Quote Originally Posted by SpectrePhantasia View Post
I've said it before, but the writing's decision to leave the actual precise events of the Sundering as vague and indirect (Transparently done in pursuit of making both sides sympathetic) is what's led to these headaches.
I don't know, I believe the ancients fully intended to sacrifice sentient beings with souls for the third sacrifice, but I still find them to be sympathetic. They had lost so much, and were willing to go to desperate and extreme lengths to get thier loved ones back. Ambiguity was never necessary for me to find them sympathetic, and indeed I think the ambiguity disappears if you engage directly with the themes and symbolism of the story.

As many people have stated, Venat's choice was not an ethical one. It is a symbolic and thematic one, the narrative sets up the dicothemy between the ancients, clinging to the past and desperate to return to the glory days of eld, and Venat, who has hope and belief in the generations that come after her. Venat's choice is ultimately the only way forward, because what the ancients represent (returning to the past) is impossible.