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I finished the second Final Fantasy 14 expansion, Stormblood! It is generally considered the weakest of the expansions and yeah...I had some Issues with it.

But now I am done and, with AI companions available for the remaining expansions, I will hopefully never have to do a new dungeon with real people again. Not that the dungeons felt any harder (they did get harder, but my skills have improved to match), or that anyone was mean about my mediocrity, but it's still stress I could deal without.

I've started the next expansion, Shadowbringers, and am really enjoying it! Though it is MUCH HARDER and I needed to play with other people to get through the first dungeon after the AI companions kept letting me die, but that just made me more glad I'd had the chance to practice. And then I decided it would be useful to be able to do one specific crafting thing and fell into the Levelling All Crafting And Gathering Classes spiral. So finishing Shadowbringers might take a while. But I'm having fun!

Anyway. First, a post about Stormblood.

Content notes, for this post and the expansion: rape, war crimes, suicide.

So you know how I said earlier that one of my issues with the game was the Unfortunate Colonialist Metaphors? Well the plot of Stormblood is literally all about colonialism.

A lot of which is fine, as much as I can judge such a thing: you liberate two colonised nations from the oppressive empire that took them over, and it's very satisfying to see them finally be free. Especially Ala Mhigo, since Ala Mhigan refugees have been a major feature of the game since the start. But also there are...issues.

I started writing 'a little worldbuilding' here and it got so long I spun it out into a whole separate post.

But basically Ala Mhigo is a vaguely North African country that got conquered 20 years ago by the Garlean Empire.

A bunch of major characters were born in Ala Mhigo but had to escape 20 years ago, and while they have all found new things to do with their lives the bitterness and pain has showed up every now and then. Also, there's lot of Ala Mhigan refugees being Poor And Sad And Angry in and around the vaguely middle eastern Thanalan.

During ARR and Heavensward all the other countries in Eorzea (basically Europe) agreed that Ala Mhigo being taken over was a terrible tragedy and the refugees very pitiable but also that it would be suicide to try and free the country and all these starving, angry refugees are A Problem.

And then a bunch of refugees from the basically Japanese country Doma show up. Doma was also invaded by the Garlean Empire about 20 years ago, and the refugees face similar problems within the free countries of Eorzea.

This was handled with a fair amount of sympathy for the refugees, with the heroes going out of their way to help them, and I really like how even sympathetic leaders still have a certain amount of pragmatic focus on the good of their own country, which means that while they do work with each other and the heroes for the greater good (especially when it involves murdering a big boss lol) they can never be 100% in accord.

But the story also has a repeated theme of refugees needing to not be Too Angry and also says explicitly that 'charity' is bad: it's good to help those in need, but by finding ways they can earn their keep through hard work. And most refugees do just need and want the chance to find a job and treated like equals, and things like international aid absolutely can cause unfortunate effects on the local economy etc, but that doesn't make charity inherently bad. And the writers don't even seem to hate charity as much as they say they do, eg there's a bunch of times when sick people are all given free hospital care, and I suppose they could all have relatives off-screen able to pay for their upkeep but it doesn't feel that way.

Just before the start of Stormblood, an Overly Angry Ala Mhigan fakes an attack from the Eorzeans against the Garlean Empire so that they have no choice but to go to war for real, and likely free Ala Mhigo in the process. Though having gone full Overly Angry Marginalised Villain, his plan is to then kill everyone in Ala Mhigo, local and coloniser alike, to which the Ala Mhigan response is basically "Ok that was fucked up but I guess we're doing this!"

And so you join in a war to try and liberate Ala Mhigo, at the side of your friend and colleague Lise, a 23 year old Ala Mhigan refugee who barely remembers the country but does remember how much it mattered to her now dead father and sister, both major members of the Ala Mhigan Resistance. Similarly, the Ala Mhigans who stayed remember her family, but don't know her.

I really liked Lise's arc as a character, by the end of the expansion she's left your organisation, the Scions, and become the leader of the Resistance. The pre-conquest monarchy was awful enough that everyone wants a democratic republic, and Lise pushes for a egalitarian, compassionate approach which includes all Ala Mhigans, including Beastmen, commoners etc.

