Let’s do a DEEP DIVE of Alphinaud Leveilleur from Final Fantasy XIV. Alphinaud is one of my favorite characters because I relate …
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Let’s do a DEEP DIVE of Alphinaud Leveilleur from Final Fantasy XIV. Alphinaud is one of my favorite characters because I relate …
source
Let's do a DEEP DIVE of Alphinaud Leveilleur from Final Fantasy XIV. Alphinaud is one of my favorite characters because I relate to him so much! It really hurt to watch him make this HUGE mistake but when you hit rock bottom, there's no where else to go but up. 🟣 TIMESTAMPS —
0:00 Alphinaud's Dreadful Mistake
1:37 SPOILER WARNING to the end of Heavensward
1:57 Who is Alphinaud Leveilleur?
8:37 Alphinaud Pitches His Project
14:28 There's NO STRATEGY
31:20 He Just Wants to SELL MERCH?
42:39 It All FALLS APART
49:15 The Worst Superpower
57:17 It was all his fault BUT!
This is one of the most greatest game to ever exist I play start to finish and I'm waiting to get to access to the new expansion this has the best story to understanding the base of the game and it explains so much how this came at one point almost fell and could have been scrapped but made a turnaround and turns the most popular game to exist
I think an apt analogy to your question about why anyone thinks we need a "Grand Company of Eorzea" when Gridania already has a robust military force would be asking why we need UN military peacekeepers when the United States has an army of its own. (Perhaps that analogy doesn't work quite as well when you're American, since you might trust your own military more than the rest of the world does, but as someone living outside the United States, trust me that we don't want to rely exclusively on US military might to police the whole world.) At that point in the story, Eorzea is only a loose political alliance of independent city-states banding together for the purpose of resisting Garlean control, so a neutral military force dedicated to dealing with issues surrounding summoning Primals would serve a very different function than Gridania's military, which is very occupied dealing with the Garlean threat at their doorstep.
As to why the Scions can't deal with all of this themselves, you already alluded to the notion brought up in the game that the problems facing Eorzea are more than the Scions alone can handle. The Scions aren't really soldiers—they're scholars, first and foremost, and the things they're investigating are beyond the purview and capabilities of your average soldier. Think about Urianger leading a military force: his high-minded explanations about aether and Ascians aren't going to register with rank-and-file troops, but all of the Scions are expected to be able to keep up with that sort of information.
At least that's MY way of rationalizing all of this. I don't think the idea is quite as misguided as you suggest earlier in the video, though I definitely agree that the implementation was very flawed as you point out in the rest of your video.
Thanks for this exploration of this part of the story! It's been years since I played through it myself, so it was nice to go back and look through some of it step-by-step again.
That boss playing solitaire story certainly stirred up some memories for me haha……. I like this deep dive you're doing and I hope you apply this to more characters! I agree with you about Alphinaud as well; he really missed all the red flags but he really was incredibly sheltered. That also begs the question as to why no one called him out on it, however.
An hour long video hearing Heather talking about one of my favorite characters? Yes please!
I just wanted to comment on your belief that they should have only recruited "like minded" people. Reinshark had already done a good job of explaining what the function of the Crystal Braves was, but the key thing to remember is that they were raising an army and not starting a business. I can, without a shadow of a doubt, tell you that there are a lot of people in the armed forces that are not there because they are patriots of whatever country they belong. And with every armed force on this planet, they don't "need" people who believe in the cause. They "want" people who will follow orders. What motivated them to want to join usually doesn't matter. Now if someone shows signs of mental instability, they'll get turned away. But outside of that, they want to bolster their numbers. I did like listening to your thoughts on Alphinaud and at the beginning of the game, I just wanted to smack him more times than I could count. But his growth through the entire game is so well written. Looking forward to your next video. 😁
Really enjoyed this video! I felt like this kind of analysis is something that's been missing in the FFXIV content space.
Side note: As you were talking about the red flags while recruiting the NPCs to join The Crystal Braves, it felt more and more like that story that Koji Fox mentioned about 1.0 in the documentary. He can see the car crash that was 1.0 coming, but he and his team couldn't do anything about it. Of course, that could just be me making those two connections. lol
ARR Alphinaud en is a cocky brat but tolerable
ARR Alphinaud jp is insufferable brat the moment he open his mouth.
I think that Alphinaud was given a seat at the table, not because of his accomplishments, but out of respect for his grandfather Louisioux.
Each of the Eorzean leaders made it clear to him that he had no idea what he was doing or what he was talking about in their own way but ARR Alphinaud was too arrogant and self-righteous in his cause to really listen. He had the attitude of "well, if they wont' do it then I'll do it myself no matter what it takes, I just need to convince people to follow me."
Alphinaud makes many, many diplomatic errors while in high level negotiations and he really only accomplishes anything because the people he is negotiating with are good people or respect his grandfather enough to give him a chance. He stands on a moral soapbox and gives no thoughts to what each individual country may be facing within their borders while demanding they support him just because it's the right thing to do. He does the same thing with Ser Amyeric and Ishgard.
I love the pirate queen making it clear that he had no idea what he was talking about. "My concerns are that of Limsa, then the alliance, and then the world. In that order. Anyone who does not know this has no place at this table."
Alphinaud has the naive idea that everyone is going to work to save the world, same as him, and all he is doing is chasing after his grandfather's legacy at this point in the story. He is effectively a college graduate who specialized in theory who also happens to be really, really smart, but has no experience in the real world and how things actually work, and got manipulated and tricked by people a lot dumber than he is but far more experienced.
I doubt that Alphinaud would have accepted that his Crystal Braves were corrupt and cruel until they put that knife to his throat, he was so caught up in their accomplishments and some genuine progress with negotiations with Ishgard.