I feel like the best thing about FFxiv is their ability to turn the villains into sympathetic characters without neutering their story. Every horrible thing they did is true and fits with their character, but the more you learn about them, the more the things they did made sense. And even while you know you have to beat them, you can see where they are coming from. Gaius got a little preachy, though, and I'm seriously thinking of changing the language to German to save a few seconds of cut scene during MSQ roulettes. Still, you could kind of see where he was coming from, what with the propaganda taking hold of the Garleans.

Except Zenos. Dude was just a sociopath who wanted a friend really badly.