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The Empire of Garlemald has been a major part of Final Fantasy XIV since the beginning. Endwalker brought their story to its conclusion, after a decade. In this video, I explore the story of Garlemald, both its history throughout the game’s history, and the story of the zone specifically in Endwalker.
This video is a departure from the Hitman video essays I’ve been making for the past year, and an experiment in making a different kind of content, but to those who enjoy those videos, don’t worry. More Hitman content is coming soon, the Hokkaido video is written, audio is recorded, and about ~80% of the footage for it has been shot. This video isn’t a replacement, or cancelation of my Hitman content.
Final Fantasy XIV is a really special game, and Garlemald is a really special zone and story. I hope people enjoy this video!
Table of Contents:
Intro — 00:00
Part One: The Measure of Our Reach — 02:06
Part Two: The Leaders of the Empire — 16:49
Part Three: No Empire Lasts Forever — 34:35
Part Four: Worship — 1:09:42
source
Only half way through the video as I write this; already enjoyed everything so far. I would really like to hear your view on the Ruby weapon quest lines, please consider doing them sometime
Edit: as for “ask the ill”, I believe that the two people you talked to were soldiers instead of civilians, weren’t they? The woman also talked about you killing her comrades back in castrum meridianum, which probably means she was one of the soldiers deployed there when you infiltrated. They were also wearing more combat-oriented gear compared to the scattered civilians you see there. So the legatus ordered his soldiers to die, which I think makes more sense and is very different from ordering civilians to make the sacrifice.
I also personally found quintus’ reasoning for not accepting outside help very realistic. Politics. The defeated nation of course have to give away land/resources, sign treaties not to their benefit… especially with how much outside help they visibly require and how much war they have been waging against the world, I thought it wasn’t paranoid at all for Quintus as a leader of Garlemald to assume that the leaders of Eorzea will be taking slices of cake in the future once he decide to accept their offer. I really couldn’t find anything to refute his argument there. Once he realized how out of options they are, and how it is inevitable that these people will die without accepting outside help, he admits defeat and did the only thing he could do to preserve his honor, and to not see Garlemald brought on her knees as he believed will happen — end his own existence before the new age. I personally found this line of story very logical. Just some opinions to be discussed.
I wonder if there is lyric for this piece, it’s wonderfully heartbreaking knowing the story while listening to this masterpiece
"let me know if you'd like more videos about zenos or emet-selch" EMET-SELCH! please. if you so choose. your video on fandaniel set my standard for video essays on FFXIV content. i would love to see your insights. <3
edit – i finished the video, and there were a lot of small nuances i didn't pick up on as i was going through the story that you pointed out. i've been thinking a lot about beliefs since i finished…really interesting stuff. thanks for a great breakdown on garlemald. <3 i had no idea, when i finished Stormblood, that i was going to wind up feeling so much for garleans at the end of the ascian story line.
This is exactly the style of video on 14 i've been looking for, this is such a wonderful video essay, thank you for making it!
You are so underrated! This was such a great listen!
Honestly Garlemald already being razed by the time the player character gets there still feels like a cop out.
I also find it funny that people so easily thrust the titles fascist and Nazi upon them because when I look at them I see parallels to Old Testament Hebrews being ousted and subjugated until being promised holy lands to justify their holy wars to reclaim it.
My favourite part about this arc, is when Alisae swore to his brother that she will follow him anywhere.
As a massive fan of the Garlean Empire this is one of my favorite video's about them.
Incredible video that encapsulates everything captivating about the zone. The thing is, I personally hate it! I think it's a masterful depiction of a fascistic state in its last legs of decay, and for that I hate this place! I find Jullus contemptible and I hope he learns to live well, but I would love nothing more than to never have to see his face again! I think the zone does what it sets out to do perfectly, I just hate just about everyone who inhabits it. 10/10 zone
Just watched this after your Fear & Hunger video. You have some incredible insights and excellent writing in general! I hope you continue making videos like these
an exceptional essay!! Loved it.
Only just found these videos but this is an amazing breakdown of everything. I always thought it was really sudden going from a powerful, world controlling empire to a broken ruins seemingly over night and mostly off camera a little jarring, but watching you go through it, it makes much more sense.
Also, the radio playing never fails to make me choke up a little and get misty eyed. Such an emotional and moving time in Garlemald, and it wasn't even halfway through Endwalker.
3rd watch. Well, listen.
By the way, I would seriously love a start-end "what happened over the course of the game" of FFXIV. Do I think it's feasible? Not completely. Would I still love that? Absolutely.
Also, please do make video essays about Zenos and Emet-Selch and any other character. Your video essays are like Game Theory's videos for me. Am I ever going to play the game myself? Probably not. Do I still want to watch/listen to every video you put out? Yes.
