The heavy black fog presence around each castle is mostly *because* of the Annihilator, which inherently attracts black fog (the same way interlinking does, so it probably works on a similar principle). It's loosely implied that black fog is a symptom of an impending annihilation event, rather than the cause. While having lots of black fog around is correlated with a higher risk of an annihilation event, it does not itself seem to create one just by virtue of existing in an area.
Again, no, they explicitly state that's not the case and that the converter absorbs the black fog. As for the 2nd part, the fact that the cannon works is proof enough. They absorb the black fog and shoot it and it causes annihilation. How could it be any different? I'm also pretty sure interlinking was never said to attract black fog but it is a long game so I might have just forgot a conversation.
adjl posted...
You already touched on why it isn't pointless: If the colonies were left alone, Moebius would be reborn as soon as the worlds' collision resumed and we'd have to start all over again. Freeing the colonies was a vital part of helping them all cope with their fear of an unknown future so they could move forward into it.
I don't accept that. I didn't free them so they could come to terms with their own death. That's so fucking sad and shitty. Not to mention, you get the same ending whether you do those sidequests or not, so there is no change in the result. I didn't save Aionios from moebius to just destroy everyone. I feel legit betrayed by the party. They killed a planet full of life. They gave up on the future. Not to mention, it's not an unknown future, it's death. We know it's death because we kill them and ourselves. It's like freeing people from hell by deleting them from existence. Fuck that, I fought hard to free them from hell them an actual decent life. I worried about the long term viability of the colonies because I intended them to keep existing.
Honestly continuing to even think about the game is just depressing me. I'm probably done talking about it. Already got the 100% (and Nia's ascension quests says the palents didn't know about each other accept here on Aionios and thats why we would forget each other afterwards despite them literally showing the planets contacting each other to build origin which is the whole basis of this stupid ass plot to begin with). Xenoblade was my favorite jrpg series but honestly, I'm not so sure it is anymore. I've never had an ending to a game make me hate the game like this one has. The only thing giving me some solace is that it seems like the ending was pretty poorly recieved as a whole, unlike xenoblade 2 which also had a shit ending but people seemed to like, so at least for once I'm not alone in being unsatisfied.