Endwalker is a masterpiece

[Remilia_Nightfall]

There's a line where unpredicable just becomes random. Introducing random things last moment into a story is the easiest thing to do, and one that FFXIV pretty much never did.

All of the previous expansions big bads had been properly developed, some even introduced before the expansion was even released. All of them were reasonably predicable and made perfect sense both in their logic and in their motivations.

And so it is for Endwalker.

The "Big baddie" was already introduced last expansion in the concept of "The Final Days", which in turn led to the creation of Zodiark and Hydaelyn. Mind you, I see what you mean, but to me it was obvious from the start that Zodiark, or even the Ascians themselves, were not going to be the final threat. CLEARLY whatever killed them all was going to be the focus of Endwalker - and guess what, it was. And the fact that we did not expect to be what it turned out to be is a plus, in my opinion. It was clearly planned beforehand by the story writers, it was not taken out of a hat suddenly.