Yoshida's latest interview, Comic Exhibition Taiwan 2025

[MartinFreeman]

Even the post patch is boring. Same boring characters and premise.

[bundythenoob]

I know everyone loves to glaze ShB and its story nonstop, but as an ARR enjoyer, the StB patch story set up some of the most hype plotlines imaginable, and imo none of them were done justice during ShB or beyond.
My heart shattered when the Black Rose and Emperor Varis plotlines were resolved offscreen in cutscenes, and I will never forgive the writers for throwing away the Gaius redemption arc that was set up so beautifully from the moment he walked towards us with Alphinaud in his arms, Ascian masks in tow.

[Supersnow845]

I know everyone loves to glaze ShB and its story nonstop, but as an ARR enjoyer, the StB patch story set up some of the most hype plotlines imaginable, and imo none of them were done justice during ShB or beyond.
My heart shattered when the Black Rose and Emperor Varis plotlines were resolved offscreen in cutscenes, and I will never forgive the writers for throwing away the Gaius redemption arc that was set up so beautifully from the moment he walked towards us with Alphinaud in his arms, Ascian masks in tow.

They didn’t throw that away

It’s just mostly explored in sorrows of werlyt

[bundythenoob]

It’s just mostly explored in sorrows of werlyt

I'm referring to how Gaius disappeared from the events of the MSQ after making it seem like he was going to join the Scions in what felt like the beginning of a potential Garlemald arc.
Werlyt was extremely good don't get me wrong, but I felt betrayed that he wasn't more involved in the main story and future expacs.
I thought he was going to play a similar role to what Yugiri did back in ARR and HW, given how he had one of the most incredible re-introductions and was a major player during the later end of the StB patch story

[Chasingstars]

We put the garlemald expansion and the final days expansion in a blender and called it Endwalker. Why? Because of a sudden surge of popularity.

That is just depressing.

[Hallarem]

snip

If people are rioting over fictional villains you might as well stop telling stories all together. Why arent people out protesting Star Wars' empire.
Oh nvm! They cosplay as STORMTROOPERS and march. Because guess what, its all fiction and it wont hurt anybody. And if we really get down to the nitty gritty, they are way closer to the Romans down to the faux latin language they use, LEGIONS etc. Who were horrible in their own right. But guess what, so was every army in history.

So what do we do? Erase every exploration of nuance and just label all Garleans as bloodthirsty conquerors, Ala Mhigans used to be conquerors. All of Limsa were bloodthirsty pirates. Ishgard is built on the blood of a bunch of knights eating a dragon after killing her not to mention throdding down on their poor. Where do we draw the line?

Just enjoy the fictional fantasy universe that is NOT REAL and hope for more nuance to your villains. Because telling a story is key here.

[Daralii]

If people are rioting over fictional villains you might as well stop telling stories all together. Why arent people out protesting Star Wars' empire.
Oh nvm! They cosplay as STORMTROOPERS and march. Because guess what, its all fiction and it wont hurt anybody. And if we really get down to the nitty gritty, they are way closer to the Romans down to the faux latin language they use, LEGIONS etc. Who were horrible in their own right. But guess what, so was every army in history.

So what do we do? Erase every exploration of nuance and just label all Garleans as bloodthirsty conquerors, Ala Mhigans used to be conquerors. All of Limsa were bloodthirsty pirates. Ishgard is built on the blood of a bunch of knights eating a dragon after killing her not to mention throdding down on their poor. Where do we draw the line?

Just enjoy the fictional fantasy universe that is NOT REAL and hope for more nuance to your villains. Because telling a story is key here.

All the allied nations are good and have never done anything bad. Gridania's racial conflicts, Limsa's piracy, everything the Syndicate did, The Autumn War, The Dragonsong War, etc were all just simple misunderstandings. Even the Sixth Umbral Calamity was a simple misunderstanding with the Elementals, who actually loved us all the entire time. All the hostile nations are evil and have never done anything good up until it's time for a forgiveness moment like Alexandria, where using harvested souls and memory manipulation to ensure immortality(except for things like old age) and eternal happiness is simply part of their culture and beyond our judgment.

[Hallarem]

Oh a 100% I actively advocate for people to be hostile towards Garleans in roleplay and not forgive them because we shared soup with them in the MSQ. The scars are way too recent. I'm just fighting the hypocrisy here of singling out the Garleans when people are squeeing and taking selfies with Emett whose gang and race are the REASON for this whole mess. Emett created both the Allagan AND Garlean empire. The Allagans were even worse in their human experiments. Also where is this pinpointing into r*pe coming from? I dont remember such an emphasis put on it aside from Arenveld maybe? And it being a side-effect of what a usual f'd up conquering force does. Or are we gonna talk about the Sirens in Limsa forcefeeding a guy oysters against his will keeping him in, or is that a "haha" moment? and call all citizen of Limsa r*pists. You know one Garlean officer who deserted got together with a local Ala Mhigan in a quest because he was a good egg. Nuance. Bozja, Werlyt nuance.

Most of the time they were written one-track evil, but a lot of the time with the Populares political struggle, the Legions rebelling, them allowing non-Garleans into their universities, orphanages there was a glimpse of nuance. So a Garlean expansion mixed with Thavnair would have 100% been possible to write. Heck they made the ancients somewhat symphatetic as much of a manbaby I think Hermes was and most of their population