Another character I found really interesting was Fordola, another 20-something Ala Mhigan woman who followed her father's footsteps...into becoming an imperial collaborator. She is a major antagonist for most of the expansion, and is called The Butcher for her willingness to engage in vicious war crimes on behalf of her masters. But we see her struggle against ethnic prejudice from her Garlean colleagues, and learn that she genuinely believes the best hope for all Ala Mhigans is to follow the Garlean orders, no matter how horrific, to prove themselves an obedient and useful province. When she's proven wrong and the Garleans are kicked out, she loses all her spirit and agrees with all the Ala Mhigans calling for her execution, but Lise argues that former collaborators are Ala Mhigans too, and need to be included in the new republic. A lot of people hate this kind of arc, and I'm not saying it doesn't have Issues on a meta level, but I also really enjoy it on a character level, and it's all made up enough that I avoided thinking too hard about The Implications.

I was less able to ignore the fact that basically every secondary or background Ala Mhigan character, including Lise's father, is dark skinned with white or pinkish hair, but Lise and Fordola are pale, and Lise is blonde. But I can see why making Fordola dark would Feel Weird, and Lise's character pre-dates Ala Mhigo being fleshed out.

The Garlean Empire is vaguely Roman but is in about the position of Russia, and Garleans tend to have very pale colouring.

The Beastmen plot is just straight up racist against South Asians, though. The gameplay setup with beastmen is that there's a Good tribe you can make friends with, but who live separately to the more multicultural human-ish society, and there's a Bad tribe who are mind controlled by a being they consider their god and who show up as enemies to murder. The Ala Mhigan beastmen we meet are brown snake ladies in saris who worship a god called Lakshmi who is clearly based on the Hindu god and who I felt pretty weird about murdering. Apparently South Asian-influenced elephant beastmen show up in Endwalker. I am not aware of any human or human-like South Asian-influenced cultures in the setting. YAY.

The Garlean in charge of both Ala Mhigo and Doma is the main villain, Zenos, the crown prince. I found him kinda boring, he is mostly just horny for violence and doesn't really care about the empire except for it offering lots of people he can fight to the death. At the end he calls you his first and only friend because you're as good at murder, turns into a giant dragon, and then joyfully kills himself after you defeat him.

Overall I liked the Ala Mhigan plot, and the overall shape of the narrative. The story had some pacing issues where there's a bit too much repetitive and depressing "you try to help recruit people to fight the Garleans, but people's spirits are broken and the Garleans are too strong" before it reaches the inevitable "And then you inspire the the locals with Hope and Defeat The Empire" part, but I did like that it shows some of the complexities of fighting an empire, including the fact that it isn't as simple as "If you try hard enough you will win": both Ala Mhigo and Doma have had large and small failed attempts at rebellion where a lot of innocent people suffered.

But! I did not like some of the details of the Doman plot! To the extent that I skipped a chunk of dialogue to avoid being triggered.

First off, the worldbuilding is Unfortunate. Here's a map:
A map of the world of Final Fantasy 14

This part of the game is set in The Far East. Unlike the west/Eorzea, where countries are a mix of influences, all the Far Eastern countries I've seen are very obviously based on one place.

The first country you visit, Kugane, is an island off the East coast of the larger continent, and could not be more obviously based on late 19th century Japan (the one era I know anything about thanks to Hakuoki wiki spirals). They are aware that the Garleans might cross the strait to invade them next, but are hoping to avoid it by staying neutral. This reminded me VERY STRONGLY of the way Japanese characters in Hakuoki felt about the English colonisation of China. And if you look at the map, Doma is pretty clearly China, geographically. Just north east of Doma is the Azim Steppe, which is obviously based on Mongola, in terms of both geography and (stereotyped) culture.

But Doma is not China culturally. It's Ancient Japan. The architecture is kinda Chinese looking, but so was Ancient Japanese architecture. Some of the history feels similar to what I know of Chinese history, and the region is called Yanxia. I can't claim to be anything like an expert on China or Japan but I am pretty confident of my ability to judge stuff like names, and in general there was a lot that pinged me as Definitely Japanese and nothing else that pinged me as Definitely Chinese. The wiki says "Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that Doma's culture and settlement are based on Japan, and once Doma starts trading with Eorzea in the future update, more Japanese-style items, equipment, and furnishings will appear in the game", though I have seen Chinese and Korean influenced clothes on the store. This bothers me, given the history of China and Japan with colonisation and cultural erasure. I searched online and found a few other people bothered by this, and a bunch of others (including one Chinese person) who acknowledged it but thought it was fine.

