Quote Originally Posted by Conundrum View Post
You hit on something that really annoys me, based on what we know Zodiark should be several orders of magnitude more powerful than Hydaelyn...he should have swatted her like a bug.

Hydaelyn is pretty much a textbook example of a Mary Sue character, always right, stronger than everyone...had to save the world from the stupid MEN.

P.S. Can someone remind me what Zodiark did that was so bad that he needed to be shackled? "We thought he might hypothetically do something bad at some point in the future" is some pretty crap tier reasoning for what she did. All of the bad stuff around Zodiark seems to have come from his fanclub and not him.
At that point Zodiark was also like a machine without a driver, something that can be dealt with if one has the means to do so.

Zodiark himself did what was required of him yes, but at the accidental consequence of tempering his summoners, a side effect of creation that big performing feats of that scale. That, combined with his summoners desire to sacrifice other life, life that didn't volunteer to do so ultimately means he can't be left to be. After all when one tempers the actions of their resulting fanclub are rather intertwined with said being.

And as Hydaelyn herself admits her actions were neither kind or righteous, but at that point what would hating and blaming do? The sundering happened, tragic and horrific as it was, and now new life exists and thrives. The Ascians goals, for as understandable and relatable as their reasons are, will mean the end of the current world and everything upon it. Notably by the end not even they are hated by the main cast, they just accept that their goals are incompatable, while Hydaelyn's aren't.