[Spoilers] Death and reincarnation

[Iscah]

It's all interesting, really. I also wonder about Minfilia. We know that she's continually re-born - but she is most certainly a follower, or creation of Hydaelyn and not Zodiark. Is Minfilia the closest thing we have to a 'light Ascian'?

She specifically says (I think when talking to Thancred) that she is like an Ascian now.

Even before that, from some things she said during the WoD arc it seemed she had become an 'anti-Ascian', Hydaelyn's emissary in direct opposition to Elidibus.

Although maybe only step 1 was decided, and the 14th member left simply b/c of the whole "summoning a primal who will probably temper us" thing. And then only *acted* against the others when they went from voluntarily subjugating themselves to threatening innocent life.

I'm not sure whether they were familiar with how primals worked at that point. Emet-Selch describes Zodiark and Hydaelyn as the "eldest and most powerful" of primals, implying that they hadn't created anything like them before. They were experimenting with GFs, but if they're all like the Quetzalcoatl summoning we saw, perhaps there's some different aspect to the single-person and/or self-sacrificing nature of those beings that doesn't cause them to temper others. (Which, I realise as I write it, could also apply to Hydaelyn...?)

So it's possible that the fourteenth member left on a more general "this is a bad idea and I'm not having any part of it" reasoning. Or perhaps even then, they had ideas about what safeguards needed to be put in place to keep Zodiark's power in check and ensure their created 'saviour' wasn't itself actually dangerous, and the others refused to listen. (I'm picturing something in the realm of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, or whatever analogous rules you'd need to make for a god with the power to reshape the laws of reality.)

Not only did the WoL manage to rise, but they were able to channel heretofore unseen amounts of aether into a densely packed axe-shaped construct which was then capable of utterly destroying Emet-Selch. Their miniature rejoining even rid the WoL of the damage done to their soul by carrying that horror show around inside them all that time. This shows a clear increase in aether containment, management, and control capabilities as opposed to before they became one.

While the amount of aether they're dealing with might be larger, the actual act is very similar to the final (still-skippable) cutscene in the Praetorium where we summon a weapon of light to smite Lahabrea and free Thancred.

Okay now here's the thing, why does everyone assume he was 'summoned' twice instead of just persisting after being summoned the first time until he was sundered by Hydaelyn?

This doesn't read to me like he was summoned twice, but was there already, and they just gave their lives up as fuel for his powers, like modern primals would consume crystals to sustain themselves.

I hadn't even realised people could interpret it as two separate summonings! It clearly reads as only one to me.

Zodiark was born of the first sacrifice, halted the cataclysm, then there's no mention of needing to re-summon Him. The second sacrifice is to give up their energy to be used to recreate the world, rather than for the summoning itself.

Also, if Zodiark was 'dismissed' after the first summoning then it would suggest He would be dismissed again after the second. Instead He is still present, and Hydaelyn created to oppose Him, by the point where they are talking about what to do next.

Nothing we've seen up until this point suggests that he started demanding sacrifices in exchange for the tasks that were given to him.

I don't think I've seen anyone else (certainly in this thread at least) say that Zodiark was demanding sacrifices. It is nevertheless fact that sacrifices were being made to Him, however willingly and regardless of who was instigating the plan.

It's at least as likely that it was the idea of the Convocation, which is how most people here seem to be describing it.