Endwalker Story sucked and it's time to admit it

[WellGramarye]

First statement, yes. I have never claimed otherwise.

Second statement, irrelevant to my argument.

There is no version of Elpis where our WoL doesn't go there.

There is no separate version of Elpis waiting for the 8UE WoL to arrive.

If the 8UE and Endwalker timelines are branches, Elpis is on the trunk of the tree. It happens once.

An observer from the 8UE timeline branch cannot detect the Endwalker timeline branch, but they still both exist next to each other and have always existed alongside each other, because G'raha split the timeline in Shadowbringers. There was no period where the timeline only had one branch and was waiting for the other to materialise.

The 8UE timeline does not need to reach the point where the time machine is invented before its effects are felt.

The paradox only exists on your parallel lines, which I disagree with.

You are only counting Graha's time travel as the only factor that changed the future, but us going to Elpis also changes the future. While it is not a major shift, we impart knowledge that was not known before, and return with knowledge we didn't know before. This time loop cannot exist in a world where we are dead at any point before the end of the convergence. From the point we step foot in Elpis, history is forever changed from that moment, even if the shift isn't world shaking or defining.

There HAS to be a version of Elpis where we never go there, and if there is a version where we never go there, there HAS to be a sundering, for us to exist, for us to be able to have the option to go there in the first place.

The 8UC world doesn't have its own extensive history, everything that happens before Stormblood is the same for both worlds.

While their histories are 99% the same, they are not 100% the same by dint that we travel to Elpis, at the same time where we would be dead in the 8UC.