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

[Rulakir]

It's actually rather easy to reframe her mindset and values into an antagonist and have it work far better than that we got, in my opinion.

Venat/Hydaeyln turned out to be much worse than I had anticipated and I went into EW figuring she was going to be an antagonist similar to Emet, as you said. "Matter of perspective" and all that. I thought the sundering of more than just Zodiark was going to turn out to be accidental. Instead, it was not only intentional but with knowledge of the future!

Her "love" for mankind is shallow. She doesn't care that her actions result in the destruction of souls and there's little evidence she cared about the life on the shards beyond every rejoining making her task of keeping Zodiark imprisoned more difficult. Going through Thavnair a second time I was outraged because all of those people who were turned into blasphemies were permanently destroyed and that was the fault of the sundering having made mankind fatally susceptible to dynamis. As Vrtra said, "they are undeserving of such condemnation."

Venat is a co-conspirator with Hermes, who is framed as a villain (sympathetic or not). The only difference is the copious amount of narrative gaslighting regarding her character. She is practically the walking definition of "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions". This is the same woman who ended the WoL's first incarnation, more than likely without consent, and would have no qualms whatsoever with doing it again if she thought it would produce her desired result. Venat is ruthless AF on a Biblical scale.

Alphinaud once said in Shadowbringers that living in a Rejoined world would be against his beliefs, saying, "But what value is there in surviving when all our history, all our struggles will be erased? I cannot conscience such an act." I'm sure the irony of that statement is not lost on just me. That he had no words for Venat on that front astounded me.

I saved a screenshot of him saying that too. Neither the WoL or the Scions had any reason to trust Hydaelyn given what they knew of her, yet do so implicitly and with unprecedented amounts of hypocrisy based on statements such as that one. Another exchange in ShB that sticks out to me is this one:

Y'shtola: From a purely Ascian standpoint, it could be said that what you seek to do is only logical. But that would be to ignore the immeasurable destruction wrought with each Rejoining. You have murdered millions. And this we cannot condone.
Emet-Selch: By your fragmented existence, you continue to give rise to tragedies far crueler than any calamity.

He's not wrong and the Scions never once bring up this same point to Hydaelyn. The irony is that it's the sundering that has resulted in all of mankind's woes, not the Final Days. Those were averted by Zodiark. Everything that's happened since falls squarely on Venat's shoulders. She is, in my mind, the main antagonist of the series, bane to both unsundered and sundered, who despite being gifted with omniscience by the WoL uses it not for the betterment of anyone, but to the detriment of all.

But, you know, she's pretty, and has a nice voice, and thinks the WoL is cool, so it's whatever.

[CrownySuccubus]

He's not wrong and the Scions never once bring up this same point to Hydaelyn. The irony is that it's the sundering that has resulted in all of mankind's woes, not the Final Days. Those were averted by Zodiark. Everything that's happened since falls squarely on Venat's shoulders. She is, in my mind, the main antagonist of the series, bane to both unsundered and sundered, who despite being gifted with omniscience by the WoL uses it not for the betterment of anyone, but to the detriment of all.

But, you know, she's pretty, and has a nice voice, and thinks the WoL is cool, so it's whatever.

I find this to be incredibly unfair.

Hermes and Meteion are the unquestionably the villains here. I can go for Hydaelyn being a secondary "evil", given that she effectively played by Hermes' rules and did not choose to inform her fellow Ancients of what happened, but I will never see her as the "main" villain. The society of the Ancients is gone because of Hermes. Zodiark was, at best, a band-aid that would not last (and, it seems, was actually making things worse, in terms of the Ancients becoming more delusional about their "paradise").

I will never agree with Hydaelyn's arguments or her methods, but saying she's the main villain is, in my opinion, just not true. At best, I can agree that she shares blame and culpability with the other players across the chessboard: Hermes and Meteion.