Quote Originally Posted by Brinne View Post
PawPaw, I thought your post was great and I completely agreed with it. ;_; Of course the Ancients were doomed. So is the Sundered world. So are we. We're all doomed - if not the Plenty, something is going to get us sooner or later.

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It's less the direct motive, and more the psychological process that led him to an ugly, ugly place, that I enjoy in him as a character. I have also been to ugly places that aren't completely dissimilar while in the throes of depression, but I would like to think I do my best to avoid spiraling as badly as Hermes does.
Don't know what PawPaw's post was, but if along those lines then it's an angle I saw too. It really add some inconsistence and a very self-serving view to the values thrown at your face throughout the story sadly.
Yes, something is undeniably going to end everything at some point. If not the sundered mankind destroying each other, ultimately the fate of the universe Ea civilisation talked about will do it.
On this subject as you also talked about it, I find the Ea's angered answer to Y'shtola was right. She certainly answers like one who can neither fully grasp the implications nor project herself like the immortal Ea could. She's limited in all aspect from intellect capacity to experience and physiology (immortality) compared to the Ea so of course she can't view the world like they do. Her answer sounded annoyingly immature and lacking any kind of empathy/understanding.
They could've exchange her dialogue for a teenager's "whatever, don't care" to shorten it. Her character was made pretty insufferable for me this expansion actually. When speaking with her during the dragon part of Ultima Thule, I recall she outright judged them for being tired to fight and deciding to stop.
If the Ascians decided so, would we have seen in it in the same ugly light or would we see praises? Why should stopping to struggle be seen as bad actually? Why are we making value judgements on civilisations?
It was very hard to go through this condescending and presumptuous last bit of story. When touching on such subjects a writer should not enforce one way as the absolute right but let every ways open and stick to offering perspectives.
Really, the way they pushed values down the player's throat in this expansion can't sit well with everyone and it certainly didn't.

That side note you added, completely agree for the same reasons. Which is why I believe not everyone, fortunately, can view Hermes' character as making sense and/or being very relevant. Psychological processes are not the exact same in each and every humans, and him being mostly fleshed out through this lens makes for a dividing character.