Dude love the video keep it up.also what is the name of the background music

"I have made a being to find the ultimate answer!" "You f'd up a perfectly good bird is what you did. Look at it. It's got depression."

Hermes is one of the most wide-reaching villains in all of Final Fantasy, in that he's been causing problems in VARIOUS incarnations for thousands and thousands of years. He caused the Final Days, he caused the Fourth Umbral Calamity as Amon by resurrecting Xande and letting him go crazy and do all his shit, he caused the Seventh Umbral Calamity by proxy since Bahamut only happened because of Xande, he caused untold suffering in the present day as the Fandaniel we first met, he kickstarted the Final Days AGAIN, and he had the most gaudy and ridiculous outfit since Kefka! I realize that last one may seem out of place but I mean come on, you look at Amon and tell me that a loving god would allow that nightmare, his hat is bigger than his body!

Meteion is a character who was convinced that she liked eating candied apples, because Hermes liked eating them and her empath powers were far too strong. So of course things would end tragically when she travelled to thousands of worlds full of death, misery, and nihilism.

You also need to remember that the Void between stars is very cold, and very, very, heart rendingly lonely. Midgardsormr survived the journey from Dragonstar by talking to the clutch of eggs he rescued. And Omega, while a machine was a machine with an ego, and thus actually had to shut it's Personality core down to prevent itself from going insane, but also admitted that it's not strong enough to return to Omicron. The Medeia more than likely had some mental degradation already from their independent journeys to the stars. That and Hermes' question is inherently flawed so it's impossible to properly answer.

Meteon reminds me of an old adage from Computer Science. There are no dumb computers, just really stupid programmers. What Hermes ended up doing was putting them in an endless loop without an escape, so it was no wonder she and her sister completely overloaded on the overwhelming despair they experienced. A computer and code will always do exactly as you tell it even if said instructions leads to an error or practically its own destruction. They are never any dumber or smarter than the one that created them, they just do things faster with little to no variance.

Hermes was the architect, the Meteia were the tool, and Meteion was an unwilling participant

Some people overlook the fact Meteia are empaths by nature. They really can’t help it to take in emotions. The Meteion we know tried her best to prevent Hermes from hearing the report. I really don’t blame them or her as the individuals.

[SPOILER WARNING] This is something that I think gets overlooked, but Hermes' is also a victim here, but of the ancient's flawed society. The ancients believed they have the right to create and manipulate life using aether, that it was their duty to control the life that could exist on the star, essentially playing as gods. We see how deeply this affects Hermes as the head of Elpis, where life forms are created and tested before they are released onto the star, as he alone seems to understand that recalling a life form that doesn't conform to its designed specifications means killing a living being. He would rather help the water-aspected charybdis learn to fly than have it destroyed. He acknowledges that the feral lykaeons have souls, and tries to convince his team of another way to stop them. When he is forced to kill them in the end, he tells the lykaeons it's okay to hate the ancients, himself included. None of the life they created asked to be born, and that their lives should begin or end based on the whims of the ancients is the unimaginable cruelty which lies at the heart of their very existence. Reading deeper, you could even say this stands as a metaphor for how the ancients govern themselves. They shun individual expression, and live only to be useful to the social order. It's never outright stated what happens to those who don't conform, but considering Hermes has chosen to keep his feelings inside rather than oppose the order (a privilege that seems to lie only with the seat held by Azem on the convocation), it's possible that deconstruction, or some form of aether manipulation was used on those who did not agree with the social order. This part is speculation, but for a society that already sees no value in life that deviates from an established order, it's certainly possible. That aside, Hermes feels trapped in a system that does not want to understand him or people like hm. A society that rules with pure, cold logic over emotional intelligence. So, he creates the metia, beings that can interact with emotional energy. He makes them in secret on Elpis, purposefully hiding them from the board that approves concepts, because he knows that if their concept is rejected, the metia, Metion included, will be deconstructed. Where everyone else would just see this as necessary, Hermes knows this would result in the death of living beings, one closer to the intelligence of mankind than any he's made before, and so he protects them. He secretly begins sending them out into the stars in the hope of finding other civilizations, other ways of living, ones that could potentially course-correct for the dangerous problems he sees in Etiheryan society. When the metia bring back news of nothing but dead worlds beyond the stars, Hermes' last hope is extinguished, and this breaks him. What's more, now that Metion has begun to deviate from her designed parameters, and likely suspecting by that point in the story that those confronting him have discovered his secret creation of the metia, he knows that the only fate which awaits Metion if they get their hands on her is deconstruction: death. This is why he goes to such lengths to keep her safe in the tower, and why, after confirming that there are indeed only two types of worlds: ones dead and ones headed for death, he decides to let her go. Is this evil? Well, it's not good. Hermes probably knows by this point that Metion and her sisters are the cause for the final days, but even though he created them, he recognizes their right to exist as living beings with their own wills, wants, and desires, independent of himself. He seems to conceptualize the event not as the choice between mass murder and sparing a civilization, as much as between a society that believes itself to be completely correct, and a truth that they would deem disagreeable. Eitheryan society would sooner bring about Zodiark to keep things they way they are forever, than look inward and challenge their beliefs. This is likely why Hermes frames this as a test, to see who prevails. Will the Eitheryians finally grow? Or will the flawed society they created crumble around them like so many other stars? To his credit, he wipes his memory and places himself on the side that will work to avert the final days, though its unclear to me if he sided with Zodiark or Haedalyn in the end since he was sundered and only later turned into an ascian after having lived through his life as Amon (which was basically like Eitherys, only worse, because the Allagans held even less regard for life than the ancients did). He's certainly a flawed character, but whenever I see people saying he's the "true villain" of EW's story, it never feels satisfying. This is some of FFXIV's most complex storytelling, and I don't think there's a single right answer. From my perspective, this all played out like a Greek tragedy, with one domino knocking over another. That could have been stopped at multiple points, but just wasn't. In the end, if we must have one true villain for the whole story, the one that might make the most sense is despair itself. Despair caused Metion's fall, it caused Hermes to invite the end, it caused the Eytherians to summon Zodiark. Only Haedalyn represented a way forward. Not by ignoring negative emotions, or by giving into them, but by pushing forward with despair as a constant companion. Accepting it, but not being resigned to it. It's why at the end, we fight a literal manifestation of the despair of dead worlds and not super Hermes.

