Emet-Selch Is Not That Tragic

[tokinokanatae]

1) Vauthry's mother wasn't the one who was asked, and unborn Vauthry wasn't asked at all. You could argue they talked her into it later, but she was fearful, and Vauthry was still given no choice, so there's that. Emet-Selch still did it, he was the one with the Lightwarden and the power to do so. I'm not sure how this argument is supposed to absolve him of that.

No child has the choice to be born under good or bad circumstances, so I'm not really sure how that's Emet-Selch's fault either? Emet-Selch implanted the Lightwarden into Vauthry, but that didn't make him "evil." Vauthry could have been a tragic hero if he had used the powers Emet-Selch gave him responsibly. dooming the world through no fault of his own as he played into Emet-Selch's plans. That's not what happened, though.

2) Vauthry was corrupted with a Lightwarden, like Titania. Titania was not mindless, but was still warped into a murderous parody of what they were before the Lightwarden overtook them. Vauthry was clearly corrupted physically by the Lightwarden--Humes aren't fifteen to twenty feet tall, they can't do an Exorcist with their necks or eat silverware--and they don't come with a second face embedded in their chest. He also certainly seemed to be affected mentally as Titania was. Apparently their speech patterns in Japan are similar, something that implies the speaker is "off"?

How is Titania any more evil than your average fae in the game? They turn people into living plants and outright murder to fill their ranks. Titania wants to play with us the exact same way the normal fae want to "play with us." Titania was sealed for being "harmful" to the denizens of Il Mheg, not somehow more "evil". Vauthry wasn't even harmful by virtue of proximity. His control over the people of Eulmore came from feeding them sin eater carcasses, not being around them.

And then there was Yoshi-P's interview where he said he would like us to consider, "was Vauthry just a friend of the sin eaters, or was he being controlled by someone".

Considering various points can be very interesting for fanfiction, but I'll go for what's actually in the game when I'm arguing a point.

On the Cardinal Virtues, they were mindlessly acting out what they did in life, and were apparently a danger to the living. That doesn't sound like they were helping anyone.

What they did in life was attempt to help people, and their actions in death reflect that urge, even if it's not actually helpful to living beings. They're still not going around torturing, enslaving, or turning people for the joy of it, because those actions need human impulse. Titania doesn't do that either. Only one Lightwarden does, and it's the human one.

4) Emet-Selch felt hope, for what? It says he didn't know, and I don't see the word love mentioned anywhere.

So you would describe "breeding fodder" in that way? That's what I was taking issue with, since I--like Emet-Selch--didn't mention the word "love" in my response. We know it wasn't anything nefarious, because he wouldn't describe him being taken too soon if his son was just a pawn in his plans. Pawns abound after all. Loved ones don't. (There, I used it now. )

5) The Source in the Black Rose timeline was dying. Not as in "these people are going to die of old age anyway", as in, the planet itself was failing to sustain the survivors.

And after the night comes the morning, as the sun rises to greet the new day. While it may already be too late to mend this dying world, there are those who would strive to create a place where the sun will shine again, not for their own sake, but for those in a past that may yet be saved.

"May." No Calamity has ever brought the world past the brink of recovery, even if it takes thousands of years. There's no reason given to expect why this would be different, even the part you quoted admits that.