(03-05-2014, 03:53 AM)ArmachiA Wrote:(03-04-2014, 10:54 PM)TheWizard Wrote: I don't really consider Garleans easy enough to fit within a definition of "good" or "evil." In their own minds what they are doing is for the betterment of all and is thus good. However their methods are often found to be disagreeable to outsiders and are thus evil.
So really applying either term to them isn't doing their dynamic justice.
Correct. I don't think a lot of people are playing evil for the sake of being evil if they are a bit quirky. Me, my fiance, and my friend all play a Garlean family. Very rich and somewhat powerful. They are smart, ruthless, and believe they are doing the best for Eorzea by A. either pruging it because the Primals are dangerous or B. having them all fall under the Garlean Empire. They are extremely loyal to Garlemalde but not just rank and file soldiers.
Yu can play with the trope and not be special snowflakey. I think playing an ordinary "Take all orders" soldier would be a bit boring. There's no real personality there. That doesn't mean I'm playing a super special snowflake.
I'm pretty sure "loyal" and "obedient" are signifiers of a personality!
 I don't think a soldier acting like... well, like a soldier, means that he is bland or lacking in a personality. And in the RP-universe where almost everyone has really dynamic, larger-than-life, in-your-face personality, I think it's actually kind of refreshing. Regardless, Garlemald brainwashes its soldiers. By default, Garlean soldiers will be a little depersonalized; that's just how it is. If someone finds that boring, my best advice is, honestly, don't play a Garlean soldier. You don't roll a Hyur but then stick elf ears and a cat tail on him because you think Hyur look boring. If you dislike a defining, core part of what makes a race what it is, it would make more sense to play a different race than to change that defining characteristic, especially in a society that would not tolerate that sort of nonconformism among its members. But Garleans can still have independent thoughts, quirks, hobbies, goals, personalities, skills, etc. Heck, they can even have doubts about their orders and their Empire--they'll probably just be disciplined, killed, or imprisoned if they act on those doubts.