Meteion was totally a victim of Hermes ambitions. One thing that people seem to miss, or outright ignore, is that Hermes was a victim of circumstance as well. Almost all the Ancients were weak in emotional attachment. Hermes was the only one of them that mourned the loss of others and felt sad by their passing.

I felt sorry for her, she carried far bigger burden than people think. She didn't want to disappoint her creator; while knowing what her sisters learned would break his heart. I mean Hermes was broken, you can see it when you go to Elpis, he really can't find reason to live at the moment there and is desperately trying to get answers that he himself can't see around him.

My Interpretation: The true antagonist is loneliness. Hermes had nobody to talk to about his worries, problems and view of life as most Ancients didnt understood or were otherwise not on his wavelength, hell, some might even refused to try to see through his eyes. When his dear friend and current holder of the seat of "Fandaniel" decided to return to the star, he was visiblely shattered. One can presume he wasnt okay to let his dear friend go to be the new "Fandaniel" anyway and let it happend because it was their wish. We can assume Meteion and her sisters were created while his friend was "Fandaniel" already as he searched for answeres and to have someone to talk to. This, for me, is the direct contrast to WoL and FFXIV as a game overall. FFXIV ENCOURAGES and forces you to play and work with others, be it players or NPCs, WoL's true strength comes from the friends they made along the way and the people they make friends with, even when they were enemies at first. Very many points in the game were impossible for WoL alone, starting from WoL rallying the fellow captured people to fight against Ifrit up to upgrading the Ragnarok. Hermes was all alone, for a very, very long time. Alone even among the people working and living in Elpis. Check on your friends, make sure they are alright.

Hermes is really to blame. Even by ancient standards- he broke the rules that governs creation magicks. All ideas need to be reviewed by a whole department. Hades even points out to him- did you give instructions if methionine sisters if they should come onto dead or dieing wholes. Did Hermes even consider what would have to them. Hermes did not think about Meteion at all. She runs away because she does not want to tell the report but makes her. Throughout this entire ordeal- Hermes doesn't consider anyone and only himself. Meteion is a victim of her circumstances. She communities by emotions and was not given any other tools. She did try by running away from Hermes but then he forced her to go through the report and succumb to that negative emotion. And seriously- every encarnation of Hermes is into death but when death finally comes for him he can't accept it- only accepts to bring death to others.

Meteion is for all purposes a child. A child gone "feral" due to actions for Hermes. She didn't know any better, couldn't know any better. Small part of her that did, was too late, too powerless to stop rest of her.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think there was ever going to be a way for square to make fandaniel a good villain and they did that shit AND managed to make him likable too in a way. Both meteion and Hermes are characters that I feel immense sadness for. Meteion was essentially pushed to discover a horrifying truth that ultimately warped her and almost ended up destroying everything and Hermes not only was dealing with his inability to reconcile his world and his own existence but I’m sure he felt immense guilt realizing what he had done to his creation in his own pursuit of meaning considering his obvious concern for all the creatures of ethierys. Hermes was flawed absolutely but imo I think there was real truth in his apprehension for the ways of his people. It’s such a shame that what came of his questioning was only destruction. Certainly a tragic story and a damn well written one.

I do think Hermes is at fault at the end of the day, including his Amon personality. Reason being at listening to Meteion's report, he still wanted to despair. That's why he fought to protect Meteion and separate her from the other ancients that listened to the report. He forced his ultimatum because he broke and he assumed the rest of his civilization would give up as he did. It doesn't change the fact that he wanted to be proven wrong, he stood next to humanity. However, the despair of living was written so deeply in his soul that when he was Amon, he remembered what happened in Elpis. He remembered Meteion then and how he eased his own memories. Following his sorrow, Xande's decision to destroy the world resonated with Amon-Hermes. He continued to follow down this path of destruction at his own will. Hermes doesn't want to live. By easing his own memories, he almost cemented his fate to keep despairing as his latter reincarnations vaguely remember his original woes in Elpis. Also, we blame real villains in our histories because of their actions, despite what they intended to do. Actions that Hermes and Amon-Hermes chose :D

Despite his selfish actions, it's clear from the "I will gift you a beautiful flower" scene that Hermes loved Meteion very much. Elidibus describes Fandaniel in the present as "consumed by self-loathing", and I can't help but think that it comes from Hermes knowing deep down that it's his own fault that Meteion ended up the way she did. Because he was suffering from mental illness, he was incapable of seeing the bigger picture outside of his own desperation and likely couldn't bear to think about how Meteion must have been suffering because of him, causing him to simply ignore it. The man had his own suffering, but what happened was his fault nonetheless.

I always thought that Hermes is to blame and that Meteion is just another victim of him. I mean....she´s very naive, inexpierenced and child-like, yet incredibly powerful. Why would you send such a being to explore the depths of space? It was very obvious that she was not mentally prepared for that but only physically and I´m pretty sure Hermes could have prepared her better but wasn´t willing to wait because of his own state of mind.

Indeed, I bet most of us recognised that Meteion is a blue bird, symbolizing hope and happiness. From my perspective, the lore is going to convince us not to lose our faith and hope is the only thing which brings victory. When hope itself looks dim and turns black, and we don't hold our faith, it is the true end.

