What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[KageTokage]

...and yet how many times would the Sundered have realistically engineered their own demise had they not conveniently had every possible plot device in their favour and minimal meaningful stakes at every turn? I'm reluctant to blame the Ancients as a whole for the actions of subversive ideologues and somehow I doubt the same logic would ever be applied elsewhere in the story. Should the Domans be wiped out because of what Yotsuyu did? Should the Domans be wiped out because of what they did to Yotsuyu in order to make her that way? I don't think so - and I don't think the Ancients deserved to be wiped out either.

I'm also not oblivious to the unfortunate fact that many ideologues in the real world giggle and twitch at the thought of claiming that someone is 'perfect', 'wealthy' or 'stuck up' even if that isn't even the case only to fantasise about those individuals or groups losing every last thing that they care about, including their very lives and that of their loved ones.

There's a much more dangerous variant, however - those that hide their intentions behind tears and the famous words of 'there was no other option'. Which is pretty much Venat to a large degree.

That's...not really what I was getting at at all.

I simply reasoned that a race that was largely devoid of strife and conflict was more likely to have brought calamity to itself through something like a search for knowledge/answers and/or tampering with forces they didn't have a complete understanding of; both of which were fulfilled with Hermes' creating the Meteia to seek out the peoples of other stars.

[Theodric]

That's...not really what I was getting at at all.

I simply reasoned that a race that was largely devoid of strife and conflict was more likely to have brought calamity to itself through something like a search for knowledge/answers and/or tampering with forces they didn't have a complete understanding of; both of which were fulfilled with Hermes' creating the Meteia to seek out the peoples of other stars.

Fair enough. It was the use of the word 'gratified' that led me to read it that way.

Still, I wouldn't really consider Hermes or Venat to be representative of the Ancients as a whole when they deliberately ignored the methods employed to mitigate dangerous actions and illegal concepts. The 'perfection' of the Ancient world is also a lot more agreeable to many, I suspect, compared to what the Sundered world brings to the table.

Maybe it'd sit better with me if the game didn't turn the pursuit of betterment into a wacky caricature in the same breath as constantly glorifying flaws and differences. How unfortunate that none of the heavy handed worlds that Meteion encountered happened to fall into ruin due to having far too many competing special groups vying for power and control.

I kept waiting for the penny to drop and for someone to express disbelief in response to Venat's reason for wiping out her own people but that moment never came.

[Caurcas]

That's...not really what I was getting at at all.

I simply reasoned that a race that was largely devoid of strife and conflict was more likely to have brought calamity to itself through something like a search for knowledge/answers and/or tampering with forces they didn't have a complete understanding of; both of which were fulfilled with Hermes' creating the Meteia to seek out the peoples of other stars.

But did it have to be a weird bird loli?