Endwalker was a great mess(SPOILERS)

[Velnora]

Yu Yevon and Ultimecia aren't surprise bosses. Yu Yevon in particular is thoroughly discussed throughout the whole story, with more layers of lies peeled off as you get closer to the truth, and the ending of the game. While Ultimecia doesn't show up until the very end, she is pointed out as the villain very early in the game and her actions are repeatedly central to the plot's focus.

The problem with Meteion isn't that she's a surprise boss. She's not. They set her up very convincingly to be our foe in Elpis. The problem is that instead of contacting some sort of diametrically opposed sentience hostile to life itself, ala Zeromus, and becoming infected by it, she simply becomes a template of all the despair and disharmony in the universe, and decides to commit universal suicide to shut it all off. This leaves us essentially without a villain, because she is a victim.

They even pull the rug out from under our feet in the final battle. "Blue" / "good" Meteion vanishes from the story at the end of Elpis, vanishes utterly, but then suddenly appears again in the final battle, fluttering about the Endsinger's head and begging her not to do what she's been doing. Again, they rip out the idea that we're even looking at a villain, and rather something like a cosmic accident or a powerful misunderstanding. It becomes annoying rather than exciting at that point, just being a janitor or a cosmic babysitter.

If they were gonna go the victim rout, they should have had her get possessed and infected by something like Zeromus. Some actual wicked alien force antithetical to life, moving through the dynamis to poison her and manifest through her. But instead they made it just "baby had a nightmare" and that makes our role the person giving her a bottle.

Meteion is a surprise because she was introduced in the second to last zone. Over the course of a 10 year build up. Yu Yevon was brought up over the course of 10, but seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Jecht, by many, is considered the true final boss. As with Necron, it just shows up.

[Floortank]

Meteion is a surprise because she was introduced in the second to last zone. Over the course of a 10 year build up. Yu Yevon was brought up over the course of 10, but seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Jecht, by many, is considered the true final boss. As with Necron, it just shows up.

The 10 or 15 hour span between our last moment with Meteion before the Endsinger is more time to sit with it and feel the product of her actions than we get from the time we actually meet Yunalesca and see what happened to Jecht and Auron firsthand, to the end of FFX. Perhaps maybe an hour or two hours of the game remains at that point. We knew details about Jecht and Braska's story, but not the full scope until those scenes. And it does not reduce the ending even one iota.

The problem with Meteion is Meteion. They rip whatever dramatic tension she represents right out of her by making her a victim and essentially good, but misunderstood.

EDIT: made some FFX references more ambiguous due to spoilers

EDIT: Also if you were surprised by Meteion to the degree that you think the Endsinger is like Metron, I dunno what to tell you. I knew I was looking at the final villain the moment I met her. There's no way the cause of the Final Days would be something so obvious Emet-Selch would miss it. She was an immediate red herring.

I read a shit ton of books.

[Velnora]

The 10 or 15 hour span between our last moment with Meteion before the Endsinger is more time to sit with it and feel the product of her actions than we get from the time we actually meet Yunalesca and see what happened to Jecht and Auron firsthand, to the end of FFX. Perhaps maybe an hour or two hours of the game remains at that point. We knew details about Jecht and Braska's story, but not the full scope until those scenes. And it does not reduce the ending even one iota.

The problem with Meteion is Meteion. They rip whatever dramatic tension she represents right out of her by making her a victim and essentially good, but misunderstood.

EDIT: made some FFX references more ambiguous due to spoilers

EDIT: Also if you were surprised by Meteion to the degree that you think the Endsinger is like Metron, I dunno what to tell you. I knew I was looking at the final villain the moment I met her. There's no way the cause of the Final Days would be something so obvious Emet-Selch would miss it. She was an immediate red herring.

I read a shit ton of books.

10 or 15 hours is nothing.