What would the path be had you been able to contain the light?

[Lurina]

Yeah, a big thing with Shadowbringers Emet is that while he's often truthful, he's not always honest, and as a result he spends a lot of the expansion subtly twisting his arguments and perspective to do whatever he's trying to achieve in that scene, which is usually just trying to make the Scions question their preconceptions and convictions. This makes it pretty hard to take him at his word with regards to any of his actual plans, a lot of what he said about it was subtly contradictory and lacking in detail... because his goal wasn't consistency or specificity, it was to make you think he had a point.

I think this is also a little bit of a mischaracterization. Emet constantly says things that jeopardize his attempts to befriend and/or manipulate the Scions, snapping and getting hostile just as they're starting to lower their guard and trust him (relatively), the best example being when he drops the "moral relativity" line. The Scions are still feeling a bit more positive towards him because of his saving Y'shtola, and are the point where they're willing to at least hear him out and entertain empathizing with his motive, but he spoils it and sours the atmosphere to no gain.

He's not some master manipulator, at least not at that point. He's contradictory because he can't control his own emotions and fundamentally has no idea what he even wants.

[Vyrerus]

He's not some master manipulator, at least not at that point. He's contradictory because he can't control his own emotions and fundamentally has no idea what he even wants.

He's just an old man, cranky after being woken up too soon from his nap.

Does make me wonder if this is the first time he's been woken up after completing one of his duties, and that's why he's not handling it well at all.

[SannaR]

He's just an old man, cranky after being woken up too soon from his nap.

Does make me wonder if this is the first time he's been woken up after completing one of his duties, and that's why he's not handling it well at all.

Woken up soon after he completed one of his duties? Probably. As I'm going to assume he didn't have a hand in any of the 6th rejoining. None of the three nations that played a hand in that calamity at least on the source seem to fit his style. Either with how they operate or their aesthetics. That and the side story made it seem that he was only awoken when the other two +/- any sundered couldn't work with whatever nation(s) the current civilization was giving them to work with. But yes you could definitely see his being awoken by Elidibus as someone who'd just been napping for five minutes before being rudely woken up by someone or their pet.

[RyuDragnier]

I think this is also a little bit of a mischaracterization. Emet constantly says things that jeopardize his attempts to befriend and/or manipulate the Scions, snapping and getting hostile just as they're starting to lower their guard and trust him (relatively), the best example being when he drops the "moral relativity" line. The Scions are still feeling a bit more positive towards him because of his saving Y'shtola, and are the point where they're willing to at least hear him out and entertain empathizing with his motive, but he spoils it and sours the atmosphere to no gain.

He's not some master manipulator, at least not at that point. He's contradictory because he can't control his own emotions and fundamentally has no idea what he even wants.

I think this plays into why the playerbase likes Emet so much. He's a deep and complex character, and is conflicted. He got the most human treatment out of all of the Ascians, and made him feel like somebody you can sympathize with easily. The lives of him and those he cared about were basically burned into the ground, and he has been in a constant flux of grieving stages. It feels like over the course of ShB we see him fluctuate between several of the stages, before finally hitting Acceptance after the final battle with him.

[Cleretic]

I think this plays into why the playerbase likes Emet so much. He's a deep and complex character, and is conflicted. He got the most human treatment out of all of the Ascians, and made him feel like somebody you can sympathize with easily. The lives of him and those he cared about were basically burned into the ground, and he has been in a constant flux of grieving stages. It feels like over the course of ShB we see him fluctuate between several of the stages, before finally hitting Acceptance after the final battle with him.

Also because he's unconventionally hot (but not too unconventionally hot), and a type of evil where he simultaneously feels like he has a point but he could also maybe possibly be convinced to not do the horrible thing.

Emet appeals to people who want a quirky sexy man, the people who want a guy they can fix, and the people who want to agree with the evil guy, while somehow managing to remain generally consistent, charismatic, sympathetic and detailed as a character at the end of it all. He's checking more 'character appeal' boxes than I genuinely thought were even possible to check with the one character in the one piece of media; MCU Loki took like, five movies and a miniseries to get this far. Snape's a good comparison, too.

I don't like him, and I remember being very surprised when I learned I was basically alone about that after finishing Shadowbringers; it was very alienating to bring my fresh opinion of 'well most of that was great, shame the ending dropped the ball' to people after finishing and getting 'confusion bordering on anger' as a response. But stepping back and taking a wider look at it... yeah, I can see exactly why I didn't find much agreement there.

[Jandor]

I don't like him, and I remember being very surprised when I learned I was basically alone about that after finishing Shadowbringers; it was very alienating to bring my fresh opinion of 'well most of that was great, shame the ending dropped the ball' to people after finishing and getting 'confusion bordering on anger' as a response. But stepping back and taking a wider look at it... yeah, I can see exactly why I didn't find much agreement there.

Emet: Remember us, remember that we once lived.

Me, turning to the Scions: Check out the absolute cheek o' this fella, not 2 seconds ago he was ranting about expunging us from histories weave.

[jameseoakes]

Also because he's unconventionally hot (but not too unconventionally hot), and a type of evil where he simultaneously feels like he has a point but he could also maybe possibly be convinced to not do the horrible thing.

Emet appeals to people who want a quirky sexy man, the people who want a guy they can fix, and the people who want to agree with the evil guy, while somehow managing to remain generally consistent, charismatic, sympathetic and detailed as a character at the end of it all. He's checking more 'character appeal' boxes than I genuinely thought were even possible to check with the one character in the one piece of media; MCU Loki took like, five movies and a miniseries to get this far. Snape's a good comparison, too.

I don't like him, and I remember being very surprised when I learned I was basically alone about that after finishing Shadowbringers; it was very alienating to bring my fresh opinion of 'well most of that was great, shame the ending dropped the ball' to people after finishing and getting 'confusion bordering on anger' as a response. But stepping back and taking a wider look at it... yeah, I can see exactly why I didn't find much agreement there.

People liked him as he was a interesting well written character, we could feel what that weight of the duty he held himself to do and the damage the monstrous acts he has and continues to do have done to him and he was an actual well written example of depression as we can feel just how broken and depressed he really is. He was also an genuinely interesting and fun character to be around which made the knowledge that would have to come to ahead extra sad. He also came with a very relatable story, how much would we damn ourselves to bring back the people we love as it made him a very relatable villain.