This character could have been main villain for an expansion

[Willemdarke]

Hell, I think they should have split Endwalker into two expansions and left the 13th for a third expansion! It certainly would have felt fuller and the pacing would have been much better..

While I did enjoy EW's MSQ this comment also rings true and reminds me of WoW's storytelling during BfA when I last played. In that one, they blew through three campaigns that could (and should) have been separate expansions and the whole thing was rushed, hollow and dumb ... Just like the Void/Tural/Alexandria now.

Perhaps EW would have been even greater if we had a whole expansion on Garlemald and the Moon and a second (or post MSQ) in elpis/UT.

Perhaps Durante wouldn't have been a complete buffoon, if he had a whole expansion. Zero was quite interesting in her first patch, but the whole story fell off a cliff by the end. I wouldn't care about seeing either of them again tbh and wouldn't mind if interdimentional fusion nukes the Void into the First to make a new, uncorrupted world.

I've had quite enough of evil genocidal villains-turned BFFs, it got stale by the 3rd time.

[Zarkovitch]

Nah, Zenos Lopprit would be a menace.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Nah, Zenos Lopprit would be a menace.

Bunny Zenos

[CVXIV]

It's hard to say whether this would've worked for a full expansion considering how everything went down in the game but in the end I don't think it would have

The events regarding the thirteenth happened very quickly and seemed mostly resolved, with Zero and Golbez going to try to restore light to the darkness

Being able to explore more of the void and the towns, seeing how they governed would have been fun but we already got that from the patch quests, with strong voidsent setting up domains and controlling weaker ones.

I think the reveal of Golbez being another shard of Azem that passed away is interesting, though it's never treated as a major reveal or anything but something that just happens
Maybe they'll come back to it in the future, just like there being a possibility to go back to the void in the future, but we'll see

One thing I did like is that Durante vaguely resembles how Golbez looks without his armor, which is what clued me in that something was off about him

As an aside, and this is something that really bothers me, I think one big failing of how FFXIV handles the narrative is that they don't account for optional content when progressing the story which can lead to plot threads seemingly dropped. For example, I don't recall Unukalhai and Cylva being mentioned whatsoever, despite being denizens from the void that are actively working on restoring their home much like Zero and Golbez are.

[Grumblecakes]

The story should have built up to Wuk Lamat becoming the next arcs villain. If they wanted to utilize her effectively, seeing her brother go bad, Sphene and her BS, etc, she should have been impacted. A fall from being like her father to seeing reality of conflict eventually becoming an antagonistic warmonger. Then maybe, just, maybe dealing with her all expansion would have at least led to something useful.

[Kacho_Nacho]

*snip*I've had quite enough of evil genocidal villains-turned BFFs, it got stale by the 3rd time.

Yeah, they've played that trope too often. We them to switch it out.

I really wanted to see Krile getting a big storyline culminating in her having to choose between staying with the Students of Baldesion or taking what was offered at the City of Gold.