Playing through Dawntrail this is something I've been thinking about every now and then, now with 7.4 out of the way and what revelations that had I kind of want to give my view points on antagonists to the protagonist.
The more I think about it I've come to realize that good villains very rarely are all that good within their own story that is presented. Simply because those stories are often too short to fully fledge out the character and their motivations, it takes a lot of time for people to start understand what their goals are, why they think a certain way etc.
I say this because I want to challenge you guys with a question;
Do you think Emet-Selch would be such a loved antagonist within his own story in ShB if there was no other attachments to him as the person who manipulated Garlemald to conquer or who manipulated the Allagan Empire to war? If you just look at the parts that are currently happening in our timeline?
Before Dawntrail launched, when Wuk mentioned his warmongering brother Zoraal Ja and that he needs to be stopped. I was actually pretty exited, because at the time it sounded like Zoraal Ja wanted to conquer the rest of Eorzea and already had a significant army and resources behind him, much like Garlemald. But since the Garlean Empire is on a sort of a standstill it sounded like there was going to be another force trying to take over Aldenard and beyond. And it had the notion that this character would have a rich history behind him of how he got to that spot.
But when we get there we realize that he barely has any political power at all beyond his status as an heir to the throne and still needs to prove to the people that he's earned his place, not only that, but he needs to rely on the "golden city" to get an actual army to go beyond the sea, which is quickly turned to ash with a single dragon and the party of scions. (I am being a bit extreme here). Yet he had the audacity to call the Garleans weak or short sighted or whatever.
The point is that there was a disconnection between what Wuk was saying at the end of Endwalker, especially how angry and determined she was that Zoraal Ja needs to be stopped, but the funny thing is that if the Rite of Succession was never even held, Zoraal Ja would have probably never figured out how to get to the Golden City at all and he would have never been able to cross the sea with an army considering they barely know how to travel within their own continent safely and we need to come and fix that stuff for them. (One of the allied sociatey questlines is literally about how to connect these two towns with a good transportation system)
And then we have Calyx, he at the very least has some history within Alexandria and their reflection, but as it stands Calyx as himself heavily relies on MacGuffin-esque items to do things for him that he can't himself do. And even if he had succeeded with his plan on tempering all the people on Alexandria they would still have to deal with the entire force behind the bubble from all the continents. Or I guess he could have rebooted Living Memory and restart the merge. And now in 7.4 he is given another MacGuffin-esque thing in the form of traveling between worlds as a teddybear.
However Calyx has potential, because he alone doesn't have any sway on people's hearts or even the power to conquer anything, but if this is just the start of him becoming something, then sure, I will stay my judgement until then, but he does remind me awful lot of Fandaniel who's ultimate downfall was his hubris. And Calyx 100% shares that character trait, but if he keeps on relying on gadgets or other people too heavily I feel like it will lack urgency.
While I don't think the Garlean Empire was a great "villain" either all the time, especially during ARR. There were aspects that really made them feel like something that needed to be dealt with.
1. They had already conquered pieces of land across Eorzea (something I wish the game would do more)
2. They had a rich background and history
3. It wasn't just a single dude alone plotting evil things.
4. They didn't rely on others for their power, (they did, but it was such a long time ago it doesn't play a role in what's happening)
5. They are just as much a victim of a much larger evil.
And somewhat similar traits can be found from Emet-Selch, but it's his relations to what he has done with his own powers that truly sets him apart. He wasn't going alone end relying on powerful people to get to his goals or relying on powerful items. He used other people for his own gain, manipulated them.
But without all that what is he? Just an angry dude with a sad past who doesn't even remember his real past.
I am not holding out hope for 8.0, but one of the aspects that really needs to happen is for them to show the player that there is a bigger force than us at play and one way to do that is to have that force destroy or conquer areas in Aldenard, Othard or Garlemald. One of those potential forces is of course Meracydia.
We need to see areas change in meaningful ways, because it no longer makes much sense that the Garleans still occupy large parts of zones in ARR when you are at a certain point in the MSQ.
How cool would it be that when we return from our vacation in the new world that in 8.0 areas have actually changed and evolved during that time. And I don't think that sort of story progression based changes to the world is that hard to implement, the game already does it with Allied Society quests, so why not MSQ? Why not show us that the wall Garlemald built is being stripped down.
Or if there is a new grand antagonist of the story, show us that places we hold dear are being torn apart. That alone gives the player a reason and drive to try and fix things. Or curiosity about what something is when things look different.
