Who knew the 6.15 Omega Quests… (Spoilers)

[KizuyaKatogami]

Yes souls are reincarnated. Did you forget about the part where the they were on the same path as those of the Plenty, even without the final days. Why would you put us back on that path? Why would you throw away everything that everyone has gone through to go back to the past? Their lives clearly weren't better. That life did make someone like Hermes.

We went over this in Shadowbringers Just because life ends doesn't mean it doesn't have any meaning or that you should toss it aside in favor of the past.
You can stop trying to twist my words now. Context is important.

You realize that after the sundering the sundered are now susceptible to becoming like both the first and second areas of the dead ends right? Those two would’ve been an impossibility for the ancients but they are now a major possibility for the sundered. 2 is worse than 1.

[thegreatonemal]

You realize that after the sundering the sundered are now susceptible to becoming like both the first and second areas of the dead ends right? Those two would’ve been an impossibility for the ancients but they are now a major possibility for the sundered. 2 is worse than 1.

So end all their lives for no real reason so the newly reincarnated people can end up like the third? Why? Everybody dies, why do whole worlds need to die right this second?

[LordGiggles]

You realize that after the sundering the sundered are now susceptible to becoming like both the first and second areas of the dead ends right? Those two would’ve been an impossibility for the ancients but they are now a major possibility for the sundered. 2 is worse than 1.

Agreed, I think EW is fairly clear on communicating that there is just an inevitable end to any given civilisation. Like even if you successfully dodge all of the problems we see mentioned in the report or dead ends, you're still susceptible to stuff we see in UT. The dragons didn't actually do anything to bring about their fate, and the Ea both solved all of their material concerns and clearly had a strong drive towards understanding and learning as much as they could, but reality is just a hard barrier sometimes.

I don't think the expac was intending to say that the sundered are somehow immune to bad endings, ignoring some of the weird takes the scions give while turning into the floor (Yshtola was particularly weird). Venats motivation seems to just be entirely focused on the sadness bird blues, not on ensuring society will continue on forever. If she was focused on the latter I think you're 100% correct that the ancients would last much longer, just because they're so much harder to kill. the only real external threat to them would be the omicron.

Also ngl, I think the plenty are by far the best fate we're shown, like they all seem perfectly happy to just stop existing. As far as apocalypses go I'd pick that over basically anything else.

[Cleretic]

Also ngl, I think the plenty are by far the best fate we're shown, like they all seem perfectly happy to just stop existing. As far as apocalypses go I'd pick that over basically anything else.

I mostly agree with you, but I'm not sure I'd call the Plenty 'happy'. They seemed to be freaking out... pretty bad, actually. And it's a weird subjective, almost philosophical call on if the Plenty were 'happy' before Meteion turned up; they were fulfilled in the sense that they didn't have to struggle with things like hunger or disease, but they didn't really have anything to live for, which is kinda what brought the breakdown. If you look below the actual play space (but only during the dungeon, not after it, which I hate) you can see that they've essentially left their planet a lifeless mass of rocks, which kinda speaks to it; they can live forever, but there's nothing left to spend that life enjoying. And after they're gone, nothing left to build from.

Endwalker (and a lot of FFXIV in general) generally has an outlook of 'everything ends, eventually'. It's just the nature of things, tragic as it is, what's important is how you respond to that. And I would say that the Sundered aren't painted as better because they won't end--rather the contrary, by my count the amount of dead civilizations we've found is nearly equal to the amount of living ones we've met--but rather because when sundered societies fall, others can be build. Not only is this true in a literal sense--Mhach and Amdapor gave way to Belah'diah and Gelmorra gave way to Ul'dah and Gridania--but also because the sundered, as people who have lived through and seen the inevitabilities of death and suffering, have the emotional resilience to keep going. One of Endwalker's most important scenes, I think, is Matsya reciting Thavnairian teachings to give those around him the strength to move on; they lean on cultural teachings of how to deal with loss that Amaurot just didn't have, and through that manage to keep standing when Amaurot faltered.

Yeah, the sundered could fall victim to the same crises as anything else. In fact, they have--they've been whacked with seven different Calamities, not to mention all the other disasters. But every single time, they could get back up.

[LordGiggles]

snip

I think you're reading too much into the word happy there, it was just a phrase indicating they're willing to move on of their own accord. they aren't dying in some horrific manner or being twisted into monsters or weapons of war, they just stop living. It's not a great solution, but compared to any of the other ends we see, it's by far the best, though the Ea who choose to die are similar.

As to moving on and successive civilisations rising where others fell, I do agree that is something the sundered do well, but it's also a very short term view of things. In the lifespan of a near immortal being, the entirety of the sundered planets history is really nothing. Like again to compare to the Ea, they're terrified of the literal heat death of the universe, something so far away it's impossible to actually imagine, with no way to change that fate. For things like the calamities and the final days, moving on and finding a way to live with that trauma is clearly something the sundered manage alright with (though how that compares to the ancients I have no real idea, they didn't get the opportunity to do so). But I don't think those are at all comparable to some of the more serious problems we see others brought down by.

There isn't really any way to just get back up after being conquered by the omicron, or having your entire planet destroyed by plague. Same deal with being exterminated by an angry god, or whatever wiped out the other planets meteion just found corpses or ruins on.

As for the final days, the strength of the average persons character doesn't really have much to do with that being resolved. They had significantly more information, sharlayan had some warning, and it still would have killed every living thing if it wasn't for the WoL and scions killing meteion.
The ancients did fine with what information they had, zodiark was incredibly successful. Some panicked, but plenty of sundered panicked and turned.