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

[KizuyaKatogami]

They were planning to sacrifice more to zodiark before Venat's faction decided to create hydaelyn to counter and stop zodiark and his followers. Emet even said that the sacrifices would not be in vain because they are hoping Zodiark can bring back all the ascians that were sacrificed to it. That was why they wanted to create the rejoining, so that they can continue where they left off and power up zodiark to defeat the whatever the finals days was and bring back their people to life.

Edit: They actually showed the scene of Ascians, in their despair, sacrificing themselves to zodiark in the hope of averting the final days which finally made Venat sunder the world. I think they create that scene specifically to show one part of Venat's reason of sundering the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlA0lGrSRqM

This is why Emet said to our character at the end that the "past they were looking for is not the future we are building towards to" Emet understood already that their way was not the best way to defeat the final days and for the future. But he is duty bound to do what he planned to do before as the holder of the title Emet Sech. But deep inside he knew we were the best chance against the final days hence even back in shadowbringers he helped us against Elidibus to "put his friend to rest" and put his trust on us.

The thing is, for all they knew, the final days was averted. So you’re entire argument is Null. They had planned 3 total sacrifices, no more than that. The first was to stop the final days. The second was to restore life to the final days. These two are the ones that went through. The final and 3rd set of sacrifices was to sacrifice a portion of the new life to bring back the souls inside Zodiark. There is nothing literally nothing that implies there would be more than that. The only one who knew that the final days was still a threat was Venat and arguably some of her followers.

Venat was an Ancient like the rest of them. When you have power like that, every decision affects the fate of others. It took only one depressed Ancient to almost destroy the entire universe. If a bunch of Ancients had the right to sacrifice a bunch of unborn, unwilling lives to Zodiark, Venat also had the right to do what she did.

So what im getting from this is, you unironically think it was okay and that she had the right to commit mass genocide to her people, splitting them apart and then causing mass death in the long run, all because she decided not to face the problem head on and instead put all of it onto one person, gave up hope on her own people, and contradicted the very themes this expansion has been constantly shoving in our faces...It's an interesting take for sure.

[Reinha]

So what im getting from this is, ... It's an interesting take for sure.

Try asking what I think next time, instead of projecting your viewpoints onto me and calling them mine.

[Garet]

The thing is, for all they knew, the final days was averted. So you’re entire argument is Null. They had planned 3 total sacrifices, no more than that. The first was to stop the final days. The second was to restore life to the final days. These two are the ones that went through. The final and 3rd set of sacrifices was to sacrifice a portion of the new life to bring back the souls inside Zodiark. There is nothing literally nothing that implies there would be more than that. The only one who knew that the final days was still a threat was Venat and arguably some of her followers.

The Vidoe of the scene I posted is basically a summary of the mood of the final days. While the Final Days was indeed forestalled the mood and despair continued which led to people sacrificing themselves to zodiark and if you go back to the CS from 2.0 till present theme of the struggle between hydaelyn and zodiark was that the ascian was planning to sacrifice more and more to empower zodiark in the hope of permanently stopping the final days to which hydaelyn's faction opposed since what is the point of stopping the final days if there will be none left in the end at the rate it is going.

You said it yourself they really did not know that their plan will fail because only Venat knew that the threat still exist hence she acted based on that knowledge knowing that sacrificing more to Zodiark will not end the final days and their plan will fail because zodiark cannot end the final days. The Ascians' plan for zodiark rests on the assumption that it can permanently stop the finals days then restore the lives sacrificed to it. But as we all know now it was never going to happen because zodiark can only forestall and not stop the final days. Especially as the Ascians themselves easily gives in to "despair" and offer themselves up to zodiark in the belief it can restore everything back to the way it was, which Again was not happening.

Even Emet Sech without yet reclaiming his memories knew these deep inside hence he indirectly helped us back in shadowbringer. He was just too duty bound to his position of Emet Sech to do anything else but follow the plan they started in the past despite knowing these.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The Vidoe of the scene I posted is basically a summary of the mood of the final days. While the Final Days was indeed forestalled the mood and despair continued which led to people sacrificing themselves to zodiark and if you go back to the CS from 2.0 till present theme of the struggle between hydaelyn and zodiark was that the ascian was planning to sacrifice more and more to empower zodiark in the hope of permanently stopping the final days to which hydaelyn's faction opposed since what is the point of stopping the final days if there will be none left in the end at the rate it is going.

You said it yourself they really did not know that their plan will fail because only Venat knew that the threat still exist hence she acted based on that knowledge knowing that sacrificing more to Zodiark will not end the final days and their plan will fail because zodiark cannot end the final days. The Ascians' plan for zodiark rests on the assumption that it can permanently stop the finals days then restore the lives sacrificed to it. But as we all know now it was never going to happen because zodiark can only forestall and not stop the final days. Especially as the Ascians themselves easily gives in to "despair" and offer themselves up to zodiark in the belief it can restore everything back to the way it was, which Again was not happening.

