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

[AziraSyuren]

I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and say her hands were tied, even if the whole situation sucked and I thought the writing to justify it all was hamfisted and piss-poor... until that Q&A. Now I really cannot see how they can insist she's not a villain (a term Yoshi kept using for SHB Emet-Selch, to which he tries to compare her) or antagonist whilst also giving the answers they did in that Q&A. Just does not compute.

The thing is, even were she a villain, she wouldn't be an antagonist, because an antagonist is defined by their relation towards the focus characters. Even if they went to the necessary lengths to paint her as a villain in-story, if her actions didn't change, she'd still be a protagonist. Just a villainous one.

I know it's a semantic thing but it bugs me that people keep saying "antagonist" like it's just another, less damning word for villain.

[Lauront]

The thing is, even were she a villain, she wouldn't be an antagonist, because an antagonist is defined by their relation towards the focus characters. Even if they went to the necessary lengths to paint her as a villain in-story, if her actions didn't change, she'd still be a protagonist. Just a villainous one.

I know it's a semantic thing but it bugs me that people keep saying "antagonist" like it's just another, less damning word for villain.

Noted.

It seemed to me that Louisoix's halting of Bahamut did enough to prevent a ton of damage, so rather than having to wait, the Ascians were able to speed up. As for why they keep escalating and refuse to wait for us to die however...we can blame Nabriales for that.

He was explicitly told by Elidibus to not engage us, as we were potentially no longer a threat after losing our Blessing of Light, and might have had the way to kill them. They could have waited things out from that point on and possibly won because we'd never get a chance to try it out. But because Nabriales lunged for us, we discovered how the trick worked, and possibly could have developed a method to reach them in the Rift from there. It became a race against us to succeed in the next Rejoining before we found a way to halt them for good. All thanks to an overzealous Nabriales.

The first point is true - as to the second, do you recall where Elidibus told him not to engage?

Nonetheless, I can't say I see how Nabriales's folly forced their hand in any sense. Emet-Selch is so lopsidedly more powerful than the WoL at that point (and even in SHB, really), that they pose zero risk at that point, and there was never any indication that they'd take it to the Rift if the Ascians were to fall silent for a bit - so why not just wait out the WoL's death at that point? It's a possible explanation but not a great one, IMO. Another area where a coherent plan from the outset would've helped.