[6.0 - 6.4 Spoilers] An interesting video detailing Venat's polarizing reception

[Gaddes]

Frankly, I can't wrap my head around how people look at the complete destruction of an entire species as not controversial. Just the mere concept of taking all those people and effectively killing them. Yeah, their biological matter and souls weren't entirely eradicated, but their identities were stripped away by the Sundering process and all the building blocks that compromised them instead went on to become wholly distinct organisms. That is in many ways worse than just being outright dead. Then there's the matter of how things went in the time period immediate following the Sundering, which we're lead to believe was positively horrific for all involved.

Whether or not it was justified is an entirely separate matter.

Y'know, you bring up an interesting point that I never really thought about before. Venat sundered the world into shards to keep ancients from just sacrificing themselves over and over again summoning Zodiark, but... to what end?
The end result from the sundering is that, yes, life survives... but as sundered beings, those new lives are new entities from the ancients they came from. So basically, if we consider those original lives "lost" to split into new ones with new personalities and new bodies, then the whole thing was a failure because everyone died anyway to make that new life.
The surviving few Ascians think they could regain their friends' past lives by Rejoining, but it doesn't seem like it was part of Venat's original sundering plan to account for a few ancients escaping into a rift to avoid being sundered. So if she didn't account for any survivors who would reinstate those lost lives/personalities, what was she really saving by sundering anyway? She basically killed all the ancients with the Sundering process.

If I was an ancient, I could certainly be convinced that that was an evil, or at the very least morally grey, action...

[Absimiliard]

it doesn't seem like it was part of Venat's original sundering plan to account for a few ancients escaping into a rift to avoid being sundered. So if she didn't account for any survivors who would reinstate those lost lives/personalities, what was she really saving by sundering anyway? She basically killed all the ancients with the Sundering process.

It was planned for. Well, to be specific, Emet-Selch was planned for. She meant to leave him intact, although she wasn't 100% sure she could pull it off in the moment the sundering began. She essentially left a little flaw in it, one which she hoped he would recognize and exploit as a means of saving himself. Elidibus and Lahabrea just so happened to be in his company at that time, and so he was able to save them as well. Venat did this to preserve the timeline that gave rise to the WoL she met in Elpis. The horrors those three would unleash, the lives sacrificed in pursuit of the Rejoinings -- she knew about it all.

[MikkoAkure]

So if she didn't account for any survivors who would reinstate those lost lives/personalities, what was she really saving by sundering anyway? She basically killed all the ancients with the Sundering process.

I think it was more about saving or protecting "life" in general than anything specific.

I think a problem we have with trying to reconcile Zodiark, Hydaelyn, and the Sundering is that a lot of their thought processes and their culture is alien to us. To me, the Ancients seemed to be of the mind that they were ultimately "custodians of the star" and that everything they did was for a greater whole rather than masters of it that bent the world to their own will for their own needs.

It was already established that Ancients will die and return their aether to the star to reenter the cycle of death and rebirth once they have "finished their job". Venat was already somewhat of a heretic (a trait shared with her Occurian namesake) in that she didn't do that. Seemingly related to the standard Ancient death custom is that it seemed to be a great honor to sacrifice your aether to Zodiark. To harvest life that had finally returned to the planet in order to revive people who sacrificed themselves seems pervert that notion. That they titled Zodiark "Will of the Star", called him a god, and called themselves His "servants" doesn't seem to paint a good picture either.

[Absimiliard]

It was already established that Ancients will die and return their aether to the star to reenter the cycle of death and rebirth once they have "finished their job". Venat was already somewhat of a heretic (a trait shared with her Occurian namesake) in that she didn't do that. Seemingly related to the standard Ancient death custom is that it seemed to be a great honor to sacrifice your aether to Zodiark. To harvest life that had finally returned to the planet in order to revive people who sacrificed themselves seems pervert that notion. That they titled Zodiark "Will of the Star", called him a god, and called themselves His "servants" doesn't seem to paint a good picture either.

Sacrificing your life and aether to Zodiark was regarded as honorable specifically because you were giving yourself up to save your world and fellow man. The initial sacrifices, to save the planet and heal it, respectively, were purely for the sake of preserving the world and its remaining inhabitants. We aren't given any reason to doubt the nature of these particular sacrifices. As for subsequent intended sacrifices; there was a great deal of debate over them. Some were for it, some against it. I strongly suspect this opposition was in fact a direct result of the ancients' duty to the star and strongly held belief they should return the aether of their very souls to it when their purpose was served.

[Kozh]

Y'know, you bring up an interesting point that I never really thought about before. Venat sundered the world into shards to keep ancients from just sacrificing themselves over and over again summoning Zodiark, but... to what end?

First, this notion of "they're going to endlessly sacrifice themselves" is purely a slippery slope by people still stuck at ARR mentality where "primal = continuous sacrifice". What is the 3rd sacrifice purpose? To get back the souls inside Zodiark. After they achieve that and rebuild the world..... what the supposed next sacrifices are even gonna be about?

The end result from the sundering is that, yes, life survives... but as sundered beings, those new lives are new entities from the ancients they came from. So basically, if we consider those original lives "lost" to split into new ones with new personalities and new bodies, then the whole thing was a failure because everyone died anyway to make that new life.

The game said that she did it for the future, because she's so traumatized by (2 lines report of) the Nibirun's fate. Fearing that's how the Ancients will ended up, she sunder the world to prevent it.

But if we think about it further, by preventing Nibirun dead end (she's wrong), she also opens the possibility for, at the very least, Dead End 1 and 2 (grebuloff and global citizen).

The sundering was a stupid, knee-jerk reaction to Hermes temper tantrum.

[SannaR]

First, this notion of "they're going to endlessly sacrifice themselves" is purely a slippery slope by people still stuck at ARR mentality where "primal = continuous sacrifice". What is the 3rd sacrifice purpose? To get back the souls inside Zodiark. After they achieve that and rebuild the world..... what the supposed next sacrifices are even gonna be about?

We're not caught up on the ARR definition. Like last time it's the whole belief about how souls are ment to be able to return to the Aetherial Sea is a fundamental part of their society. If we are to assume that is still the case post 2nd sacrifice then they shouldn't be ok with replacing the souls inside Zodiark with more souls. As we know no matter what shape the new life took that it had souls in it. The not souls of lost friends and love ones should have mattered just as much to them as those that were of friends and love ones. Thus the idea of needing to constantly swap out souls and even more tempering of the convocation.