I absolutely LOVED the bird visualization to the character. Empathy and imprinting were a very clever plot device in that area. She imprints on who raises her. Like a duckling. When we first see her react to Hermes darker emotions we think its sadness that hurts Meteion. Something more innocent for Hermes. By the end of the story you realize just how dark Hermes thoughts and feelings were. He was the true villain on the story. Meteion was like a captive to everyone elses despair. I really held onto that belief throughout how dark her story got. Seeing her react so pure of heart towards the Warrior of Light was what I kept going back to when she became so dark. It's also why I smiled when I saw our Meteion is still around. Seeing her fly happily around all this life around her instead of shunning it from existence was a perfect ending.

not only did Hermes throw the burden of sorrow onto meteion's shoulders, he created her to do so. He could have easily created her to have an emotional fail safe where if any emotions got to overwhelming for her, she could have shut down, or go dormant until she is in a better, safer place. Emit made a mention of this to him, and Hermes was unresponsive to it. Hermes used meteion as an excuse to lash out against his unemphatic colleges.

I honestly see her as a victim. The poor thing…. She still cares about Hermes and fought and fought… If Hermes acted as a father and protected Meteion, maybe it worked it been different. Also, she’s very sensitive to emotion, feeling happiness, but also sadness. For me, she’s innocent and didn’t ask for all of this. I felt terrible about what happened and just wanted her to be with the people she cares and loves. I guess that’s why before confronting her, the option I picked was for her to go with us

Basically my own feelings on the matter summed up perfectly. Also telling to me that at basically no point does Hermes really take any responsibility for his actions - the closest he comes is his bit of doubt as he's being dragged off by Asahi. Meteion on the other hand acknowledges her own guilt and recognizes how horrible what she did was, even as she tries to offer a small gesture of healing to the universe.

I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but when Hermes tells Emmett and the group the objective he gave the Metiea, Emmett asks (basically) "Isn't that too vauge?" Hermes gave a bad mission objective and got the results from them.

It all boils down to what Emet-Selch asked Hermes: What if the question is wrong? Cant remember the line correctly but it points out the same theme as in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when they ask the machine what the meaning of universe is and it replies with 42. The question is flawed. And Meteion paid the price, as the whole universe has. Imagine if he asked her to go out and tell others "you are not alone!" . This all could have ended with a better universe.

Hermes actually more at fault than we think he is, Ancients had strict regulations and vigorous testing grounds for new creations, some Ancients even commenting on the fact they observe newly created life-forms for decades and see changes withing newly created lifeforms in the multiple generations of it. What Hermes does? Creates a new life-form, doesn't report it and immediately releases it for some obscure personal task, which come to think of it would never be approved by convocation. More hilariously, he is a leader of this testing ground facility and must be aware of all standards and regulations, but he thinks he is better than this. He was never cut-off for this job to begin with, this is kinda on the nose, but it illustrates how often people in charge are not even qualified to be in charge to begin with.

Poor Meteion was a child given an impossible mission and burden by the one person who was supposed to protect her, Yeah, she was the victim and didn't deserve anything that happened to her.

I don't think Hermes is flawed or is the reason for all problems. I consider it a complicated issue and the collective circumstances of Hermes is what also pushed him to do what he did. Don't forget, he sincerely opposed the idea to unmake creations just because they were not useful/not do what the creators want them to do. He believed everyone and everything has a right to live. Even a bloodthirsty monster, can have a purpose if they would be willing to research it. Dangerous, obviously. So are some animals in real life. Hermes believed every living thing has a function, and to have him turn over Meteion, he didn't want to lose her either. If any, Hermes considered this a test, as well as a point to prove in the sense of how would you feel if something else has agency over whether you live or die when you can no longer serve your purpose? We saw in Thavnair that the first blasphemy, was of a salesman we met when we first landed there, who was struggling to make due, something good was going to happen until it got cancelled again. The roots of his despair is that salesman felt he failed, can't make it, everything he tried still didn't work out, attempting something even felt pointless, and that made him susceptible to transforming into a blasphemy. All those things lead to the idea that your life has no purpose, and should it be so, you should be unmade. That's how the Ancients worked, that's what Hermes opposed, and I'd like to believe that same feeling was also transferred to Meteion. To point fingers at who is the ultimate villain is far more difficult I'd say, since it was all circumstances. On the surface, folks who do not know the circumstances, would consider someone a villain without knowing their circumstances. As the video pointed out, Meteion and her sisters are definitely not mature enough to cope and grasp with pain like this, but it's also a lesson that can be seen today. People that grow up with a messed up childhood and mostly suffer, have 50/50 chance that either makes them become the solution to what they went through, or breaks them and contribute to the same thing that made them suffer. The Warrior of Light's experience made him be a solution, Meteion's experience broke her to become part of the problem.

very nice video, i'm more of the opinion that Zodiark wasn't actually evil, he did exactly what the ancients wanted, to stop the final days and return the world to the bliss they had before, without suffering. the entire reason hydaelyn decided to sunder the world instead of side with her fellow ancients, is because she remembers Meteion's report and how every world that had no suffering, was destined to lose purpose and self-destruct(even shown to us as the last world in the dungeon Dead Ends). thats the entire reason she took such a drastic measure like becoming hydaelyn. and for the fact that the Meteia are very young, Hermes says so(twice!) and the quote is even shown in this video at 4:37 ".....i did not teach you to walk the earth, so loath was i to bind another living being ....." if hermes would have taken more time to make sure the meteia developed to maturity, this wouldnt have happened. ....sure they would have died from reaching the breaking point of "no suffering,no purpose" but you get the point.

My thoughts was that it was never Meteion to blame, any of the individual Meteion. The joint consciousness was a separate being, the embodiment despair. Hermes isn't really the villain either. Despair is.

