gaius is a great villain for the aforementioned reasons.

Regula wasn't around for long, just the end of Heavensward and for the Warring Triad quests, but he struck me as just as calculating and efficient. Anything necessary for the glory of the Emperor. Even when he died, it was because he calculated that his actions were of more use to the Emperor than his own life, and there was no hesistation.

I'm also hoping that we see more of Fordola coming to our side; there's still more they can do with her character.

Given the story, I can't see the WoD as villains, but they did have some good development for the time they were in the story.