Quote Originally Posted by Brinne View Post
For what it's worth...
My overall impression is I think you're being very charitable towards Emet here.

"He shouldn't" have any regrets in particular is quite a powerful phrase to use, considering "everything in his power" included global genocide and mass destruction, and though I often see people casually handwave his litany of misdeeds and shelving them under something as romantic as "doing his duty" or "love for his people", I not only think it's a bit idealistic, but also a disservice to his character. Emet may have struggled with the weight of the responsibility he was carrying, and would have rather not had to do any of it, but he was not some hapless thrall at the mercy of his master's bidding either. The truth is Emet willfully did some terrible, awful things, caused immense amounts of suffering in those that deep down he did come to see as living beings in some approximation, and more than that, he frequently did not care.

I think not having the understanding that Emet is very much a fundamentally kind person who hates seeing others in pain
He would feel pangs of empathy or good will for those who became meaningful to him, for sure, but he was so full of arrogance, rage and despair that he discarded them the moment they disappointed him and used it as fuel and justification to commit more atrocities. His reactions to Garlemald nearly collapsing in on itself, to Black Rose, to our turning into a Sin Eater and potentially slaughtering innocent civilians are not those of a man tormented by remorse and sympathy. He knew Black Rose especially had the potential to kill thousands, and applauds Varis for it. That's not really what I'd call a "kind person who hates seeing others in pain", and both past and present Emet seem to agree, calling him "twisted" and a megalomaniac both.

I do get where you're coming from, but I'm countering that you can't separate what those "ideals" ultimately resulted in from the possibly noble origin whence they came, and for the same reasons you found it refreshing to refer back to, I found it a very strange declaration to make at that point in the story, after an interlude intent on showing Emet as a sort of hero. What is it you're trying to make me think about him here? Do you think what he did is so minor that the grand scope of his story somehow covers or excuses it? That's more or less what I was trying to make sense of in my discussion with Midare (hence the focus on the "madman" comment, which was more trying to read the writers' own intended perception of him than anything else.) I can't pin what they were going for, and subsequently I just found his overall portrayal a little disappointing after ShB, as nice as it was to see him. I really loved bitter, tormented, agonised Emet, hardened-but-not-really but so consumed by resentment he refused to allow himself to see it - he was such a brilliant character, I didn't find the hard fallback on what a terrific guy he once was to be as delightful as everyone else did, and if that was their attempt to sort of... acknowledge what had gone on, it was too little too late at that point, and felt a bit awkward.

For those acquainted with it, the "Through His Eyes" sidestory was the Emet I'd always hoped to see. Cantankerous, serious, a little distant and self-involved, even self-deprecating - facets of his true self that appeared through the cracks in the facade as ShB progressed - but with that begrudging undercurrent of duty and compassion that makes his character so endearing. He was fun in EW, but it felt very on the nose and more of a caricature of what he once was - they tried too hard to make him out as a good guy at times, and combined with their own apparent confusion on where we stand with him and what he did, that lost a lot of what made him appealing, at least in my mind.