Waiting on the Zenos and Emet-selch videos. Guess I'll continue watching this and the Fandaniel video once a week each until those are released. You have such great essays. Beautiful and thoughtful writing. Have enjoyed your newer releases as well but these XIV ones just hit different.
Grand Admiral Thrawn. Grand Mof Tarkin. General Motti. TK-421. Those are all the named emprials I can think of off the top of my head. Motti was a competent general literally choked into submission by Vader and later killed for the failure of Vader's invasion of hoth. Thrawn was definately an EU character never mentioned innthe original trilogy. Tarkin was vader's handler, and knew all about personal boundaries. And TK-421… that poor bastard, why isn't he responding?
Always thought the Empire were misguided good guys in Realm Reborn due to their intentions to overthrow the gods, especially getting to know the honorable Gaius and his views as well as Varis in Heavensward, talking about how man must release itself from the shackles of the gods. Felt bad for killing them. Also they've got cool armour.
two of my favorite uses in this game of their 'erasure of culture' is A) At the start of Stb, you hear the theme 'The Measure of Our Reach, which sounds like a rallying cry for fasciasts groups back in the 40's. In reality, it's a perversion of 'The Measure of His Reach', the anthem of Ala Mihgo. B) The Lupin race had their very people's name be changed to Faere Dominae, as if even who they truly are is a crime. Yet despite everything, the WoL can bring themselves to work with Gaius, and in turn Gaius even says that he hopes Garlemald comes to see the WoL for who they truly are, a good person and not a monster.
The power of prpaganda is terrifying. The moment our title is mentioned, seeing them all back off is a reminder that to the soldiers, we're a nightmare walking in broad daylight. our time there is short, but thats all wee needed imo. a wake up call and an uncomfortable one at that.
Can't believe this video was never in my suggestions until now. It was absolutely outstanding and seeing the link between Garlemald and beliefs has made me realise just how profound and deeply considered the dialogue can be in this game. I struggle to think deeply about certain things until someone offers some kind of perspective, so I wholly appreciate that you made this video.
I only started really reading the game in ShB, about 6-7 years after I'd started playing, so I know I've missed a lot about this empire. I long considered the Garleans to be the most 'boring' aspect of the game, and even in the last two expansions I would skip any Garlean-based cutscenes. But Garlemald being introduced as a zone in EW improved my stance on that a bit because it introduced a side to these people that I could empathise with.
I see you have another huge FFXIV video essay, and I highly look forward to watching that next. Emet-Selch and the Ancients are the lore content of this game that I'm completely obsessed with – I'm sure many people would be interested if you made an Emet-Selch based video. I look forward to if you produce any more essays about this phenomenal game in the future. Even if you don't, I appreciate the two I've found from you so, so much.
My biggest complaint about garla mall as much as I love the zone is this was a huge missed opportunity. To include final fantasy 8 content, such as garden, seed, anything gunblade related on top of the technological aspect such as balem garden being able. To fly et cetera.
Absolutely fantastic video. Garlamald was such a fantastic part of the story and it's so nice to see someone fully appreciate it. I feel like A LOT of people missed the point of this entire section and wrote it off as "why are we helping Nazis"
Great stuff, glad it appeared in my recommended.
I finally got some time to play through the 6.4 quests and instead got distracted by watching an hour and a half essay on Garlemald. No regrets. This is phenomenally well done. I'm excited to watch some of the other videos I see on the side bar and to delve into the channel beyond even those.
Beautifully edited as well. This looks like it was a monster of a task to put together but damn did it turn out well.
1:01:30 OMG! I had no idea that's what I was doing. I thought I was telling them to help with the ambush. That's so much darker than I imagined.
am i the only one whos mad we didnt get to visit garlemald pre-civil war? the area seemed so modern! they have cars and motorbikes too, radio and possibly television.
man…. what a let down.
Not sure if you're currently working it (or have already done it and I'm blind), but I would VERY much love a video essay on Emet-Selch.
This is less a video essay and more just an upload of the MSQ scenes with some comments tossed in between that are stated by the characters themselves already.
I am respectfully asking you to do more of these please…
I get what they were trying to do with Quintus but he came across, to me, as a dimwitted moron. I wasn't surprised or saddened by the way he chose to opt out.
So Eorzea is actually the bad guy(s)
Hey could you make more FFXIV videos
more ffxiv essays sooo good
Funny how a japanese made game portrays pseudo japanese people being occupied by garlemald much in the same way japan itself occupied a good many other countries during their empire age. Must have helped that they had so much personal history to draw inspiration from