Yoshida's latest interview, Comic Exhibition Taiwan 2025

[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.

[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.

[eloralora]

There is one more aspect to that: The entire nation was propaganda'd into believing their actions were necessary, all constructed by Ascians who pulled the strings from behind the curtain. Garleans did not wake up one morning and said "yeah, lets go conquer everything", their leadership all told them that Eorzean faith would have been the end to everything (which granted, summoning a primal does have that risk, but that too has been orchestrated by the Ascians).

When they say they condensed Garlemald's story due to the unexpected reception of 5.0, sometimes I think they're talking specifically about Emet-Selch LOL. Sure, we could have more meaningfully explored Garlemald's history and background in an effort to help them move forward, but then we'd have to acknowledge exactly who was responsible for manufacturing not only their beliefs but everything else that led to their suffering and downfall… and explicitly addressing that truth in a serious capacity might have made our little fanservice adventure to Elpis just a little bit awkward. Personally, I would have preferred a Garlemald expansion that really got into all that and treated it with the weight it deserved

[TaleraRistain]

After DawnTrail, I can imagine an expansion with Garlemald, a look into the past, and also Meracydia with its dark secrets.
Maybe even a rebuilding of Garlemald. What if Ryne and the WoL create another crystal, similar to the one from the first shard in the Empty, that changes the weather in Garlemald so the Garleans can rebuild? Surely that can be incorporated into the story somehow. Yes, I know the crystal in the Empty was created with the help of Eden. In Garlemald, it could perhaps be done with the Tower of Babil... Anima may be gone, but what's in all those cocoons? Plenty of material to write a truly dark story like that.

Or maybe a story where they get to return to the land they were run out of and that their songs express longing to go back to. Home Beyond the Horizon isn't about Garlemald. It's about the ancestral homeland Corvos.

Given there were hints they might have originally have come from Goug, I wouldn't mind seeing that dived into more in a future story.

[Lunaxia]

When they say they condensed Garlemald's story due to the unexpected reception of 5.0, sometimes I think they're talking specifically about Emet-Selch LOL. Sure, we could have more meaningfully explored Garlemald's history and background in an effort to help them move forward, but then we'd have to acknowledge exactly who was responsible for manufacturing not only their beliefs but everything else that led to their suffering and downfall… and explicitly addressing that truth in a serious capacity might have made our little fanservice adventure to Elpis just a little bit awkward. Personally, I would have preferred a Garlemald expansion that really got into all that and treated it with the weight it deserved

Totally agree, I've been saying this for years. I believe they were planning a Garlean expansion that would have explored their history and the reasons behind their current mindset, ultimately portraying them as a flawed but sympathetic nation whose prior vulnerability left them wide open to Ascian manipulation... only for said Ascian to become a huge fan favourite that brought the game unprecedented popularity. Highlighting what he did in Garlemald and the atrocities committed in his name or under his orders would have put him in a much less favourable light and risked jeopardising everything that Shadowbringers had brought to the table, which is why Endwalker dealt with the matter by blowing it all to pieces and placing all the emphasis on Zenos and the civil war in order to prevent linking anything meaningful back to him.

I also think that's why Zenos' backstory fell off a cliff - between what happened with Vauthry and Fandaniel's "did Emet-Selch find a way?" line, I think they were dropping hints he'd been experimented on as a child, but baby experiments probably wouldn't sit well with the playerbase so it wound up hand waved as a "genetics" thing. In any case, the decision was a poor one, made by concerns for profit margins rather than the story's integrity, and sparked off a chain reaction that brought the game to the low point it's in today. It's quite ironic how its success eventually became its downfall.

[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

[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