[Spoilers inclluding 7.0] My "True" Main Character Theory

[RyuuZero]

I guess it's noticable that our Character is just there to play the role to take care of the dirty work and that's fine but who is the Main Character besides us? I theorized and came to a Conclusion, that I would like to share:

1.0: Louisoix Leveilleur (The Predecessor)
He came to Eorzea, founded the Circle of Knowing (later known as Scions of the 7th Dawn) and saved Eorzea

2.0 A Realm Reborn: The Twins (A New Dawn)
They came to Eorzea alongside the Player Character joined as active Members of the Scions of the 7th Dawn. Alphinaud takes part in the Adventures of the Scions (Main Story) and Alisaie discovers the Binding Coils of Bahamut (Raid)

3.0 Heavensward: Alphinaud Leveilleur (Blue Sky)
After the events of ARR Alphinaud had to grow as a Character and earn more Experience in Diplomatics and Politics

4.0 Stormblood: Alisaie Leveilleur (Red Sun)
Everytime when it came to take the Initiative Alisaie jumped into action and took the lead, she also was the last one who got pulled into our next Adventure.

5.0 Shadowbringers: Emet Selch (Dark Night)
That might be a surprise for many but Shadowbringers is full of surprises so let me explain: He was always true to us, he explained everything that matters to his mission and even offered cooperation if we pass his test. Now isn't the Crystal Exarch the main character? the thing is he lied to us and was making a mystery without any explaination(which funnily enough makes the Crystal Exarch the perfect character for FFXIII), meanwhile even Emet questioned that behavior and explained us things we didn't even knew about the Ascians goals and the best part is that Emet Selch's Explainations don't even contradict other Ascian's previous statements, but in the end we failed his test and his final message towards us is to remember

6.0 Endwalker: Venat (Full Moon)
coming back form our previous adventures we had alot of questions and many of our perceptions have been put into Question what we need are Answers, her Answers and it turns out that it was her Path all along to walk towards the end to bring hope.

7.0 Dawnsinger: Meteion (Dawn Encore)
This is just my Theory here since 7.0 will come out in 2024 and the time of this post is Friday the 13th, January 2023, which doesn't mean that I can't see the pattern, at the end Meteion said she wants to sing a new song.

[sidurgu-12]

While i agree that each expac has a deuteragonist and 1.0 the wol wasnt the most important I think youre somewhat downplaying the wols role as a protagonist.

[Cleretic]

My reading was always that the WoL was The One Main Character of ARR, and after that he starts playing the 'protagonist but not the hero' role for a while. Kinda like how Tidus might be the protagonist of FFX, but it's Yuna's story. Heavensward is Estinien's story, he's the guy that has all the development and goes through the personal journey and is the main crux of everything that goes on. Similarly, Stormblood is Lyse's story no matter how much people complain about her; she's the one that goes through the journey.

It stops being a plausible approach with Shadowbringers and Endwalker, which are much more ensemble pieces than anything.

[Enkidoh]

They were - even in 1.0, it was clear the player's character was the main protagonist and that they were 'special'... but 1.0's original story was abruptly ended without resolution in favour of the '7th Umbral Era' story that concerned the formation of the Grand Companies and the fight against Nael to stop Dalamud's fall (Louisoix incidentally did not appear until this storyline), and ended up being cannibalized for ideas and concepts in ARR and beyond, but ARR continued having the player's character in the limelight, now eventually given the 'Warrior of Light' moniker. So 1.0 even the WoL/player's character was the true protagonist, symbolized by 'Derplander' in the FMV openings.

And as ShB showed and EW confirmed, the player's character really is 'special' in more ways than one, being not only Hydaelyn's champion and chosen defender of the world, they're the literal reincarnation of the Ancient Etheirysian Azem the Wanderer.. whose hat was pretty much exactly the same (travelling the world, meeting people, helping them with their problems and pretty much being amazing while they do it ).

So that fully underlines the player's character as being FFXIV's actual protagonist, despite the importance of others, the story revolves around them, and that is continuing even beyond the winding up of 'season 1'.

