*Spoilers* Anyone feel joining Emet would have been better

[Jandor]

Wasnt that supposed to be solved by the rejoining of the first? The light from the first would "cancel" the darkness from the 13th?
Or at least that how i understood it
I mean why else would they voluntairly make it a void of light seeing what happened when the 13th shard was made a void of darkness

They didn't voluntarily make a void of light, they just messed up, again.

Luckily the goals of Hydaelyn and the Ascians aligned, in so far as neither wanted yet another void, so She bailed them out by chucking Minfilia at the flood of light.

[Kozh]

I don’t think you’re getting what I’m trying to say. Zodiark will inevitably fail because he is not a perfect god. He will do all he is capable of, which is much, but inevitably a crisis will arise that he cannot wave away. Perhaps Meteion finally breaks through the shroud of aether. Perhaps another like Hermes or Amon despairs and wishes to bring an end to things. Perhaps another tragedy befalls the world that the Ancients could not conceive of. The possibilities are endless, and the solutions limited

Assumption, assumption, more assumptions based on zero evidence. For 12k years the only threat is meteion and despite being sundered zodiark is still strong enough to protect ethyris.

And once again, she explicitly did not give up. First, she tried to convince the Ancients on multiple occasions.

Ah yes, by telling grieving people "move on already, don't despair" without telling the source of the problem. How one expects other to "learn" by not fully show where they're wrong. She's afraid of another hermes? Then talk to the amaurotines, show them what really happened, teach them what she learned from the sundered beings.

That is a fact.

No, that is your headcanon.

[Jandor]

Zodiark will inevitably fail because he is not a perfect god. He will do all he is capable of, which is much, but inevitably a crisis will arise that he cannot wave away. Perhaps Meteion finally breaks through the shroud of aether. Perhaps another like Hermes or Amon despairs and wishes to bring an end to things. Perhaps another tragedy befalls the world that the Ancients could not conceive of. The possibilities are endless, and the solutions limited.

Assumption, assumption, more assumptions based on zero evidence. For 12k years the only threat is meteion and despite being sundered zodiark is still strong enough to protect ethyris.

To be fair, he already encountered a crisis he couldn't wave away. I doubt getting smashed into 14 pieces and stuffed in the moon was all part of His plan.

[RyuDragnier]

No, that is your headcanon.

Gonna be honest here, you're giving out your own headcanon as fact. Because they're right in that the Ancients were so obsessed with their perfect world that they tried to go back to it. If they knew death was at the end of their world's journey, one they couldn't stop, they would completely freak out. Their own civilization basically stamped out a lot of normal things mortals face, so they did not have what it takes to face such a fact. Look at how Emet and Hythlodaeus even reacted to Hermes feeling that death was not beautiful or something to celebrate.

[Slatersev]

Considering we find out in Ultima Thule that Meteion was speeding up the Heat Death of the Universe with Dynamis, no. She was always going to get Etheirys unless she was actively dealt with.

The Ancients turtling behind Zodiark isnt a stalemate for her, its just a road block she would eventually be able to break one way or the other

Going to quote myself here because people are talking about if Zodiark could keep it going forever. And the answer is it doesn't actually matter even if he could because Meteion was just going to cause an actual Heat Death if she couldn't breakthrough.

Zodiark isn't a permeant solution because even if he could stave her off forever that just means she goes to plan B which he would not be able to stop.

[tokinokanatae]

Going to quote myself here because people are talking about if Zodiark could keep it going forever. And the answer is it doesn't actually matter even if he could because Meteion was just going to cause an actual Heat Death if she couldn't breakthrough.

Zodiark isn't a permeant solution because even if he could stave her off forever that just means she goes to plan B which he would not be able to stop.

Even if Zodiark isn't a permanent solution to the Meteion problem, he does give them literal millennia to research and toss solutions at the problem--provided they know she exists.

He only becomes more than a stopgap when you actively make people think that he has corrected an issue that the Ancients thought was innate to the planet. Only one, single person in the entire world knew that the planet was being attacked by literal outside forces. They just didn't bother to share that information--that they had proof of--with anyone else.

[Rulakir]

Gonna be honest here, you're giving out your own headcanon as fact. Because they're right in that the Ancients were so obsessed with their perfect world that they tried to go back to it. If they knew death was at the end of their world's journey, one they couldn't stop, they would completely freak out. Their own civilization basically stamped out a lot of normal things mortals face, so they did not have what it takes to face such a fact. Look at how Emet and Hythlodaeus even reacted to Hermes feeling that death was not beautiful or something to celebrate.

This is still just speculation based on your interpretation though. Your impression of the Ancients doesn't match mine at all. This is why I don't like debating anything that isn't in black & white game text.

[RyuDragnier]

This is still just speculation based on your interpretation though. Your impression of the Ancients doesn't match mine at all. This is why I don't like debating anything that isn't in black & white game text.

Understandable, all we have at this point is speculation and things we can infer from the world they lived in, their society, and what they did in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention I'm also comparing it to people in real life, as we all know people who refer to the "good old days" with rose tinted glasses, and were often not aware of or did not care about actual hardships that occurred to others. When your own self reality is shattered by the reality of the world itself, it can be hard to accept, by anybody.

[EaraGrace]

Assumption, assumption, more assumptions based on zero evidence. For 12k years the only threat is meteion and despite being sundered zodiark is still strong enough to protect ethyris.

So we’re just to ignore Ultima? Omega? The inevitable end of the universe? Just pray to Zodiark and he’ll fix it?

Ah yes, by telling grieving people "move on already, don't despair" without telling the source of the problem. How one expects other to "learn" by not fully show where they're wrong. She's afraid of another hermes? Then talk to the amaurotines, show them what really happened, teach them what she learned from the sundered beings.

She quite literally said the exact opposite of what you’re claiming she did.

Venat: Let us not seek to forget this tragedy. Let us carry it in our hearts, that we may grow stronger, and know true happiness.

No, that is your headcanon.

The countless civilizations that Meteion found would claim otherwise.

[Rulakir]

Not to mention I'm also comparing it to people in real life

I am more putting myself in their shoes. I cannot fathom having to go through an apocalypse that involves creatures of nightmare slaughtering people in the streets. Much like the end of ShB, I can't imagine half our society being willing to sacrifice itself for the other half either. I feel like them coming together en masse during a crisis like that doesn't get enough recognition and, honestly, after the past two years of polarization (at least in the US), I feel it should. I know if someone came up to me and said that I wasn't handling my trauma or grief the way they thought I should, I would tell them where they could shove their opinion. :P If someone said they could bring back my deceased loved ones, you bet I'd be interested in what they had to say.

I observed a range of emotion in the Ancients, a willingness to do whatever it takes, and an unprecedented unification. I would've liked to have seen what they were capable of given a fighting chance. I'm sure some of them would've freaked out, just like people in the real world freaked out more than others about the pandemic, but enough would've come together as we've already seen. I also think that if "The land was blighted, the waters poisoned, and even the wind had ceased to blow." I would wish for the 'good old days' as well. Plus, even if they did get their "perfect paradise" back, the experiences of the Final Days would be seared into them forever. I sincerely doubt their society would've been able to go back to any semblance of normalcy.