Building a better Alphinaud

[CrownySuccubus]

How convenient that you left out both Eulmore and Garlemald.They've turned 4 unique nation states into cooker cutter democracies over the course of Season 1. Once would've been tolerable, twice would've been questionable, but this? And of what little other monarchies or unique systems remain, half of them have had any intrigue and grit stripped from them or were otherwise left behind in regions of the world like the far east that we won't be visiting again any time soon.

This argument is even further ridiculous, because the Scions had NOTHING to do with either of them becoming republics. In Eulmore, they didn't tell the people to elect a new Mayor; the citizens did that on their own. In the case of Garlemald, the Scions did literally NOTHING. They didn't kill the dictator, they didn't kill the royal family, and they didn't decide not to form a new monarchy. The people did that all on their own. Hell, even in the case of Gyr Abania, blaming the Scions makes no sense because the first question Lyse asked was if anybody else wanted the throne, and all of them said no.

The fact that you continuously blame the Scions for this makes it pretty clear that your argument here isn't to actually bring up legitimate issues. Your goal is to add another reason to "hate" the Scions for no reason in particular, and it doesn't matter how far you need to reach to do it.

Not everything has to be so cookie cutter and samey.

Once again:

"Another monarchy - vArIeTy!"

"Democracies - sAmEy!"

[Brinne]

Source? Not that I don't think Fordola has fans. As I mentioned, I'm personally quite happy to see more of her. And where she is after the healer role quest is where I think she would finally be able to travel with us. Even without the necklace, she would not have been in the right place as a character to join us on our world-saving adventures before the latest story threads. The WoL usually sees eye to eye with the Scions but there's not a single indication we wouldn't tear off on our own if it was something we felt we had to get done. So if she wasn't in a place where she agreed, we would just leave her behind anyway.

And every good DM knows, you don't want to split the party all the time.

As a huge Fordola fan and someone who would love for her to join the party, the idea that she has more fans than the twins doesn't even qualify as a stretch. We're pretty rare birds, as far as I can tell, actually. (For what it's worth, I do also really like the twins.)

EDIT: The huge NHK Final Fantasy favorites poll from a couple of years ago (during the Shadowbringers era), of course, isn't absolute, but I do think it's useful as a general metric for these things. As I've cited for other characters, Minfilia managed to make the (low) rankings. Fordola did not. It's okay, I still love her and get excited every time she gets a droplet of new content!

[Rulakir]

Is Fordola not popular among JP players? I seem to recall seeing a thread on the JP forums asking for Highlanders to be made more feminine. Combined with her abrasive personality, I could see how she might not be. She's one of the most requested party members in my circles, granted that's anecdotal. Hell, I'm not even a huge fan of Fordola myself other than I would recruit any "realist" to balance out the idealism in the group. Estinien said the world has enough realists, but not from where I'm sitting.

As for the twins, I only like Alisaie. I believe she's one of the few Scions who cares about the WoL on a personal level (just my subjective opinion).

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I already mentioned it earlier in a post with Theo, but yeah Im a Fordola fan as well. I want and hope we get more of her in the MSQ, and Im happy they didnt kill her off or just leave her forgotten to fade into obscurity.
I think her willingness to defect/convert happened a little to fast (Unless the timeline in FFXIV accelerated faster then I realized) but I do like her redemption Arc.
Estinian X Fordola Tag Team When?

[Raven2014]

Hell, I'm not even a huge fan of Fordola myself other than I would recruit any "realist" to balance out the idealism in the group. Estinien said the world has enough realists, but not from where I'm sitting.

There is a very common theme that used a lot in JRPG - those who can dream are the one who hold the future. It's used a lot in Japanese writing, be it light novel, mange, video game or anime. The realist vs idealist is more of a translation to make it more easy to understand in the west, but realist here is not the same as pragmatism.

Realist in this context refer to people who focus on the immediate presence, while idealist is more about having a dream rather than principled idea. That's why Estinien refer to himself as realist, as both he and Fordola only focus on the present, and that's why they both accepted and get trapped in the cycle of conflict. Realist here mean they see a conflict, and accept the only resolution is the complete annihilation of the enemy. Whether someone like Alphinauh dare to dream about an actual escape route.

[Brinne]

Is Fordola not popular among JP players? I seem to recall seeing a thread on the JP forums asking for Highlanders to be made more feminine. Combined with her abrasive personality, I could see how she might not be. She's one of the most requested party members in my circles, granted that's anecdotal. Hell, I'm not even a huge fan of Fordola myself other than I would recruit any "realist" to balance out the idealism in the group. Estinien said the world has enough realists, but not from where I'm sitting.

As for the twins, I only like Alisaie. I believe she's one of the few Scions who cares about the WoL on a personal level (just my subjective opinion).

I'm pretty sure Fordola isn't really popular anywhere, lmao. Even around here I'm only recently really seeing her brought up as a bludgeon used to complain about the Scions. My beautiful wife deserves better and to be appreciated on her own merits!

But yeah, re: femininity, I wouldn't be surprised, alas. "Fordola isn't feminine enough" clowns to the left of me, "G'raha isn't masculine enough" jokers to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with actually good taste <_< with you!

[TaleraRistain]

I think her willingness to defect/convert happened a little to fast (Unless the timeline in FFXIV accelerated faster then I realized) but I do like her redemption Arc.

I was actually okay with that, but it's because she never felt like she was on the side of the Empire. Her thoughts and her heart were always with her people. Everything she did was to bring them equality in the society they were thrust in. Even if they hated her for it. So I didn't feel there was anything for her to defect or convert from.

[Slatersev]

Fordola not being super popular on either side of the ocean is why she got shoved into no speaking role quests and the like and had an extremely small role in the MSQ post Stormblood. Which is a shame because I do like her and wish she was more prominent

Aveyond is straight up lying and has absolutely no source to back it up, meanwhile both twins were in the single digits of the EW Jpn popularity poll.

[aveyond-dreams]

Curious that all of these wonderful polls are never conducted overseas in the west. Sort of strange, isn't it?

In any case I firmly believe that Fordola as a postergirl for this game would move more copies than the twins. You put her on an ad and I'll at least consider checking the game out. You put Alphi on an ad especially that Sage cgi of his and I just look the other way.

[CrownySuccubus]

Curious that all of these wonderful polls are never conducted overseas in the west. Sort of strange, isn't it?

Yes, how strange that polls are chiefly done in the work's home country of origin.

Gee, I wonder how many Japanese World of Warcraft or GTA Online polls there are?

Get out of here with this, dude.