Politics

[EdwinLi]

The Scions primarily dealt with existential threats, stuff nobody else could deal with thanks to having lots of Echo users (on account of Minfilia's Path of the Twelve from 1.0 being rolled into it) until Alphinaud decided to take them out into the open... and even then, they still operated as paramilitary special forces.

The 2.X plot is awkwardly resolved and largely forgotten about because it was just filler to get Heavensward written; since A Realm Reborn was kind of proof of concept, the suits needed proof it would succeed after the bungling of 1.0 before greenlighting an expansion. So we got the political drama that went nowhere until the end, and the writers just kind of... forgot to give it a proper conclusion, hence awkwardly jumping back and forth between Ishgard and Ul'dah with no real change to the status quo (except Teledji Adeledji being dead and Raubahn losing an arm, but neither have had significant narrative consequences).

The whole political plot in 3.X era for Ul'dah felt a bit rushed more as a result they were not prepared for it so they tried to get it over with fast since they did not know where to take this plot.

Heck the two NPCs that were always with Ilberd were literally removed from the story offscreen with a very simple one time dialogue saying if they should spend life in Prison or instantly executed. These two actually had good potential to be used much longer post-Ilberd's death to show off the different reasons why people sided with Ilberd since the lalafell was doing it more out of the enjoyment and sharing the same belief as Ilberd but the Midlander was a young person who was gaslighted into believing what they are doing is the right choice. Given the chance to talk with the Midlander, he probably would have been convinced to change sides since he was always conflicted with what Ilberd order them to do.

[SannaR]

The whole political plot in 3.X era for Ul'dah felt a bit rushed more as a result they were not prepared for it so they tried to get it over with fast since they did not know where to take this plot.

Heck the two NPCs that were always with Ilberd were literally removed from the story offscreen with a very simple one time dialogue saying if they should spend life in Prison or instantly executed. These two actually had good potential to be used much longer post-Ilberd's death to show off the different reasons why people sided with Ilberd since the lalafell was doing it more out of the enjoyment and sharing the same belief as Ilberd but the Midlander was a young person who was gaslighted into believing what they are doing is the right choice. Given the chance to talk with the Midlander, he probably would have been convinced to change sides since he was always conflicted with what Ilberd order them to do.

I'm not sure Laurentius was truly being gasslighted. Just that he finally saw what kind of problems his actions could and did end up causing. Remember he is the Woodwailer who was supplying the Garleans with old maps and getting paid for it because he felt he wasn't getting paid enough by the Woodwailers. Then said he changed his ways after finishing his punishment when we recruited him as a Crystal Brave. Only to choose to back stab the Scions because Teledji Adeledji's pay was seen as being worth it. He probably thought he could continue to make sweet bank through the revolution. Only at the end to finally realize he was ruining people's lives for his selfishness.