Quote Originally Posted by Cassar View Post
... [D]o you (and everyone else who dislikes Emet) dislike him because you think he's a bad guy, or because you think he's just not well written? Because I feel I've had the wrong impression this whole time.
I can't speak for anyone else, but...

Personally I don't like him because the story kind of forces you (or at least your character) to sympathize with him, while simultaneously glossing over the fact he's wrought the same death and destruction on the reflections and Source he condemns Hydaelyn for several times over. I think Y'shtola tells him off once in the Ocular, but other than that nobody ever brings up his raging hypocrisy even after the fact (since we only learn that in Amaurot and he dies shortly thereafter). The smarmy attitude I can deal with - affable or not, he's still an antagonist and it suits him - but the fact he's responsible for countless deaths and the destruction of who knows how many civilizations, whines about how unfair the end of his own was, and the story still assumes we were best buddies with him (to the point we summon his soul twice with the Azem stone, and our attitude when first arriving on Elpis immediately picks up when we hear his voice) really rubs me the wrong way.

The fact lots of people declared the Ascians to have done nothing wrong in the wake of the half-truths he provided really didn't help either.

Emet-Selch is pretty well-written and a good person on a personal level, but that doesn't change the fact his methods (if not quite his end goals) are nothing short of horrific.

I enjoy his character, in the sense that he's the smarmy antagonist plotting just behind your back but trying to force the "not bad just misunderstood" angle didn't quite work for me. Not a fan of the tsundere attitude either.