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

[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.

[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

[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

[Jaywalker]

uuuh what.

Light is not evil, nor is Darkness. Too much of either is bad but not necessairly "evil". They have stated before Shadowbringers (in Heavensward actually) that neither are evil but too much of either is very dangerous and will corrupt life.

Agree with this completely. If you really need a formula for it, extremes are where you get evil. Pretty much every primal we've dealt with showed that, maaaaaaybe excepting the weird situation with Shiva because having the Echo Ysayle couldn't temper herself.

Even Sophia became an extreme in the name of balance and committed the evil of murdering an entire family just so that things would be perfectly stable in death.

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.

Besides a healthy helping of ^^^^, WoL flashes back hard to Ishgard after Dohn Mheg and has been ending every Shadowbringers dungeon or trial by simply closing their eyes wearily. I'm fairly positive there are more examples too but those just stood out offhand.

[ScarboroughFairy]

Agree with this completely. If you really need a formula for it, extremes are where you get evil.

Take for instance the Soul Edge/Soul Calibur franchise. Soul Calibur is supposed to be the "holy" antithesis to the unholy weapon Soul Edge. Where Soul Edge wants absolute chaos, blood, and destruction, Soul Calibur desires order, harmony, and peace.

The ending of the fourth game showed that Soul Calibur was just as insane as her corrupt counterpart. Her idea of "peace" and "harmony" was placing everyone in the world in a crystalline stasis to uphold the ultimate ideal of order. No one can commit terrible crime or injustice if literally no one can move. Lawful good taken way beyond what it needs to be since one's idea and execution of justice can be arbitrary.