Quote Originally Posted by Absimiliard View Post
Is there really anything wrong with the Ancients viewing their creations as no higher than animals? Whether intelligent or not, those beings were given life primarily as a means of furthering the growth of Etheirys. While some (such as Meteion, being the prime example) were made with a specific purpose in mind, most were meant to spread and reproduce, such that increasing amounts of aether would be added to the world via the cycle of life and death. Even culling some of their own creations to bring back those sacrificed to Zodiark seems pretty acceptable when one considers this.

For the matter of the Ancients' own lives; they would choose to die because they felt it was their duty to return to Etheirys. It wasn't about a lack of care for themselves so much as a greater care for the whole. The immense amount of aether possessed by each Ancient meant such sacrifices were an excellent way of nourishing the world they so loved. As for the choice, what else could they do? A creature that cannot die of old age and possessed of such immense power is unlikely to meet its end through any natural means. More Ancients being born than die would both harm Etheirys by taking too much aether and harm the creatures living there through the resulting overpopulation. I would further contend that their willingness to sacrifice themselves to Zodiark stemmed not from a disregard for life but from an abiding love for it. To give up your own life so that your world, your loved ones, and people you haven't or never will meet can go on living for another day could easily be seen as the ultimate act of love for life. The fact that even more Ancients were then willing to die so that Zodiark could fix the damage done to their world - more specifically, so that it would be able to sustain the survivors - also speaks volumes.
The story and narrative greatly emphasizes the value of life (at least the sentient, self-aware kind) and freedom of will. If the Ancients didn't hold these values, at least to some degree towards themselves and their creations, the sundered (and by extension we) would have no sympathy for them, no matter how lofty their ideals of "the greater good of the planet" were. It would also be much harder to sell them as objective superiors of the sundered, hence making much of Shb very one sided. The story needed them as sympathetic, thus they vaguely cared at least to an extent.

Blatant disregard for intelligent life and free will in the face of the "greater good" is a classic villain trope after all, not to mention any and all cautionary tales of artificial intelligence.