#conflating that with self defense generates a lot of misunderstanding of what actually happened then and happening now

[esgaril]

exactly. "the Primes choosing the Betrayers over mortals" have a very specific meaning in Exandria. the Betrayers have been bitching about it enough by now to make it clear to everyone what it is: killing all mortals and leaving Exandria. that's what the Betrayers are fighting for, the extermination of mortals, and that's what the Primes are fighting against. people seem to forget that that was the stake of the Calamity and the Schism before that. twice now in history the Primes have deliberately and against their family chose the side of mortals (they are pretty much the only very powerful beings on the mortals' side as both the Bertayers and Primordials want them dead). people seem to miss the little detail that after Aeor's fall the Primes went right back to fighting for the mortals against the Betrayers and eventually defeating them, making the current (somewhat) peaceful age possible.

people seem to conflate that with still having survival instincts and self protection. probably that's where the "if they love mortals why don't they let the mortals kill them? gotcha!" kind of takes come from. the Primes did and still do put their lives on the line to defend the mortals against the Betrayers and Primordials, but straight up just letting Aeor genocide them (dying on the cross for mankind) is Christian god type of shit, the gods of Exandria were never like that and never pretended to be. they've said outright in Downfall why they locked away the Betrayers instead of killing them: for exactly times like this, when their existance is threatened. that's what is happening now, Matt has confirmed it several times that the gods are afraid for their lives and with good reason. nobody are their best selves when backed into a corner and fighting for their own lives.

I know that after Downfall the perspective of 'the gods are a FAMILY' has permeated fandom on both sides of the kill-all-gods argument, but frankly that isn't all they are and acting as if it's suddenly their only motivation flattens both them as characters and the narrative they (and bells hells) are in.

The Wildmother and The Raven Queen didn't 'let' Lolth get away with nabbing Opal and killing Cyrus because she’s their sister. Come on man, we've already seen that the primes are plenty capable of opposing and fighting their siblings on the side of mortals (is the calamity a joke to you??). I'm not saying the primes aren’t capable of picking the lives of their betrayer siblings over mortals (downfall showed as much) but that's not what the situation with Opal and Lolth was about in the slightest.

They let Lolth 'get away with it' not because she’s family, but because this is the very rare instance of them not only having the same goal, but of them actively fighting for their lives. As far as we know that has only happened once before on Exandria, and that time they also entered a truce to defend themselves. The vast majority of the time, the primes picking their siblings over mortals won’t happen because mortals can’t actually threaten the gods (normally), making the 'they're family argument' a moot point. The primes won’t necessarily agree with Lolth's methods, but they won’t go throwing away both hers and their own champions in a meaningless struggle when they need all their strength to stop the fucking apocalypse.