*Spoilers* Anyone feel joining Emet would have been better

[Rulakir]

Which goes back to what Urianger says himself, NONE of the places she found were doing well, her arrival had negative effects and helped push them over, but the ones that hadn't already wiped themselves out were for one reason or another already on the edge.

Well, then Etheirys is still doomed and all Venat did was delay the inevitable. It also means all the shards are doomed, possibly sooner rather than later since time flows differently on them. What then? Do they rejoin or just die off in their separate reality? What happens next time there isn't someone to make the executive decision that civilization no longer has a future and needs to be 'reset' for life to continue?

This is one of the problems I have with EW's messaging. They on one hand treat everything as inevitable, but on the other hand imply there's some choice in the matter (unless it's the Ancients). The sundering isn't going to prevent Etheirys from suffering the fates of the other stars even if it's not through "perfection". Even the Ra-la state in their notes that they were once "lesser" and "sought purpose", so similar to the sundered.

[EaraGrace]

Well, then Etheirys is still doomed and all Venat did was delay the inevitable. It also means all the shards are doomed, possibly sooner rather than later since time flows differently on them. What then? Do they rejoin or just die off in their separate reality? What happens next time there isn't someone to make the executive decision that civilization no longer has a future and needs to be 'reset' for life to continue?

This is one of the problems I have with EW's messaging. They on one hand treat everything as inevitable, but on the other hand imply there's some choice in the matter (unless it's the Ancients). The sundering isn't going to prevent Etheirys from suffering the fates of the other stars even if it's not through "perfection". Even the Ra-la state in their notes that they were once "lesser" and "sought purpose", so similar to the sundered.

But I’d argue that messaging is exactly the point. While I recognize my interpretation may differ as this is subjective, one of the core questions Endwalker asks, in my reading of it, is how we grapple with the inevitable. How we come to the terms with the finite nature of existence and our own place in it. Or in other words, it asks:

Venat: Why, given life, are they meant to suffer. To die…

Which Venat answers

Venat: As fragmented, imperfect beings, yours is a never-ending quest. A quest to find your purpose, knowing your end is assured. To find the strength to continue, when all strength has left you. To find joy, even as darkness descends…

… And amidst deepest despair, light everlasting.

And in that is the key to overcoming the song of oblivion. Not in finding solutions to all of life’s ills, but to know that our end is assured and yet still wanting to see tomorrow, of fighting against the inevitable for that one extra day. The Dragons scoff at the answer, the Ea mock it, and the Omicrons don’t understand it. And in the end they were swallowed by despair.