I can post! I can post! \o/ Thank you so much to tokinokanatae for posting on my behalf earlier! I was losing my mind a bit there. Well, more than usual.

Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
Indeed – and it's only Endwalker that frames them as "eternally trapped and conscious within Zodiark" and in need of being let out. When we were debating Shadowbringers I think everyone, or at least the majority, were under the impression that the sacrificed souls were essentially dead (whether absorbed into Zodiark or gone to the aetherial sea) and Emet's desire to resurrect them could never actually be fulfilled because there was nothing left of them to revive.
Yes, this clarification single-handedly, and instantaneously, flipped me from "the Hydaelyn faction was right" in Shadowbringers to "the Hydaelyn faction was out of their minds" in Endwalker.

The "but they sacrificed themselves willingly" argument always elicits a very special kind of "what" for me. Just because someone is selfless enough - and/or loves you enough - to take a bullet for you, doesn't mean you don't immediately do everything in your power, once the immediate danger is passed, to save them and hopefully restore them to a pre-gunshot existence, or as close to one as possible. You don't watch them continue to writhe in pain and bleed out because, well, they took the hit willingly, after all! Who's to even say they'd want you to have them take up any precious resources to help them, huh? Nothing for it!

Also, just to reiterate: thank you to the writers for these quests. I absolutely loved them.