#i think coming from a place of darker fantasy really enriched my FF14 experience

[picaroroboto]

All this Shadowbringers discussion in my notes has got me thinking about FF14's specific brand of optimism. I'm probably never going to be able to put my finger on exactly how they pulled it off, but even in this story where the lines between Light/Dark & Hero/Villain are blurred, they manage to make playing the hero and fighting for life and hope immensely fun, appealing, interesting, meaningful, etc. Let me see if I can explain:

For starters, I'm personally a bit of an edgelord at heart. I generally prefer darker fantasy, and roll my eyes at stories that lean too hard into the stereotypical Good vs Evil thing. But the first thing that appealed to me about FF14 when I started playing is how well it balanced itself - even as far back as ARR, it's realistic in it's darker aspects yet unfalteringly optimistic.

Come Heavensward, the story takes a more serious turn that I really fell in love with. The Scions and the WoL suffer betrayal and loss, their resolve is shaken, and it's reinforced at every opportunity that their path of fighting to make the world a better place is never simple and easy. You're shown that you're never going to be able to save everything, but your successes in rescuing Estinien and affecting positive change in Ishgard prove that it's still worth it to try.

In Stormblood, when you're trying to inspire and recruit people to your cause of revolution, what you find time and time again is that while the people of Doma and Ala Mhigo hate the way they're being treated and want to rebel, they're also too worn down from daily oppression to do anything about it. When you're struggling to argue against their apathy, you start to get fired up yourself and genuinely want to inspire them. In StB, hope and freedom go hand in hand with rebuilding communities, and with the firey rebellious spirit that characterizes the expac.

Shadowbringers may flip the aesthetic of light and dark upside down, but even though you're the Warrior of Darkness now you're still as much of a hero as always. The status quo of the First is Light, stagnation, and death, and you challenge it with Darkness, energy, and life. Even when you learn the truth about the Ascian's ambitions, you're still committed to fighting for your own world, as "broken" as it is, because FF14's worldbuilding makes a vibrant, interesting world that genuinely feels worth the effort to save.

Really, it all comes down to how realistically the struggle of fighting to save the world is written, versus how rewarding it feels when things do work out.