What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[EaraGrace]

Ok, back to this thread.

I saw this brought up, but the part where it's mentioned that Venat opposed Zodiark's creation is in the cutscene with the Scions and the Watcher, post-Zodiark Trial. It's a bit baffling, though, because the very same conversation confirms that Zodiark was a necessity, and that the process of coming up with his creation only began after the Final Days had started.

I want to say that Venat might have been unprepared for how severe the Final Days truly were, but that last part is a real deal breaker. And it's too hard to believe Venat could be actively witnessing the death of Etheirys and go "This is fine, we don't need Zodiark".

EDIT: It also occurs to me that the story never offers a reason why Venat opposed Zodiark's creation, only that she did. While, again, acknowledging that the Ancients would not have survived without his intervention. With that in mind, I suspect it's actually a plot hole.

I also want to clarify that I'm not saying this in condemnation of Venat. As far as I'm concerned, she is a flawed character who makes understandable mistakes despite having the best of intentions. Like underestimating the impact the Final Days would have, or shouting at the survivors to move on while they're struggling to process their grief. And so on. And I'm not terribly bothered by characters looking the other way when it comes to her, save for Y'shtola—the perennial author avatar standing on her soap box—and Emet-Selch, who comes across as out of character in Ultima Thule in the moment he starts praising her.

There’s also the simple fact that the Watcher knew what he knew of those events due to being given the memories of an “old acquaintance.” Exactly what interpretation that particular individual had of events is uncertain, but we know he was not party to knowledge about Meteion, and he wasn’t a member of Venats faction, so he wasn’t “in the know” so to speak.

Furthermore, Venat herself argues for Hermes continued presence on the Convocation precisely to ensure Zodiark succeeds in halting the Final Days, so she clearly didn’t oppose his creation out of principle. It’s possible she opposed aspects of His creation, and potentially argued for their to be specific limitations placed on him that were ignored, but opposed entirely to any being like Zodiark being created goes against both Venats words and the other descriptions we had of the event.

If you can't deal with this mindset, I suggest you turn away from biology major/works. Because that's literally how researchers work. You said it yourself. We don't take pleasure from it, yet it had to be done.

Speaking of hermes, his personality is believable, but what unbelievable is how this guy manage to become chief overseer of a research facility where you have to deal with creatures every day. If even Twitter can recognize how stupid the idea is and how weird no one said anything about meteion, then it's just bad writing.

Just gonna chime in to say this is not at all how people operate. Many people go into fields like biology or medicine, studies that inevitably expose them to seeing the suffering of people and animals, out of a love for those selfsame beings. It’s a simple fact that those with a deep emotional connection to natural life will inevitably incorporate that into their day to day. Some with professions, others with volunteer work or hobbies. Hermes was clearly the former.