When they wrote themselves into the plotline that Zodiark was initially summoned to quell the catastrophe of the Final Days instead of being the source of it(like I believed before ShB), they had to come up with SOMETHING bigger and badder. The path they took was at least was more interesting than "Zodiark Bad, Hydaelyn Good", and I at least felt that going with the direction they did was more interesting than just some super evil guy that was just evil for the sake of being evil. I didn't really see Meiton as the ultimate baddy, but more just a conduit or tangible form of the ultimate baddie, that of the overall despair and hopelessness in the cosmos. Yes, she was the one who was shooting despair rays of despair at Etheirys , but I didn't personally feel like I defeated Metion at the end, I felt more like I had overcome the overall feeling of despair through my own desire to live. Perhaps that was a bad thing story wise? That I didn't really care much for the character that was Meiton but more of what she was representing? Not sure.

Other ranting thoughts: Fandaniel was a breath of fresh air, oddly enough, as it was nice to have someone who just wanted to watch the world burn and didn't have ulterior motives wrapped in "actually a good guy" plots like almost every other villain in FF had. Hermes was believable to an extent. In a civilization who all functioned on the same brainwave for the most part I am sure he felt extremely alienated amongst his piers based off his values of life as shown with the creations. Venat I didn't really have any feelings for. The more I recently read here the more I can see the confusion of her as a character and I can share the same thoughts, but for me in the beginning, when we learned she was the heart of Hydaelyn anytime I met her in the back of my mind I always though "that's cool, but we still have to get rid of your primalness". Oddly enough, the more I learned about Zodiark, the less I cares about him. He went from being the ultimate villain to a puppet on some strings. With the unsundrered gone, Fandaniel seemed best to pilot the Zodiark mecha as if Zenos did it would have just felt like Shinryu 2.0. As much as even I think time travel is a cop out, I think it was the only way to see the ancients as they were and not just as spooky specters in Amaurot, which I enjoyed. We could have maybe not have done the whole explanation that we are from the future, Venat knowing who we are and continuing to know till the end, and instead just have been able to watch the events before the final days unfold, but I assume there was some reason why they decided to go that route. Overall I think this wrapping up of the story could have probably been better told especially across two expansion instead of one, but I am also happy to get move away from this plotline(with occasional revisits) and onto something new.