The Warrior of Kindness (Spoiler)

[Endeleon]

I was so relieved that it wasn't that our character was actually becoming evil. There is literally nothing interesting about that.

[Fynlar]

SE pulled a gotcha with their video previews like they always do. Making us think we were going to be going bad for this expansion.

Uhh, I'm pretty sure nobody thought that. This game, and the FF series as a whole, has been a strong practitioner of both Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good, and that a balance between the two is critical or bad things will happen, no matter which side becomes too powerful.

We were hearing as early as FF3 about how it was possible for the balance to skew too much in favor of Light, and that the consequences for the world would be just as dire as the other way around. It's just that now we're finally seeing the results of that firsthand. On that same note, FF3 also introduced Warriors of Darkness, and at no point did the game ever explicitly try to present them as villainous or evil; they were just the other half of the same coin. (In fact, without their help you wouldn't be able to beat the last boss of the game. Sounds familiar?)

[Ameela]

I have to say though the marketing for ShB was really misleading.

It seemed like our fight with Zenos at the end of SB was meant to have some major ramifications, so much so that our character would suffer from some kind of PTSD from it and be forced to "become what they must".
Come the actual game and the Zenos fight has no real bearing on anything, WoL is PTSD-free for the entire main story and "becoming what you must" ends up just being adopting the title that the natives of the First have for the savior of the world.

Plus stuff like Y'shtola being called Master Matoya just seemed like trailer bait considering the explanation they have in the game itself lol

[ScarboroughFairy]

WoL is PTSD-free for the entire main story

I'm...pretty sure the game confirms that the WoL has some pretty severe PTSD. A few times, actually and the Dark Knight questline actually explores this. That and WoL does not trust any drink handed to them by another the majority of the time, having been drugged and watching a monarch get poisoned then chased out of their homeland for it after being framed.

Also, I noticed a lot of people falling into the trap of thinking that Dark = Evil, when it's been explained almost ad nauseum at this point that neither Light nor Dark is inherently bad by themselves, but too much of either causes bad things to happen.

[gumas]

i guess in FF14 world, light and darkness is nothing more than just an "element" for them. unlike the usual fantasy where light = good and dark = bad kind of thingy

[Insertcoins]

i guess in FF14 world, light and darkness is nothing more than just an "element" for them. unlike the usual fantasy where light = good and dark = bad kind of thingy

Not just 14... like I mention before.. light and dark are never flat out good or evil in Square games. It's mostly always elements. I find THAT to be more rewarding and fun to see then the tired and old way of - light is good- and dark is evil crap most western media is known for. I like the element theme much better as it's fresh.

[Daralii]

I'm...pretty sure the game confirms that the WoL has some pretty severe PTSD. A few times, actually and the Dark Knight questline actually explores this. That and WoL does not trust any drink handed to them by another the majority of the time, having been drugged and watching a monarch get poisoned then chased out of their homeland for it after being framed.

Also, I noticed a lot of people falling into the trap of thinking that Dark = Evil, when it's been explained almost ad nauseum at this point that neither Light nor Dark is inherently bad by themselves, but too much of either causes bad things to happen.

There was also the part of 4.1 when Fordola's Resonance gave her a vision of the WoL's career and it made her keel over while holding her head, asking how we could handle it.

[Andevom]

I never once thought we were gonna be evil, nor was that what I took away from the trailers. The storyline in 3.0 with the Warriors of Darkness set this up well, so we knew "dark" was not synonymous with "evil", just that it was an opposing force to light. Too much of either is destructive, so I always assumed it was just going to be a title we were given based on our actions in The First.

[KageTokage]

My suspicion on what they meant by us "becoming a villain" ended up being exactly what I was expecting in that it was just a group of people with twisted ideals (The Eulmorans) viewing us as such, as opposed to us actually becoming evil.

[gumas]

^pretty much. at first i though we going to become something like "necessity evil" where you kill innocent people or destroy some "sacred place" with "infected but didnt realized it" or "the light is pure but corrupting them not in a good way" kind of plot. i was hoping something like that, it would be an interesting take.

instead they pretty much use "attack of titan" setting and put some baddies who under the full delusion of being the good guy lol