[Spoilers] Venat's motive

[Lurina]

Actually, I think the question of what was motivating her and driving her is perhaps the thing most clearly shown. The story makes it clear why she did what she did, what’s up for debate is the how of it. The actions, steps taken and the overarching plan have spot where we just don’t know what was going on. The same is true for other characters, like Emet. People still discuss how exactly the 13th was to be recovered, whether Zodiark could’ve been freed before then, or whether Emet wanted to die when we faced him in Amaurot. That’s just the consequence of having a lot of story to cover.

I mean, I don't agree with this at all. This thread is about how the narrative offers differing and semi-contradictory explanations of her actions, and if you read any conversation about her here or elsewhere, people both positive and negative on the character have wildly different understandings of what fundamentally motivated her. Even putting the time loop stuff aside, I can't even count how many times I've seen people insisting how the Sundering was singularly about protecting the sacrifices and not about how suffering is actually good, while other people in the same thread are arguing the exact opposite. It makes it kind of exhausting to even try and talk about the character.

I'm not seeing a contradiction personally. Venat chose to close the time loop because she judged the actions of the ancients and their attempts to revert to their past through blood sacrifice to be unacceptable AND because she wanted to give our future a chance to survive. The time loop closing is simply a means to her ends.

It's the distinction between "Venat Sunders based on a belief that it will save mankind on some moral or intrinsic sense" and "Venat Sunders out of a pragmatic desire to recreate this future she already knows exists". One is a ideological choice, and the other is a strictly utilitarian one.

Maybe that distinction doesn't make sense to you or doesn't feel important, but the ambiguity and mixed messaging makes her character feel very indecipherable to me.