On Venat's Role in the Story

[Cleretic]

I just wanted to add, regarding Venat acknowledging her actions, that the game doesn't treat her as a monster. The player is not given any dialog choices towards her that are negative, the NPCs justify her actions, and the cutscenes are emotional in a positive way. She comments in Anyder about "suffering the eternal condemnation of our brethren", but the sundering wiped everyone's memories. Aside from the unsundered, there wasn't anyone who knew or cared about what she did and even Emet forgives her in his own way. There is no one who hates her and by the end of it none who considers her choices to even be questionable.

Edit: Point being, the narrative at no point supports what she did as even being morally grey. Venat/Hydaelyn is overwhelmingly presented as being right and good.

As I've mentioned before at some point (I forget if it was in this thread or not), while her act was morally questionable, it's so long ago that litigating the issue is more of an academic one that holds no literal weight than one with any form of justice attached. We live in the world she made, and we cannot undo that; beyond anything else, we have to live with that.

You also have to remember that the sides of this debate were equally presented, just not simultaneously. Shadowbringers put forward all the evidence there is for why what she did was wrong (which you probably know, because you've been using those arguments); Endwalker, in response, put forward all the evidence for why she was right. Similarly, there actually were lines we could have given to speak against her; they were just placed before Endwalker made its case, in Shadowbringers, its patches, and very early Endwalker.

The characters who are still alive took the positions they did, but remember that Emet-Selch and Elidibus were willing to die in argument against it. There was an opposing side, and even when he was briefly revived with full knowledge of the situation, Emet-Selch never morally capitulated; he admitted her plan worked, he never admitted she was in the right to do it.

I feel as though, personally, almost all of my issues could have been resolved pretty easily: have the Sundering be acknowledged as a mistake (borne of passion, borne of anger, borne of sorrow, any one of the three is fine) and have Hydaelyn apologize for doing it. Not an “I made the best decision at the time, sorry if that hurt you but I HAD to do it” but a full on taking responsibility for her actions apology.

The issue isn’t so much what she did, but why she did it and how the narrative reacts to it.

And see, here you're making a bit of a slip-up; again, whether she was morally right to do so or not is left as an open question (although again, more an academic one than one that can be acted on). So what you're asking for won't happen, because Venat always believed, even if what she did was reprehensible, that it was for the best. It's rather important that she doesn't think she made a mistake, she just wishes it didn't come to that. She wishes she didn't have to cause us such suffering, but she doesn't think she was ultimately wrong to.

Just like how Emet-Selch will not admit she had a moral victory, Venat will not admit she had a moral failure. It's complicated, and you're not going to get an on-high answer for which side is correct. And that's okay; it is not a failing of the story that it left a question unanswered.

EDIT: I will admit, at times it was laid on a tad thick that she had altruistic reasons for what she did. But I don't think that's a mistake so much as an unfortunate requirement of where the story was. It's real damn hard to give a good reason for 'I smashed the planet and took the powers of godhood from man', and yet that's the challenge they took up. That means making your argument as loudly and clearly as possible, and knowing that anything less will cause it to falter.