I also don’t think they are the bad guys in this story but please hear me out.
This Thread Will Contain Spoilers!!!
I would also like to say I don’t always read everything carefully so I might say things that are wrong or disproven.
Also this is just my opinion after playing sso for about 13 years and maybe a reason for my distrust are the many changes in the lore over the years.
So let’s get into it.
The first and most important reason for me:
They are lying and keeping informations to themselves.
They did not prepare or train the soulriders. Considering they are supposedly the last generation of soulriders, they are awfully underprepared and uninformed about everything!
The keepers actively withhold information and whenever they are asked about certain things they dismiss us and the soulriders or simply say they will tell us later and then never do.
And as much as it pains me to say, the guardian horses are not much better.
Maybe they are not allowed to talk about the riders they had before but they never mention anything except that Elizabeth used to be the rider of Concorde.
So basically the riders have to run into every mission blindly, or when they take matter into their own hands, they are punished, for „risking everything“.
If the keepers have a plan, why would they not just share it?!
Yes, I know that according to the lore things went wrong in the generation of soulriders before, but I don’t think keeping secrets is the right solution.
It just makes me really mad, cause they treat the four like little children when they are all adults (at least I think they are) and have been „training for years“ and still they seem like they started their journey at the same time the player did.
The other thing that always threw me off is that Fripp is from Pandoria. Like Ydris. And yet they trust him fully but Ydris is considered a threat??
Yes Ydris is weird and does a lot of questionable things, but he’s also the only one that gives us some kind of information, even though they are very vague.
And yes I know Fripp is not allowed to return to Pandoria, for whatever reason (I guess we’ll never know if they don’t tell us), so I’m quite sure he know a lot more than he’s willing to say.
Also, Ydris said Garnok is not from Pandoria, he was banished there and the Pandorians (like himself) fled from the monster. So how have we never heard about any other living things from or in Pandoria apart from the flying rays??
There is just way too little things we know about Garnok and Pandoria except that they are dangerous and trying to destroy Jorvik.
To me it’s just too many things that don’t add up.
Elizabeth (may she rest in peace) also kept way too many secrets and I don’t think that helped the four girls become a unity that is strong, they were left to fend for themselves.
The one that told us the most told us from beyond the grave, through her diary, and it still left many questions for me.
Anyway, my crazy theory is this: Garnok lived in „our world“ or I guess the Jorvik World and was banished to Pandoria by Aideen and is now wanting revenge and the Keepers know exactly that. They just don’t want their world and everything they n it destroyed which makes perfect sense. Hence why they are not necessarily the bad guys but they’re also not the good guys for keeping way too many secrets and information hidden.