Emet-Selch Is Not That Tragic

[Puksi]

Not sure I agree with you on Vauthry though. The card doesn't specify the type of corruption, and Titania became a raving lunatic from the effects of being a Lightwarden. Vauthry is... more or less functioning as a human, just with a horrible personality (and eating) disorder and a partly sineater physiology. And we know for a fact that he's been fed stories and visions of grandeur since childhood, so I still cant shake the feeling that its not entirely the lights fault.

It's also harder to emphasize with him, since he's basically a giant selfish manchild. Sure you can pity him for becoming such, but his actions are mostly backed by feelings, not logical thought.

His situation is exactly what befell Titania, a living being overwhelmed by a Lightwarden--except he was corrupted before he was even born, and it was done to him deliberately. Apparently in the Japanese dialogue, he even shared a speech pattern with Titania's to show he is similarly "off"? Y'shtola also noted the Lightwarden had "taken control" of him.

I am always confused when people say Vauthry should somehow have been able to have free will in his behavior, as you are saying now. Literally no other character in the game corrupted by even a lesser Sin Eater does. Not Titania, not Tesleen, not the Afflicted, and in the end, almost not the Warrior Of Light. So why would Vauthry be the sole exception to the rule?

Because "giant selfish manchild"? Because "eating disorder"? That is a shallow gauge of why he should be worthy of sympathy for a plight he never chose for himself, like the other end of the spectrum of people in this thread trying to excuse Emet-Selch because he is charismatic. Based on other corrupted characters, what you are seeing of Vauthry in the MSQ is likely not even his own nature, but rather a warped parody through the lens of a Lightwarden. If Titania is any indication, without corruption Vauthry would have been a positive peach.

But the writers didn't seem to care enough to give any nuance to the Eulmore arc, and instead really seemed to push for that frankly distasteful and lazy reaction. For no legitimate reason, we are asked to believe that Vauthry should be condemned for corruption he never consented to, that the truth of his stolen life isn't worth speaking, that he should bear the blame of Emet-Selch's atrocities, because he is "ugly"--while Emet-Selch should be recalled fondly, as heroic even, because "charisma". I don't know about you, but I left that line of thinking back in grade school.