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

[Rulakir]

The majority of players just don't think about it. I've come across a lot of people, including streamers, who took the post-Elpis cutscene at face value and believed that's how events unfolded. Hell, yesterday on another forum someone essentially told me I didn't understand/had it wrong, that Venat had stopped the sacrifice to restore the world because she thought their people should learn to rebuild rather than wish everything back to the way it was. I didn't even know where to start. :P

If the sundered were forcefully subjected to this fate, I doubt they’d somehow just roll with it because it isn’t “really” genocide – yes, it is. It would wipe them out as species in their current form and result in something quite unrecognisable to them if done in the same way as it was done to the ancients.

Not that the Scions are any strangers to hypocrisy, but Alphinaud already made this statement in ShB:



So, no, they would not be okay with being sundered 'for their own good', they would've fought tooth and nail against it, which is (again) why it's so galling that not a one of them have any criticisms for Hydaelyn.

Until we see how things actually happen, WITHOUT us being present, maybe then they'll be able to justify the sundering, but I highly doubt we'll ever get now that they're keen to move on from this storyline entirely. And you know what? I'm actually ok with that. I hope they never again approach this level of moral dilemma and this many lives hanging in the balance of whatever is going on. They've proven extensively that they can't handle it.

I'm so torn on this because on one hand I want the fate of the Ancients 'fixed' somehow, but on the other I don't want them to touch it any further if they're just going to make it worse. All I wanted was an AU. -_-

Here's my dumb "theory": the Twelve are just toy puppet-constructs made by Hydaelyn based off the memories of the 12 who became her magical skinsuit in order to teach the cavemen sundered how to human.

I will be irritated beyond measure if they have anything to do with Venat. Enough is enough, the entirety of EW was practically one big Hydaelyn worshiping session. Like, seriously, who in corporate is sleeping with her body pillow and calling these shots? It reminds me of the burning of Teldrassil in WoW, that's what one person (Afrasiabi) wanted, the rest of the writing team didn't want to do it, but he got his way due to his seniority.

Fortunately, my main's deity is Halone due to Ishgard, so in that respect it doesn't matter what the 'truth' is about her as she's still the patron deity of what I consider my character's home. My alt's deity is Azeyma though, which I picked before I found out Venat was the former Azem.

Another friend and I were just discussing this yesterday, but she brought up what I thought was a really insightful point: the writers' perspective probably identified, correctly, that there would be a disconnect between the players and their worldview, and the Ancients' worldview. However, the assumption would be that the players' instinct would be to defend their world in the face of this gap and this discomfort, rather than confront the discomfort, consider it, and come to the conclusion: hey, you know what? The Ancients make sense. Their way is better. I'd rather live in this world than my own. So basically, we were, uh, less xenophobic than they anticipated?

My opinion is I think they underestimated how appealing the Ancient civilization appears compared to our own, especially since the pandemic. Maybe we're supposed to compare it to Eorzea (which I still don't think is that great), but after the divisiveness of the past couple of years seeing a society where everyone is kind, considerate, and respectful of one another and, as Emet said in ShB (paraphrased) where their differences paled in comparison to what they had in common, it felt like a dream. It was a nice escape and I think that's what most people want, especially from their entertainment.