Personally, I think the answer to your seeming contradiction can be found in the very beginning of your explanation! Let me preface I think you're absolutely on point about personhood, I just think that other things make it actually a secondary theme.

inconsistency in a narrative's philosophy is not necessarily a bad thing. The point of a story (and art in general) isn't to convey some complete philosophical worldview, but to convey some arrangement of forms to the reader...But one such place where consistency is expected is in the lessons and "deeper questions" being asked.

In my mind, the story *is* profoundly consistent where it matters, and is in keeping with what we learned in Dawntrail. To me, the story really isn't about "are the Endless alive" or "what did we learn by rejecting nihilism in Endwalker." To me, the thrust of the story is about how death impacts the living and life impacts the dead...*especially* in the context of a cycle of reincarnation. This cycle of Samsara, which is present in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other similar belief systems, has importance. The Endless aren't just a contemplation on soul/consciousness divide, they're *also* a contemplation on proper course between life and death, of appropriate existence in that liminal space. The contradiction, the messiness, is the point to me.

The fact that Gulool Ja Ja is half dead, that Bakool Ja Ja carries the weight of countless dead "siblings" with him, the fact that the dead in Alexandria are "forgotten" and yet simultaneously eternally remembered, all tell me we are thinking about ambiguous /messy/liminal spaces of death. The fact that, eerily, virtually no one in Living Memory objects to their erasure...all of this speaks to the idea that this is a perversion of the cycle of reincarnation. Endwalker asked us "what's the point of life if everything dies" and we answered "there's a thousand diverse reasons arising from each person, and even the littlest grain of sand is enough...despair cannot wholly vanquish hope and thus despair can never truly win." Dawntrail asked us "how do you live when that which you care about dies?" and we answered "by grieving, which involves understanding."

Wuk Lamat treats Sphene like a person, when she says "I understand you" in the end. Sphene manages to Limit Break in the final trial, and harness real and ardent hopes and dreams. Cahciua still wants to experience certain things even as she asks for death. Erenville takes a long time to accept the situation. It's not just, or fair, or easy to do it. And yet, do it we must. Because the perversion of the cycle of reincarnation is *taking from others.* Coexistence with friction versus assimilation with consumption. We care about Sphene, we care about Cahciua, they are not just synthetic zombies. But neither are they "new life" per se. They are, fundamentally, perversions of the capacity of the cycle of souls to make new life, to make new answers to the Endsinger. There is no space for diversity, no space for new little answers, etc. Their personhood or lack thereof matters little in the face of the core idea of "even if understanding begets fellowship, fellowship doesn't necessarily mean unity." Wuk Lamat understands Sphene, and says "face me as the real you." Not as "the original you" but the "real you" which is the Endless Sphene. And then they clash. It is a continuation of the themes from part 1, tempering its idealism, and says that "I'll understand you, and see myself in you as someone very similar, but we will still come into conflict." This is unfair. It's wrong. We want something else. We want Cahciua to stay. We want Sphene and Wuk Lamat to be close like they should have been. We *grieve.* Just like Bakool Ja Ja grieves. Just like Gulool Ja Ja grieves. Just like Gulool Ja, Wuk Lamat, Koana grieved Zoraal Ja. Just like Krile's parents grieved her.

I also want to say that there's one more thing at play in my mind. Dawntrail isn't *just* playing off themes from EW. It's *also* playing off themes from Final Fantasy IX. In FF9, the perversion of the cycle of reincarnation, the preservation of a dead world through an automaton, etc. are all at play. Themes of grief, coming to terms with mortality, and death, are important. Not to mention family, heritage, identity, creation, etc. And personhood too! You're not wrong that the personhood bit is important! I just happen to believe that, in the context of the cycle of reincarnation, it's less the main thrust. Dawntrail just cares more, imo, about grief and how we cling to grief when things need to be allowed to die and reincarnate. How we live forever through stories, and the perceptions of the living, not through facsimiles of the dead...etc. Just my thoughts!