Endwalker was "meh" (for reasons other than technical issues)

[RyuDragnier]

Ok, can you tell me the narrative relevance of Thavnair or any of the characters there? What purpose did they serve in terms of the story? Could you have replaced them with virtually anyone else and gotten the same outcome? How about the moon? Was exploring the Loporrits base really necessary to the story at all? No it really wasn't.

Thavnair was our first close up look at a tower, how it effected the individuals in the area, and was also a look at how another dragon decided to spend its life away from its siblings. It was also our first look at the absolute horrors of The End of Days, and hit hard on why we needed to stop it immediately, as the characters (mostly Matsya) were built up to be endearing so we would have actual fear that a character we liked was going to be turned into one of those monstrosities. This helped build up personal stakes in the story for the player. Exploring the Loporrits base was necessary enough in that it showed how they lived and what they lived for (something you KNOW any player will ask about if they're invested in the story), as well as to make it blatantly obvious what Sharlayan was up to and exactly WHY they were doing what they did. All of this was necessary, as much as you would rather it wasn't.

But do you want to know what the worst part of this expansion was? Fandaniel and no, it wasn't because he was an over the top cliche villain. The reason why Fandaniel is the worst part of the expansion is because they ruined his character. He never wanted to be Fandaniel and clung to his past life as Amon with his motivation to be a loyal servant to Xande and bring about the ruin of the world so that they could all share in the despair like his king had. The problem with this, however, was Hermes and Meteion. After Hermes finished listening to Meteion's report, he was just as prepared to condemn humanity as his sundered counterpart was and it belittled Amon as a character. His motivation was cheapened because it was something that he'd already done, so the motivation didn't feel like his own anymore but rather an extension of his past life as Hermes. To add insult to injury, they throw in Meteion as the true final boss of everything.

Was it really cheapening his motivation? Or was it there to paint the picture on exactly WHY Amon was so nihilistic, thus explaining his reasons on why he wanted to destroy everything after he regained his memories of being Fandaniel?

This is literally the FF9 Kuja into Necron story all over again. A fleshed out villain being tossed side for a 2 dimensional entity bent on total annihilation simply because "Death is the only answer". That's not good storytelling, and for a decade long story like FFXIV has, I expect better than a rehash of a previous FF title's end game.

It's really not. Hermes created Meteion, and later ENCOURAGED her to destroy everything due to his own nihilism and depression after discovering all those civilizations crumbled into nothing. We basically got rid of the guy who caused everything, and then had to go take care of the very creation he had made. Necron was hinted to nowhere prior in FF9 and came at the last minute as the final boss. We got an actual buildup for Meteion, and saw her turn into what she became, you cannot equate the two.