Quote Originally Posted by Puksi View Post
It's the final countdown!

Emet-Selch wasn't interested in granting a reprieve to anyone, though? The Ascians had to slow the tilt of Light on the First, it was going too fast. Vauthry was created as a stopgap to prevent that, not to do anyone any favors. Emet-Selch's suggestion sounded wicked and cruel because it was? There is no positive way to spin what he did there. :s He talked over a frightened woman about using her as a vessel to corrupt her unborn baby so his father could rule the world. And when her HUSBAND consented, he did it to her, regardless of her obvious fear. ("Left the decision to Vauthry's father"? How about his mother, lmao, she's people too, and it's sort of her body) That is skeevy for both Emet-Selch AND the former mayor. (Not to mention the whole bit that he doesn't see any of us as "really alive".)

It seems disingenous of Emet-Selch to "sow the seeds of chaos" and then blame humanity for the result in general, particularly in Vauthry's case. Emet-Selch stacked that deck. Sin Eaters corrupt. Take Titania for instance, the Lightwarden changed them into a twisted mockery of the benevolent ruler they were said to be. Tesleen was caring and selfless but once corrupted, she was unable to be anything other than a monster. Vauthry would be no exception. He never had a chance to act of his own free will. Everything he did was through the lens of a Lightwarden, apparently the strongest one, that was changing him from birth. (The "half Sin Eater" bit seemed a lie on his father's part, you can't be half anything when you were already a whole Hume infant in the womb. Even Y'shtola remarked the Warden "took control" of Vauthry, implying they were two separate entities.) I would argue he was "Innocence" because the real him, the one free of the Lightwarden, never had a chance to do anything in life. He was a prisoner from birth.

I'd be all for Vauthry keeping memories and living to have his own life. He and his mother were casualties of the Ascians' shenanigans. They would deserve that. But since that is not possible, I'd settle for just being able once to say "hey, guys, this isn't how it was at all". As it stands, there IS no sympathy for what happened there, for him. We let the lie perpetuate that he was evil by choice, and not like every other character corrupted by a Sin Eater, trapped in a body he no longer truly controlled.
I was also surprised at the lack of discussion about how
crazy Vauthry Sr. (or whatever his name was) was. You'd think his right-hand man would have noticed some signs of it, particularly in the lead-up to Vauthry taking the reins himself.