It will be very interesting to see where we go from here.

I was NOT expecting the turnaround in the presentation of the Ascians - specifically Hades who does seem to have something of a different trajectory from Elidibus and definitely from Lahabrea - although I enjoyed it very much. Hades dragged me kicking and screaming from loathing to fascination, and I very much salute his writer; she did a fantastic job. I do hope we get more of pre-terminus Amaurot as we move through ShB. And my head is spinning from trying to focus on our true antagonist now because I really don't know which way to look.

Will we end up making some kind of alliance with Elidibus? Not going to lie, I dislike Elidibus (think he's a snake) as much as I dislike Lahabrea, but they have both been presented in a very two-dimensional way up to this point. There hasn't been any hook to hang the possibility of sympathy/understanding/redemption upon with either of them, Lahabrea particularly was just a cackling villain from a melodrama. So I'm interested to see where things go with Elidibus. Also to learn more about Zodiark/Hydaelyn: I have a pet theory that the two of them should never have been divided (based on what Ramuh says about Light and Dark) so maybe our solution will be finding away to merge the two. I can imagine the Ascians won't like that at all. Be interesting if we find a way to untemper Elidibus so we can work with him to find a solution.

As others have said I do hope the story doesn't end up being Bad god v Good god: hopefully the 'fact' - allegedly - that they're both primals throws that ending out of the window