Maybe all actual Chinese people would be fine with it, and it's possible one of the many other countries on the Far East map I haven't seen yet are based on China. It's not my place to decide as a white Australian who doesn't really know that much about Japan or China. And Japanese writers have totally valid reasons to explore a story about quasi Japan being colonised by a quasi European empire and enjoy the fantasy of kicking them out. But it still bothered me!

The basic shape of the Doma story is similar to the Ala Mgiho one, except that instead of the Resistance being lead by a loose collection of groups run by whoever does the work and isn't dead, there's a Good King In Exile and literally every Doman who isn't pro-Empire is pro-King. And the King, Hien, hits a lot of Good King buttons, he's kind and friendly and willing to do anything for his people, including dying. He does tend to call everyone 'friend' while cheerfully accepting everyone's loyalty as their king. Also, unlike Lise, he never says anything about egalitarianism in his plan for the country, just vague things about making it a country where 'noone suffers'.

But that's pretty standard fantasy nonsense. The real issue is Yotsuyu, the viceroy the Garleans put in charge of Doma, a Doman woman who was abused and sold into sex slavery by her family and decided she wants everyone in Doma to suffer. That's her goal! Causing suffering! Because of her rape trauma!

I did NOT enjoy her character, but then Hien kills her and I thought that was the end of it.

But then! After the empire is defeated! She comes back! As an amnesiac! She is sweet and innocent and everyone who meets amnesiac Yotsuyu goes from SHE IS A MONSTER AND DESERVES TO DIE to "Huh, I guess she's genuinely nice now, it feels wrong to hate her for crimes she doesn't remember, especially since they were the result of trauma".

I didn't mind this in and of itself but then the game was sympathetic to her former pimp and I had a Bad Feeling so I looked up a plot summary and ahhh.

THE EMPIRE ASKS FOR HER BACK. And they send her BROTHER, who like Fordola has joined their military and worked his way up the ranks.

The Domans argue that as she is, she should stay with them as a Doman, but if she regains her memory she's a prisoner of war and her release to the Garleans can be discussed.

SO HER BROTHER TRIGGERS HER ON PURPOSE. OVER AND OVER. UNTIL SHE SNAPS AND RETURNS TO WANTING TO TORTURE EVERYONE AND THEN BECOMES A LITERAL MONSTER AND YOU HAVE TO KILL HER.

And I mean...it wasn't as bad as it looked in summary. The narrative showed things from her perspective, both as an amnesiac not understanding why everyone hated her or what this man who called himself her brother was doing, and as a bitter angry woman with very good reasons to hate her family. She gets some satisfying revenge murdering both her abusive parents and her brother, and all the Domans are sad to see her dead and think her family were the true monsters. She gets distracted from her rage by memories of the kind man who looked after her as an amnesiac. But it was still A Lot.

(Also the monster she turns into is based on a real Japanese god, worshipped by human characters in the story, and is treated exactly the same as every other fake god who must be murdered)

So yeah! Mixed feelings!

And at the end of all that, it turns out Zenos isn't really dead, which I thought was amusingly implausible but then everyone else said BUT WE SAW HIM SLIT HIS THROAT. AND THEN BURIED HIS CORPSE??? and it turns out his corpse is being controlled by an eldritch being called an Ascian, while his spirit was pushed into some random elf?? Also the Garlean Empire was FOUNDED by the Ascians, which the emperor is Not Happy About, not because he in any way cares about his son's death or corpse desecration, but because he's a xenophobic fascist leader who doesn't like being some alien's pawn. Curious to see where that all goes, because I have seen a lot of thirst art of both Zenos and the real head of the Empire, neither of whom seem very appealing thus far. Also the fascist Imperial villain from ARR, Gaius, showed up Somehow Not Dead and is working with the heroes against the empire...because he wants to rescue the empire from the Ascians and help it be an EFFECTIVE empire that COLONISES people instead of MURDERING them. Yay?

But then Shadowbringers starts with the protagonist being sucked into an entirely different universe with only small mentions of what's happening on the home planet, and the villain in the new universe is thus far Mindless Light, so! Time for a little break from Unfortunate Colonialism, hooray.