Can we take a moment to appreciate how not only was Hermes just a bad Dad to Meteion and her sisters because he thought it would be totally fine to release a flock of bird children out into the cosmos with little direction, explanation, or defenses, but he’s also just a BAD SCIENTIST!? He’s the head of an institution wholly dedicated to testing Concepts to determine their fitness to exist out in the wider world of Etheirys, and yet he released a flock of UNTESTED, UNREGISTERED Creations out into the universe. Even he should have recognized the risks in sending an untested creation to a far flung star, because he never would have allowed that on his own star. Like from the outset, Hermes was not only terminally depressed, he was dangerously reckless at his job too. I get that he didn’t vibe with how his peers went about it. Unmaking a creation deemed unfit to exist is cruel and there could have been better ways around that, but that doesn’t change the importance of their function. When your whole society can play god and you all have to potentially live with those consequences, yeah there should be regulation and testing for that. Hermes worked outside of that structure and look how that nearly endangered all of existence! I say all this because I think this just provides yet another reason for why Hermes bears so much responsibility here. He wasn’t just some shmuck that didn’t know the rules, he ran the dang place! He, of all people, DID know better, but he was too caught up in his own feelings to stop and think long enough about the consequences of his actions.

Let's also not forget that Hermes encouragement of Meteion's descent into madness was because he was so overwhelmed with the news of other worlds' total annihilation, he could only conclude that life itself is an aberration so he took the idea of how they judge their own creations and applied it to all life on Etheirys, including their own. He was incapable of correcting and reassuring Meteion because of confirmation bias, essentially.

That's why you always do error checks and debug before you deploy your concepts. HH

Meteion was essentially tabula rasa to begin with. She was designed to collect emotion, incorporate it, and grow from it. Basically a "you are what you eat" situation. Hermes, on the other hand, was as stupid as he was depressed. He is an amazing example of why you don't let a weak kneed wannabe philosopher play in your science lab. The ancients really should have had a psych evaluation as part of the job interviews for the place where people make monsters just because they're bored. Interesting and not completely related side note: Meteion was, to some degree, planned as far back as ARR. In the Crystal Tower raid, Nero is searching for an unknown power/power source. At the end of the final cutscene, Nero is standing at the edge of the broken bridge and after saying something about starting a new life, he throws his scanner into the ravine and walks away. As the camera pans up to show the tower in the distance, just as the screen fades out, a static sounding echo of Morse code can be heard from the ravine. When translated, the code says "It's all wrong". The power he was looking for was Dynamis. Edit: The morse code can be seen at the end of cutscene 2 of the crystal tower series quest "The light of Hope" in the unending journey book.

I've personally found that trying to pin all the blame on Hermes also comes with its own flaws. Not to say your argument wasn't well thought out and invalid, but there is more to Hermes' situation than him simply making a bad choice. If we look at the pattern of all the dead stars, we find that whenever a society reaches an apex, it ultimately falls into stagnation and dies due to a self-imposed despair. If we look at the state of Etheirys by the time of Hermes, we find that they're well on their way to reaching that point. The Ancients were a people who lived relatively blissful lives, and had completely forgotten any idea of suffering. Thus, when the Final Days arrived, their pact with Zodiark likely would've lead to their own personal Final Days regardless. All this said, while Hermes was the one who pulled the trigger and let Meteion out which caused the Song of Oblivion to begin, everything we have learned about the other stars suggests that this was more of an inevitability than an avoidable crisis. Essentially, if it wasn't Hermes, then it would have been somebody else. So yes, while Hermes was the one who started this, this wasn't necessarily as avoidable a situation as it might seem by arguing that he's solely to blame.

Great video. I do find it very important and meshes with your idea that Meteion is modeled and acts like a CHILD - we’re not supposed to see her as a logical functioning adult - she’s just reflecting what is taught to her. I feel pity towards her, not hate. She just lacked a teacher or parent to guide her through her confusion. It’s a seed of an idea, but I think that it’s very interesting that this feeling of pity (for me at least) is also evoked by the Garleans (who were more or less brainwashed into hating the other Eorzians) and Zenos (whose childhood clearly shaped him into what he is). I didnt hate them, was annoyed by them, but overall I pitied them.

Meteion is like a physical representation of Pandora's Box, filled with all of the evils and despair of the universe. And, one lone, blue Meteion, is hope. Another thing to note: the soul of Azem is said to have a distinctly blue color. I like to think Hopeful Meteion's color is the same color as Azem's soul.

I agree with you. Hermes was a soft and very sentimental person. He couldnt handle the burden of creating or deleting life. His initial question that he sent his creations out to discover for him was indeed flawed. Reminds me of Kuon Ichinose from Persona 5 Strikers in that that they share a profound desire to understand something deep within humanity, something they think they are lacking or something which tortures them from the inside out. Meteion was responsible yes, but not ultimately the cause. Her programming was flawed, much like EMMA in P5S. She wants to solve the problem, but her answer is the antithesis to humanity.

So going into the point that she is a victim, the relationship between her and Hermes is very much like parent and child. And this story is a very good representation of what is called "parentification" which is where a parent will put adult responsibilities on a child. It's a form of childhood emotional neglect, which is a tricky form of abuse because it's not what was done to you but what you lacked. Hermes uses Metion as an emotional venting board, using her to try and solve his own emotional problems. He is giving a child a very adult responsibility of managing *his* emotional response to things. Hell that is literally a whole part of the questline. Metion basicly grew up thinking that it was her responsibility to manage others emotions for them. And due to her mission she quite literally felt like she had to manage the entire universes emotional response. That is a heavy burden to bare and it's no wonder that she came to the conclusion she did, and did what she did. She is a victim of abuse and handling that situation in the only way she knew how. That certainly doesn't negate the damage she did - just as victims can find themselves lashing out to those they love, harm can easily be caused. She is responsible for her actions, and it had wide reaching effects, of course. But I also agree that ultimately the blame lies with Hermes, who put far too much adult responsibility onto a child.

