Emet-Selch Is Not That Tragic

[Alleo]

It's simply a matter of looking at it from the perspective of the characters themselves, the context of the overall story and whatever relevant statements are made by the development team. They clearly intended to make him into a tragic, sympathetic hero who was fated to be cut down by another. They succeeded at that and quite a lot of people read into him in the same manner. Some, such as yourself, do not. Which is fine - I just don't understand the need some have to try and stifle support of the official narrative.

And if you only look at the perspective of the characters themselves then someone like Zenos is a hero too! Seeing how he sees life, he is quite right in what he does and is not evil at all. And no he was never meant to be seen as tragic hero. Even Yoshida made it clear afterwards that the Ascians are still the bad guys. Just now bad guys with at least some motives.