Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[Rulakir]

So much this. I am unhappy that they left the answer up to individual headcanon. Thus really needs more discussion on the forums then it's getting.

I wanted to know more about Azem during the Final Days until EW happened. I've been concerned ever since that Azem was going to be retconned from having opposed both sides to secretly working with Venat given how she was portrayed. I haven't seen anyone mention it, but Yoshi-P said (in regards to the question of what Azem was doing during the Final Days), "What would I have done if Venat had told me this?" So apparently Azem knew or at least Yoshi-P believes they did. This was one of the issues I had with Venat being 1) the former Azem, 2) the WoL's Azem's mentor, and 3) all the prestige of the white robes of being wise/impartial/trustworthy, etc. The question becomes, why wouldn't Azem be on her side when she's depicted as this great and wonderful person, arguably one of the best of their kind?

As someone who has always disliked Hydaelyn starting from ARR, EW was the worst case scenario for me where my WoL was not only ultimately her groomed champion (something I abhorred) but additionally made to be some kind of time transcendent BFF of hers. Particularly disturbing when you realize she's responsible for sundering your original self and condemning your two actual BFFs to fates worse than death. The whole story has been a seemingly bottomless pit of how morally deficient can Venat be and still be presented (gaslit) that she's "not a bad guy". Having Azem in on this too would've just been the last nail in the coffin. There's such a gross discrepancy between my feelings and the writers' on this one it's difficult to rectify.

Speaking of which, saying that the Ancients didn't think like us is such a cop out that could be used for every antagonist ever. "They're not really evil, they just don't think like us!" Obviously.

[Lauront]

Speaking of which, saying that the Ancients didn't think like us is such a cop out that could be used for every antagonist ever. "They're not really evil, they just don't think like us!" Obviously.

It's also rather weak when debate and enquiry is deeply ingrained in their society as a foundational principle, and when we have multiple sundered antagonists (and even protagonists re: the Ironworks in the AU) who take it upon themselves to enforce their decisions against wider mankind. It's obviously correct that the ancients were rather different beings in many ways, which will follow from some of their innate traits inherently. But in this case I don't think it holds much water to attribute this impulse to that - and it's telling that he has to draw comparisons to Emet-Selch after he's been changed from 12k years of a rather gruesome toil. I welcome the comparison, of course. On the question of Azem, all I can say is if it were my character, they would not side with her decision to sunder her own, and would instead have tried to find a way to alert their people to the risk present, and if she was being coy, dig deeper.