*Spoilers* Anyone feel joining Emet would have been better

[Lauront]

The text in EW makes it very clear that the sacrifices were made voluntarily.

Of course, it's clear from SHB as well. My point isn't that, but that they'd have most likely not wanted to use themselves as fuel for it if they could avoid it. However, the Final Days nearly killed off the star, as per this.



One of the shades also says this: 'Tis a huge undertaking, and it must be completed ere the corruption spreads this far. Thus I say to you again: do not hold out hope for an audience...

I believe the issue of the third sacrifice was an entirely dropped plot point that was replaced with the conflict of "deny suffering" versus "accept suffering".

It's a possibility, depending on how you take that scene/what they intend of it, particularly given the time travel at play, such that it erased that conflict altogether and substituted it with a different one. But for anyone referencing the third stage of sacrifices, they cannot avoid the SHB sources for that very reason.

Meteion's report isn't relevant to the Convocation's proposal, however. It doesn't matter if they viewed Zodiark as a temporary solution or a permanent one. They planned on bartering for the souls of their friends with the souls of non-Amaurotian life. This really had nothing to do with protecting the star.

Sorry but that doesn't hold water.



Also plainly evident from the screenshot Theodric posted.

It reveals as much as it simplifies, we can’t ignore it.

Only in the sense of what they wanted to focus on in EW. But then my point is, if you want to discuss the third stage of sacrifices, you cannot constrain yourself to that source...

Certainly requires less acrobatics.

No, I think it really is a much bigger stretch to try argue from that that any possibility of them averting the sundering is ruled out.

But let’s play out the tape. If Emet is only referring to the being physically at the point on the path, does that not also mean they would fail at defeating Meteion? That’s literally the only path there, if you don’t get there you don’t defeat Meteion.

If you mean to argue that in 12k years, with her having tagged Meteion (he does refer to her as a matchmaker, after all...), they could not conceive of a way to reach her, including with Venat’s assistance once she’d divulged the truth of the matter, yes. Needless to say, I don’t see that as plausible in the least.

I think the fact he is even willing to grant her a compliment should be indicative of his thoughts. He suffered a thousand thousand lives because of her, compliments aren’t exactly easily given afterward.

Again – why? His memories were restored. He’d made his peace with his defeat and the sundered. He was already in a mindset to honour his promise, and Meteion is about to be driven out. He doesn’t know the ins and outs of time travel (and neither does she.) He has little reason to hold back a compliment at that point, with all those caveats in mind...

As Venat notes, the Final Days would mean the end of all the things he holds dear. She had friends, comrades, loves, hopes and desires in that Ancient world. Why do you believe she wouldn’t exhaust all options to see them protected, as the creation of Hydaelyn and Sundering the world would mean losing all of that and more? I’m to believe she made the decision without exhausting all reasonable alternatives?

Because she had already set herself certain constraints on what she could reveal, plus had a desire to answer Hermes’s question. That alone is part of the tragedy of it all, that she could not really articulate what her concerns were because she thought Hermes was essential (debatable by that point), and didn’t want to cause panic… I am sure that she exhausted all options available – with those constraints in mind.