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

[Solarra]

Changing the subject slightly -
The short story about Venat and the Watcher was interesting and again, I think it failed to convey what the writers intended.

The fact that Venat reveals her face to the Watcher for no good reason was probably meant to show her as a free spirit who defied stuffy old convention. However, in the Ancients' society the wearing of masks was explicitly (iirc) adopted in an attempt to prevent prejudice or people using their looks to advantage.

So, here we have a very pretty young woman approaching a lonely scholar who she has no interest in personally and revealing her face to him. The fact that she only seemed to visit the Watcher on occasions when she needed something, made her come across as either scheming or completely insensitive to his feelings, neither of which is a good look. The watcher is clearly smitten by Venat both for her intellect and her looks, but I felt that if he'd had any close friends (which doesn't seem to be the case), they'd have been trying to alert him to the fact that he was being used.

For the record, I don't 'hate' Venat, but I do feel she's probably one of the worst-written heroes I've come across in FF. There is nothing particularly heroic about her actions in causing the sundering and I feel her treatment of the Watcher is pretty callous. That could have made her into an interesting character, except that similar to Hermes, the game constantly ignores her flaws and pushes us into expressing unquestioning approval of her motives and actions.

[KageTokage]

That could have made her into an interesting character, except that similar to Hermes, the game constantly ignores her flaws and pushes us into expressing unquestioning approval of her motives and actions.

I still find it particularly grating how we're harboring doubt and distrust of her all the way up until we get the talk from the Watcher post-Zodiark, then it just kinda vanishes even when he basically states "Why yes, she was lying, but she had good reasons."...which literally no one actually questions and just accepts; even Thancred who could've reasonably have had some beefs for reasons pertaining to both Minfilia and Ryne.

The prior story has also gotten us accustomed to thinking that the life of a friend is something too valuable to be sacrificed for any reason...yet she's willing to convince the Watcher and her followers to give their lives up for a cause that they didn't even fully understand, whilst "our" Azem couldn't stomach sacrificing lives even for a cause that was as the story described quite literally the only option they had left to them.