Quote Originally Posted by Brinne View Post
Sorry for replying to this late, but I just now remembered that, hilariously, Tales from the Shadows outlines that this is exactly why the majority of the Ironworks and the rest of the world refused to cooperate with Cid's plan of essentially giving up on the present, and then potentially erasing it entirely, in 8UC - however, of course, in this context (because Cid wants to do it for the benefit of the Warrior of Light), their desire to focus on the present is framed in a vaguely negative-leaning sense, and Cid and his crew are framed as acting selflessly and for the sake of hope.
Something that has occurred to me about the 8UC timeline, although probably not an intentional thing, is that the Ironworks gambled with the exact right piece, as G'raha and the Crystal Tower actually wouldn't really help in the task of dragging them towards the Eighth Astral Era. They just don't really provide anything useful for the task at hand, which I read as basically a Mad Max or Fallout situation; facing both mass death and crop failings causing a lawless wasteland. They couldn't have even made a Crystarium, because the main reason that worked was basically because Lakeland was ecologically fine, and just needed defending. (As a result I'd say that the places the 8UC timeline will see hope bloom from are actually more likely to be either Gridania and the remnants of their Botanist's' Guild, or Labyrinthos.)

This is in stark contrast with the notion of 'the WoL stays in Elpis to try to avert the Final Days', because the WoL is actually extremely important for the survival of the present day--not saying that because they're Superman, but more because they're relying on them coming back with useful information. Creating a new timeline in the Elpis time travel confirmably dooms the present-day not because the timeline then ceases to exist, but because the WoL never comes back with crucial information.

The characters certainly didn't intend this, and I have my doubts the writers did, either. But a G'raha-less Eighth Umbral Era isn't appreciably different from one with him there; an Endwalker Final Days without the Warrior of Light is doomed.