What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[KageTokage]

The situation with the remaining Garlean legions does seem very muddled considering that the bulk of them seemed to have given up on trying to reclaim the capital to pursue their own agendas, with only the Xth actually responding to the 1st's call for assistance.

They still have enough military power between them to pose a threat to the rest of the world, so I could just as easily see us having to deal with some kind of united "New Garlemald" faction in Ilsabard as an expansion's focus over visiting one of the more distant continents.

[aveyond-dreams]

Given the community's rigid perception of Meracydia being a wasteland or an amalgamation of Africa/Australia and the New World already having been described as basically the Americas, I would strongly prefer an Ilsabard expansion over veering off into the middle of nowhere.

Ilsabard represents the opportunity to give us kingdoms and high fantasy locations contrasting against the backdrop of the Empire's previous presence in the region, almost like an FFVI vibe. We don't need to be there to enact regime change or anything, we could just as easily go adventure there for any number of reasons.

The power vacuum left by the empire's fall could easily see the rise of new antagonists with their own distinct personalities and clearer agendas besides being so depressed that they decide to condemn all mankind on a whim.

[Theodric]

I'd be very surprised if the story went right back to making antagonists out of Garleans again. Uniting the survivors and crowning a new Emperor would be a pretty cool direction for Garlemald to go in. I'd rather not see it lose its claws and fangs altogether, though there's plenty of room for the Garleans to invest in magitek as a means of securing trade deals to justify further interaction between the various different nations. Thavnair and Hingashi are neutral towards Garlemald already and it'd make sense for the provinces that prospered and improved under Garlean rule to not necessarily desire breaking away.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I'd be very surprised if the story went right back to making antagonists out of Garleans again. Uniting the survivors and crowning a new Emperor would be a pretty cool direction for Garlemald to go in. I'd rather not see it lose its claws and fangs altogether, though there's plenty of room for the Garleans to invest in magitek as a means of securing trade deals to justify further interaction between the various different nations. Thavnair and Hingashi are neutral towards Garlemald already and it'd make sense for the provinces that prospered and improved under Garlean rule to not necessarily desire breaking away.

What’s sad is i could see them totally building up the long awaited Nerva as the antagonist for it…Since for some reason the antagonists always need to be ascians or garleans. I hope i’m wrong though and Nerva proves to be more of a Larsa-like figure from ff12 and helps unite the people.

[KageTokage]

Since for some reason the antagonists always need to be ascians or garleans.

The Garleans have long been the only significant source of strife on the Three Great Continents outside of civil wars like those in pre-occupation Ala Mhigo, so unless there's some closet military power hiding in Ilsabard and waiting to make their presence known, I have trouble thinking of who/what else could realistically serve as the antagonist for an Ilsbard expansion barring the introduction of some new supernatural threat as a consequence of Endwalker's events changing the natural order.

[Kozh]

The Garleans have long been the only significant source of strife on the Three Great Continents outside of civil wars like those in pre-occupation Ala Mhigo, so unless there's some closet military power hiding in Ilsabard and waiting to make their presence known, I have trouble thinking of who/what else could realistically serve as the antagonist for an Ilsbard expansion barring the introduction of some new supernatural threat as a consequence of Endwalker's events changing the natural order.

Maybe they could use some resistance extrimist for the new "antagonist"? Or perhaps since Garlemald is no more, the nations/regions start going into civil war to seize due to lack of common enemy. Personally I don't really need a super military power as our next enemy.

And your idea about the new supernatural threat is good too.

[Theodric]

If nothing else, the escalating tensions in the real world could very well have caused the writers to grow weary of writing 'war stories'.

[Rulakir]

I'm tired of being a war mascot. It worked in HW mostly because Ishgard didn't really need us, but it quickly became tiresome in SB where we had to be a part of two different liberations who seemingly couldn't do anything without us. It went from being glad to share to battlefield to we need you to lead the charge to give people hope. I think it also doesn't work because, at least IMO, Ishgard was the only place that felt like home. Battling on behalf of Ala Mhigo and Doma felt out of place and like it really wasn't our problem to solve. It's a big reason SB fell flat for me.

[aveyond-dreams]

I'm tired of being a war mascot. It worked in HW mostly because Ishgard didn't really need us, but it quickly became tiresome in SB where we had to be a part of two different liberations who seemingly couldn't do anything without us. It went from being glad to share to battlefield to we need you to lead the charge to give people hope. I think it also doesn't work because, at least IMO, Ishgard was the only place that felt like home. Battling on behalf of Ala Mhigo and Doma felt out of place and like it really wasn't our problem to solve. It's a big reason SB fell flat for me.

Agreed with the above post, Ishgard did a lot to welcome and warm us to its cause over the course of Heavensward but Stormblood felt like we were just Lyse's wardog. There are better ways to write war stories, not all of them require the WoL being the incarnation of the people's hope necessarily. In Heavensward we largely did our own thing instead of tagging along with resistance groups, opting instead to go rogue and do things our own way.

FFIX was similar in this regard in terms of following a path that steered clear of Stormblood's writing style, while we participated in many conflicts and key battles (Burmecia, Clerya, etc) we weren't there performing the tiresome duty as "the hero" we were caught up in the situation and felt for the communities impacted by them due to them being more fleshed out.

In absence of the threat of war, or any other supernatural forces stirring in the background all we'd be left with is the fanfiction-level writing that we experienced in several parts of Endwalker that I would prefer to not see resurface. Sitting around the campfire with Ysayle and Estinien was more impactful than eating takeout with the twins and G'raha.

As for villains-I would have preferred if Yotsuyu was the dominant main antagonist in Stormblood as opposed to Zenos. I am not interested in hearing any more arguments about how he was a "foil" to us or represented our reflection in any way. He was fundamentally uninteresting with his only redeeming qualities being that he was more attractive than Lyse or Y'shtola, and that I actually liked putting up with him more than I could stand Hermes.