*Spoilers* Anyone feel joining Emet would have been better

[Nayukhuut]

So Shadowbringers had antagonists I begrudgingly had to defeat, even though all I really wanted to do was sit down and work something out. I had to defeat them because, even though I empathized with them to my core, I couldn't let them destroy the innocent people who now live through no fault of their own. I remember thinking back then that I couldn't support what Hydaelyn had done. I remember already being upset about it, and wanting to cut ties with her as well.

Enter Endwalker. I had to begrudgingly help a protagonist (and I use this term loosely since I certainly do not consider her one), even though all I really wanted to do was to tell her how the Ascians were completely justified in their hatred for her. I had to help her because I rather like living on this planet of ours, and I didn't really want to see it destroyed. I really remember wishing we had more dialogue options to disagree with her. I picked the one they did give us, but after that it was all about support I really did not feel.

The Ascians get a lot of hate for what they did, and rightfully so, but what Venat did was just as bad. Heck, might even be considered worse since she knew that multiple worlds had been rejoined in our tale, so she knew about that loss of life too. Before that though she took it upon herself to decide the fate of an entire species because they were not acting how she wanted them to. She destroyed everything they were, and everything they could have been.

The original post asked if I would side with the Ascians knowing what I know, and I would have to say no. Their plan at the time of us meeting them was terrible, and I could not be a part of that. I would not side with Hydaelyn either, though.

I would go back in time and tell the Ancients everything. Let them look over my memories with the Echo. Tell them the cause of the Final Days. Tell em about Dynamis. Maybe given the time to prepare they could have come up with a plan better than Zodiark. Maybe they could have summoned an aethershield to protect them while they worked on it. Built constructs to manipulate Dynamis, or thinned their aether voluntarily to be able to use this new power. I would have gone back and fought with them for as long as my thinning aether would let me. Would have told them of Venat's plan, and let them choose their own destiny. Course this would just result in a splintered timeline that wouldn't change our own, but no matter.

Oh, and Hydaelyn... Kindly stop calling me your child. I might be one of your Sundered, but only because you forced it on the world. I happily denounce you.

Edit: Splintered timeline prolly best too since the Sundered are innocent and wouldn't deserved to be erased because of my actions. Thankfully we have a precedent for alternate timelines.