SPOILERS Apathy of Accordo

Dionysos

Βρεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ
Staff member
Administrator
Social Media Team
Veteran
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
9,413
Location
Νεφελοκοκκυγία
Gil
3,746
Shiva Snowflake
Carlos el Cactuar
Chocobo Egg
Accessory (Arms)
Build-A-Member
Accessory (Head)
FFXIV
Polyphemos Bromios
FFXIV Server
Moogle
Free Company
KupoCon
WARNING – THERE ARE OPEN SPOILERS BELOW THE IMAGE OF LEVIATHAN AND ALTISSIA.

DO NOT READ THIS THREAD IF YOU CARE ABOUT SPOILERS!

ffxv-e303.jpg

Did anyone notice how people seemed to be only mildly bothered when Altissia was doomed to go the way of Atlantis?

The first secretary of Altissia, Camelia, may have preferred Lunafreya not to awake Leviathan, but it didn’t take much persuading for her to agree to it.

Yes, the people of Altissia are evacuated and saved (the three chocobros are given this task) but what about the beautiful city of Altissia? Did nobody care about that? Hundreds (possibly thousands) of years of history and culture destroyed forever. Imagine if Venice was destroyed like this? Would people just accept that, or would they be angry and protest?

Do you think that the inhabitants of Altissia were also angry at the loss of their homes, and the loss of their entire cultural identity? Or do you think they just shrugged it off and were happy to be refugees, possibly moving to Lestallum?

Do you really think that every single inhabitant agreed to leave their homes or managed to leave their home in time?

We had a refugee scene at Tenebrae with people crying at the train station as Tenebrae was on fire, but unless I missed it I do not believe that we ever witness such a scene for the people of Altissia.

Interestingly, Ardyn feigns to care about the plight of the Altissians. Ardyn executes Ravus for his own reasons, but the official reason is stated to be for failing to kill Leviathan and letting her destroy Altissia.

Thoughts?
 
The secretary was probably already preparing for the worst case scenario long before it actually took place, hence the more calm approach taken by her. I would not be surprised if the normal citizens, while possibly upset, also understood there was little that could be done. Being in the territory of an angry Archean that has little patience for humans probably threw up some red flags.
 
Niflheim could have indicated beforehand to the population - or at least the government - of its plan to bring in an attack fleet and defeat Leviathan right in the city so when you're already living next to a slumbering sea serpent and also under the yoke of an imperial oppressor, there's probably not much your regular Altissian can do but accept the risks and need to evacuate soon. That being said, the people of Altissia are strangely casual about current affairs, electing instead to squeal over the thought of a wedding and how pretty a dress is. Momentary escapism maybe? Who knows.

Perhaps the more pertinent question is why they're only evacuating from the city at the last minute. The negotiation between Noctis and the First Secretary does not take place on the same day as the rite and the actual attack, Carnelia expresses stern urgency of the need to protect her people and to enact comprehensive evacuation measures...and yet here is the Oracle due to make a speech in front of perhaps a thousand people just minutes before she is about to awaken a giant angry deity right within the confines of the city. Why the hell is this speech permitted and why hasn't everyone already been evacuated yet? Can't their beloved Oracle simply make her speech by radio or something?! Having to perform a mass evacuation at the very last minute just as an attack is ensuing from a city that has no roads but only canals and water is sheer idiocy.
 
Having recently re-watched Kingsglaive during Adam’s movie nights, I really have been left reflecting on this as it appears to be a deep-rooted problem across all nations of Eos. World leaders all seem far too willing to surrender entire towns to terrible and irreversible destruction, all to give the True King/Noctis a chance to fulfil the prophecy.

I guess this makes the burden on Noctis greater, but we don’t get a full impression of the citizens giving up their homes and what that must have been like. At Insomnia, presumably many local businesses and homes were destroyed by the ‘Old Wall’ / Knights of the Round / Former Kings of Insomnia. That’s a lot of livelihoods ruined, probably a lot of lives too. All for the ‘bigger picture’.

I get that everybody on that planet was a slave to the prophecy, but the leaders should surely have shown more remorse. I wish we could have seen a scene with King Regis crying as he looked at himself in the mirror before announcing his tough decision to sacrifice the outer towns, or later Insomnia itself. I get that it was a dilemma, so I wish we could have seen people fight harder for a better outcome. In the film we had the terrorists and downtrodden Galahd refugees for that perspective, I guess, but many of them ended up making ridiculous choices and making things worse.

In the game itself, Altissia’s leader also too readily accepts the destruction of a beautiful town with a rich heritage, though at least she arranges some sort of evacuation (albeit a clumsy one). These are homes and probably still many lives being surrendered.

These are the decisions made by the good guys in the Final Fantasy XV universe, but they are more in line with the sneaky sacrifices we might expect of the Shinra Corporation in Final Fantasy VII.

Perhaps the only time this tactic has felt right to me within the franchise was in Final Fantasy XIV. In Stormblood, Hien sacrificing Doma made tactical sense because none of his citizens lived there anymore so it would only be ruining things for the occupying empire. Their cultural heritage was wiped, but it was a desperate act which paid off precisely because such a bold move caught the imperialists off guard.

It didn't come across as bold and brave in Final Fantasy XV. I hope they built a memorial.
 
Back
Top