Quote Originally Posted by Saix027 View Post
It feels actually questionable, we basically made a clone with his memorys, merged it with his old self, deleting or at least changing what he was to that point, while the one in the crystal could be still alive, just merged with the tower itself, only able to watch.
Actually we can be certain his soul left that body, because from the scene where the other Scions transfer themselves into the crystals, we can see that the white part of the crystal only starts to glow once their souls are inside it. This is exactly what we see in the last moments before the Exarch crystallises, so it seems clear that his soul "got away" and isn't trapped there. (I wrote earlier - I think this is the reason for having his soul transfer instead of just giving him a well-earned death at that point. It would be hard to be clear that his soul was free and not trapped forever.)

Further proof that his soul transferred over is that G'raha says his soul is similarly dense to ours, which would be accounted for by each of us holding a ninth fragment: ours from Ardbert, G'raha's from the additional rejoining that only the Exarch lived through.

As for the ethics of it? I agree I'm surprised they went that route, but given that they did, I have to assume it can be justified in this unique circumstance because the Exarch isn't making this decision on behalf of "someone else" or even a diverged version of himself on another timeline. He was the same person up until G'raha's last waking moment to date, and thus would be able to judge on behalf of his younger self that he would be happy to accept that soul transfer.

So anyway, on that assumption that all is well and it's only the Exarch's body that is there in the tower... it's a strange thing. He died and there's a body but at the same time he's not dead, so should it be mourned or not? His departure from the First might as well be death in some ways, and yet the people know he's alive but beyond their reach.

All of a sudden I am reminded of The Little Prince... there are shades of that story's ending here, I think, though of course it's not the same thing. But a bit of that mixed joy and sorrow.