Zodiark's Codex entry what do we think about it?

[Brinne]

Emet singles out Amaurot and obviously holds a special affection for it as his home, but he doesn't idolize Amaurotines as superior from other Ancient humans. In all his dialogue, he only compares ancient mankind in totality with modern mankind in totality. He's less a jingoist nationalist - if Garlemald and Allag are good examples, he regards jingoism as an exploitable flaw with Sundered humanity more than anything - and more an extremely stubborn version of the protagonist of I Am Legend, killing what he regards as undead abominations born of the "real" human race.

Yeah, to be honest, the push towards a filter of seeing some kind of IRL racism analogue onto the situation with the Ascians and the Sundered has always felt a little bizarre to me. (It was the furthest thing from my mind when I got to Amaurot. What I immediately thought was that, 'ah, I see, this is some kind of fascinating metacommentary - something like real people versus video game characters, isn't it?') There is no actual context for racism that matches up to the Sundered versus Unsundered situation - the dramatic, objective physical differences to the point that it's confirmed they should be seen as different species altogether, and the historical context of "one 'race' being literally made of the bones of the murdered members of the other 'race'," or one race undeniably having to exist at the expense of another. If you try to apply this to any situation with racial tensions we have here on Earth, it gets real gross real fast.

I think it's better regarded as a fantasy-laced thought experiment, like your example of a flipped perspective of someone dealing with what would normally be considered 'zombie abominations'. If you really wanted to compare it to a form of prejudice in reality, ableism, as you mentioned, would probably be more fitting.

But to be blunt, the way it often keeps getting forcefully pushed - into conversations and discussions that had nothing to do with the topic, and via soft browbeating anyone who expresses potential sympathy on any level towards the Ascians as therefore sympathizing with racial supremicism or what have you - and the way it so often goes hand in hand with denigrating the Ancients themselves as a people and a culture, it comes across like it's less about actually opposing racism in principle and more about nursing a really deep-seated grudge about feeling personally insulted by Emet-Selch, especially in the context of a video game power fantasy.

For me, as a thought experiment, Shadowbringers (very gently) actually challenging the power fantasy was why it was so memorable. To ask the question, point blank, "if it isn't a given that we, the assigned protagonists, are the ones who are 'superior' by whatever measure, and who 'deserve to live' more, then what? How do we respond? What do we do?" And I absolutely loved Shadowbringers's answer for it. I don't have a problem, personally, acknowledging that there are individuals even within my own species who are better or superior than me in certain respects - athleticism, gaming skills, what have you. What many able-bodied people are able to do that I struggle with at the best of times. And sometimes, yes, even the capacity to make moral decisions, rather than self-interested ones. But that doesn't mean I don't have a right to live, just as much as anyone else.

Shadowbringers was compelling for asserting, and presenting a situation where, the only way to "win" against the question asked by Emet-Selch is to throw out the entire framework altogether. Hence why the Scions don't - can't - present any meaningful arguments against his claims of "superiority" in one realm or another - Alphinaud simply asserts that it doesn't matter in terms of being allowed to exist, and he was absolutely right.

It meant, and still means, a lot to me.