The Ancients still deserved better, after everything

[Lauront]

My question then would be, who else has this authority? There's no god above them. The star is happily sticking souls in creations that comply with its peculiar requirements. They're not simply using their power - which is innate and natural to them - for personal gain so much as what they see as the communal goal of improving their star by enriching the life that populates it. This is why I fail to understand where arrogance comes into this - if anything, it tilts in the opposite direction. I can't even say this is misguided, because they see both themselves and their creations as sharing a beneficial co-existence with the star, each serving their purpose in enriching it - they even saw their own return to it as part of its lifeblood. I see it as a rather beautiful and harmonious relationship. Moreover, we see from the Elpis sidequests that as a people they had a rich tapestry of personalities and viewpoints, and many of them would readily consider new viewpoints, and were not some hivemind.

I must admit, I genuinely struggle to see the issue with what they were doing. We, too, as a species shape other (lesser) species to service our ends, which can include very whimsical, trivial ones, and will even resort to genetic engineering for this. Now you can perhaps label this "arrogant" in the sense that we're not omniscient and that it comes with risks, but the specific argument of "what gives us that authority?" is meaningless to me. Absent a higher power or some natural moral order woven into the fabric of the universe, to which such decisions are properly reserved, at least. They could simply unmake the beings and revise the concept, or they could try other methods before doing so. They're still going to judge if it's a good fit for their star's ecosystem, or otherwise natural selection will very brutally make that decision on their behalf, which was their concern with the lykaones. And I am not even going to compare to the sundered or us as RL humans as you concede the same criticisms could be levelled - and I would say even harsher ones if we were to pick apart the sundered and put them under a microscope; not that I propose to do so.

As for those sacrificed to Zodiark (amounting to 75% of their remaining population), they did not know. It's clear from this source (JP version here... sources for other stuff here), because the Convocation amended its original plan to restore them. I am going to make a point here: the ancients caught in Zodiark were in a limbo, where they could not enjoy return to the star, which they cherished culturally. The ancients, as per sources in SHB (namely, Elidibus's short story), were also divided over this final stage, including the Convocation (FR SOS text confirms this), so much so that Elidibus emerged to mediate the debate. We don't know what the cause of the division was in broader ancient society (Venat's group is more concerned with the Plenty as an outcome but she did not share this with her people), but a very plausible reason here is how those sacrificed originally would feel about being returned - something Elidibus, as core of the primal, could speak to. To me it looks less like this act was purely selfish, and more that they had a complex situation of whether to leave their sacrificed brethren in this limbo. Even if I were to grant that some were being 'selfish' and simply wanted the return of their people, the existing division on this matter could have allowed for them to change course if they had been given the full truth of the risks Venat believed this carried.

Dont get me wrong, Venta is also Arogant in that regard, her actions certainly are questionable, even if they ultimatly lead to the best outcome we are currently aware of was possible(emet selch admiting the ancients would not have gotten that far as evidence here)

This really isn't going to cut it for me. He simply says "our methods" - as ancients or Ascians? Venat is an ancient at the end of the day. She's using ancient methods. So the "our" in this case vague, as is what he's specifically referring to. In the FR version, it is clearer he is referring to her gift as a matchmaker as the overall context behind those lines. Either way, I'm afraid I don't consider what he's saying there to equate to the claim that the ancients, given the full knowledge of what happened, had no possible way of resolving this on their own terms. It's too vague and he goes on to say his principles are invincible, so it's a weird meaning to extract from it, IMO, plus even if I granted it, he's not omniscient.