Got into a discussion in that thread about how every character's agency is ruined with the time loop as 'nobody could do anything differently' in order for the WoL to journey to Elpis. Then in an unrelated thread I saw someone quote Ardbert's "we did everything right" line and I thought, yeah, he did exactly what he was meant to do.

I genuinely don't understand what's satisfying about time loops and I've seen plenty of people say they prefer them to AUs. Near as I can tell, the one in EW completely undermined the agency of every major character in the foundation of the lore that establishes the world as we know it. Now that I think about it, had they gone the full Greek tragedy route similar to Oedipus where in trying to avoid an outcome it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, that might've made me like/sympathize with Venat. Instead, she chooses to follow the roadmap to the future the WoL gave her for nonsensical reasons.