Quote Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk View Post
That would be the "not having the means to fight Bismark" part, yes. We also probably wouldn't have enough pull with Ishgard to borrow the dragonkillers used in the fight before taking out Nidhogg at the Aery; even if we did, they'd be disinclined to loan out weapons if they still expected a full-on Dravanian offensive.
Yep, exactly. Basically, Bismark was just a unique case of a primal being untouchable at its initial appearance due to both behavior and resources. We wouldn't have been able to reach Garuda or Leviathan either if we didn't have the resources on hand, and even then it was hard pulling from allies for one reason or another (the corrupted crystals for Garuda's first appearance, and having a big enough boat to hold all the crystals for Leviathan).