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

[Skyborne]

This reminded me of a ridiculous comment I saw on Reddit calling Elpis a slaughterhouse. I thought, wow, must be nice to be so ignorant of what truly happens in slaughterhouses or in animal testing. Elpis was an absolute paradise for all creatures by comparison. Truly a horror show.

Or that one shade in Amaurot who talks about what an honor and a responsbility creation magic is, and how he wants to improve himself and the world around him. Noooo, stop! You're supposed to be the MUH HUBRIS MUH DECADANCE stereotype who falls in order to make me feel better about myself!

I just remember how, even in the midst of Hermes's angry rants, he still mentions that the Ancients go out of their way to make it quick and painless for the creations they put down. He's just still upset that they have to die to begin with. You'd think this would be the setup for an FFIX-ish theme where the antagonist learns to cope with and accept death, and that argument could have been made if Venat hadn't essentially taken his side, lmao.

The FFX talk is also interesting, especially when you consider FFX was voted as the most beloved Final Fantasy game of all time in Japan.

You could probably liken Hermes' breakdown to something along the lines of Kuja destroying Terra in his tantrum as he's taunted with his eventual death... also, if FFX were written like 14, the main crew would all nod and agree with Yunalesca (who is 100% objectively right and the one hope of mankind). Yuna dies, the status quo is preserved for the Good of All. Lulu stops everyone every ten minutes to lecture. Also, Kimahri's ears are missing beneath his wig.

To play devil's advocate, I don't think this would be the case.

FF games have a fetish for "last time, the good guys could only 'seal' the villain away, but this time, these heroes are going for broke and either the villain dies or we all die". Which is, basically, what Venat did. She decided sealing the Final Days wasn't good enough and that the objectively good thing was to sunder the world so that there was even the smallest chance killing Meteion was possible.

At least, that's the story's logic anyway. Still would've been smarter to tell people Meteion existed.

True, just going for the tone of making us love a certain character who would be antagonistic in any other context. Feelings are the most important thing, after all!