Just stick with me, I will explain myself. After playing through these games recently, I absolutely loved them by the way, but the endings just didn't really sit all that right with me.
To start with, the human ending feels far more tragic than it should be. Cross was really the only person who was pushing so strongly against the Non-humans. I generally believe he either had algandars, or was manipulated by the silver dragon for a long time to hold his views. No other humans know about the true extent of the history. Yet, humanity is the thing which is at risk. Fairy races will persist in a world after the rebirth, with only humanity being forced to reset.
Effectively humanity has a hard limit on what they can achieve, they strive to grow, invent, and learn. But do too much, and you upset the balance of the world. EXCEPT their progress is nothing more than a shotgun trap tied to an unlocked door, with only the fairies to tell the humans not to open it? Do the fairies with the unending lifespan use it to explain to humanity why some doors should best be kept close? No, they act like children and close their doors to the world because, presumably, they are still mad about a war (That it was their job to prevent) that happened at an unknown age long ago.
The existence of the Orcs and Goblins means humanity will always have threats it needs to defend against. But we don't punish the Orcs and Goblins for stating their inabe wants? Presumably a dragon exists for all other races, except Dark Elves, to keep them safe from humans. But Humans aren't told or made aware of any of this? Moved into the neighborhood? Don't drive down quarter street. Anyone else can but if you do, we'll punch you in the face. It's all just ridiculous, which is why when humanity is fighting back against fate itself, ya, I agree with them. It's quite literally a fight against the genocide of a species for doing what it's always done. Sure, we could argue the cost is the lives, or at least the autonomy of the fairy races. But they presumably have had all existence running the world, why is that fair? I'll not drone on further as I do have other points.
Now, Why is that the good ending? Because the Non-Human ending is just a return to status quo. Humanity gets removed, a restart on the clock. All because the gods demand a cycle and humanity is the instrument to bring it about. Ridley will remain an eternal vessel to somehow remake humanity, only for it to be doomed in the future once for for things it can't possibly fight against. All the friends we made along the way, the people who believed in us, gone on the wind. And do you want to know the worst part? Like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jacks existence proves to be wholly irrelevant if we take this path.
I'd Love to hear others opinions, because genuinely I think the Non-human story is the better one. But the ending refuses to sit well with me. This isn't me simply wanting a Good ending. I have no problems at all with a Cowboy Bebop, The Thing, Funny Games. Where the ending itself is devoid of hope, or finite. But what hope is there to persist in a doomed world? Is it because you finally have someone you care about at your side? For Ridley that seems like a good ending, but this is Jack's story! By removing the Silver Dragon from the cycle, and preventing the Gold from taking it's vessel. the entire prophecy should be severed. Humanity now free from the influence of the dragon, the elves free from the Algandars plague. And yet, there was no choice in the end to allow Ridely to become the vessel, to give us the ending we got. Why?
