>>149019214
>Sci-Fi setting
>Establishes the cosmos by having the characters travel across it
>Introduce characters across numerous worlds that fans develop an affection or care for
>Establish that there is a cosmological threat that would risk every person in existence, literally every single character you could care about throughout the entire cosmos and that if they fail that's it, everything is doomed and it can't be fixed.
>Somehow this is a 'desperate attempt to maintain meaningful stakes'
It's a basic apocalyptic crisis but on a cosmological scale because the setting is on a cosmological scale. Try saying something actually intelligent next time.