Meteion did A LOT wrong, actually, but it wasn't her fault. It's quite unanimous that Hermes was the cause, by making her ask The Question, then became a catalyst for the Final Days [twice]. Then again, I think the biggest factor was the society they lived in. The ancients were incredibly pragmatic and didn't see their creations as living creatures. And when Hermes was forced to kill that wolf creation, I have a feeling that's how ALL discarded creations are terminated: by outright killing them. Hermes was unique in that he was one of the few who did have empathy. I think that's why he created Meteion as an empath in the first place. I'll go even further to say the ancients didn't value their own lives, if they were willing to kill themselves to keep powering Zodiark to relive the past. I honestly believe. If the ancients weren't so pragmatic over discarding lives or didn't deem living creations "flawed," Hermes wouldn't have sent Meteion to the stars to ask other worlds if life was worth living.

It will be interesting to see where they take Meteion going forward. A redemption arc is possible but dynamis will also be very prevalent going forward as well.

This title were my first words to her big reveal

all my homies hate hermes

I think you're missing something about the field of Flowers summoned by Emet-Selch. They reflect Meteion's emotions, and the victory isn't in reminding her of her friends or anything like that, but in revealing her own hidden hope to her, a hope that she buried for eons.

Hermes didn't doom Etheirys, he saved it. Meteion said it herself, every civilization that tried to attain perfection ended up dooming themselves to extinction. The society of the Ancients was attempting to do just that, their every action an attempt to contribute to the "good of the star," what would have happened once they finally felt there was nothing more to contribute? Would they all return to it like Hermes suggested they might? By sending the Meteia out into the stars Hermes did bring about the final days, yes. But he also created the circumstances to allow the peoples of Etheirys to overcome the doom that the star was destined for regardless. Hermes was a hero

I personally like to think of Meteion and her sisters as programmes to a main computer. The little birds fly out, while the "base of operations" stays on the planet. The mission in itself was inherently flawed, and so was the design of Meteion. A childlike being, highly empathetic to the point of her experiencing other peoples feelings without the means to process them, being tasked to find the meaning of life itself is beyond madness. When her sisters collected their report, Meteion felt the sorrow and sadness of dying worlds - not only those that were in the report, but maybe even hundreds of them. She felt death by plague, death by loneliness, death by apathy, death by war, sorrow, fear, rage, anger, and confusion at the same time to an extent that it would break even the strongest character. And she broke. I agree with her being the victim in the broader sense, however, she and her sisters have been singing this song of oblivion for thousands of years in a row: considering that the Third Umbral Era is dated to be around 6000 to 5000 years ago, after being precedented by the Calamities of Wind, Lightening and Fire have occured before those times essentially also means that the time Emet-Selch approaches Emperor Xande of the Allagan Empire precedented after three Shard rejoinings. So, in a rough estimate, the Sundering and the Beginning of Man as myriad races was way before this. In this time, she hoarded suffering, and sang her song of oblivion. How many worlds has this song reached? How many worlds, who were not aether shrouded like Etherys, were subjected to the Final Days? How many countless lives were lost in those thousands of years, while the Ascians were spinning their schemes? She is a victim, but she is by no means innocent.

I think the other ancients are partially too blame too because it was their complete disregard for life that they deem imperfect that sent Hermes into his depression in the first place

The entire story of FFXIV, from the first moment we (as WoL) wake up to the moment we put Zenos down, is the story of the consequences of a single bad decision: Hermes' Meteion project and its deeply flawed premise and equally flawed execution. Hermes screwed up so much and so often that he's at least partially responsible for at least three calamities in addition to nearly killing everyone everywhere.

I always hear people say "blame the meteia" so it must be her fault. XD Good stuff again as usual! Definitely agree it would be cool to see one on Hermes/Amon.

This is a great take, the story is a reflection of the concept of fixing traumas passed down to us by our parents or we end up perpetuating the cycle of hurt!

Hermes made a critical error, but he never acted out of malice. And neither did Meteion, really. In the depths of her despair, she truly believed that ending all life was a mercy and the best way to achieve happiness. The Meteia were children. Children burdened with a terrible responsibility and a flawed premise of a mission. You can see it in the Endsinger's death quote: "If this...was not the answer...then what is it? Where lies...happiness...?". She so desperately wanted to understand the world around her but she was just not made to handle the overflow of emotion. Hermes is ultimately responsible, yes, but Amaurotine society is partially to blame as well. The Ancients were so callous with their power. So unsympathetic and lacking empathy for their creations. It's why Hermes looked to the stars. He was alone on Etheirys in how he felt, so he thought that maybe some other star might have the answer.

Meteion maybe did nothing wrong, but Hermes is the mother of all fuck ups.

Hermes was source of most of destruction but he wasnt doing it out of malice or cruelty. He jsut wanted people of Etherys to value all life more signifcantly, to do that he hoped to show other worlds and views as evidence but like Emet stated, he didnt planned it properly. His final act of testing humanity against despair was a way for him to know if life was truly worth it, that his purpose and believes were right or wrong (Hermes believe not Amon)

I absolutely agree that Hermes was responsible for the Final Days. But I want to argue that his actions put into motion events that change the future of Etheirys for the better. They were on a similar path to the race that self-imploded, and crafted a being "Ra'la" to slay their inhabitants. When Etheirys reaches perfection, then what would their purpose be? What is the purpose of their life if the world is already so magnificent? Can they eventually come to the conclusion, that life will be meaningless? One of the philosophies Endwalker reinforces is, that joy and hurt are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. Absent of pain, joy will be tasteless. Life will stagnate, and become dull. Its a thought provoking thing, really. As for Meteion, this is similar to the Yotsuyu/Tsuyu thing in SB. Do we hold her accountable for actions she had no control over? Meteion was deeply corrupted by her sisters, and they in turn was corrupted by the despair of dying worlds. Do we hold Tsuyu accountable for actions Yotsuyu, her true self, was responsible for? Its tough. Hermes was responsible, but can we fault his innocent intentions? How could he have foreseen the despair of a thousand worlds overtaking his familiars? I wouldn't have. I will say, however, that maybeee he should have consulted his intentions with the Convocation and maybeee someone like Emet-Selch or Azem or the previous Fandaniel could have had the foresight to say, "No, but what if this happens. It could be disastrous." Just my thoughts. A lot to unpack here.

