Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
My read is that she actually didn't do either of these. She doesn't accept her place in The Time Loop; the scene right after Ktisis basically has her saying that she'll look for other options if at all possible. It just seems like those options weren't really viable. ANd yet, we know she was pursuing them even before the Sundering, because of the Anamnesis Anyder discussion.

But even when we have completed the time loop, we know she's not sticking to it: remember that when we meet her in the Aetherial Sea, we learn that her plan is several layers more complicated, reliant on both events that happened afterwards that couldn't have been part of what we told her (specifically, tagging Meteion) and multiple factors we didn't even know were on the table after we left her alone (for example, the Ragnarok).
Yes, she says she'll be looking for other options, but to me that just sounds like the precursor to the two possibilities I listed. Either she discovers some alternative path that plays out in a split timeline we'll never see, or the single timeline remains as it is and always was: she searches for alternatives, finds nothing and concludes that she cannot deny that the Sundering is the only viable route that might still save her people - and it needs to be emphasised that whatever reading the fans ascribe to it, it appears to be the intent of the story writers that from Venat's own viewpoint, the ancients and modern humanity are the same continuous people so she believes she is ensuring the survival of her race and not destroying it.

As for your "additional factors", yes, she has clearly put a lot of work and thinking into setting up additional elements outside of what we were able to tell her - essentially solving the puzzle of "why would I tell them to flee?" with "maybe it's all a ruse to get them to build a starship capable of reaching Meteion" - but she is still locked into complying with the bigger parts of what we told her, and is not fully free to act. Imagine how she must have to think about the calamities occurring on the earlier shards - if this is fated, should she try to intervene? Would it be futile? Can she bring herself to sit idle while it happens because it is a necessary event on the road to reaching the WoL's present?

And to come back to the argument that started this tangent, the point here is that she is not in control of people's fates. She can do her best, lay what plans she can to help bring about her goal, but knowing she can plan on other people acting a particular way in a particular circumstance is not the same thing as having control over their fate.