*Spoilers* Anyone feel joining Emet would have been better

[KageTokage]

I really struggle to believe that the Ancients couldn't have figured out a way to combat the Endsinger if they had actually known what was going on and that dynamis was the element responsible for causing the Final Days.

Looking at the circumstances under which people were turning in the present time, many managed to overcome it simply through possessing a strong will to live, and if the Ancients hadn't already possessed such a will they would've all simply gone mad and died off before they summoned Zodiark. There is no indication that experiencing suffering and hardship was essential to overcoming despair, and in fact many of the people in the role quests ended up turning specifically because they couldn't get over the trauma they experienced previously, so it comes across as an outstandingly weak line of reasoning to me.

The more important aspect was being capable of manipulating dynamis through a lower aetherial density, and that could've been achieved by proxy with creations, having some bold Ancients like the current Azem volunteer to be sundered, and other unexplored avenues, but alas, they were never permitted such an opportunity.