Discrepancy in lore (spoilers)

[Jandor]

Which was the entire reason SB worked. Stirring up trouble on two fronts, distracting Zenos and making him further split his forces.

Could have been a good idea that, if we hadn't gotten a bit too carried away and just straight up pushed the Garleans out of Doma. It's hardly a war on two fronts if you close the second front as fast as you open it.

[YianKutku]

Eorzea is helped by plot armor but there are viable reasons invasions have failed.

Personally I get the impression that the invasions of Eorzea by Garlemald failed largely because of plot armour, including when the plot armour is disguised or plot-babbled into plausibility.

There are a lot of "just so" circumstances that led to our victories, which are understandable on their own, but when all put together it starts to be incredible that we, and Eorzea in general, are so lucky. For example, the XIVth's defeat at the hands of the Eorzean Alliance was mostly self-inflicted, with Ultima destroying the Praetorium being the most direct damage. Our part in Operation Archon was largely to perform decapitation strikes, and most importantly to remove the Ultima Weapon from play. Which technically the Garleans didn't need if it wasn't for their paranoia over Primals, but Gaius apparently got it in his head that he could use it as both an assurance to his eventual subjects that he could handle the Primal problem, and also as a general threat.

And I would not be surprised if Solus had prohibited Gaius from continuing his conquest of Eorzea in the exact manner calculated to make Gaius rebel anyway, because Emet-Selch.

Dragons usually wont intervene on mortal issues usually so dont expect them to do much unless their species got threatened by the Empire.

I've always wondered about how Midgardsormr went All Hands On Deck against the Garlean invasion of Eorzea, which just happened to be passing by Silvertear Lake at the time, but snoozed through the entirety of the Allagan Empire, including the Crystal Tower being built right next door, and also Bahamut turning into a Primal and Tiamat getting imprisoned. (And also Omega being researched by the Allagans.)

The Allagans weren't worth intervening against, but the Garleans were. This, despite Emet-Selch himself mentioning that the Garlean Empire was inferior in sense of accomplishment compared to Allag.

Another underrated talent that people overlook is garlemald is supposed to be excellent at intelligence and subterfuge, both of which were required to defend their borders prior to magitek. That at the very least gets more attention than their airpower but it's still fairly under-represented.

Yeah, we got the Ivy storyline, and then basically nothing. Even in the NIN questline, we're only told that many of the shinobi were working for Garlemald, but we don't see any effects that highlighted this. Meanwhile, the shinobi on our side have been doing a good job of destabilizing the provinces and being our own intelligence division.

(Also Nero mentioning the Frumentarius as counter-intelligence once, and never again. And Lucia, but since she defected, I don't think she counts as a success for Garlemald.)

[Cilia]

Personally I get the impression that the invasions of Eorzea by Garlemald failed largely because of plot armour, including when the plot armour is disguised or plot-babbled into plausibility.

It's definitely improbable for Eorzea to have been given so many miracles that saved it from Imperial conquest in so short a time (relatively speaking), but it's not implausible the way it's written, and that has to be enough.

Regardless of how improbable it is, the starting three city-states have to be available to all players at all times if for no other reason than because they're where seasonal events are based so all players (who've completed a modicum of the story) can access them. Circumstances will always conspire to keep them free, regardless of how plausible those circumstances may be. The writers' job on that front is to make those circumstances believable, and other than Midgardsormr saving Eorzea in a deus ex machina moment pre-1.0 I'd have to argue they've succeeded.

(Just like we already know Zenos' and Danny Boy's nefarious plan to cause the apocalypse isn't going to succeed for gameplay purposes; it's just a matter of what's going to happen in the course of their failure, and what victory is going to end up costing us. Gameplay demands will always mean pre-6.0 zones are completely, totally untouched by the Final Days, regardless of how plausible that may not be. Only a big, Calamity-level event could end up actually denying us access to sections of the world, and well, given XIV is in a good way right now, I just don't see that happenin'.)

[YianKutku]

It's definitely improbable for Eorzea to have been given so many miracles that saved it from Imperial conquest in so short a time (relatively speaking), but it's not implausible the way it's written, and that has to be enough.

Regardless of how improbable it is, the starting three city-states have to be available to all players at all times if for no other reason than because they're where seasonal events are based so all players (who've completed a modicum of the story) can access them. Circumstances will always conspire to keep them free, regardless of how plausible those circumstances may be. The writers' job on that front is to make those circumstances believable, and other than Midgardsormr saving Eorzea in a deus ex machina moment pre-1.0 I'd have to argue they've succeeded.

(Just like we already know Zenos' and Danny Boy's nefarious plan to cause the apocalypse isn't going to succeed for gameplay purposes; it's just a matter of what's going to happen in the course of their failure, and what victory is going to end up costing us. Gameplay demands will always mean pre-6.0 zones are completely, totally untouched by the Final Days, regardless of how plausible that may not be. Only a big, Calamity-level event could end up actually denying us access to sections of the world, and well, given XIV is in a good way right now, I just don't see that happenin'.)

Yeah, I often have to keep reminding myself that above all, out-of-universe meta-explanations take vastly more priority than in-universe explanations for "why does this happen". That being said, it does cause some issues for lore discussions, since we have to take everything into account to assume a consistent setting, but what gets added into the lore is beholden to what the developers toss to the lore team to attempt to justify. I know the lore team makes a valiant effort, and I respect them for it, but sometimes I just have to look at the incongruities and shrug.

