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

[Brinne]

Again, I understand, and I don't disagree with a single way you described Hermes's actions and his failures there. I would never suggest he should be off the hook or should be cut slack or doesn't deserve outrage. He deserves all of those things. He is a bad, hateful, cowardly person. It's just that there is nuance that can be explored in terms of his intentionality regarding the harm he caused, versus Venat's intentionality.

I mean, if we can admit that Venat is the murderer of millions of Ancients and the incidental cause of the deaths/suffering of billions of other people across the 14 stars, can we at least also acknowledge that Hermes is the deliberate cause of not only millions of deaths of Ancients and sundered people, but also however many planets Meteion directly had a hand in destroying? We don't know how high that number is -- it can be as low as 3 or as high as infinite.

I'll happily agree to both of those things! They are both horrific mass murderers who, on some level, can be said to have done it for their own emotional or ideological satisfaction. It's just that, for example, I think you can also understand how someone who has a history with certain forms of abuse would find Venat's approach to murder far more personally disturbing, and thus prompting more outrage, versus Hermes's. (Not that Hermes wasn't abusive to Meteion. Oh boy, is that a can of worms.)

EDIT:

By the same token, I hope you can understand how someone who has suffered at the hands of privileged idiots who ignored various rules and warnings that are put into place for a reason would not give a damn about how premeditated Hermes' actions were before Ktisis. And then, after Ktisis, how someone who may be the victim of gaslighting, assaulted in a manner that they can't remember said assault, or may have lost loved ones due to one person's selfishness (for example, the millions of people who have died from COVID because of other peoples' stupidity) can see how evil Hermes was.

Sure, absolutely. And I'm genuinely sorry if/that you've experienced that kind of injustice. The more understanding the better, I think. \o/