Even Emet Sech without yet reclaiming his memories knew these deep inside hence he indirectly helped us back in shadowbringer. He was just too duty bound to his position of Emet Sech to do anything else but follow the plan they started in the past despite knowing these.

Idk how else to explain this to you. You’re acting like they were throwing themselves at Zodiark constantly when this has literally been debunked since base ShB. They did 3 set of sacrifices total. That’s it. Two of those were to save the star. I don’t know how to uncomplicate it anymore than that. They weren’t doing constant sacrifices lol. If Venat had told them the truth beforehand, they might not have even needed to summon Zodiark or sacrifice anyone, so i’m a bit confused on your logic here. Also, how did they give in to despair by summoning Zodiark? He was a solution. One that even we relied upon for thousands upon thousands of years. By that logic we gave into despair by summoning primals to fuel the ship, or ironworks gave in to despair by being willing to sacrifice an entire timeline aka billions of lives. Based on the scene in Anamnesis, their argument wasn’t so much for the sacrifices period as it was the sacrifices wouldn’t stop the final days.

The "new life" might be ambiguous. What isn't ambiguous was that is was significant enough that the populace was divided on whether they could sacrifice it or not. So while they had the means to retrieve the souls, there was weight on the other side about just what it was costing. Otherwise, why would the populace be split? Why would members argue that the star should be left in the hands of this new life if it was not significant enough to mean just as much as the Ancients did?

Correct me if im wrong, because i dont exactly remember the circumstances, but from the short stories we know even the tempered convocation was split on the idea of the 3rd set of sacrifices at first, however all of this changed when Elidibus stepped out of Zodiark. This seems to imply that most people changed their stance when they saw that it actually was possible for a soul to go into Zodiark and then to come out seemingly unscathed. It seems after that point it was only Venat and her what, 12 or so followers that objected? And that wasnt even mainly due to the sacrifices os much as it was Zodiark wasnt a permanent solution. Which again, all ties back into her not telling them anything before the final days hit and helping to prevent it or combat it entirely.

[Garet]

Idk how else to explain this to you. You’re acting like they were throwing themselves at Zodiark constantly when this has literally been debunked since base ShB. They did 3 set of sacrifices total. That’s it. Two of those were to save the star. I don’t know how to uncomplicate it anymore than that. They weren’t doing constant sacrifices lol. If Venat had told them the truth beforehand, they might not have even needed to summon Zodiark or sacrifice anyone, so i’m a bit confused on your logic here. Also, how did they give in to despair by summoning Zodiark? He was a solution. One that even we relied upon for thousands upon thousands of years. By that logic we gave into despair by summoning primals to fuel the ship, or ironworks gave in to despair by being willing to sacrifice an entire timeline aka billions of lives. Based on the scene in Anamnesis, their argument wasn’t so much for the sacrifices period as it was the sacrifices wouldn’t stop the final days.

Rewatch this since it is basically a summary of what led to venat's final decision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlA0lGrSRqM

If you need further and more detailed accounts of what this scene represented. Rewatch all cutscenes from 2.0 till present that involved ascians

If Venat had told them the truth beforehand, they might not have even needed to summon Zodiark or sacrifice anyone.

That is a very big IF lol.

[Nilroreo]

That is a very big IF lol.

Same for us. Venat had no idea whether or not we would succeed past her death. She gambled the fate of the star on a hunch that her new best friend would be able to take care of the rest. We then proceed to power of friendship our way to the end of the game proving her right, but that doesn't change the fact that it was still at the end of the day just that, a gamble. The biggest difference between the sundered and unsundered wasn't our difference in susceptibility towards dynamis, nor was it how much more we supposedly respect life on our star (which we dont lol), the biggest difference between us is simply that Venat chose us.

[Garet]

Same for us. Venat had no idea whether or not we would succeed past her death. She gambled the fate of the star on a hunch that her new best friend would be able to take care of the rest. We then proceed to power of friendship our way to the end of the game proving her right, but that doesn't change the fact that it was still at the end of the day just that, a gamble. The biggest difference between the sundered and unsundered wasn't our difference in susceptibility towards dynamis, nor was it how much more we supposedly respect life on our star (which we dont lol), the biggest difference between us is simply that Venat chose us.

This is why she had prepared the moon ark in case we failed. She did not go into it blindly believing we would surely win. Hence she even tested us before allowing us to fight meteion to measure if we even have a fighting chance.

Venat fought with the other ancient till the end. This is one of the reason she did not reveal what happened with the mind wipe because she feared Hermes might go against them against if he regained his memory of meteion and she wanted him as part of the convocation and an ally against the final days instead of an enemy. The vidoe posted here by me and another poster basically show a lot of her reasoning.