Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
"Purposely playing a part" doesn't mean that part was inspired by anyone specific, and again I don't see how you'd want to compare our short glimpse of Solus to either of his good friends. He's awful to Varis.

He's theatrical but not in the way a real person would be theatrical. He's approaching it like an actor's role on the stage.
Actually Emet was inspired by someone specific. That would be Prospero, the wizard that controls a mysterious and unknown world in Shakespeare's The Tempest. This is why the under water area that has the Amarout ruins is called the Tempest. This allusion is pretty heavy handed when you notice that all the locations in The Tempest (the area) also reference The Tempest (the play).

To further drive home the point, the theatrics and the actor's role on stage where a major conceit in Shakespeare's work. Prospero's famous speech from The Tempest is considered Shakespeare's real life retirement speech (because The Tempest was the last play Shakespeare wrote by himself). So in this way, we can see Emet as a person playing their role in events, who really just wants to be remembered for who he was and what he has done.

Moreover, Emet's treatment of Varis and his disdain for current fractured soul life is mirrored in the interaction and interpretation of Caliban and Ariel. The savagery of Caliban has become a horrible metaphor for European enslavement of native peoples; just like Emet uses all the non-ancients like pawns. Ariel, without a life changing event (and in Emet's case it was his defeat by the player character) is unable to be set free (like Emet's attachment to the past).

This is why everyone loves Emet--whether you realize it or not, he is the Shakespearean villain of depth and a masterpiece of character development and plot advancement. His character like all things of Final Fantasy, are a fantastical retelling of real world culture, history, and literature. What you said above is true, but honestly, you didn't do him enough justice.