Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
That's actually what I mean by shooting for a third answer. If you go for 'Azem was off fighting The Real Threat', then it paints both the Zodiark and Hydaelyn sides as wrong because they were fighting over something smaller. It's the same issue as if we learned Azem was pursuing a perfect medium option that wouldn't have required Zodiark sacrifices or the Sundering.

It's a permutation of something that I find plagues a lot of games with multiple endings; the existence of a 'true ending' (either in terms of 'everyone's happy' or 'this one has the real final boss') demotes all other options to 'false endings'. Which sucks if you think one of those false endings was the one with the right ideas.
It doesn't paint the two sides as wrong for fighting over something smaller. They were still deciding the fate of many souls on the star, something really huge by anybody's standards. What it does do however, is make it so there was never going to be a happy ending. If Zodiark/Hydaelyn won, the big threat was still going to sacrifice the souls of the Ancients (in some manner). If said threat is dealt with and Zodiark/Hydaelyn wins, souls are sacrificed. There is no True Ending or Golden Ending in this scenario, it's merely a case of "Who do you choose to let die, Azem? Yourself and your fellow Ancients, the ones already sacrificed to Zodiark, or the souls of the new life?"