Questionable ethics - Living Memory

[CerusSerenade]

Which is why we also went in and exterminated all the Garleans to the last man, woman, and child, right? Which is why when confronting the Telophoroi, we did our best to kill as many of them as possible rather than minimizing fatalities, right?

We're told the only way to stop Sphene is to shut down the Meso Terminal by Cahciua, who has been withholding information to railroad us into her own objectives from the second she finds us. Even assuming Cahciua is being honest despite that pattern of behavior, there was no way to extract Azem's paperweight from the terminal without shutting it down wholesale? There was no way to terminate Sphene's program, rather than the system as a whole? None of those options are explored by the Scions, who at every opportunity have endeavored to find another way that prioritizes their ethics over expedience.

Even assuming the story properly explored these questions, why would the Scions feel good about what they had to do? It was kill or be killed, to be sure, but the Endless themselves harbored no enmity. They didn't have agency in the actions of their regent. So why would you pin her actions on them?

But I'm sure you'll say this is all drivel. I expect nothing more.

We didn't have to exterminate the Garleans to stop Zenos, we never wanted to.

We never wanted to put an end to the Endless, but we had to. There was no alternative. It was either that, or Sphene exterminates all life on the source and the remaining shards.

Just as with Emet-Selch and the Endless, we will not sacrifice the living for the dead.

Apples to damn Zebra Cakes.

Yes, your argument is drivel, it makes no sense and ignores obvious information in favor of your personal head-canon and delusion that Erenville's mom is some scheming antagonist who is misleading us the whole time despite being... Erenville's mom.

[AlysCamoa]

We didn't have to exterminate the Garleans to stop Zenos, we never wanted to.

I've never disputed that, in the context of the (poorly written) story, the Endless had to die. We (the player character and company) are under no obligation to become the cows on the dinnerplates of Endless. Even so, us having a big ol' laugh party and sing-along as we leave the city we've just scoured of life is absurdly out of character.

Cahciua being Erenville's mom doesn't suddenly make her immune to analysis of her character. From the moment we meet her, she holds back crucial information that informs us about the grand designs at play. In the end, that serves her agenda perfectly, while denying the Scions to try and find true compromise between the people of Alexandria and the rest of the world.

You're literally lying. We did not turn off the Meso Terminals because we had some kind of agenda to destroy the Endless ("while ignoring Sphene" is a particularly aggressive load of bs).

That's not to mention, Cahciua cites sacrificing living people as her motive. It would be unethical if she was targeting them because they are Endless.

We did turn off the Meso terminals because we have an agenda to destroy the Endless. It's an agenda given to us by Cahciua, who withheld information from us the entire time we were with her. In fact, Cahciua's plan is explicitly stated to target the Endless in order to deprive Sphene of a reason to fight. We're destroying her people so that she no longer has a cause; to what end? Do we think she'll just forgive us for that? Then Hiroi, to his credit, goes on to say that doing this will make Sphene speed up dimensional fusion, which weakens the defenses of the Terminal. Alright, sure—processing faster requires more processing power. But in what other situations would the Scions choose the option that causes the villain's plan to actualize faster, rather than trying to find another solution? It doesn't even happen in this expansion. We wait for Bakool to try and attack us again after he takes Wuk's keystones. We wait for Zoraal to attack Tuliyollal again (still full of countless civilians) after the first time, electing instead to take a stroll around Sphene's farm. The only time we decide to be proactive is when it means the rapid and complete extermination of a new form of life we've just encountered (ignoring that they're not actually new, given the events of Ultima Thule).