It does fall into the trap of escalation: we're supposed to believe that this time the world is actually in danger, if only to present a sense of tension, but we also know that stuff like marketing and sales and game development means it's not actually going to happen. But there's the idea, even among players, that the next threat has to be bigger, because we solved the previous threat. Hence the complaints I recall seeing on this forum about how Stormblood felt like a step back in terms of stakes, after Heavensward. And since this has to keep happening for as long as the game is around, all these improbable escapes from conquest or destruction start to add up.

[Vyrerus]

It does fall into the trap of escalation: we're supposed to believe that this time the world is actually in danger, if only to present a sense of tension, but we also know that stuff like marketing and sales and game development means it's not actually going to happen. But there's the idea, even among players, that the next threat has to be bigger, because we solved the previous threat. Hence the complaints I recall seeing on this forum about how Stormblood felt like a step back in terms of stakes, after Heavensward. And since this has to keep happening for as long as the game is around, all these improbable escapes from conquest or destruction start to add up.

That's fairly interesting. My first time through Stormblood my biggest question was, "But what has Zenos been through that makes him stronger than me?" It never really got answered, he just was. As far as the overall stakes went though, after seeing Omega and Shinryu go toe to toe, or electric laser beam to protostar breath... I thought the dragon Pope had been thoroughly one upped, and I looked forward to finding out how Shinryu vs. Omega concluded. Plus we visited and freed two nations, rather than just one.

Just interesting that people didn't perceive the stakes as being raised. Do you remember some of the explanations/whys for that?

[Damascar]

Those massive airship also require a lot of resources to move around. It's why we created that wall in the burn and why taking back Rabanastre is so important - they need a lot of ceruleum to function and we're basically cutting the provision lines.
In eorzea, we never had all empire divisions against us, but a couple of them at the time, that's why the united forces of the city states, and now ishgard and doma, managed to fend them off.
Also the empire is more fighting between themselves in a civil war that fightning eorzea

[Bhearil]

The only situation where a Reaper aka the most deployed Magitek Armor was one shooted by magic was on the End of an Era cinematic (where everything uses the rule of cool) and was done by the BLM companion of the Wol, someone not in the level of "veteran mage" but on the prodigy scale and looked like a lucky shot. Reapers are stated to be strong enough to fight with against entire squad alone and win. True, Magitek run out of fuel/ammo, but same can be said of normal soldiers running out of magic power and endurance, unless the supply lines are completely cut its a non factor.

Eorzean Alliance got better at fighting Magitek but that doesnt mean they are easy picking. They are facing with mostly infantery the fantasy equivalent of tanks and despite the pilot being quite exposed doesnt seem a too big of an issue considering they didnt altered its design yet

Canonically Elidibus was stated to be stronger than the Zenos we fought (current Zenos post "resurrection" is hinted to be even stronger though), he simply compensated his worse swordmanship with ascian magic. The fact that Hien Yugiri and Lyse werent instakilled and managed to survive until the Wol arrived speaks about their much above than average power, considering that Yugiri and Wol in the second fight were only able to put a nominal fight until Zenos got half way serious and quickly defeated both once he pulled out Ame no Habakiri.

Yoshida himself stated that power level, and until now is the "canon" even if not updated of the comparative power of the Wol (and by extension you can extrapolate to the rest of the setting)

[Vyrerus]

The only situation where a Reaper aka the most deployed Magitek Armor was one shooted by magic was on the End of an Era cinematic (where everything uses the rule of cool) and was done by the BLM companion of the Wol, someone not in the level of "veteran mage" but on the prodigy scale and looked like a lucky shot. Reapers are stated to be strong enough to fight with against entire squad alone and win. True, Magitek run out of fuel/ammo, but same can be said of normal soldiers running out of magic power and endurance, unless the supply lines are completely cut its a non factor.

Eorzean Alliance got better at fighting Magitek but that doesnt mean they are easy picking. They are facing with mostly infantery the fantasy equivalent of tanks and despite the pilot being quite exposed doesnt seem a too big of an issue considering they didnt altered its design yet

Canonically Elidibus was stated to be stronger than the Zenos we fought (current Zenos post "resurrection" is hinted to be even stronger though), he simply compensated his worse swordmanship with ascian magic. The fact that Hien Yugiri and Lyse werent instakilled and managed to survive until the Wol arrived speaks about their much above than average power, considering that Yugiri and Wol in the second fight were only able to put a nominal fight until Zenos got half way serious and quickly defeated both once he pulled out Ame no Habakiri.

Yoshida himself stated that power level, and until now is the "canon" even if not updated of the comparative power of the Wol (and by extension you can extrapolate to the rest of the setting)

And yet, Eorzeans beat them and capture them for their own use all of the time.

Canonically, Elidibus is shown in Shadowbringers to be unable to replicate Zenos's power in 5.3.

What Yoshi P says and what is true are not always in alignment. That was clearly Yoshi-P giving a shoutout to Berserk. Guts literally can't do half the stuff the WoL can do. Just cause a dev says something in an interview doesn't mean it's canon.

[Bhearil]

Magitek armor can be captured, doesnt mean you see the Eorzean alliance using Reapers en masse, heck Garlean troops have instrutions to blow them up if capture is inevitable.

Elidibus is a freaking Ascian/Primal sorta thing, losing some of Zenos original skill doesnt mean squat when he can simply can go Palpatine mode in Vader's body.He can easily compensate that then add even more accounting his personal power.

Yoshi P words like it or not carry more weight than any of the headcanon we sometimes see here, and since Stormblood it hasnt been denied so its what we have, and no matter if Guts part is a tongue in cheek joke or not, the rest of the graph stands true since it compares against characters from FF14, and someone like Raubahn that is now considerable weaker than the Wol is considered a monster in the setting even despite losing an arm, and of Hien and co managed to not being killed against Elizenos mean they are cut above from the average fighter considering normal soldiers were like flies to Zenos