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

[Caurcas]

Ra-La owns. The only problem I have with it is that I main Sage, and when someone gets hit with Doom, topping them up in a hurry can be quite tricky!

You need a healer for that? On a more serious note, the Ascians and their struggle confirms Venat's philosophy in an ironic way. Emet most of all. After the sundering, he understood the value of the life he lost. Life that the ancients trivially threw away before the calamity. He then struggled for 12,000 years with every fiber of his being to restore what he valued most. He was not stopped till we literally destroyed his very aethereic being. Struggled to the last, because he had learned the lesson of value he had not in the olden days. Ironically he was rewarded for this by having his people remembered and their souls freed from Zodiark at the end.

[PawPaw]

What lives did the Ancients "trivially throw away"?

[Caurcas]

What lives did the Ancients "trivially throw away"?

Their own.

[Theodric]

It's worth noting that Zodiark was a necessity to resolve the damage inflicted by the Final Days. Without the first and second round of sacrifices then there would not even be an Etheirys to speak of. In addition to that, the Final Days only happened because Venat chose to not mention their approach only to then whine when...her people decided to work to fix the problem.

I wouldn't consider doing everything possible to preserve one's species and loved ones to be 'weakness'. If anything, it's a commendable and understandable goal. Especially when the tragedy inflicted upon the Ancients was entirely avoidable and almost exclusively due to Venat's initial inaction and then her bizarre decisions in the aftermath.

[Skyborne]

What lives did the Ancients "trivially throw away"?

Giving your lives to save the other half of humanity as the planet died beneath your feet is just a silly decision. Being afraid and desperate is a moral failing, as you know, which should be heavily condemned. They should have simply just, like, stop being scared, or perhaps have asked the writers to give them infinite plot armor instead. Someone should also inform Horsefarts, Moenbryda, Papylymo, and G'raha that they are selfish and silly and threw their lives away for funny, whimsical reasons.

Okay, now I'm going to leave the clown dimension before the facepaint is permanent.

[PawPaw]

Their own.

That's certainly an interesting take. I'd have to say I disagree completely as the idea of living as full a life as I can and then leaving it when I choose and on my terms is absolutely not throwing it away at all. If you're referring to the sacrifice they made to desperately try to save their world in the only way they could figure out how, I wouldn't call that throwing life away either. It's pretty damn selfless.

[Caurcas]

Giving your lives to save the other half of humanity as the planet died beneath your feet is just a silly decision. Being afraid and desperate is a moral failing, as you know, which should be heavily condemned. They should have simply just, like, stop being scared, or perhaps have asked the writers to give them infinite plot armor instead. Someone should also inform Horsefarts, Moenbryda, Papylymo, and G'raha that they are selfish and silly and threw their lives away for funny, whimsical reasons.

Okay, now I'm going to leave the clown dimension before the facepaint is permanent.

What? I am talking about how they self terminated after "fulfilling" their role. You know the big issue in the Elpis quest line.

[Kyohei]

They did not throw away their lives before the calamity, they had already been hit with the Final Days and were cornered on how to get through it. Finals Days arrived out of nowhere, no one knew anything about it save Venat. They struggled to try and find a solution to save the star and life on it.

[KizuyaKatogami]

What? I am talking about how they self terminated after "fulfilling" their role. You know the big issue in the Elpis quest line.

That’s not throwing away their lives though. That’s them content with their life and moving on which is one of the main themes of the story. They see the future in reincarnation. Keeping in mind they live for thousands upon thousands of years as it is, it seems there’s no winning with some people. They either stay immortal and grow stagnant and become like the plenty or they see value in reincarnation and they’re marked as throwing their lives away. Which is it?

[Atelier-Bagur]

First of all, what do you mean Zodiark consuming more souls to preserve himself? Shadowbringers and Endwalker both ended that unsupported idea that he was some blood god that continuously ate souls. Disregarding that though, if she didn’t sunder the world and instead told them the truth of everything, they might’ve not even needed to summon Zodiark in the first place. We know the ancients can create beings capable of manipulating Dynamis. They had a facility they could use to learn the way of manipulating it themselves. There are numerous options given to us.Let’s not forget btw, her/Hydaelyn is the actual primal that wholly consumed souls until there was nothing left. At least the souls were still there inside Zodiark.

Im sorry but where in Shb did they ever say that Zodiark was a benevolent primal and that Hydaelyn was just consuming souls? Because that literally sounds like youre twisting the lore to fit with your argument.

One, the majority of the Ancients were too stubborn and set in their ways to preserve their perfect world by willingly sacrificing their own. I doubt the Convocation wouldve even seriously given reason to believe that dynamis was the cause and its harbinger layed at the ends of the universe. This was shown to us by unsundered Emet Selch a proper representative scoffing at those ideas till he saw with his own eyes the events set into motion.

Two, Venat did manage to tell others about the truth which is where the anti-Zodiark group even comes from.

Three, nowhere in the game did it showed Hyadealyn consuming souls. The only thing we've seen is her granting her blessing on those strong enough to hear her words.