What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Brinne]

I went over this a few months ago, but I feel like everyone is remembering this scene wrong. There wasn't a "shocked" moment. Our responses were "Oh turn living beings into clothing? Just like that?" and "Won't someone be angry with us for using those creatures?" both responses are given with a blank face and no shock.

I don't think the writers intended for us to go "hmm" there, but at the point where they were making flying wolves that can breathe fire for no better reason than that they could.

In the greater context of the story, no, I'd say it's pretty obvious that the scene with the butterflies is meant to be a discomfort point in the larger picture painted of the Ancients being "scary."

Also, re: flying wolves - you can go back and forth on the nuances of this based on the limited presentation we were given, but the works of creation we see on Elpis are to help create and support a robust ecosystem, and the entire purpose of Elpis itself is to be responsible and make sure you don't just go around unleashing on-a-whim creations that would ultimately do harm or have poor quality of life. Saying "they were making flying wolves for no better reason than they could" is really reductive, and feels like another part of "Ancients are Wrong no matter what." Are they being irresponsible in their use of Creation magic, silly people playing at gods making fire wolves and walking sharks, or are they too responsible and stringent, hence the process in Elpis that sometimes involve Euthanization to make sure creations can't do greater harm - and are reflective of a society that's too conformist? Well, either way, the most pressing, urgent point is that they're Wrong, okay?

And again, this concern just seems really absurd to me to point and condemn about from the context of our own world. People kill animals for leather and meat for objectively completely unnecessary clothing items, accessories, and dishes for no reason "other than they can" or "it seems cool and interesting." People kill just because they think the process of hunting and killing is fun. Even in the worst reading of the Ancients' practices in this regard, the best I can come up with is, "well, probably not great, but definitely still better than what we have now, overall."

As I've mentioned before, the main problem with Endwalker and, indeed ones that a lot of media fall into both Eastern and Western, is falling into "Humanity Worship", whereby humans (or whatever creatures are similar enough to them) are presented as being way more special than any other creatures, with the preservation or cultivation of humanity being a worthy end in and of itself.

I truly do appreciate that EW obviously had benevolent intent in "uplifting and cheering on the player" in a time when so many of us are struggling, but the way they went about it - basically one-sided "YOU'RE NUMBER ONE! YOU'RE NUMBER ONE! BETTER THAN ALL THE REST!" is, bluntly, probably the most juvenile and most self-absorbed way possible to go about it. But realizing the intent was well-meaning, just not remotely well thought-out (or so I continue to hope), is exactly why I'm willing to post and talk about it and provide feedback rather than just "nope, values too dissonant from mine, I'm out."