I totally agree and feel for her; I even understand why Hermes acted the way he did.. I mean….how would you feel if you found out you had no free will, were not real, the people you loved were fake and are living in a simulation with no way out.. you just might loose it it also. But the promise of hope and the experience of “life” are what make it worth it, the good and the bad. And the fact that despair caused people to loose hope and turn into monsters… brilliant storytelling.

Meteion's abilities and very nature, combined with the states of her creator, world, and the rest of the universe, meant that she was doomed the moment she was made

I too think its Hermes fault. Metion and her sister before they went into space were young children and what does Hermes do? He sends them off into space knowing full well they could encounter hostile races all for a question in which the best way to find the answer is to look for it yourself.

Meteion was a child. Born with powers beyond her understand. Then sent out into the world, without the guidance of her father. I wish that Azem had been there to guide her.

Nope, Hermes. He sent neotenous young girls out into the universe with no education to experience all the pain and anguish in the universe and share it between themselves. Of course they went mad.

Agreed with you...that Hermes is required to be blamed because of one question - that is he out seek and can't accept the given answer and turn everything into oblivion! It is a despair he created for everyone.

I hate birds but I hate people who make birds more.

just in general the subtle stuff like when shes in the hive mind her voice id much darker and monotone. she literally got pulled into the hive mind because hermes wanted the answer more than her well being. The thing about her voice is she always has a darker monotone voice when shes in despair mode. When the field of flowers appears and she asks if you can hear her ,her voice changes to the softer higher voice. that was the indication that you reached meteion there and not her sisters. While i get why she blames herself for what happend i legit cant blame her as she to me was more of a victim to it. The cute thing about the elpis flower field too is its your imagination making it happen as emet says you have to imagine your way to get there he can just create it, it kinda seems to me the warrior of light wanted to save her as with the echo we did see what hermes promised. Also the sentence "even tho i gave you those wings i did not teach you how to walk the earth so loath was i to bind another leaving creature... amongst your long jorney you will learn from those you meet to walk to run and so much more" the camera pants to the warrior of light as an indication of you are the onw who will teach her show her the way sry if this is all a bit scuffed i legit liked little meteion i fucking farmed the final dungeon to get the fucking bird. i do hope we get to see her again tho i dont know how many people are actually on the side of that she didnt do wrong vs the ones who believe shes the villain.

The Final Days is what happens when you skip the peer review process on your experiment, and it turns out you phrased your hypothesis wrong. I could argue that it's still not Hermes' fault entirely, because for some reason his people around him made him unwilling to ask for help, but primarily I will agree it's his fault.

Quick correction, Aether is not in opposition to Dynamis, they both exist in cohabitation and can be used together (it's speculated that Limit Break uses Dynamis and Aether) It's simply that Dynamis is less potent than Aether, however it is more abundant than Aether. Most people on Eitherys can't sense Dynamis because there's just so much Aether on the planet, in fact Eitherys is abnormally full of aether, even sundered, moreso than any planet that's been discovered by the Meteion sisters.

Damnit Hermes, this is why the checks and balances are there to analyze and research new creations. Regulations are there for a reason! If he'd followed the rules and just submitted the idea for Meteion and her sisters instead of hiding his project, then the weakness of his plan with an emotionally driven creation like Meteion would have been found and then a solution for that to work with his answer-finding project could have been found. But nooooo that chaotic, reckless, flighty ancient just HAD to break the rules.

embrace suffering, attain enlightenment the path we walk is paved with sorrow and joy without suffering we cannot move forward, so when things seem darkest, when you hate your life and you want to die embrace that pain and keep walking forward and simple ask yourself what would I endure to reach a happy life full of love and laughter. Take everything from life and give nothing back.

Honestly, I'd say that while Hermes bore the brunt of the blame for Meteion turning out the way she did, the Ascians' society as a whole carried a lot of the blame as well: As spelled out by Hythlodeus, the Ascians' culture held that "it is beautiful" for those who have lived their lives to their fullest to -return to the star- just plain die, with only Hermes objecting that this is only (arguably) so for mankind and that the deaths of the creatures they euthanise are anything but beautiful... During her answer to Hermes' question of whether she found happiness and reasons for living out in the universe, Meteion reveals how her exposure to the Ascians' perspectives shaped her perception of the omnicidal extinction she intended on visiting upon the rest of creation, all of these worlds that attempted to live their lives to their fullest, by describing the "peace" and "serenity" she would bring with the words "it will be beautiful."

I don't think that any person that followed the story as intended would think that Meteion is responsible .

I've always blamed Hermes/Fandaniel for the deaths of those planets. He had the Meteia ask the wrong question and send those civilisations over the edge into despair and death. As Amon and Asahi he was even worse. So my vote is Hermes as the villain and Meteion as his first and greatest victim.

That's a tricky one. You are right, most of the responsibility falls on Hermes, but there it far too much blood on her hands to be forgiven. I'm curious if SE will tell us in game how many people died during the events of of the final days in Endwalker.

Meteon should be introduced either as a bard fighting pet, or a summoner's one

I cant help wondering how many other worlds the Endsinger managed to destroy all those years, while our star was protected. I mean, Zodiark only protected our star, right?

Cool ranch did a whole lot of things wrong, just because she was set up for failure out the gate doesn't excuse the countless worlds and races that were rendered extinct directly or otherwise by her wings.

If only he knew the Answer was 42.

I used /handover to starbird and she eats it, so she feeds bird feeds.

