On Venat's Role in the Story

[Cleretic]

What threshold do I have to pass to submit posts that exceed 3000 characters? Begrudgingly split response. 1/2

None, you can exceed 3k characters in an edit. So basically, original post is shorter, then add the excess. (However, I will caution that if you go over 3k characters it can get a bit of a 'too long, didn't read' response from some)

I think it's folly to read Hydaelyn as intended to be sort of an unambiguous good, when the truth is she's not, and is rather abundantly not painted as such. She openly admits she did something horrible and loathsome, it's just that she saw it as necessary and better than the alternative, and was still acting out of love for the planet and its inhabitants. You are absolutely allowed to and are likely expected to think ill of her, but ultimately, she did something immensely ugly out of knowledge that, if she didn't, even worse would happen.

What is unambiguous isn't the morality, it's that her plan ultimately worked, while the opposing plan (the Convocation's, including when becoming the Ascians) categorically would not have, and that said plan was not one of malice. You can compare her to a lot of the Ascians in several different ways, but I think in this regard, the contrast is strongest against Elidibus; Elidibus was a hero in his own mind, wielding heroism itself as a weapon to enact the Ascians' will to bring back an age past; meanwhile, Venat performed an act in full acceptance that it makes her the villain in the tale of her people, out of nothing but a selfless love for the lives of the future.

I think a lot of dislike of Venat's Endwalker story comes from sort of a misunderstanding of the fact that... well, you're not necessarily meant to think she was in the right, it was fully intended to be unclear and ambiguous if she did the just and right thing. You thinking she did terrible things and is not a hero, while not the only intended response, is one of the intended responses.