[RyuuZero]

While i agree that each expac has a deuteragonist and 1.0 the wol wasnt the most important I think youre somewhat downplaying the wols role as a protagonist.

well I kinda looked at 1.0 surface level, I admit though again, what are really doing in the MSQ outside of killing bosses and going through dungeons? sometimes the MSQ nods to tomestones in some cutscenes but that's kinda it

My reading was always that the WoL was The One Main Character of ARR, and after that he starts playing the 'protagonist but not the hero' role for a while. Kinda like how Tidus might be the protagonist of FFX, but it's Yuna's story. Heavensward is Estinien's story, he's the guy that has all the development and goes through the personal journey and is the main crux of everything that goes on. Similarly, Stormblood is Lyse's story no matter how much people complain about her; she's the one that goes through the journey.

but.. FFX was Tidus' Story ^^ it was Yuna's Pilgrimage, that's true. About ARR I also thought a long time that we were the Main Character but then I noticed who else was on the Ship/Chocobo Carriage.
Estinien wanted to kill himself in 5.3 and who stopped him aside of the Player? Alphinaud. Lyse is supposed to be the Crimson Liberator, that's true, but who had the Idea of crushing the Redshells and carried on after Ala Mhigo's Liberation? Alisaie. Lyse stayed in Ala Mhigo after the liberation and only came in the story for political reasons but she left the Scions and the Story carried on without her.

It stops being a plausible approach with Shadowbringers and Endwalker, which are much more ensemble pieces than anything.

I can refute the ensemble arguement with 2 facts: In Shadowbringers the Crystal Exarch planned only to bring us to the First, the Scions were only there because the Crystal Exarch was skilled enough to handle the magic properly and in Endwalker when we travelled to Elpis, we were alone.

[RyuuZero]

They were - even in 1.0, it was clear the player's character was the main protagonist and that they were 'special'... but 1.0's original story was abruptly ended without resolution in favour of the '7th Umbral Era' story that concerned the formation of the Grand Companies and the fight against Nael to stop Dalamud's fall (Louisoix incidentally did not appear until this storyline), and ended up being cannibalized for ideas and concepts in ARR and beyond, but ARR continued having the player's character in the limelight, now eventually given the 'Warrior of Light' moniker. So 1.0 even the WoL/player's character was the true protagonist, symbolized by 'Derplander' in the FMV openings.

well the 1.0 Trailer kinda captured that early MMO feel, just some friends going to have an Adventure and then lights and story happens with no explaination, kinda like that it's big but really doesn't matter. I'd say Louisoix came a bit late to the Party but he was the one who saved us and saved the world as best as he could. though I wouldn't call it cannibalized looking 1.0 as a product it's rather more to say improved. and well to look at the player character as the main character of the story is really surface level.

And as ShB showed and EW confirmed, the player's character really is 'special' in more ways than one, being not only Hydaelyn's champion and chosen defender of the world, they're the literal reincarnation of the Ancient Etheirysian Azem the Wanderer.. whose hat was pretty much exactly the same (travelling the world, meeting people, helping them with their problems and pretty much being amazing while they do it ).

Well in ShB we failed Emet Selch's Test because Ardbert united with us too late, which got Emet Selch killed and in EW we witnessed Hydaelyn's Plan for the Planet to carry her hope towards the end with every step.
And about Azem, one could critique it as another player stand-in analog to write the Player in the Story and put the Player in some relation to another character. While True it's hard to pull off and how it is now it's well-ish done but when they show the unsundered Azem some people may be pissed off by the idea of being related to that Character. Or do you really wanna tell me that everyone will be related to some crazy @5$µ0/€ from an unsundered time? hmm I do not think so.

So that fully underlines the player's character as being FFXIV's actual protagonist, despite the importance of others, the story revolves around them, and that is continuing even beyond the winding up of 'season 1'.

well again.. what we do is to kill bosses, walk dungeons, watch cutscenes, finish questlines. That's all we do, Papalymo even commented on that, that we shouldn't get anymore involved with that kind of stuff because those responsibilities would get in the way of our adventuring

[Iscah]

Well in ShB we failed Emet Selch's Test because Ardbert united with us too late, which got Emet Selch killed and in EW we witnessed Hydaelyn's Plan for the Planet to carry her hope towards the end with every step.

well again.. what we do is to kill bosses, walk dungeons, watch cutscenes, finish questlines. That's all we do, Papalymo even commented on that, that we shouldn't get anymore involved with that kind of stuff because those responsibilities would get in the way of our adventuring

That is all vastly understating what we do. We-the-players watch cutscenes and finish questlines in a videogame; the Warrior of Light lives and experiences those events, going through great effort to save the world on multiple occasions. That isn't something to be dismissed as "all we do". And I doubt Papalymo remarked on us watching cutscenes - perhaps you could quote that?