Don't know if we can blame him either given what he was going through and the fact now seemed to care I think it's more a combination of factors rather than an individual that to blame here

One of the top characters in 14 I felt sorrowful for. Imagine a legitimately sweet innocent being forced to download memories of all the horrific things that happened throughout history. So sad. Even the symbolism of the bluebird of happiness being stained black. I have to wonder if the entire Meteion storyline is a metaphor that applies to not just life but also games and mmos as well. So many people rush to the end, rush to complete what they want, then lose interest and enjoyment. What I felt from the meteion character was the advice to cherish the journey, which I think is a large part of 14 compared to other mmos. All the other "meteion"s staining the innocent one black could also be seen as the internet collective ruining new player experiences. Probably reading too much into it, but its a powerful illustration.

This whole concept is a lot, but it's absolutely clear that this was not her fault. At all. She was fulfilling the purpose she was made for. It's as Emet-Selch said, Hermès' questions were flawed and didn't take into consideration that other worlds may not have peace, joy, or happiness, nor did he consider that she may encounter people who no longer wanted to live. If you're at the point where you want to end things then life won't have much meaning for you. That being said, Hermès was very troubled by those he lived with, he was a very empathic person and mourned the loss of every life, and valued every creature who lived. He felt that death was a waste and he experienced sadness that no one else could understand. When he met us, it was the first time he encountered someone who understood what was going on inside him and could shed light on his feelings and converse with him. Unfortunately, we met him AFTER he already sent a host of Meteion to other worlds in search of the meaning of life. I cannot fault Hermès or Meteion with the End of Days. The true enemy in Endwalker is Depression and Despair. It's really hard to wake up when you're stuck in a depressive rut. And unfortunately, no one seemed interested in really trying to understand Hermès, and it didn't help that most of the people he worked with have never been outside of Elysium, let alone outside of Aumarot. Not very many left their confines, the exception being the Azem, and they were seen as strange by the others. It's not so difficult to see then, how Hermès depression took hold of him, and despite all of the life and beauty he's seen and even created, it wasn't enough to shake him out of it, and the difficult truth is that hope is a difficult thing to create, accept, and hold onto when you have severe depression like he did. It's such a good and moving story.

I thought Hermes was such a tragic character. His love for creation, seeing that they shouldn't just be deconstructed because they don't fit in the way the ancients deemed permissible, ended up destroying creations on a massive scale and many worlds. He didn't think fully about what he tasked Metion and her sisters to do nor gave her the tools to deal with with issues and overwhelming emotion along the way. It was like sending a small child out in the universe alone to find the meaning of all life (while they seemingly just started theirs) without any direction, contingencies, or a real plan. Just a good luck, find me my answer all the while forgetting she and her sisters were made to be highly empathic and would take on any and all emotional pain they'd encounter without a thought to how they'd cope. It was so neglectful of Hermes to be so short sighted and cruel to them like that, though he thought so much he was setting her and them free while only setting them up for tragic failure to their end and despair.

Hermes is the prime example of why science has ethics boards and peer review.

A small opinion on Hermes vs the rest of the ancients though. I feel Hermes depression was also due to how the Ancients felt themselves superior to other life forms as well. Benevolent as they may be, they still treated the creatures they created life to as a toy, or just objects, uncaring for how the creatures felt for not being 'perfect'. The ancients would dispose of such creatures willy nilly, we see this with one of the creatures that was about to be disposed of due to a mutation, but Hermes and Emet were able to teach it to fly regardless and thus saved the creature. Imagine being told to put down your dog or cat because it was born with the wrong colour eyes, or because it grew with a second tail.

This might be a bit off topic, but I find it interesting how I think all of the antagonists think that they're doing right by choosing for their people, whereas the WoL and the Scions are always defending peoples' right to choose for themselves. Antagonists: "I have the answer!" WoL: "Great, but did I fucking ask?"

Hermes goal was fundamentally flawed. he himself is flawed, he created a flawed creation, yet he hope his creation can give a "perfect answer" to the oldest question. Meteion is basically a 5 years old getting asked to answer the question to the meaning of life. Hermes is the testament to the flawed health care system of the Ancient race. if only Hermes mental issue did not goes unnoticed, maybe he wouldnt get to do what he did. Hermes mental state is not "philosophical", he is "clinically depressed". moral of the story is: no matte how advance you civilization, if you dont have good health care, you are bound for destruction

While I say Hermes was most to blame here, I think he was also as much of a victim of meteion as meteion was of him. It's stated that not only does Meteion absorb the emotions of those around her, she also *projects* her emotions on to others. It's stated that some of the worlds she visited likely fell because her presence amplified the negative feelings that led to the ends of those worlds. If she had not come to those planets its possible they would've kept on living. In other words it goes both ways. She acts as a kind of amplifier, absorbing emotions of those around her and then projecting back them out and spreading them causing a positive feedback loop. Just as Herme's own depression and despair negatively affected Meteion making her vulnerable to despair, it's likely that she also sent it back on Hermes, especially since she and Hermes seem to have a closer connection than she does to others so it's possible they affect each other particularly strongly. So yeah, Hermes was not only the cause of all the problems, but simultaneously as much of a victim as everyone else who was influenced by Metieon. All that said though, Meteion is an innocent victim of circumstance. My poor baby did nothing wrong and it was those evil adults that ruined her!! 😡

Hermes: I have created a being that wields a new power source no one has ever heard of that enables one to fly to the ends of the universe and destroy entire worlds. Hythlodaeus: ...ok, should probably send me a template for review before sending it out and- Hermes: Too late.

I love Meteion. I never stop using Starbird, and since the end credits of Endwalker have Meteion flying around, I know it can be canon she's with us. We'll keep hope in our hearts and she'll never turn dark again. Beloved birb daughter.

Honestly it's hard to say who did what wrong in XIV lore. Conviction is probably the strongest theme of XIV. I think the mistake here is that if the ancients wanted to explore the stars, they should have founded a space program and done it themselves. But Hermes decided it was a good idea to probe the cosmos in bulk. Civilization needs to exist within its own parameters. Imagine our understanding as cling-wrap. If we try to stretch it over a surface wider than the piece, it starts to tear.

