On Themis [6.4 SPOILER]

[Kozh]

Meanwhile, I go into our visits to the past with the prospect of the time loop first and foremost. Yes, it would be nice to have the freedom to tell the whole truth and save the ancients from their fate, but that is inherently impossible. There is no mere "planting the seed to save their future generations" and then retreating to your own timeline – if you've changed it, you've changed it, and still not actually undone the suffering that has already happened.

In fact, given that we cannot undo the suffering experienced so far by the ancients in this timeline, then I would argue that the best thing we can do for them is to make sure we stick around in this timeline to bring about a happy ending to what they were trying to achieve. If we vanish off into a second timeline and abandon this one, all that they went through up to now was for nothing.

Why would this timeline be doomed when meteion has been defeated? The ultimate boss has been defeated, the world has been saved and the sundered got their happy ending. What prevents us to give the alternate timeline the chance to prevent all those tragedies? Also what happy ending exactly we can achieve for them? Etheirys being saved is like a consolation prize, the Ancients are no more. The real elidibus died crying. Real Laha died knowing he failed his son. Only emet has a bit of catharsis but only because the game butcher his character into more WoL wank.

[Iscah]

Why would this timeline be doomed when meteion has been defeated?

In this very immediate example, Claudien would have woken up Athena and we wouldn't be here to stop her.

How many more threats loom?

This world exists now and we are here to protect it.

Or we could go off and create a second world and leave this one to its fate after all that so many people have done to protect it? No thanks.

The world is never permanently "saved", it is only ever saved from a specific threat while many more lurk ahead.

[Kozh]

In this very immediate example, Claudien would have woken up Athena and we wouldn't be here to stop her.

How many more threats loom?

This world exists now and we are here to protect it.

Or we could go off and create a second world and leave this one to its fate after all that so many people have done to protect it? No thanks.

The world is never permanently "saved", it is only ever saved from a specific threat while many more lurk ahead.

1) Okay, let's just say "wait until Athena has been dealt with". Would that be satisfactory for you?

2) Why do we have to think about the possibility of future threats when we don't even know what the future holds?

3) WoL isn't immortal, the people should learn to defend themselves. Aren't they the superior race with Dynamis deus ex machina who got approved by hydaelyn?

[Lurina]

In this very immediate example, Claudien would have woken up Athena and we wouldn't be here to stop her.

How many more threats loom?

This world exists now and we are here to protect it.

Or we could go off and create a second world and leave this one to its fate after all that so many people have done to protect it? No thanks.

The world is never permanently "saved", it is only ever saved from a specific threat while many more lurk ahead.

You've touched here on the fundamental weakness of FFXIV's writing, going beyond the plot of Endwalker altogether - the fact that the themes and complex issues it chooses to explore ultimately exist in subservience to its nature as a power fantasy centered around a created avatar.

No story choices can ever even scratch the player's ego. The WoL can never meaningfully lose or be unable to solve a problem. The WoL can never be on the wrong side, even by accident. The WoL can never be put into a difficult position where they're asked to make a lasting personal sacrifice for the good of others.

It is taken as a given that you are the most important person in the universe, perfect and indispensable to an absurd degree that dwarfs even the writers favorites, and the narrative's underlying assumptions and moral compass bend and twist around that like spacetime around a black hole.