Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
As far as the actual conflict between Hydaelyn and Zodiark is concerned, I'm still not convinced that Hydaelyn can be trusted but I wouldn't exactly put my faith in the Ascians and Zodiark either. My hope is seeing Hydaelyn and Zodiark's influence rendered obsolete and for mortals to be free of the burden that is religion. Perhaps not immediately but by the end of the game's lifespan.
Wait - what does removing Hy's and Zo's influence have to do with freeing mortals of the burden of religion? As near as I can tell, neither Hy or Zo ask for worship; while the Ascians seem to have a cult-like reverence for Zo, not even the folks who know of Hy seem inclined to worship her.

If Hy and Zo and all the Ascians were just to vanish today, religion would still be alive and well. The Beastmen would worship their Primals, Eorzeans would worship the Twelve, the Au Ra of the Steppe worship Azim and Nhama, and so on and so forth. In fact, the Garleans seem to be the only devoted Atheists on the planet, and their lack of worship is not so much rooted in the belief that these entities do not exist, but that whether they exist or not worshiping them is dangerous due to the potential for Primal summoning.

It's not even clear that the world needs to be freed from Hy and Zo's influence. It's not certain that Zo is influencing the planet, or even wants to - the Ascians have been doing that for him, and how he feels about it is unknown (possibly even to the Ascians). Hy's influence seems to be strictly limited to what it takes to counter the Ascians, and given the lyrics to Answers it seems likely she'd be content to be hands-free if it wasn't for the need to stop the Calamities from coming.

This game definitely does not treat religion or worship as evils that need to be rooted out. Even in the case of the Ishgard papacy, it was clear that the wrongs being perpetrated were the results of corrupt humans, misusing the power structure that had been established. Halone is not evil, nor is worship of her.

"Religion is wrong" is not one of the lessons of this game, and I doubt that's going to change!