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

[KageTokage]

All this discussion just leaves me wishing that the Sundering had genuinely just been an act of impulsive fear like the Ascians believed it to be, not this moral and ideological mess of a long game that feels like the writers intended for people to just not think about given how little sense it makes under deeper scrutiny.

[Theodric]

All this discussion just leaves me wishing that the Sundering had genuinely just been an act of impulsive fear like the Ascians believed it to be, not this moral and ideological mess of a long game that feels like the writers intended for people to just not think about given how little sense it makes under deeper scrutiny.

Yep. They were already willing to make Venat's actions hasty and without any real attempt to explore other possibilities. Any attempt to delay the act itself was entirely hidden behind false narratives such as 'needing' to keep Zodiark's power in check.

Having the Sundering be either an accident or something Venat came to regret would have let her come out of it all much better than by making it a deliberate act that she resorted to because traumatised people didn't react the 'right way' to the Final Days.

It just makes no sense. If Merlwyb started killing people who didn't react properly to the Final Days striking Limsa, the Scions would stop or kill her. As they have shown to be each and every time random civilians were cut down by an antagonist.

...and if nothing else, the development team can't be oblivious to all the issues in the real world lately. After increasingly divisive rhetoric where differences in opinion are met with death threats over both minor and major issues, Endwalker's narrative and solution to societal disagreement isn't the wholesome, uplifting statement it gaslights people into believing it to be.