Quote Originally Posted by Teraq View Post
This is 100% how I felt like. When summarising the story to a friend (before deep-diving into ridiculous detail, because of course I did), I went with "this is a story about hope versus annihilation, but only if you're the right people, because as it happens, hope simply isn't for everyone". The Ancients simply couldn't win: either they were too perfect and were obviously, ineluctably going to end up like Ostrakon Strawmanos at some indefinite point in the far future, and therefore were naturally deserving of being literally erased from history because uhhhh yea; or they just plain weren't perfect enough because some of them were sad sometimes, treatment of sentient beings in that one research facility could be improved somewhat and Pandaemonium happened, therefore their world was totally shit and obviously not worth being brought back, haha, GOTCHA MR "we were so much better" EMET-SELCH!
Indeed - meanwhile, Amon, being his own sundered version of Hermes's soul, still decries man's wickedness (and I mean given how much worse the sundered behave in many respects, this is not surprising), so if we were to adopt the logic that they deserved to be destroyed for what are, in my view, comparatively mild imperfections, where would that leave the sundered, or just about any other civilisation? Only the dragons, based on the little we're told of them, the Ea and the people of the Plenty appeared to have reached similar levels of advancement, and I am sure even these civilisations would've engaged in some activities certain quarters would chastise them for - much as we saw the darker side of the dragons during the Dragonsong War. It's why I don't think they ever quite pitched it as those blemishes meaning they deserved their fate, even if some quarters of the fanbase read it that way... it quite swiftly morphs into an insane standard, which we humans would be damned by, too.

And speaking of Pandaemonium, I find it interesting that the probably-terrible events that transpired there were witnessed by the guy who then went on to save the planet regardless, struggle for 12,000 years to bring his people back and was prepared to toil alone for however many more out of sheer determination at the cost of his own self. Venat really could have taken a lesson or two about hope from her counterpart. And no, I'm not stepping down from this Elidibus soapbox unless someone forcibly drags me down from it.
Precisely. That is how one actually lives out the credo "nothing is impossible".