A game for 4 year olds

[MikkoAkure]

How is that false equivalency when the core reason of both garlemald conquest and eorzea conquest are the same? Which is expanding their territory. One of the differences is that garlemald conquest was fuelled by survival (and revenge for corvos), while Eorzean city states conquest was fuelled by each thinking their deity is the “right one”, and perhaps for resources too. The Alliance is very recently formed because of Autumn War and later because of the Empire. As for why they didn’t go global scale, it’s not hard to imagine that they’re pretty equal in term of strength hence. Only garlean who was too weak and therefore being pushed back to northern ilsabard.
Do you truly believe that if it was one of the city states who was gifted the power of magitek (or other power equivalent in strength to it), they won’t use it to launch their conquest in global scale?
I very much doubt they use “swords and arrows” only. Even ignoring the use of magic, I’m sure Sil’dih will disagree with you. Also I’m not sure why “swords and arrows” supposed to make it better? War is war.

The Autumn War was fought in the context of Ala Mhigo's trade power being marginalized by new trading routes before a single power-hungry king came to power. Ul'dah and Sil'dih fought in the context of a severe drought creating a potential life-or-death situation with Sil'dih monopolizing the water supply amidst a background of years of tension. Even the Dragonsong War has nothing at all to do with Halone. Limsa Lominsa isn't even religious.

But none of the city-states at all have had any ideas of global domination and there's nothing in the game to suggest it. The Sharlayans were uninterested in anything, the Ishgardians were too busy alternating between making love and war with Dravania, Limsa Lominsa was up until 5 years ago a loose amalgamation of pirates that had no greater national cause than "be a safe haven and resupply port" whose own people fought each other more than they did any foreign nation, Gridania cannot exist outside the Twelveswood, and then there's Ul'dah.

Ul'dah is the most like Garlemald in that it's a country in an inhospitable location whose predecessors had to fight off Hyur nomads and had to hire mercenaries to defend themselves. Yet the Ul'dahns never moved out of Thanalan and despite having the largest supply of ceruleum on the continent, they haven't industrialized into a magitek army to take over the world, that's bad for business. No one treats Ul'dah's destruction of Sil'dih as a good thing that should have happened in the story, but at least the leader of Ul'dah recognizes that and that on its own makes a small difference.

What sets the Garleans apart from Eorzea is the scale, spectacle, and speed at which they conquered 2 continents and some change, without having a legitimate reason to do, followed by the destruction of the cultures and the cruelty of their occupations. The Garleans came from nowhere with technology that hadn't existed for thousands of years, that completely removed the ability for anyone to be able to defend themselves from, using conscripts from the previous land they conquered.

What did Othard and Eorzea have anything at all to do with Garlean survival or revenge? If the Garleans stopped at Ilsabard, you may have had a leg to stand on but they kept going to destroy and conquer which invalidates any moral supremacy they could have had over Eorzea. The whole point of the original Eorzean Alliance was that the idea of one city-state going crazy and conquering was completely wild to them and had to be stopped. It didn't lead to them conquering Ala Mhigo together and then crossing the Ghimlyt Dark to take land from city-states in Ilsabard and create an empire.

It’s from sidequests. Just because they won’t touch it again, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Which sidequest?

And do you not think it was extremely cheap that the main Empire, whom we have been fighting against since the beginning, was destroyed of-screen and without our action?

Yoshi-P has said for a long time that Garlemald was too strong for the plot. It didn't matter as much when they were all the way over there, but when it comes to finalizing the whole game's story up to now it becomes tricky with how to deal with it, especially in an MMO where you need to revisit zones again over and over for years to come. The alternative would have been like where Ala Mhigo is now where they have an instance but no city to visit.

Looking back, it's not as much a surprise to anyone who has played FFVI that this is how it ended though. The Garleans are more influenced by the Gestahlian Empire than anything else, to the point where their magitek designs are ripped straight out of FFVI to the finest detail and pasted into FFXIV. With Zenos hanging around being crazy along with having powers he shouldn't have, it makes sense that they went with the same angle where the Garlean Empire like the Gestahlian Empire before them would meet their end due to one of their insane generals destroying everything. It may not be the glamorous end anyone wanted but in the end our army still marched right in, fought two legions, and took it over. It would have been weirder if the invading Eorzean force was somehow allowed to march right up with no airship attacks against a fully fit for battle Garlean army on their home turf and somehow won.

The Garleans having lost their empire by their own hand also makes it easier to close this chapter on the story since the Garleans have no one else really to blame but themselves and we don't end up having war restart all over again after them being upset about the first one and the plot can finally move on.

Can also justify it by making those small unnamed nations to be one of the earliest conquered nation of Garlemald, nations with weak military power and facing the same problem as garlemald, which was harsh environment. Therefore they’re also dependent to Garlemald’s economy and technology (magitek and ceruleum)

Garlemald doesn't have a monopoly on magitek. Someone mentioned that Landis has the Magitek Academy and we've seen Imperial Magitek facilities in Terncliff, Werlyt, and Ala Mhigo. Eorzea has also been making their own, independent of Garlemald. Ceruleum exists in Thanalan and in the New World so it's simple to suggest that they aren't the only places in the entire world with that resource either, especially since it's said in the EE that it's "abundant" in Ilsabard.