Thread: Revenge of the Weapons (5.2 and Onwards)

Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I'm hoping 6.0 will handle the empire well. Though part of me worries the msq will largely be us helping the 'good' garlean faction (populares etc) fight the 'warmongering' garleans and there will be as little gray morality as Stormblood. But Shadowbringers was better than I thought it'd be, the lore revelations made the empire less interesting and compelling but made the ascians more so than they had been before, maybe they can manage to pull off the empire plot well. But Zenos being back is not a good omen for me. Really wish he'd stayed dead.

My biggest concern was that they would simply destroy it off screen, but I'm not convinced they're going that route anymore. As to the Populares, and the Optimates, it may end up being just that, but given that there is a civil war unfolding, they do have the opportunity to wipe the board clean, as it were, and avoid it being some comical villain set up. Even something like Gaius ascending to the Garlean throne would help preserve some element of moral greyness to it, because he's got a pretty sketchy history but is nonetheless driven by devotion to his homeland. My ideal conclusion for the Empire will be for it to rein in its ambitions a bit (perhaps offering to lend its might in cleaning up the Primal mess in different ways), maybe cede a few provinces but ultimately remain some manner of monarchy with a few vassal provinces, that can act as a counterweight to Eorzean influence when necessary, much like Hingashi can.

On Zenos, I enjoyed him in Stormblood up to a point, especially with his more "philosophical" takes, e.g. on the nature of the Echo. He interested me as much at that point as Elidibus, who is my favourite of the antagonists. The issue is that the lore around him isn't really explained well in game, and in ShB he's just come across as a dark Mary Sue, showing virtually no real reaction to the rather astonishing new facets of the Resonance. It also looks to me like he's just a plot device in a sense - the Ascians aim to do much more than just revive Zodiark, so they want to first go ahead with all the Rejoinings, meaning we may never see him in the story unless they were to succeed at that, but Zenos is the sort who'll summon him earlier just so he can have a go at gorging on his power, so they can bring him in sooner. I think there's other, better ways they could have gone about it, but for now the best I can hope for is that they improve on his character portrayal.

I'm still waiting to see how they handle the Hydaelyn/Zodiark thing. Although the Ascian perspective is one I find sensible given what they are, and the sort of perspective I'd enjoy taking up in the context of a video game, if it just ends up being a case of tempering gone wrong, so that all their motivations reduce to that, like the usual tempering, I have to confess I'd find that a bit lame. I really want to see if we're going to have some reason to keep both the Primals around and whether it's more complex than Hydaelyn good, Zodiark bad - if it is just that, it'd suck IMO.

Originally Posted by Melichoir

The weapon on paper is very pragmatic. It cant be effectively defended against, covers a wide area at low cost, easy to deploy (relatively) with (supposedly) low risk to the users, and was ultra effective and psychologically horrifying.

Problem ends up that yeah, it really is that horrifying and uncontrollable. Real world reference, its why Bio and Chem Weapons are considered violation of the Geneva Protocols and will land the leader of a country that employs them as a war criminal. Theyre that bad and caustic a weapon that most nations willingly agree to not employ them in conflicts.

It's also a case of its performance during the Calamity differing to what earlier test results showed, because of how it interacted with the light seeping into the world. I suspect that not even the Ascians realised it would be this effective, as even Emet-Selch's musings on it were speculative in nature - and confined to the First's predicament - but nonetheless, they were no doubt pleased with that.

Originally Posted by Avidria

Also, I didn't think Garlemald itself actually got invaded - unless I missed that? I thought they were just being pushed back - pushed back from their own invasion, no less.

He's referring to their history before they became an Empire. A lot of their neighbours attempted to conquer them, thinking that the general inability of Pureblood to use aether would make them an easier target, but Garlemald eventually bested them by using subterfuge, employing magi into its armies and eventually through warmachina, and later ceruleum and magitek. That's why they generally view most other nations with contempt and cynicism. Something also forced them out of what is now speculated to be their original homeland, Goug, but we don't have a complete picture of that aspect of their history just yet.