i think that was a big point of the entire zone/third act

we are doing the exact same thing sphene is trying to do, just from a different perspective; we 'killed' her and her world to save our own

but i think that was the beauty of it for me. it was two forces who didn't want to be opposing but simply had no choice because of the cards that had been dealt; their conflict was not malicious, it was just necessity, and the loser lost with grace and dignity (put up one hell of a fight too, given how many people i've watched get butchered in their first try of that trial. lmao)

to the point about sphene not protecting her citizens enough, i mean she did try, we just beat the defenses, plus Living Memory wouldn't have been accessible to us at all if it weren't for Krile's earring (which was snuck out) AND Galool Ja being present with us at the gate; sphene had no reason to expect visitors who weren't endless after she had the key, because even though the King's authority was handed over, there was no other key to grant access (to her knowledge)

no matter how much a ruler loves her people, sometimes you just lose. sometimes you're just not enough

i personally want them to explore this from OUR side next, but i don't know if they're ready to go down that road yet