Quote Originally Posted by Lyth View Post
I think if you want to evaluate the actions of nations, you have to look at the individuals who are making those decisions in the first place.

Take the Garleans as an example. They started out in one of the most beautiful, fertile, and resource-rich regions in Ilsabard and were driven out of their ancestral homeland because they couldn't use magic to defend themselves. In a way, they're the antithesis of the Amaurotians, which is what makes Emet's original decision to cast his lot in with them interesting. By intervening, he managed to reverse their fates and help them develop into a powerful nation. That's pretty heroic. If our characters were around during that time period, we might have had reason to throw our lot in with theirs as well.

Where Emet and Varis' later actions fall short is when Garlemald's resources were misappropriated as a tool for the Ascians' personal benefit rather than that of the Garlean people. That's one of the central problems with any dictatorship, because it becomes difficult to disentangle the 'I' from the 'we'. Emet used the armies at his disposal as a tool to initiate the Seventh Umbral Calamity in alignment with his own personal agenda. Varis and Elidibus produced chemical weaponry in the form of the Black Rose to slaughter Garleans and Eorzeans alike in order to force the First to rejoin. In the long run, Garlemald was ultimately worse off for the Ascians' control, and now that the nation is finally free of them, it can start to heal.

It's less a question of 'who' we support than it is a question of 'why' we choose to act.
I agree with you but i kinda also agree with crowny,things like this are certainly tough. :/