Is this a plothole? Question about the Endless

[Carin-Eri]

I think the endless are supposed to be based on the happiest memories of the person or the happiest version of themselves. If that’s true, then they must be able to distinguish between the good and bad memories contained in the aether.

That's quite tragic in a sense, if you look into it a little more deeply. Some of those Endless were children. This implies that those Endless either died AS children or had miserable adult lives and their only happy memories were those from when they were children.

[Raven2014]

That's quite tragic in a sense, if you look into it a little more deeply. Some of those Endless were children. This implies that those Endless either died AS children or had miserable adult lives and their only happy memories were those from when they were children.

Not implied, it IS the case if you do the side quest in Zone 6. Some children turned elder right before you release them.

As for the OP's question, either it's plot hole or bad writing, neither is flattening. I mentioned before but the inconsistent in the 2nd half of the story is pretty jarring, it's like zone 5 and zone 6 had two different writers who don't even look at each other's note.

The main cause I think is while there is probably a basic rationality behind the Endless, the team kept repeatably side step that rationality for the shake of taking some cheap emotional shots. It's like you reading a story where there is not a narrative or rational reason for a kid to die, but the writers just decide to kill the kid for hardly any reason because hey, kid dying = emotional, and emotional = automatically good writing am I right? The 6th zone and the endless is reek of this amateurish mentality, that's why it has so many holes in it.