Quote Originally Posted by Arzalis View Post
I couldn't agree with that last paragraph more.

We didn't even try to look into other alternatives or dig deeper into what was going on. We destroyed an entire civilization because we decided they were lesser than us and couldn't be bothered to do anything else. That's just not how heroes act.

Sphene had to be stopped, but there was actually nothing preventing us from stopping her and then taking the time to look into the situation. The game is pretty explicit that the deletion wasn't actually necessary in any way. We did it because we had nothing else to do while we waited to access Sphene. If that led to the Endless being wiped out, then it's a matter of survival and an understandable tragedy. But we actually took the most callous, uncaring approach to it all.
It's not that we didn't try to find alternatives. The writers didn't want us to look for other options; they gave us only one side of the story and nothing else, even if you ignore everything Cahcuia says. The story is very explicit in that the Endless NEED living aether to sustain the Endless. When we go there, we are told that the reason so few are around is because the aether levels are low.

Remember what the Watcher said in Endwalker.
"Whatever fate befalls the Source. Her reflections will share." If the Source blows up, every reflection, including Living memory blows up. Something absolutely needed to be done before they drained the Source of all its aether.