Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[Skyborne]

We are right there with her as she tries to avert the Final Days and avoid having to sunder anyone at all.

Huh? Did my memories of EW already fall out of my brain? Or are you talking about Ktsis where we failed to stop Hermes/Meteion? After that whole thing she decides she'll gather some trusted followers, but it doesn't seem like she did anything to stop the Final Days from occuring in the first place -- that they showed or told us, anyway. One of my biggest gripes, since they really wanted to sell me on her being a good person who tried her best. They only went for the Answers AMV where she tries to talk to the 'nostalgic boomer' strawmen after the Final Days already hit...

The hill that my corpse will fester on is that the ascians were well within their rights to correct what they saw as a huge mistake born of Hydaelyn's fear of Zodiark's power, and to defy fate as has been the way in many FF games. They and Ardbert & co were the 'dark mirrors' and the actual Warriors of Darkness to the WoL/Scions, who were also within their rights to fight back and defy fate.　Not to mention that those calamities could be thought of as 'toughening up' people as She wanted... I think this has been said a trillion times by others though.

Brinne's post below makes me think of that JP character poll comment... 'she's co-conspirators with Hermes, isn't she?' imo that's where it nosedived for me. It's like teaching a child to swim by throwing him into the ocean in the middle of the night, then sighing and giving up on him when he washes up half-alive and with an intense phobia of all water... these kids in the shallow end of the pool with their water wings are much more resilient!

[Alleluia]

Huh? Did my memories of EW already fall out of my brain? Or are you talking about Ktsis where we failed to stop Hermes/Meteion?

Not just Ktsis, but before that. Her entire goal once we told her the future was that we were trying to figure out how the Final Days happened in order to avoid them. None of the three ancients, Venat included, accepted the Final Days as a foregone conclusion. She even sounds like she has plans to continue to try to avert them after the memory wipe, though I'm sure at that point she was also thinking about how the Hydaelyn plan could be put into action. But, yes, before that she was trying to avoid the apocalypse and therefore avoid having to sunder anyone.

[Brinne]

Not just Ktsis, but before that. Her entire goal once we told her the future was that we were trying to figure out how the Final Days happened in order to avoid them. None of the three ancients, Venat included, accepted the Final Days as a foregone conclusion. She even sounds like she has plans to continue to try to avert them after the memory wipe, though I'm sure at that point she was also thinking about how the Hydaelyn plan could be put into action. But, yes, before that she was trying to avoid the apocalypse and therefore avoid having to sunder anyone.

Yes, before she hears our stories of the future, and before she hears Meteion's report. Venat herself states that something drastic must have changed her mind, since her initial instinct is to, yes, stop the Final Days altogether - and she notes that that doesn't seem to be the priority of her future self. After getting to know us and hearing Meteion's report:

Regardless of how we proceed, if we are to permanently avert the Final Days, we must be equal to Hermes's challenge. We must prove that mankind is worthy to exist. And this hinges, I think, on how we confront the all-consuming despair that accompanies a senseless and seemingly inevitable end.

She fundamentally actually agrees with the premise of Hermes's test, that mankind's right to live is not a given, but something that must be "proven." And she decides that worthiness will hinge on subjecting them to absolute despair and seeing how they respond. In this moment, she more or less strongly implies that's made up her mind to allow Hermes's test to happen, and her strategy is to do her best to prepare people to simply endure it - which is even symbolically reflected in the montage, where she walks past the first Ancient being killed and does nothing to interfere.