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

[KizuyaKatogami]

Glad to see even after all that’s happened the devs can’t stop trying to shame the ascians for things Hydaelyn herself did…

[Nilroreo]

Glad to see even after all that’s happened the devs can’t stop trying to shame the ascians for things Hydaelyn herself did…

I still find the statement from the devs about how we weren’t ‘meant’ to read her as a villain a bit amusing. It's a fair enough point and all but given the recent revelation that she might've purposely missed Emet during the sundering, I can’t I help but be reminded of the Bahamut reveal from episode Ardyn.

Bahamut playing god of causality ensured that both Noctis and Ardyn wouldn’t veer off the paths preordained for them. Similarly, I can’t rationalize why Venat would spare Emet, subjecting him to 12K years of misery and essentially forcing him to play his role as villain for any reason other than to recreate the exact conditions that led to our history as we described it to her. Whether you determine her to be good or bad, it’s hard to ignore now that the Ascians are a monster of her making.

This also unfortunately vindicated my theory that the rejoinings couldn’t have been failures as she claimed back in HW since most of them were likely orchestrated by Emet himself anyways. Calling them failures at this point is like someone setting free a serial killer who threatens to kill their child, then acting surprised when they kill their child.