Quote Originally Posted by Veloran View Post
It seems to me that interview is quite supportive of the point I was making. Emet wanted to see Azem in WoL, even while believing that to be impossible. What ultimately happened is exactly the ending he desired. Why I say we don't agree on this point is that you seem to characterize this as a failing of his schemes and of WoL "invalidating his headcanon of Azem". But considering what Yoshida says there, if Emet was disappointed by WoL's failure to contain the light, it follows that what he truly wanted was for what happened, to happen. Yoshi isn't saying he was disappointed afterwards, after all.



Killing WoL or even WoL joining him is probably not what he wanted, I think. Throughout the story he pushes WoL's buttons as hard as he can (ex at the ladder, after Innocence, before the Dying Gasp) to see if he can get WoL to give in, but in fact we know that he didn't want WoL to surrender. WoL agreeing to join Emet would be inconsistent with how Azem was in life, so that happening would just be another disappointment. He didn't want validation, he wanted to be proven wrong.
I don’t believe it was the ending he desired at all. We see in his fight he isn’t exactly trying to lose, he’s fighting with all his might. He wanted to end us as we were in his way, his card cements this.

Was Hades always lurking beneath the surface of Emet-Selch? Or was this a case of transcendence, an aberrant being spawned from a crucible of ancient hope and prayer? Whichever the truth may be, this implacable immortal would never cease his struggle, never abandon the path which led to his fallen brethren's resurrection.