A game for 4 year olds

[dynus]

Again. This presupposes that rich people, or rather people who can have "whatever they want", are predisposed to ennui at all. But there's just no evidence for this being the case. In fact, what studies exist suggest that greater wealth and fewer involuntary social obligations lead to greater happiness pretty much across the board.

Yes, rich people can get bored and unhappy. But using that as an argument to suggest that a society where everyone lived equivalently to the very rich would be an unhappier one is logically akin to arguing that society would be better off without flu vaccines because some people who are vaccinated still get the flu. It's using the exception, rather than the rule, to draw its conclusion.

I agree with you here.

I think a lot of people were moved by Endwalker - especially in the wake of, like you said, Covid and the slow death of the international order going on - because it ultimately preaches a comforting lie: That suffering is ultimately not only unavoidable, but good and necessary. Something that gives our lives substance and meaning.

But I just don't believe it. The truth is, suffering is only unavoidable. It has no positive side. If we'd been born into an advanced civilization 10,00 years in the future where unwilling strife ceased to exist, we would, by all psychological evidence, live richer and happier lives with no downside or loss of meaning whatsoever. That we were instead born in this moment in a time makes us victims of causality of a sort; we are trapped in suboptimal world for fundamental reason at all. Just like being born poor on a planet with people who can have their dreams granted with a snap of their fingers, it is unfair, cruel, and meaningless.

And this is where you lose me. Well, not the last sentence; that is true. Misery builds character is an old adage that has some truth to it. It's less about what the suffering being good and what we take from the suffering. Yes, it's unavoidable, but wallowing in it doesn't do jack. The game, and many other stories, tell us that you have to 'grin and bare it because if you just suffer instead of just moving on, you're, well, dying in one form or another. We learn from suffering. We learn to have empathy, we learn to make better choices is that suffering was self-inflicted, and we learn what the red flags are on other people so we can avoid them. We learn our limits, and we learn how to push past them. We learn about ourselves. We grow from suffering just as much as we grow from good things.

We learn that the world is unfair, and we want to make it better for our progeny. They'll have a better life and better living conditions, hopefully, but they'll still face suffering; it'll just be a different kind. Suffering is unavoidable, and yes, it's not good. But good things can come from it.

However, it doesn't bring me any comfort to indulge in fantasies that falsify the human condition, and pretend that a society filled with happy people would magically become miserable and lose their sense of meaning. Endwalker rings hollow for me for much the same reasons that I don't really get much out of Buddhism (well, at least Japanese Buddhism as it's usually echoed in media, since it's a very broad label). Rather than a philosophy of acceptance, of making peace with suffering and accepting it passively, I feel most emotionally honest and at peace with myself when it moves me to grief and indignation. I think it is beautiful to meet the injustice of the cosmos with kicking and screaming, and to never stop striving for the lives we deserve, even if they're unattainable. I could not disagree more with Yoshi-P's take on this topic.

I think we need to remember that the devs are Japanese, and this is very likely a reflection of their beliefs. Nor is Buddhism the only faith that does this. "God moves in mysterious ways" or "It's all part of God's plan" are very Christian, or at least Catholic.

However, I do think you misunderstood what's trying to be said. In no way did I see the Scions say, 'let's accept this' when facing the Endwalker. They went to meet that threat, and have, throughout the game's expansions, went kicking and screaming to stop injustices. At no point were they passive.

Endwalker is not about passively accepting suffering. It's about accepting that it happened and moving on with life to be better. Isn't that what the scions are doing now? Aren't the twins in Garelmald right now trying to help Jullus rebuild their home? Aren't we trying to help the Void now? In the game right now, with the lessons we learned from Endwalker and all that came before, we are still doing our best to right wrongs and triumph over evil.

Because the reason Venat sundered the Ancients was not to force them to accept their suffering. It was to stop them from wallowing in it, and inflicting suffering on others. Let's remember that when the ancients sacrificed half and half again to stop the Final Days and begin to heal the world, they were planning on sacrificing the new life that sprung up afterward to bring back what they had lost. Inflicting more suffering because they wanted to stop their own. And that's unhealthy.