Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[EaraGrace]

Venat does not take any joy in the prospect of causing destruction or destroying her world. Again, she thinks in the abstract, of an intangible sense of "beauty" that can only be sparked by "in deepest darkness, find light everlasting." That being said, she's willing to go ahead and do it on her ideological basis, because she thinks that's the proper way for people to live - to "become strong", again, "find true happiness." She doesn't relish the idea that the people she knows are headed down a bad path, or that she has to cull them, but more tellingly, she accepts that premise. I think that the fact that she takes, again, a two-sentence description as the basis of which to destroy her current world speaks to a confirmation bias.

She accepts it due to the inescapable reality they find themselves in. One of the cornerstones of her outlook is a belief that one must look honestly and truthfully at the world one lives in. When she speaks of her own revelation she describes how “freed from presumption or prejudice, I saw the world through a newborns eyes. Everything fresh and new and so, so beautiful.” It’s why she doesn’t reject our story when Emet and Hythlo did and it plays into how she responds to Meteions breakdown, with her stating that Hermes has a right to hear Meteions report but that they should be there as well so he isn’t alone.

So rejecting the premise to her is the equivalent of rejecting gravity or time or any other constant. And that’s very different from believing her world needs to suffer out of preference for that state. One is a begrudging acceptance of the nature of existence, the other is a belief that it is right and good that people should suffer. Perhaps its not an important distinction in other peoples view, but it’s one that I think helps to define her character. The Sundering was a necessity in order to overcome the challenges ahead, not a good in it of itself.

She actually does lament its current state.

On Hermes, Venat says this:



She relates to his desire to oppose the world as it currently exists to the extent of anguish. She does go on to say that she still loves the world, and wants to save it, but of course - Hermes's anguish led him to a subconscious wish to destroy the world. Venat's led her to wish to change the people on it.

I think that quote shows her struggling with a specific cultural norm, rather than being indicative of her distaste for the state of the world then. In her speech to us she actually reaffirms the Ancients way of thinking, stating that as soon as she feels she’s accomplished her purpose she’ll return to the star. It’s just that that purpose has a much longer path than the others. If she had felt that mankind can find it’s own way before stepping down, I don’t think she’d even be voicing that frustration.

The cutscene where Venat hears about the WoL's adventures and their world, and then talks about her own sort of strange, vaguely-defined divine revelation about the correct way to appreciate the beauty of the world, is also very interesting in light of Venat's decisions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7MgvB7sxLU

I’m a particular fan of that speech, as well as the one from the (in)famous cutscene after Elpis. The way she describes how she came to love humanity is I think, regardless of anyones feelings on her beyond that scene, beautiful.