Meteion is basically just an AI with the ability to feel emotions from others and emotional maturity of a child. Giving her the task of finding the meaning of life was flawed from the start. It's like giving an advanced AI the task of making paperclips and it deciding that humans need to die because they keep using materials that could be used to make paperclips on pointless things like cars and microwaves. Even without malicious intent an artificial intelligence can come to destructive conclusions.

I had a lot of sympathy for both Hermes and Meteion but for different reasons. Hermes saw his people being so callous about the destruction of lesser beings, and even their own ends that he couldn't quiet cope with it. He struggled with his emotions to maintain a level of normalcy that was acceptable by the current standards. In the end he found the universe didn't have that special answer, and gave into his feelings of despair, though still had the will to fight against it in the way he was always destined to do. Meteion and her sisters were just children, simple in what they liked, wanted, and in the end that was their greatest downfall. They were children tasked with dealing with Hermes' existential questions, his inability to comprehend the way people viewed things. They saw only one answer because they lacked experience and complexity to have a broader understanding of why those they met would seek death, but not why death wasn't the ultimate answer. In fact it is the Ea who hold a greater amount of blame, as their nihilism about the universe one day going cold lead the Meteia to believe the answer was thus: "If all will freeze in the end, why not simply expedite that process and free the universe of suffering"

In the end, it was just Angry Birds

Meteion was, as you just said, doomed from the very beginning. Hermes made a catastrophic error while coming up with his grand plan to find The Answer, and created a familiar who could resonate with feelings, even residual ones, she got in contact with. Hermes completely glossed over the possibility of finding something *bad* in the Great Expanse, which unfortunately, Meteion found. And not only she found that, she found exclusively that. Maybe Hermes couldn't imagine Etheyris was the *only* world left standing, but he should've at least imagined something *could* go awry. Meteion in hindsight tried to do the most sensible thing, she saw that each and every life was not only doomed to perish, but was doomed to perish forever and with a great deal of pain. Thus she thought that simply accelerating the process would be an act of mercy, for in her calculating, despair-wrecked mind, it was the only sensible conclusion. We can't foresee what would've happened to the Ancients if the Final Days didn't cut their lives short, but seeing how they tried to react in the face of impending danger, it is very clear the Ancients would've probably suffered the same fate that befell the rest of creation. This is why then Venat chose to sunder the people of Etheyris: because if people lived lives free of sorrow they would never be able to overcome it, whereas if pain and destruction was a part of their very existence, they would surely find a way to go forward. In my mind, both Venat and Meteion tried doing their own right thing, where Venat took a big BIG gamble in that. Hermes is objectively the one at fault, especially for how he chose to handle the news once he was informed of them. He insisted he was trying to be fair and considerate, but he was obviously tipping the scales in Meteion's favor by trying to leave everyone a blank state. He insisted if they didn't know what caused the Final Days and could find a way to repel them, then Venat and the others were right, otherwise Meteion was the correct one. Superficially fair, but obviously biased once you look into it. Good analysis! Subbed :D

"...the poor bird could not accept the truth. It asked us again and again - hoping, perhaps, our answer might change"

That thumbnail was provocative. Well done. 😉 Interesting video and good job on being able to summarise all of Endwalker in under 10 minutes! 🤣 I was going to say, she did do something wrong, what with killing off certain civilisations entirely, but you reminded me that she was an incomplete and inexperienced being, unable to cope with despair, because Hermes was unable to do so as well. She was a reflection of him, like a mirror image. She had empathy, he lost his, and the negative in him suppressed the positive in her. Meteion wasn’t evil, she simply didn’t have the ‘emotional tools’ to fight the despair. I never blamed Meteion that’s for sure. But for all his flaws, and faults, I still pity Hermes. Thank you for another brilliant video. 👍 Stay safe. ❤️

I completely agree with this. I don't get why so many people point to her, when really it is Hermes and issues. For Meteion, she is more of a victim in my opinion. She did not have the emotional maturity to understand or deal with the feelings pushed on to her. Hermes even tells her that "He did not teach her to walk..." or in other words, he wanted her to grow up on her own.

The Meteia were such a cool idea. I didn't blame them, I felt bad for them because, like the Elpis flower, they couldn't control the empathic abolities really, it just gets put upon them and adding in their innocence and the overwhelming despair of entire civilizations flooding into them like that, honestly, we're lucky she didn't do worse. I like that both the Meteia and Zodiark were not really evil, and Hydaelyn wasn't 100% good, she was arguably as grey as Meteion, it's one of the trends in FF games I really love, most things are grey.

Nah, Metion deserves a ton of blame. She is a monster.

Would love to see a Hermes video. I absolutely loathe how people can sympathize with him. Like dude nhlism doesn't away all that bullshit

Well, my headcanon is that Hermes loves Meteion as his other creations so he lead her escape nontheless. This tragedy more stems from the aloofness and indifference of the ancients to the sufferings of others (their creations).

My own take is similar. Hermes was a man that didn't belong in ancient society, and he created a being that didn't belong out in the cold of space. Even if the other stars/civilizations weren't dead or despairing, you don't just send a cute bird girl out to the cold reaches of infinity, there's a reason why our space probes are simple and without an on-board crew, no soul, no mind, just sensors and tools. Hermes nor meteion were bad, they were just the worst person for their respective roles and duties

I personally blamed Hermes more for the Final Days, even if it wasn’t really intentional on his part. Meteion as an entelechie (or however you spell that word) was shown time and time again that the emotions of people around her affect her, anger for example hurts her. So with that said Meteion probably couldn’t help but become the Endsinger because of the vast amounts of dispair that was present in the Universe. Hermes had no way of predicting this to be the case, yes, but as Emet Selch implied when he challanged what would Meteion conclude if the only answer was silence, it was pretty clear Hermes could of thought his life searching mission with Meteion out a lot more.