Is Zodiark evil?

[ObsidianFire]

While we don't know if Zodiark himself is evil... everyone who claims to work for him really doesn't like the world as it currently is working and is actively working to change that. And from the looks of things, they don't care about what happens to all of the life that is currently living in the world.

The people who work for Hydaelyn meanwhile care a lot about the world and what happens to the people in it. They want them to have as much agency as possible and to not be bothered by the Ascians who are trying to wreck things.

So while that doesn't necessarily say that much about Zodiark or Hydaelyn, it does say a lot about the people who ally themselves with those entities. And one group of those people are a lot more evil then the other group is.

Until we get to talk to Zodiark himself, that's good enough for me. It's Zodiark's followers we interact with on a regular basis and not Zodiark himself as it is.

[Kusanagi7]

hydaelyn can say what she wants but untill we see and/or talk to zodiark im not taking her word for it especially as she is using minfillia as a puppet.

[RenewalXVII]

hydaelyn can say what she wants but untill we see and/or talk to zodiark im not taking her word for it especially as she is using minfillia as a puppet.

It was always Minfillia's choice through and through to serve Hydaelyn.

[Anvaire]

this reminds me of a series of scenes in the Wheel of time... Throughout the series it is taught that the "Dark one" like Zodiark is evil. We see a couple of scenes one where light prevails, but is no "life" to the people. They have no free will and only do the 'good' and then one where the Dark one prevails where evil and pain is rife. It leads Rand Al'thor to realise that the dark one was never evil, he was never an enemy, he was simply a representation of the carnal part of our natures and by banishing one or the other, would rob life of its will to choose.

I think that this is probably the same dynamic that Hydaelyn and Zodiark offer, there is still free choice because Zodiark is banished rather than destroyed. But effectively what needs to happen is not the absolute of the light or Darkness but a balance of the both. Elidibus represents this pretty well i would say, in earlier appearances.

The other parallel that WOT has is in that all the things the Dark one's minions did, all the evil they propagated was by their choice and never as a direct consequence of what the Dark one wanted. I wonder whether this is true of the Ascians also. Either way its a very interesting concept.

My personal hope is that Zodiark turns out to represent darkness, but is merely the counter to light as umbral is to astral an that Hydealyn is actually evil in her desire to suppress the darkness and cause the source and the shards to have an over abundance of light rather than the natural balance that should exist.

[Jollyy5]

Referring to the most recent information, I find it difficult to believe "light" is all good, considering we're apparently going to be fighting "Sin Eaters" which I believe are the polar opposite of "Void Sent" that we have fought here and there so far.

Then there's "Innocence" which is apparently going to be a boss of some sort. While I'm unsure if Sin Eaters and Void Sent are independent of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, I think it's at least safe to say Light and Darkness are not "good" and "evil".

Hopefully we get to have some heart to heart with Zodiark in Shadowbringers like we've done with Hydaelyn. I don't think we can really come to any kind of a conclusion before then.

[IkaraGreydancer]

Correct me if im wrong but isnt Hydaelyn responsible for the influx of light pretty much screwed up the world we are going to?

[RenewalXVII]

Correct me if im wrong but isnt Hydaelyn responsible for the influx of light pretty much screwed up the world we are going to?

No, that was the Warriors of Darkness. You can indirectly blame her, since they were fighting for her sake, but Hydaelyn's thing has always been granting agency to her children, to let them act as they will for what they think is best. Not to mention how weak she's gotten, how little power she has to act directly. She's hardly puppet-mastering the situation. It's why she sent Minfillia to the First: she failed to give proper guidance because of her weakness, so she gave them more direct assistance.

[IkaraGreydancer]

No, that was the Warriors of Darkness. You can indirectly blame her, since they were fighting for her sake, but Hydaelyn's thing has always been granting agency to her children, to let them act as they will for what they think is best. Not to mention how weak she's gotten, how little power she has to act directly. She's hardly puppet-mastering the situation. It's why she sent Minfillia to the First: she failed to give proper guidance because of her weakness, so she gave them more direct assistance.

Hmmm. Id say that makes alot of sense. My only question then would be, if she knew about how the First ended up why didnt she warn us earlier to keep the balance? Seems really odd that she'd "forget" or choose not to let us know that this is a possible outcome if we tip the scales to much in lights favor.
(Unless once again, she did warn us and I dont remember lol)

[Kalise]

Correct me if im wrong but isnt Hydaelyn responsible for the influx of light pretty much screwed up the world we are going to?

Not directly.

She provided the Echo to the Warriors of Light on the first. But it was a case of them besting Primals too often that kept tilting the world towards the light, until it became too much and caused the flood.

That is, as far as we know.

Given that the same thing has been happening on the Source since as far back as when the Allagans were still around and we're only now seeing some effects of being tilted towards light (As a result of the light on the First seeping into our world) it's possible that the actual cause of the Flood of Light might have been something intentional. Such as how the Flood of Darkness that consumed the Thirteenth was due to an Ascian's involvement trying to speed up the process of the Rejoining (Which then backfired and consumed the world...)

We'll have to see what the Shadowbringers story reveals. But suffice to say, Hydaelyn is not responsible for the Light.

[Alleo]

Correct me if im wrong but isnt Hydaelyn responsible for the influx of light pretty much screwed up the world we are going to?

Seemingly none of the crystals can keep their element at bay. Hydaelyn was not able to directly influence the first (she needed someone that went for her there) and we know that the void was created because of the mistake of an Ascian and they say that this was not helpful for Zodiark either which kinda hints that he also cant directly influence the realm thus need the Ascians to do that.

In the end the first might have had too much Light anyway which helped tip the balance way faster and since Hydaelyn was not even able to talk to us anymore for a time, because she was weak from protecting us, it makes sense that she could not just simply help them.

I look at it this way. Both zodiark and crystal mom are evil. Too much of one and boom no one survives. What I glean from everyone's point of view including the emperor is that if all the shards are rejoined a new world will appear with both bad and good people in balance, some suffer and some don't. That's life. I also like to refute the idea "well killing millions is evil no matter what" and I would like to point out killing them now, gets it's over with and prevents more lives to be lost to the light and dark and the ends justify the means. It's like a trolley cart scenario. Death is inevitable, so I think the best way to go about it is to end it quickly and with certainty.

The mother crystal has not shown one part of being evil. She has used Minfilia but Minfilia still chose this and it was at a desperate time that only was created thanks to the actions of the Ascians. The emporer has no idea what will happen either. He only got the talk from Elidibus (or maybe Solus) and we cant really trust them. For all that can happen is that life wont exist anymore, and only beings like Ascians exit. Who is to say that a fully powered Hydaelyn could not just sent out fully powered emissaries to all shards and restrain any light that is overpowering them while people can simply live their life? Why would a new world be needed?