Who knew the 6.15 Omega Quests… (Spoilers)

[Cilia]

I thought "perfection is impossible so why bother?" was Meteion's schtick, not Venat's. Like, that's Nihilism 101. The point isn't to not try at all, but to carry on even if cosmic oblivion in some form is always the eventual outcome.

I know it's been a few months, but have we really forgotten Y'shtola's response to the Ea? Or are we just ignoring it because it doesn't fit the narrative we want to push about the narrative being pushed?

To anyone still lost as to Venat's specific idealogy, here, have some Cicero: (emphasis mine)
It's really basic stuff, but apparently also not.

I'll see your Cicero... and raise you some Nietzsche.

If we affirm one moment, we thus affirm not only ourselves but all existence. For nothing is self-sufficient, neither in us ourselves nor in things; and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, all eternity was needed to produce this one event—and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good, redeemed, justified, and affirmed.

All the terrible things that happened throughout the universe's history were needed to produce just one moment - one single moment - when you were happy. Is your own happiness not worth fighting for because your existence is predicated on your forebears staining their hands with blood and sin?

Raise ya Camus as well:

I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Sisyphus was a man from Greek myth cursed to try rolling a boulder up a hill for all eternity for cheating death twice, but Camus reimagined him as being happy because he never stopped trying. The world is cruel, unfair, and will devour you whole - so all you can do is find happiness and pride in the little things you can control. You can always start over, even if you fall. (But the Ancients did not want to start over; they wanted to go back to the way things were, even though nothing could turn back the clock and no amount of sacrifices could return everyone to life. In essence, they gave up the forging ahead, taking risks, and sought only security and comfort in Zodiark's arms. What future could such a civilization possibly create?)

And as bonus, it may not be from an existentialist philosopher but Bleach's Mayuri Kurotsuchi gives a pretty scathing condemnation on the concept of perfection that I like to think is relevant given Emet-Selch's touting Amaurotine civilization as "perfect:"

The 'perfect being' you said...? Well... I have to tell you the honest truth as I see it. In this world nothing perfect exists. It may be a cliché after all, but it's the way things are. That's precisely why ordinary men pursue to concept of perfection, it's infatuation... But ultimately I have to ask myself "What is the true meaning of being perfect?" And the answer I came up with was: nothing. Not one thing. The truth of the matter is I despise perfection. If something is truly perfect, that's it. The bottom line becomes there is no room for imagination, no space for intelligence or ability or improvement. Do you understand? To men of science like us perfection is a dead end, a condition of hopelessness. Always strive to be better than anything that came before you, but not perfect. Scientists agonize over the attempt to achieve perfection. That's the kind of creatures we are. We take joy in trying to exceed our grasp, in trying to reach for something that in the end we have to admit may in fact be unreachable. In other words, you may think the we operate on the same level, but you're wrong. The moment you started talking about perfection you embraced an impossible concept and you already lost to me. That is of course if you are indeed a scientist at all.

Once you set something as a perfect ideal, if you reach it you will have nothing to work toward even though there is always room for improvement. (Why couldn't Lahabrea have made his phoenixes smarter, or something?) Amaurotine civilization's focus on duty and conformity led to someone who pondered whether there was more life had to offer than fulfilling his duty and then dying as nothing more than a cog in the system; for all of Emet-Selch's posturing Amaurot was far from perfect, but most of its people believed it to be so and were unwilling or unable to see and improve upon those flaws thanks to their easy lives (which, incidentally, is exactly why they had little to no resilience in the face of tragedy and decided abandoning their guiding principles as stewards of the star to turn it into an aether farm for their selfish wants was the better path).

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Meh... you know, uhh, "If my motives met with your approval, would you no longer resent the outcome?"; no amount of argument or reasoning will convince folk what think the Sundering was unjustified and unnecessary to the contrary, so I'm just going to bow out at this juncture. Not every storyline is gonna gel with every player, an' that's ok.