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

[Lauront]

Depending on whether Zodiark's shield lasted indefinitely or not, it would've been an effective death sentence. The only reason it didn't end up being one is Venat escaped the memory wipe - had his test been administered the way he wanted, no one would have. We know from the Watcher that even with his "expertise", they did not determine the cause of it to be dynamis-related. And he knew all of this would materialise because you had come to them from the future for aid, implying it was not known. Instead, they devised a solution that detected deficiencies in the celestial currents and reinforced them. A good solution, but not one based on the root cause. A good chunk of the WoL's success is down to strokes of luck, at the end of the day. Hermes's perspective is still a pretty demented one, IMO, whether he aimed for destruction or not.

EXACTLY. I want to say more but I need sleep and I just wanted to chime in with how much I agree with this. The Ea were the first thing to come to my mind as well. It's all going to end someday but that doesn't mean that you lay down and die because that end is inevitable and possibly unpleasant. You don't give up on everyone and claim there couldn't possibly be a way forward.

They have choices, as well. Either they can go down the routes of the first or second worlds, or down the route of the Plenty, given that they share many of the same ideals as the ancients. It all depends on which part of their natures prevails in the end.

(...or we could just admit these are caricature worlds in the end to force a point, and realistically they can think through the whole issue before committing to such a path... much as the ancients could have given the full account of what happened.)

And yeah... just par for the course for a story that revolves around The Chosen One. That's one thing I'm glad is over for now.

We're spared that fate, for a time at least, even as the Alphirant is still with us. We'll see how long this "adventurer" thing ends up lasting in practice.