Your thoughts on Caius as an FF Villain?

[Lamia]

When I made my original post I had not quite seen the ending.

Here is what I think of Caius now;

(SPOILER)
-Caius is beyond death with the Heart of Chaos which is Etro's heart. Killing him means killing Etro, unless you are Etro's chosen Guardian of Yeul (Noel) and are also *ready*. The ancestors warn Noel that if he isn't truly ready to be the guardian then he will not be able to control the chaos unleashed when you go back to the Oracle Drive in a Dying World 700 AF.
-Caius has lived forever and knows more about the universe than anybody, despite our heroines thinking otherwise. He is wise, they are foolish.
-Caius tries to warn Serah that her changing of the timeline is for her wishes and that she cannot save anybody, without hurting everyone else. Caius also warns her that she has Eyes of Etro and that it will kill her. Serah doesn't listen and like most heroes, perseveres.

Going off of that I think Caius knows that trying to change the future for the better is futile. He knows how it ends and knows that changing the timeline only fixes some things, but causes trouble in other areas (just as he warns Serah). There is even an example of this when Hope's proto Fal-cie idea, while seemingly a good ting for humanity at first, backfires. There is also Alyssa, who now exists and is alive thanks to the time distortion because she dies in the Purge in the true timeline. Caius knows that the true timeline sucks balls and that no matter what there is going to be a lot of pain and suffering. Noel and Serah are foolish for thinking they can change the timeline for the better.

Caius wants to destroy the timeline instead of changing it because he has been around long enough to know changing it doesn't ever end up well for everyone, and in Yeul's case it makes her life shorter and shorter as all the Yeul's see the changes in the future. Because of all of this Caius doesn't value history and instead sees sadness and suffering and decides that it would be better if it were just destroyed.

What is funny is that despite Caius warning Noel and Serah in the game... They don't listen to them and think that their heart and good nature will bring a great outcome and in most stories, that is what happens... In fact, Final Fantas XIII is an example of this because the characters are supposed to be doomed to an eternity in crystal slumber (unless they are awakened with a new focus) but are magically saved... but not in XIII-2, in this game, it's sort of a "we told you this would happen, but you didnt believe us"
lol

More Spoilers HereLamia, I think your observations are pretty much correct. As harsh of an ending as the game has, it does seem like Caius is doing something he knows is above the others and they are foolish to think they can end suffering for everyone, or that they can stop the end of humanity. Maybe that is the message of the game, that humans won't live forever and aren't all powerful, and that we should value the life we have more instead of focusing on a distant future that we want to personalize and make into a reality.

One thing I thought of, is that if Caius lived till the end of days in Noel's time, then everyone is ALREADY dead, so going back in time to destroy the timeline is not so much of a horrible thing, is it? He wants to erase the thousands of people who are already dead in his time anyway, in order to destroy the timeline and bring about final release. The real question is, did Caius cause the end of humanity in his attempt to destroy the cocoon pillar? Or did that event come about naturally and cause humanity to slowly diminish? I guess there is where he should really be blamed, if he did in fact cause the downfall of a humanity that would have otherwise lived much longer.

(SPOILER) Well, the end of the world when humanity has wiped out is something Caius saw before he made his plan to make Cocoon fall himself. That essentially means that Caius is not the cause of the end of humanity in 700 AF. Cocoon can fall for many reasons... it is mentioned a few times in the story that the pillar will eventually deteriorate anyway and that humanity must intervene with science in order to stop this from happening (Hope's new cocoon and the metashield around the old Cocoon to stop it from devastating Pulse below when it does fall--this information can be read when viewing a fragment in the datalog). Anyway, despite what I said Caius is still mostly concerned about Yeul and wants to stop her rebirth and death throughout the timeline despite this cycle ending in 700 AF. Still, Caius wants to stop the suffering that all the Yeul's experienced by making it never exist to begin with. But I digress, so back to my point, Caius did not cause humanity's doom, at least in 700 AF because if Caius was successful he would have just followed up the destruction of Cocoon by destroying the timeline so obviously something else caused the end of humanity whether it was a giant flan, deterioration of the pillar, or some other reason. There are many things in the game, and even in the paradox endings, that threaten the pillar of Cocoon. Still, I see the flaw in my argument about Caius's motvations... My only counter argument to that is even if Caius could stop (or allow others to stop) the fall of humanity the fact that Yeul remains cursed is still an issue for him and therefore there is still a problem... or maybe, as he mentions in the story, that trying to change one aspect of history will likely cause a huge screw up in another part of history essentially making things just as bad or even worse so in the end only sees destroying the timeline as an option.