
Originally Posted by
Brinne
Once again:
Or if you want something directly from the game:
I understand that's sort of difficult to process that, yes, we killed a person who did indisputably try to reach out to us in good faith, in hopes for some kind of nonviolent reconciliation. But that is what happened. Obviously, as a whole, the situation is more complex - the Scions had extremely good reasons to distrust Emet-Selch given their history, his own obnoxious behavior and difficult personality wasn't exactly optimal towards beginning to win that trust, so I am absolutely not saying the Scions are bad or wrong for being reluctant to meet him at the table - Emet-Selch dug his own grave on several levels on that front. However, the truth remains, again to use Yoshida's own words, that own his intent was, indeed, "pure" and he truly did want to "trust and believe in" the new humanity.
So there's no real reason to try to distort the facts of what happened or the mindset of the person we killed or what he was actually hoping to accomplish. Shadowbringers asks us to accept the situation for what it truly was - tragic, great, and terrible all at once - and in that way, look for ways to honor and uplift the fallen, not disparage them in order to justify ourselves. Emet-Selch still drew a hard line in the sand that we had to "prove ourselves worthy" if the situation remained a question of only one group or the other being allowed to live. That caused us to need to fight him, in the end, to protect ourselves and the world we know. He also was truly, sincerely hoping to find some other way "that did not involve bloodshed" if we were able to "prove ourselves worthy" and were willing to join forces. This can be true at the same time as "we still had to kill him to survive because we didn't meet his conditions and rejected those conditions as justifications for our deaths" is also true.