Let's play a game: Save the Ancients!

[Cleretic]

And yes, it is an unfortunate mismatch of themes that this gamble is exactly what G'raha was doing with the 8UE, which has always seemed like bad writing – again it seems like the writers were wanting to have it multiple ways at once at the small scale without stepping back to observe the contradictions. They pulled their punches on just how bad things were, when things needed to be irreversibly dire to justify what they were doing.

Yeah, my second-biggest 'I wouldn't have done that' issue with the game's story (behind killing Ysayle) is that short story, which I think just undercuts G'raha's journey in ways that really take away from him; now he didn't just make a difficult decision to evacuate a doomed timeline with no chance of revival, he just made a big deal out of leaving it. And also it doesn't have no chance of revival, that story is clearly written as if things will turn around, although it's admittedly just vague hopes and assurances.

I think there's people who read it as assurance that 'we could've saved the Ancients and everything would be just fine', but I honestly don't think so. Not only does that not hold--the Scions were waiting for the WoL to come back with crucial information and were completely screwed if they didn't get it, while nobody in the 8UC timeline really wanted or needed G'raha to be around--but honestly, I don't think the people arguing for saving the Ancients really needed it, they'd already decided they were letting the modern world die in favor of the perfect pretty people.

If I were to really chew on the 8UC timeline's situation I feel like its savior could come from Labyrinthos; it'd probably survive even if Sharlayan got gassed, and as essentially a seed bank, it'd have all the material to revive the world once the active threats dissolved. It'd even explain why none of the active people in the 8UC stories knew about it. But yeah, that's probably more thought put into the 8UC timeline's greater context than the writers did, or thought we'd do.