What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[EaraGrace]

The patch art certainly doesn't help make it look any less sinister:



Though even putting aside Minfilia, the Sundering was in itself a non-consensual act so we know that Venat doesn't care much for the concept of free will. Let us not forget that by Venat's own admission during the cutscene at the end of Anamnesis Anyder her faction was very much a minority.

A piece of promotional art does not change what the story made clear. Many thought we would be going against Hydaelyn when we became “Warriors of Darkness,” does that change what actually happened in SHB?

In what way? Letting people make decisions does not equal letting them do whatever they want to others. Did the Garleans have their free will violated by the Eorzean alliance fighting against their invasion?

You're free to claim as much but I disagree. Venat was not only withholding key information from her people but she actively served as a subversive saboteur. Her actions only served to benefit the Sundered, rather than her own people...and even then, she inflicted untold levels of suffering upon the Sundered as a consequence of her decision. As she herself admits, there was no kindness or justice in the tragedy she wrought.

And yet it was necessary. The unsundered were about to sacrifice new life to perpetuate their own version of the world, and doom all life in so doing. The story says this, clearly, and makes it clear when Emet concedes Venat was correct, much to his frustration, that she was right.

As for the third round of sacrifices it isn't explicitly highlighted what the 'new life' entails though if it were the creations of the Ancients themselves, then it would be the equivalent of arcane constructs. Which is what they were in comparison to their creators.

This convo? Again? Really?



They weren’t sacrificing chickens.