Also, we failed Emet-Selch's test because Emet-Selch kept moving the goalposts, and in any case I don't see how failing an antagonist's so-called test makes them the main character and us irrelevant. If we weren't the main character, there wouldn't be a test in the first place.

And we don't just "witness" Hydaelyn's plan and hope, we ARE her plan and hope.


Edit to add: It's also misleading to say that we "got Emet-Selch killed" as if we made some kind of mistake that led to an ally's death. He attacked us and we fought him.

[Necrotica]

1.0 Did not play, have no opinion.
2.0 Cid. If only because it focused so god damn much on him in the climax of ARR.
3.0 Estinien for reasons explained by Cleretic
4.0 Lyse for reasons explained by Cleretic
5.0 Minfilia/Ryne. Both forms really. I mean she even has a story book devoted to her in the beginning.
6.0 Venat because it was the end of the war between Zodiark and Hydaelyn and Zodiark was lobotomized at this point.
7.0 Yshtola. And this is because she NEEDS some kind of character arc. Girl has been the same since day 1 despite all that has happened.

[ShinyChariot]

WoL isn't even a real character lmao. They're just a device, and they might as well be a tool for people who actually have motivations, plans, and directives. All the WoL does is copy whatever the good guys are carrying onto themselves and carry out difficult deeds and feats that an MMO story that requires the player be in the center of it all carries out. In definition the WoL is the protagonist, but it's nowhere near other FF games where the main character is actually a character with their own personality, past, relationships, and characteristics.

Emet asked, who are you? WoL is no one, nothing.

[Enkidoh]

WoL isn't even a real character lmao. They're just a device, and they might as well be a tool for people who actually have motivations, plans, and directives. All the WoL does is copy whatever the good guys are carrying onto themselves and carry out difficult deeds and feats that an MMO story that requires the player be in the center of it all carries out. In definition the WoL is the protagonist, but it's nowhere near other FF games where the main character is actually a character with their own personality, past, relationships, and characteristics.

Emet asked, who are you? WoL is no one, nothing.

Actually, you're mistaken there on multiple fronts - the WoL is a character in so much as the story revolves around them. While it's certainly true they are also a narrative device to move the story forward, they are also the central protagonist in that the story literally could not exist without them and that their story is the main story (this is unlike FFXI where the player's character literally is just a sidekick along for the ride while the story NPCs like Zeid and Lion who are the real protagonists that get all the credit for your efforts). And with the revelation in ShB that they are the reincarnation of Azem the Wanderer, stating that they are 'no one and nothing' is completely wrong and missing the point entirelly.

And not every FF game has a dedicated protagonist with a fully fleshed out story or even identity anyway - some FF games they are just blank slates left to the player to create an identity for them, dating right back to 1987 and the very first FF game especially which FFXIV actually has a lot in common with. In FFI, the party was literally a party of nameless generics also called the Warriors of Light who were literally only identified by their Job class - there was literally no backstory for any of them other than they were young and each bore a dulled Crystal. FFIII was very similar (although the DS remake altered it and gave them names and identities, the original Famicom version they were just generic adventurers nicknamed 'Onion Kids' due to starting with the Onion Knight Job.).

Although FFII was the first FF game to feature named protagonists, party members, it was only with FFIV did each successive game have actual named protagonists (and FF Tactics kind of did both, with a main protagonist (Ramza) and guest named characters, with a bunch of generic adventurers that could be fired, end up killed or rehired with impunity). And it should go without saying FFXIV's MMO predecessor FFXI also had a generic player character who had zero backstory other than "they're a new adventurer from a foreign land".

So FFXIV's "your character is a blank slate" concept is hardly unusual for the series.