Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[Lyth]

Part of what makes that speech in the Ocular so interesting is the non-verbal cues. You can see the obvious emotional disconnect between Emet and everyone else present when he smilingly exclaims that killing millions of sundered people doesn't really count as murder, because he views them all as 'malformed creatures'. He can read the room well enough to be aware that he's just said something very offensive from the awkward silence and shocked reactions, so he quickly changes the topic after, but he still doesn't actually seem to 'get' why his statement was so poorly received.

Emet brings up moral relativism in the same speech, which is what this comes down to. If values are only a matter of personal opinion, then sure, any 'morality' that you put forward is valid. His argument makes perfect sense from a purely logical standpoint, as does your dhamel point. After all, where do you draw the line? And yet people are very naturally able do this on instinct.

If you use that same 'logic' to justify murder out loud in human company, many people (i hope) would instantly and vehemently disagree with you. But not because it's an illogical statement. And this is not really something that you can parse out with logic, either, because like it or not, value systems and empathy are fundamentally emotional-driven entities. I think this is why antisocial personality types can simultaneously get a read on an emotional response and yet find it incomprehensible at the same time. It's kind of like a form of 'common sense', or perhaps the more accurate term here is common sensibility.

Either way, it's just interesting that the while the Ancients are 'human-inspired', there are still elements of their actions and behavior that feel very alien from a human perspective, as the Q+A itself alluded to.