Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[Alleluia]

She relied on said rejoinings though, that’s one of the major flaws in her plan. She required events to play out in such a specific manner. If not, who knows what would have happened.

Isn't that probably the point, though? As Elidibus says, you can't change the past b/c your present is built on it. The present where everyone is currently alive and not a self destructing society, though it is under threat from the remnants of the past.

Venat could have taken a chance on a future that was completely unknown, maybe. I mean, if she hadn't sundered the world and neutered Zodiark, literally who knows what would have happened? It was a devil you know vs the devil you don't situation. The classic question for time travel stories: do you let events play out as you know they are "supposed" to or not? She knew that the end result of the sundering timeline seemed to result in people who had a unique perspective to understand suffering; who had a chance of ending Metieon's threat. And she assessed the ancients, as they were, to be incapable of ultimately surviving; an opinion Hades later affirms in Ultima Thule when he says "Our methods would not have carried us this far."

Yes, she could have tried to change that. I, personally, wish the timeline had branched instead of looping, with an alternate timeline where we did just that. Tried to avoid the sundering and saved the Ancients as they are. Meteion asks us to do so. Hythlodeaus tells us that its their problem to fix, implying it is a problem that they're going to tackle. Venat, as well, talks about averting things. Hades refuses to accept our present as his future, and I didn't want him to go through it, either. Elpis is full of so much hopeful sentiment that ultimately proves futile. It turns out we're just watching people doomed to die go through the motions and I kinda hate it.

But Venat was faced with a choice: To go with the unknown where maybe she can save her people as they are, even though signs point to them going down a path that will ultimately doom them all (Mr. "when we knew naught but bliss!" with his nostalgia goggles); Or to go with the path she knows for a fact seems like its working. She chose to put her trust in us and our path. Its not kind to anyone, even herself, but it is pragmatic. She honestly thinks its their best chance. And, ultimately, the other two representatives of the Ancients seem to agree with her: Hyth encouraging us to protect the sealing brand on the moon, Hades saying her method worked out better than how their own would have. Not that that means that they can't all be wrong and there wasn't actually another way, but in the end, her way *did* work. And that was the goal.


And, as a side note, saying she's ultimately responsible for the rejoinings is kinda blame shifting. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. She didn't make the Unsundered go through with their rejoining plan. If she had free will to go a different way at any point and not sunder people, they too had the option to not Rejoin. Even if tempering is a thing that compelled the unsundered to do it (and I'm not entirely sure anymore that it was), the sundered ascians could have stepped in and rebelled or something. Either everyone had free will here or no one does.