Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 1)

[KizuyaKatogami]

I... didn't see him as abandoning them... at all. The whole point is he was the only person who could control the Crystal Tower, and the CT was the centerpiece of their plan. By leaving his timeline he was saving the past (and they only thought theoretically that it would create an alternate timeline, they legitimately didn't know) as a last-ditch attempt to avert a Calamity; and the plan involved his DEATH, even the original plan.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but isn’t that something people use against the ascians/the ancients? Trying to fix the past and bring back their loved ones instead of just living in the present? The game pushes the notion of forget the past and instead try to strive toward a better tomorrow, so shouldn’t have Graha just tried to work in that current timeline to live for a better tomorrow instead of changing the past and the timeline? Just going based off what kind of message they’ve been pushing this expansion with the future, i find it odd it’s seen as a heroic thing when he does it but in the antagonists case it’s bad.In the short story they even say that some people disagreed with Cid’s plan because he was forsaking them, and he can’t even deny that.

[WhiteArchmage]

Correct me if i’m wrong, but isn’t that something people use against the ascians/the ancients? Trying to fix the past and bring back their loved ones instead of just living in the present? The game pushes the notion of forget the past and instead try to strive toward a better tomorrow, so shouldn’t have Graha just tried to work in that current timeline to live for a better tomorrow instead of changing the past and the timeline? Just going based off what kind of message they’ve been pushing this expansion with the future, i find it odd it’s seen as a heroic thing when he does it but in the antagonists case it’s bad.In the short story they even say that some people disagreed with Cid’s plan because he was forsaking them, and he can’t even deny that.

I mean, it's... very different. The Ascians' plan involves literal genocide to bring back people who were sacrificed, making a horrible cycle of sacrifices over and over to retain something that is lost. The "Ironworks of the Future"'s plan involves going back in time and preventing the Calamity from happening in the first place, making a better Future. It's even mentioned IN that side-story, once G'raha is sent to the past, that the leader wonders (too late, he thinks) if they'll be erased from existence if G'raha suceeded (will succeed, Time Travel Tense Problem). He refuses to believe that G'raha failed, so he concludes they must have created an alternate timeline and resolves to do the best with the Present they got.

Even if, in the discussions of the theory in Time Travel, G'raha's involvement would have deleted POSSIBLE lives (not existing ones, like the Ascians), they would have saved infinitely more by averting a Calamity in the first place.

Basically, the Ascians are "Sacrifice the Present and live in the Past forever because 12 people don't like the Present", the Ironworks' is "Go back to the Past and Give those people a fighting chance"

EDIT: I had to look it up because your last line rang really weird for me, as I didn't remember any opposition in G'raha's short story we were talking about. That part is not from "An Unpromised Tomorrow", which features G'raha Tia; but from "A World Forsaken" which is from Omega's PoV about Cid (and Nero). Yes, a majority of people disagreed with Cid's plan; yet Omega actually puts it in a non-heroic light.

Such responses were consistent with my projections, as it is generally the primary objective of all life-forms to secure their own survival in the here and now.

During this period, one loyal scholar noted that while preventing the disaster may not solve all of the problems that had afflicted the world of the past, the one dubbed the “Warrior of Light” would still be alive. The various members of the team each had their own personal connection with the deceased, and the notion of creating an alternative past in which their hero survived the Calamity met with unanimous approval.

So if we're only going on G'raha's character (which has been the discussion): he's basically woken up by the 200th president of Garlond Ironworks, begged for his help, and has his Heroic side poked by the people who wake him going "Help us, G'raha Tia, you're our only hope." Which in THAT side-story is consistent with his fanboy characterization of "Everyone around me is a hero! I wanna be one, too! And I'll get to meet the Greatest Hero of The Time, again, too!" which, such WoL worship isn't at all uncommon considering the UNANIMOUS APPROVAL for saving the WoL.

In addition, by presenting their plan as an attempt to save the Warrior of Light rather than a bid to rewrite history, they were able to gain the support from survivors of many different species and subgroups. Representatives from various settlements came to donate resources and foodstuffs to Garlond Ironworks, despite possessing barely enough to sustain themselves. Many of them were also acquainted with the Warrior of Light, some even claiming to have been beneficiaries of the late hero’s acts of philanthropy.

[Alenore]

I mean, it's... very different. The Ascians' plan involves literal genocide to bring back people who were sacrificed, making a horrible cycle of sacrifices over and over to retain something that is lost. The "Ironworks of the Future"'s plan involves going back in time and preventing the Calamity from happening in the first place, making a better Future. It's even mentioned IN that side-story, once G'raha is sent to the past, that the leader wonders (too late, he thinks) if they'll be erased from existence if G'raha suceeded (will succeed, Time Travel Tense Problem). He refuses to believe that G'raha failed, so he concludes they must have created an alternate timeline and resolves to do the best with the Present they got.

Even if, in the discussions of the theory in Time Travel, G'raha's involvement would have deleted POSSIBLE lives (not existing ones, like the Ascians), they would have saved infinitely more by averting a Calamity in the first place.

Basically, the Ascians are "Sacrifice the Present and live in the Past forever because 12 people don't like the Present", the Ironworks' is "Go back to the Past and Give those people a fighting chance"

Ironwork side : we go back in time, and everybody who should have existed now don't, but we "fixed" the timeline.
The Ironworks did what they did because they thought what happened to their world a mistake that needed to be fixed : the Light-aspected Calamity, which resulted in the death of many people and an almost unhabitable world for their standards.

Ascian side : we rejoin everything and bring back the world the way it was by sacrificing everything that was born after we summoned Zodiark to fix the Star.
The Ascians did what they did because they thought what happened to their world was a mistake that needed to be fixed : the Sundering and the whole Sound thing, which resulted in the loss of memory, debilitating changes to their physiology (aether reserves, creation magic, ...), and multiple reflection of a single world, far from what they knew.

It's the same, except the Ascians don't directly manipulate the timeline, but try to go back the way it was by reverting changes, instead of erasing them : they want to bring back their dead, want to bring back their civilisation. The distinction between "possible lives" and "current lives" is slim : you could even argue that in the Ascian's plan, they let that life flourish for a time which brought changes and evolution to the planet (after all, we discovered things that the Ancients didn't know!), whereas in the Ironworks plan, they simply nipped it in the bud. Who knows if the 8th Astral Era wouldn't have been a golden age of prosperity?

Would their plan be OK if they actually meant to go back in time before Hydaelyn was summoned and prevent it? Emet-Selch very well might have done that had he enough time to learn how G'raha did it. The final result would be the same, and the Scions would have opposed it as vehemently as they did the original plan. And who knows? Maybe the world would have stayed the same! But the Scions would certainly not have gambled their world's very existence on a coin flip of "multiple universe or paradox".

Both result in the same thing : everyone born after the Sundering would disappear through the Rejoinings and the feeding to Zodiark, or everyone born in the different timeline could have disappeared (and were expected to, but didn't to their surprise).

Alexander decided that instead of manipulating timelines, it should do absolutely nothing and seal itself. We literally stopped the Illuminati from doing so because it was way too dangerous for anybody to change things the way they wanted.
However when it's the "good guys" turn to use that forbidden power, it's OK because "it's for the greater good". Except the greater good is a point of view.