Continue reading...
The more I think about it I've come to realize that good villains very rarely are all that good within their own story that is presented. Simply because those stories are often too short to fully fledge out the character and their motivations, it takes a lot of time for people to start understand what their goals are, why they think a certain way etc.
I say this because I want to challenge you guys with a question;
Do you think Emet-Selch would be such a loved antagonist within his own story in ShB if there was no other attachments to him as the person who manipulated Garlemald to conquer or who manipulated the Allagan Empire to war? If you just look at the parts that are currently happening in our timeline?
Before Dawntrail launched, when Wuk mentioned his warmongering brother Zoraal Ja and that he needs to be stopped. I was actually pretty exited, because at the time it sounded like Zoraal Ja wanted to conquer the rest of Eorzea and already had a significant army and resources behind him, much like Garlemald. But since the Garlean Empire is on a sort of a standstill it sounded like there was going to be another force trying to take over Aldenard and beyond. And it had the notion that this character would have a rich history behind him of how he got to that spot.
But when we get there we realize that he barely has any political power at all beyond his status as an heir to the throne and still needs to prove to the people that he's earned his place, not only that, but he needs to rely on the "golden city" to get an actual army to go beyond the sea, which is quickly turned to ash with a single dragon and the party of scions. (I am being a bit extreme here). Yet he had the audacity to call the Garleans weak or short sighted or whatever.
The point is that there was a disconnection between what Wuk was saying at the end of Endwalker, especially how angry and determined she was that Zoraal Ja needs to be stopped, but the funny thing is that if the Rite of Succession was never even held, Zoraal Ja would have probably never figured out how to get to the Golden City at all and he would have never been able to cross the sea with an army considering they barely know how to travel within their own continent safely and we need to come and fix that stuff for them. (One of the allied sociatey questlines is literally about how to connect these two towns with a good transportation system)
And then we have Calyx, he at the very least has some history within Alexandria and their reflection, but as it stands Calyx as himself heavily relies on MacGuffin-esque items to do things for him that he can't himself do. And even if he had succeeded with his plan on tempering all the people on Alexandria they would still have to deal with the entire force behind the bubble from all the continents. Or I guess he could have rebooted Living Memory and restart the merge. And now in 7.4 he is given another MacGuffin-esque thing in the form of traveling between worlds as a teddybear.
However Calyx has potential, because he alone doesn't have any sway on people's hearts or even the power to conquer anything, but if this is just the start of him becoming something, then sure, I will stay my judgement until then, but he does remind me awful lot of Fandaniel who's ultimate downfall was his hubris. And Calyx 100% shares that character trait, but if he keeps on relying on gadgets or other people too heavily I feel like it will lack urgency.
While I don't think the Garlean Empire was a great "villain" either all the time, especially during ARR. There were aspects that really made them feel like something that needed to be dealt with.
1. They had already conquered pieces of land across Eorzea (something I wish the game would do more)
2. They had a rich background and history
3. It wasn't just a single dude alone plotting evil things.
4. They didn't rely on others for their power, (they did, but it was such a long time ago it doesn't play a role in what's happening)
5. They are just as much a victim of a much larger evil.
And somewhat similar traits can be found from Emet-Selch, but it's his relations to what he has done with his own powers that truly sets him apart. He wasn't going alone end relying on powerful people to get to his goals or relying on powerful items. He used other people for his own gain, manipulated them.
But without all that what is he? Just an angry dude with a sad past who doesn't even remember his real past.
I am not holding out hope for 8.0, but one of the aspects that really needs to happen is for them to show the player that there is a bigger force than us at play and one way to do that is to have that force destroy or conquer areas in Aldenard, Othard or Garlemald. One of those potential forces is of course Meracydia.
We need to see areas change in meaningful ways, because it no longer makes much sense that the Garleans still occupy large parts of zones in ARR when you are at a certain point in the MSQ.
How cool would it be that when we return from our vacation in the new world that in 8.0 areas have actually changed and evolved during that time. And I don't think that sort of story progression based changes to the world is that hard to implement, the game already does it with Allied Society quests, so why not MSQ? Why not show us that the wall Garlemald built is being stripped down.
Or if there is a new grand antagonist of the story, show us that places we hold dear are being torn apart. That alone gives the player a reason and drive to try and fix things. Or curiosity about what something is when things look different.
Continue reading...