*Spoilers* Anyone feel joining Emet would have been better

[SpectrePhantasia]

Whether or not Sundering counts as killing is irrelevant. She destroyed their civilization, erased everything about who they were, memories and all, expunged their entire culture and lives from history, (much as Emet wanted to do to the WoL, might I add) doomed them to living lifespans that were a fraction of their normal, and subjected them to more frail lives than ever before. Even if you want to veil Sundering itself as something different from killing, even though it is killing in everything but name, it doesn't matter because what the Ancients found to be a far more terrible thing than death itself is a life that is ended before the person can fulfill their desires, which is the exact kind of fate she subjects them to.

The impression I've gotten is they wrote themselves into a corner in ShB, one which they might not have recognized until they read players discuss it. The "new life" angle is what was presented in ShB (and mostly dropped in EW), so either the Convocation was mistaken about what Venat's motives were or that was the reason she was giving people.

Yeah I think there was lot more potential in what Shadowbringers wrote this dilemma to be, and was far more nuanced than what Endwalker tries to make of it afterwards. The second sacrifice is interesting I agree, and the lack of further explanation onto what occurred during the original Final Days is exactly what I'm talking about. In the end we don't know for certain what EITHER side is really fighting for. That is a problem. Boiling such a complex issue down to the simplicity that Endwalker tried to frame it as really left a bad taste in my mouth personally.

[Rulakir]

Boiling such a complex issue down to the simplicity that Endwalker tried to frame it as really left a bad taste in my mouth personally.

As often as people say we had all of ShB to learn the Ascians' side, we find out in EW that it was entirely without context. Instead of seeing what really happened in EW, we get a dramatization of events from Venat's POV. Elidibus, the person who probably would know the most since he was acting mediator, conveniently has memory issues, is disposed of before we travel to the past, and doesn't make an appearance again within the MSQ. (It remains to be seen what, if anything, we learn in Pandemonium.) I doubt we'll ever know the truth of it.