Quote Originally Posted by Ilenya View Post
Mostly what I am seeing is less "Flood is bad" and more "Flood is poorly timed" which for the Ascians amounts to the same thing, but it's useful to at least have some sort of clarification on it. I imagine as a whole the Floods are what they want, but it needs to be set up properly ahead of time. Make the cracks, then let the Flood happen. Ardbert and co just did their jobs too well.

Was it mentioned how exactly these cracks were made? Were they just events leading up to it that allowed it? So for Bahamut's, things like what became the Burn would be starting signs of the Seventh crack, while for the attempted eighth it'd be...Shinryu/Omega due to timing, I guess? Or is this all stuff that happens behind the scenes and not noticeable until the aether starts to change.

Edit: I realize that the cracking could have been the Battle at Silvertear Falls for the Seventh Calamity. Probably fits better in the timeline, but still hard to say.
Likely the battles for Ala Mhigo and Doma, as well as the rebellions that followed in their wake. I think the thinning of aether was only brought up after 4.0.

Going back to Heavensward, Ardbert was pissed at Elidibus because the First didn't have time for the gradual ramp up toward a calamitous summoning, so Urianger proposed that there was no surer way to instantly swing the scale far enough than to kill the realm's beacon of hope. It was obviously to manipulate Ardbert's group to bring six crystal bearers together and stop the Flood, but considering Elidibus had arrived at the same conclusion by 4.56(after Gaius and his group coincidentally destroyed production facilities to push back the use of Black Rose), I doubt that was a flat out lie on Urianger's part.