Alternatively since mog is the closest to of official spear guy in 6: figure studies just with moogle head???

This man cannot describe anything. He's trying harder to be better at it lately, but if you're asking him to recount events? You get 'was Minfilia here', 'was I doing quests' or 'were there birds and/or beautiful kings' as descriptions.

EW: "When there were birds."
DT: "When I was not needed."

I picked Maelstrom because its awkward HQ location (not in the same zone as the city aetheryte) means the teleport vouchers give me an alternate teleport location that lets me skip a loading screen in very niche situations.

And Adders because I wanted the branch crown for glamours.

The second area feels a lot more like either Gulool Ja's (Otis' presence mostly) or the player's (it's the most visibly ff9 and the one full of children, for me it felt like an expression of nostalgia being a form of mourning for one's past self)

AGREEING WITH ALL OF THIS the first area felt like it was Wuk Lamat's 'zone', to me. Namikka is there, it's focussed on RoboSphene's hope for her people to be happy together which reflects her own. The idea of turning on the fountains reflects Wuk Lamat wanting to bring back the parade earlier.

Oh yeah, this is what I was (possibly clumsily) trying to say. I think B'runi is talking about people who are genuinely frustrated with Gridania, where you're talking about people using 'Gridania Bad' as a way to get people to stop implying that their cool pirates might not be 100% morally pure.

'but Gridania is worse' translates in my head into 'stop talking about it :c' rather than any real attempt at comparing Gridania and Limsa's actions/treatment by the narrative.

Tbh I think you're discussing different groups. At the risk of gatekeeping being a True Gridania Hater, when people are using 'well Gridania is worse' to defend Limsa Gridania itself is basically irrelevant as anything but a tool for deflection.

There is not a secret good arr city state. They're all terrible, and the one you find least bad (especially at level 20) is going to come down to where you started, what optional stuff you've seen, and your own visceral reactions to different kinds of gross.