Quote Originally Posted by vehere View Post
...the game just outright says how you should feel about her and how wonderful she is...
And this right here is 100% where I'm coming from with my arguments.

I'm operating under what's actually in the game. Not what could have been or what should have been. But what the writers actually put in the expansion.

These are the facts as presented to us:

1) Emet-Selch and his camp had a plan to summon Zodiark and rejoin the shards. This was shown to be wrong because it only delays the Final Days, not permanently stops them. And it does not answer Hermes' question. Endwalker, unlike Shadowbringers which was much greyer in its morality, was very much on the nose with this. It hits you over the head with it. Again and again. So much so that the writers even make Emet-Selch tell you in Ultima Thule "My way was wrong. Venat's way was right. You are to be commended. We never would have made it this far." Paraphrasing.

2) Based on what we've been shown with the way dynamis works, Venat's plan to summon Hydaelyn and sunder the world was the right way. Once again, the game hits us over the head with this repeatedly. "Learn to walk," "Through suffering comes joy," "Perfection leads to apathy." Hermes' depression. Several of the side quests in Elpis. Two-thirds of Ultima Thule hammer this point home (the Ea and the Omicrons). The final area of Dead Ends is completely on the nose in regards to the Ancients. The game straight up tells you, Venat is the tragic hero of the entire story arc.

This is not interpretation, this is not headcanon, this is not conjecture. This is the expansion.

Now, this is the opinion part: I think summoning Zodiark was idiotic because it does not address the Final Days permanently, makes the Ancients beholden to a god indefinitely, and Rejoinings removes choice for the sundered people and amounts to unfathomable genocide. In fact, multiple mass genocides.

The counterargument that I've seen repeated in this thread is "But what if Venat told the Ancients what she knew?" My response to that is, maybe she did? At least some. By all indications, she did communicate to a degree. There's no way of knowing what went down in those days leading up to the first sacrifice. We have some accounts from various characters and some cutscenes. But we really don't know what happened. We do know that Azem wasn't really keen on either faction. And we also know that Venat had some support.

Emet-Selch never believed a word we said even after he saw everything. So telling the Convocation what she knew still doesn't guarantee they would have changed course. And telling Hermes that his Meteion was still alive would be a non-starter. He would be dead set against Venat and everyone else. He's already shown his true colors.

Those are my opinions. But I'm basing them on what's been shown in the game. Not what I think should have been done.