Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
What then, when you've been everywhere? Peregrinate endlessly? The entire point of journeys is to get to a destination. You don't start journeys without wanting to go somewhere. When you do reach journey's end, then you can embark on another if there's something else you desire.

...

And though the characters say they refrain from judging these societies, they do still lay out each society's flaw with their rebuttals to the individuals that Meteion speaks through. The goal is to break the party's spirits so that they give into despair.

Every situation is the representative of a collective vs. individuals. What the story is really saying, more or less, is society be damned. The passions and persuasions of an individual are enough to cast aside any amount of dread for any number of people.
It's impossible to see and do everything in a mortal lifespan. You could spend your whole life wandering and still never see all there is to see, do all there is to do. Some people go on journeys, wander, for its own sake. The PC didn't come to Eorzea intending to save it from an Imperial invasion, expose the lies behind its wayward brother nation and save it from a millennium of conflict, liberate two city-states (one on the other side of the ocean) from Imperial rule, save both it and another world from catastrophe, and then save all creation from a wayward experiment from 12,000 years ago. Things just happen.

Sticking with the herd isn't necessarily right. But I guess if you do that, you can just blame the collective when things don't work out instead of accepting responsibility for your choice, right?

... the ultimate message of the story is that "Even if it's full of pain and suffering and can end without your consent, life is still worth living." That's what the argument of the Ancients boiled down to - a life where you have to accept pain and suffering, and that your life can end for reasons beyond your control, isn't worth living.