Final Fantasy 14 has three NieR: Automata-themed raids as part of the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse storyline, but when Avenue, Dang, and others tried to conquer one of these raids, the boss simply disappeared.
"I joined a Nier raid run that was 100+ minutes in because apparently the boss just despawned????" Dang said. "And the first episode of Automata anime just aired? IS THIS YOKO TARO'S PLAN?"
That means that people sat around in this raid for over an hour and a half, despite it having no boss and no way to finish the objective. In that time, they could've stuck on The Lion King, Zombieland, My Neighbor Totoro, or Fantastic Mr. Fox (or just left to do another raid).
After Dang shared this weird happening on Twitter, someone else in the raid replied in the comments: "THATS MY RAID I WAS THERE FOR THAT," Avenue said. "the run up to then had been delightfully messy and then THIS happens when we get to the final boss, pure poetry".
It's unclear why this happened, but it's more likely a bug than a planned tie-in to the Automata anime. There are some other, definitely not satirical theories, though. Ku'zu Epocan said, "it went to a parallel universe".
Someone else added "the boss just dipped" - maybe it got bored of dying over and over to different raid parties, or maybe it needed a quick snack before its next shift. Lamia kept things a little more real though, "no idea".
The best of all the theories goes to Demi in the Twitter replies, "Yoko said 'ima barrow the last boss from ffxiv neir raid for my second automata anime episode! Kay thnxbyeeeeeee”.
Whatever the case, the raid party took it in good spirit, even if it was a bit annoying.