Quote Originally Posted by Lurina View Post
Like, the story, regardless of the fact that it doesn't try to say anyone is objectively right, obviously does want you to sympathize with Venat's faction based on the tone. But the writers refusing to elaborate on circumstances which formed the moral basis for their decision to destroy the original world makes it hard to do so. All they're presented is an abstracted ideology of not living in the past, and a sort of militantly applied vegan viewpoint that you spell out here.
So, here's the thing about this: there is, in this game, literally no such thing as an impartial arbiter on this subject. Or, honestly, on anything this game has ever brought up. The writers are abundantly aware of this, and honestly, it's probably why Emet-Selch was given so much screentime in Shadowbringers; there's not a whole lot of other people who were going to speak on Zodiark's behalf that aren't... you know, completely insane. So he's given a lot more room to say his case, and a lot more credibility in what he's saying, than I honestly still think the Scions would've given him if written more consistently; because otherwise, Zodiark's side is never said.

However, remember that with the exception of one single zone, the entire game is populated by, broadly, people that benefited from Hydaelyn's choices and are, in various forms, proof positive of her beliefs that, while life may have suffering, life on the whole is pretty worthwhile and that lives should not be considered lesser by arbitrary distinction. Remember, as we learned, that the playable races are indistinguishable from the lesser creatures; we are living in a world populated by the people Hydaelyn performed the Sundering for.

It's not that the story wants you to sympathize with Venat. It's that the entire planet around you for most of the game has benefited from her, and so they are naturally pro-Hydaelyn in much the same way that, say, Jews are broadly pro-Yahweh; sure, he's not perfect, but on the whole they're pretty glad he went to bat for 'em.

And I wouldn't say the angle I gather from this is 'militantly vegan'; I certainly know vegetarians and vegans who feel that way, but Venat appeared to put forward something more on the base sceintific angle: 'we're not special, we're made of the same meats, aether and feelings as everyone else'. That doesn't require a complete 100% perfect knowledge of all scientific concepts at play, that basically just means she's made scientific connections that we, as modern humans, can also recognize as true. You know that there's not some fundamental difference in matter and composition between you and a dog; I assume that doesn't change a whole lot of your outlook, but 'we're not special' is a big thing for plenty of others, and Venat is someone who took that seriously and fairly strongly.

I'm not turbo-staunchly pro-Hydaelyn, but I do broadly think she made the right choices even if it wasn't an easy or unarguable one. I think some people want the game to come out and say that one of the sides involved was objectively right, just so it stops being complicated, and those people are always going to be disappointed in any further content about it, because the game just isn't going to do that. The closest we'll get is that we're in a world made by Hydaelyn's choice, and whether or not that choice was good or bad at the time, everyone around us generally benefitted from it.