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

[Millybonk]

• The mighty Zodiark, which has been build up as this mighty(evil) entity over several expansions, turns out to be nothing but filler trash for the first Endwalker trial
• The true cause of the Final Days is a pet-project from an ancient which goes mad after observing countless dead world and possibly causing the death of several world by projecting negative emotions unto them, and is thus dead-set on bringing despair to every world, upon which said ancient goes mad and is now letting her run her course to test humanity if they can withstand/fight despair
• Venat, who hasn't had her memory wiped + still remembers you from being in Elpis, quite apparently doesn't lift a finger to learn about Dynamis herself or to mobilize the other ancients to end Meteion then and there, and instead chooses to turn herself into Hydaelyn, sunder the world and the inhabitants, thereby forcing them to live with and face despair and gambling that their resilience against despair might be enough to face Meteion one day

Really?
This is the best SQ could do in terms of story after ShB?

[BaconBits]

Can't believe Hermes actually invented Twitter, the absolute madman.

[Atreides]

Man if everyone who enjoyed the story would make a thread... But alas, most people are too busy enjoying the game. I liked the story. Thanks for your opinion I guess...?

[NegativeS]

The only thing I absolutely hated about the story was how they handled Zodiark. Everything else was pretty good, if a bit hammy, slightly 'power of friendship'-y, with a pinch of plot armour and a cup of macguffin.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 hours, garnish with the death of another beloved character, and serve hot.

[EmpyreanHelios]

I didn’t like many aspects of the Endwalker storyline either, you’re not alone in that. However, making a thread like this is just going to get you hate from people who did.

[Hysterior]

I personally don't mind how Zodiark was handled.
It would have been a bit too predictable to have him being the end goal
+ he's still a primal, we know how to deal with those by then, no matter how strong.

Having said that, I have always hated time-travel + memory spells as story elements, so I can't say I was a big fan of the whole Elpis chapter

[Kaurhz]

It has pacing issues, sure.

But to address some of the points here to the best of my understanding.

Zodiark was still sundered, so he wasn't as powerful as he was on his original summoning prior to his sundering. The only thing that happened was the seal on him was broken. This shattering only broke his imprisonment. He was powerful, but not nearly as powerful as how the unsundered know him to be. This point is also a little bit weird, because the argument could just be made of "why didn't they just do this then to break his seal, instead of the rejoining escapades" - and I think the key difference here is that Fandaniel wasn't concerned with the methods, just the result, to which his methods could have potentially prevented bringing back / restoring the mankind that they knew.

I'd have liked it if there was more on the causality of the final days as opposed to it being a projection of emotions on the celestial currents (as I understand it).

We still don't know the length of time between Meteion leaving the planet and when the final days started to hit the planet(?), not only that Emet-Selch had openly admitted that their methods would not have carried mankind so far. The ancients weren't concerned with solving the fundamental cause of it as they were with just delaying the inevitable and feeding Zodiark to resurrect the sacrificed. Plus, I am pretty sure that the ancients didn't have the ability to manipulate/manifest dynamis given how dense their own aether is, and to my knowledge it is the abundance of aether which drowns out dynamis. The ancients were so crippled by their own despair that even trying to fight against dynamis or manifest it would have been nigh on futile.

At least this is the perspective I have on the story, and I think with her actions, and the 'reasoning' for them is precisely why she's ultimately a well developed character.

[KizuyaKatogami]

• The mighty Zodiark, which has been build up as this mighty(evil) entity over several expansions, turns out to be nothing but filler trash for the first Endwalker trial
• The true cause of the Final Days is a pet-project from an ancient which goes mad after observing countless dead world and possibly causing the death of several world by projecting negative emotions unto them, and is thus dead-set on bringing despair to every world, upon which said ancient goes mad and is now letting her run her course to test humanity if they can withstand/fight despair
• Venat, who hasn't had her memory wiped + still remembers you from being in Elpis, quite apparently doesn't lift a finger to learn about Dynamis herself or to mobilize the other ancients to end Meteion then and there, and instead chooses to turn herself into Hydaelyn, sunder the world and the inhabitants, thereby forcing them to live with and face despair and gambling that their resilience against despair might be enough to face Meteion one day

Really?
This is the best SQ could do in terms of story after ShB?

Yeah it has pretty obvious flaws sadly, especially considering how long it was delayed and supposed to be wrapping everything up, there’s still so many dropped plot lines. I just wish the final days felt like more of a threat. Outside of thavnair it didn’t really feel like it. Everyone important survived perfectly fine, we’re enjoying a lunch date with the scions in sharlayan while at the same time the world is supposedly ending in garlemald and thavnair. They banked too much on the fluff of the scions backing the story up so people wouldn’t side glance the fact this final days was kind of a major joke.

[Lily_Skye]

• The mighty Zodiark, which has been build up as this mighty(evil) entity over several expansions, turns out to be nothing but filler trash for the first Endwalker trial
• The true cause of the Final Days is a pet-project from an ancient which goes mad after observing countless dead world and possibly causing the death of several world by projecting negative emotions unto them, and is thus dead-set on bringing despair to every world, upon which said ancient goes mad and is now letting her run her course to test humanity if they can withstand/fight despair
• Venat, who hasn't had her memory wiped + still remembers you from being in Elpis, quite apparently doesn't lift a finger to learn about Dynamis herself or to mobilize the other ancients to end Meteion then and there, and instead chooses to turn herself into Hydaelyn, sunder the world and the inhabitants, thereby forcing them to live with and face despair and gambling that their resilience against despair might be enough to face Meteion one day

Really?
This is the best SQ could do in terms of story after ShB?

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

I disagree. I thought it was fantastic on my alt.

It'll be even better on my Main as I'm slowly going through the content again and doing as much as I can on them to make up for my alt (old main) skipping so much stuff for just the MSQ advancement.