Quote Originally Posted by Millybonk View Post
  • The mighty Zodiark, which has been build up as this mighty(evil) entity over several expansions, turns out to be nothing but filler trash for the first Endwalker trial
  • The true cause of the Final Days is a pet-project from an ancient which goes mad after observing countless dead world and possibly causing the death of several world by projecting negative emotions unto them, and is thus dead-set on bringing despair to every world, upon which said ancient goes mad and is now letting her run her course to test humanity if they can withstand/fight despair
  • Venat, who hasn't had her memory wiped + still remembers you from being in Elpis, quite apparently doesn't lift a finger to learn about Dynamis herself or to mobilize the other ancients to end Meteion then and there, and instead chooses to turn herself into Hydaelyn, sunder the world and the inhabitants, thereby forcing them to live with and face despair and gambling that their resilience against despair might be enough to face Meteion one day

Really?
This is the best SQ could do in terms of story after ShB?
One thing about Venat. Sundering the world is understanding Dynamis. Without being sundered, the Warrior of Light has no chance against Meteion, because the aetheric concentration would be too dense. The WoL does use Dynamis to perform limit breaks and essentially win fights. That is beaten into the storyline of Elpis about weak aetheric concentrations in the Warrior of Light, pretending to be a familiar, etc. He beats Zenos to death not with Aetheric power, but with Dynamis.

Zodiark, however, and for reasons that I don't recall, or perhaps never understood, keeps The Final Days in check. It might be tied to what I wrote above. Because Zenos is on the moon, maybe it alters the aetheric concentrations on Hydaelyn to be "balanced", and a higher concentration of light allowed Meteion to resume the Final Days; similar to what happened when the first was overwhelmed in light.