Quote Originally Posted by tokinokanatae View Post
I agree that this is what the third sacrifice was supposed to imply, but the narrative undercut itself by having all those souls that sacrificed themselves for the planet existing in (an implied painful!) purgatory for thousands and thousands of years. 75% of the Ancients were basically being tortured and taken out of the cycle of life! Leaving them alone is like having proof that Hell exists and that you could save everyone suffering there, but shrugging and saying, "well, they chose eternal pain to save their loved ones, all we can do is accept that and move on with our lives."
I don''t know if the Ancients were aware of that, and even if they were, the only other option was to sacrifice half of the newly-sown life on the planet, leaving them in the same situation. That would've left them culpable for that too lest they destroy Zodiark at a later date, something which they probably couldn't have done due to being tempered (unless Hermes lost his mind again LMAO) and would've just caused the Final Days to continue anyways.

That also would've left Venat a lot more justified in the Sundering, so it might've been better for the narrative.