Discrepancy in lore (spoilers)

[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.)