Endwalker's message (spoilers!)

[KizuyaKatogami]

Venat and Hermes are a cautionary tale to ever be wary of saboteurs within one's society, I suppose.

Yep. Also a sad tale of an abusive mom trying to claim what’s “best” for her children when in reality she tore them apart and inflicted suffering on them.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Yep. Also a sad tale of an abusive mom trying to claim what’s “best” for her children when in reality she tore them apart and inflicted suffering on them.

I don't know how you got this take when the final stretch of The Dead Ends is devoted to how the Amaurotine people would have ended up if they'd had their way with Zodiark.

"There was a time when we believed in our legacy, thought ourselves marking a worthy path our successors might follow. Efforts rendered futile when we discovered the keys to paradise and immortality. As individuals we struggled to know what was right, yet in today's perfect unity there is naught left to question. We are infinity constricted by the finite, but no more - Ra-la shall grant us the mercy of annihilation."

Heck, the whole theme of Endwalker is to not continually seek the comfort of the past instead of living in the present/looking to the future.

[Theodric]

I don't know how you got this take when the final stretch of The Dead Ends is devoted to how the Amaurotine people would have ended up if they'd had their way with Zodiark.

I don't think that was what was being portrayed, given that the Dragons were said to have a peaceful society only to lose it to an outside invader through no fault of their own. Furthermore, the Ancients devoted their efforts to the benefit of the Star itself.

Heck, the whole theme of Endwalker is to not continually seek the comfort of the past instead of living in the present/looking to the future.

I don't think that holds up when the Scions are brought back to life and a significant amount of time is devoted to mourning Moenbryda, a character who perished almost a decade ago.

The Unsundered had a credible way to restore their loved ones and it is understandable that they would take such a route. If the Scions had given their lives and not been brought back, then such a message would make sense - but in reality, it's the same old tiresome trope of expecting everybody but the protagonists to 'move on' and just roll over and die when they become inconvenient.

I'd say the real message is that you fight to preserve what you can, at any cost, because your loved ones are what matter most in the world - not a bunch of strangers.

[Lauront]

I don't think that was what was being portrayed, given that the Dragons were said to have a peaceful society only to lose it to an outside invader through no fault of their own. Furthermore, the Ancients devoted their efforts to the benefit of the Star itself.

Even if it were meant to mirror ancient Etheirys, I don't think it's a convincing line of reasoning that it was its inevitable future. Why? Because the ancients were not ultimately given this knowledge to reflect upon and consider whether adjustments to their society were necessary as a result. Again, the scene we're shown is Venat just walking up to a crowd and offering platitudes as the star is dying. Why should anyone take her words seriously at that point? As you say, the dragons did have a paradise of their own, which was robbed from them. The ancients were never given an opportunity on that front. So that whole dungeon scene is easy for me to take as "this looks like that, so it must be the same" attempt and shrug it off with a "meh". Very pretty area, all the same.

My view is that they're trying to resolve the plot in the limited time they've got, want to reconcile the aims of the remaining Ascians/ancients with those of the sundered and Hydaelyn, and obviously did not want to create a different world to what we already have now (or we'd be looking at another ARR scenario), thus they chose this route, where they were all given knowledge that rebirth in the Aetherial Sea would eventually restore, and which they did not have in the original timeline - Venat herself included. The unfortunate side effect is it just comes across as very forced, messy, full of logical holes and unsatisfactory to many of us. There were other issues I had with the plot pacing and writing but that was by far and way the main one. So I guess they would rather we don't look too closely at it and take it for what it is.