Emet-Selch Is Not That Tragic

[HyoMinPark]

I never interpreted Emet-Selch as a tragic character. I always interpreted him as an anti-villain. His motives are evil and it’s only natural for the heroes to disagree with him—but he came to garner our sympathies despite that. And I think that’s why we nodded after he told us to “remember us” and “remember that we once lived”.

The killer for me is his rueful smile as he’s dissipating.

[Caitlinzulu]

I found his story tragic, but not sympathetic, considering that the Ascians' downfall came from their own reckless abuse of creation magic.

Dont mistake the race for ascians. Not all of those ancients became/where ascians.
Some of them didnt have creation magic to begin with or why else are there tools in place if you lack creation magic.

[Miminming]

People gonna hate me for saying this but emet and hauchefrant?(i think i spell the name wrong) are kinda over rated IMO, and mostly probably because of fangirl fanarts... both of them are quite generic in term of story good in execution though i admit but not that good enough...

I cant even feel anything tragic about emet... the WOL in the first is far more tragic if you ask me

[Gemina]

Why do you get the impression that you're supposed to be sympathetic towards Emet, or with any villain? That's just something that happens when someone can relate to a villain's motives.

I don't relate to Emet at all. I see him and the other Ascians as beings totally and completely incapable of adapting, and the inability to do this is what leads to loss of entire civilizations as was the case with the ancients. However, I don't need to relate to Emet for him to be a good villain. I only need to understand what drives him, and why he does what he does.

Early on we see that he does not like to needlessly spend energy, and later on in the Tempest we see what he's capable of doing with it. In the middle we see an antagonist who antagonizes not with violence, but rather with a game of mental chess. I absolutely loved that why he was just letting us go and hunt down Light Wardens without any intervention was not exposed until the very end. He didn't need to do anything as he simply just had to fence off any turns on our paths to our own destruction.

It's things like that that go a long a way to creating an absolutely fantastic villain, which Emet hits on all cylinders. It also doesn't hurt that he is extremely charismatic, and those of us who love eccentricity in a villain will definitely be lured in. But it is understandable that he won't resonate with everyone.

[ValyrianBlood]

You can't feel sorry for someone just because they say "I've been through shit", you have to let the players *experience* what it's like to be in his own shoes.

You can't? That's sad. I don't need to experience the demise of my whole family (as example for 'being though shit') myself to feel sorry and emphasize with someone who lost theirs.

His motives are evil

Well his motivation is to bring his whole perished race back to life, I wouldn't exactly call this evil? But the means to do it certainly are.

All in all I do find Emet to be a tragic figure (maybe not in a classical sense) but still. I can understand his motives, I feel for him but ultimately he had to be defeated...



Possible Dragone Age: Inquisition spoilers
Oh boooy, I cant wait for Dragon Age 4, I think many tears will be shed... Emet is nothing like Solas but in the end it's the same story and I feel for both of them

It's things like that that go a long a way to creating an absolutely fantastic villain, which Emet hits on all cylinders. It also doesn't hurt that he is extremely charismatic, and those of us who love eccentricity in a villain will definitely be lured in. But it is understandable that he won't resonate with everyone.

Yep, that's pretty much it, u summarized perfectly why I just love love love him

[HyoMinPark]

Well his motivation is to bring his whole perished race back to life, I wouldn't exactly call this evil? But the means to do it certainly are.

All in all I do find Emet to be a tragic figure (maybe not in a classical sense) but still. I can understand his motives, I feel for him but ultimately he had to be defeated...

His motives may have been “noble”, but that’s strictly from his point of view. His plans were to sacrifice the “half-lives” of the beings of the Shards and the Source to pay Zodiark for resurrecting the Ancients that once gave their lives to save Emet’s world. From the perspective of us—the main character—it is an evil motive to sacrifice all those lives to return those he lost. He believes it’s just, but to us it’s unjust because what of our worlds and our lives. He doesn’t view us as even whole people—we’re lesser creatures to him, one “who has known perfection”.

One can argue “it’s a matter of perspective”—which is why I specified our perspective in my response (the player character; the “hero”).

That he can garner an audience’s (and perhaps even the WoL’s) sympathy despite our perception of him as evil makes him an anti-villain.

[Curisu]

I also wouldn't call it tragic, we just understand his point and why he does the "evil" things. Also we would do the same in his position.

[Enla]

He isn't tragic. It's what happened to his people that is and he's wanting you to understand that.

About the only thing I find tragic about him personally is that he's very clearly tempered and even admits as such to our faces. And that in spite of apparently wanting to find 'good' in the fragmented souls that were left behind that sheer fact alone means he would ever be incapable of it. The wanting to reconcile and put down his proverbial sword but ever being incapable of realizing that his very programming is what is prohibiting him from seeing our worth and not some deficiency on our part is in itself pretty tragic. Though I think at the end as he was slowly dissolving into nothing he might have finally been able to grasp that fact; but whether or not it's because his tempering broke is uncertain. Regardless of the circumstances in that small moment he finally recognizes our worth. The worth of so many 'broken' souls to be the stewards of what is left of his original star and our worth to remember the cautionary tale and legacy his people leave behind.

In general though, Emet Selch is probably one of the best villains that SE has ever written for this series regardless of whether we personally sympathize with him or not.

[ReviaInfantry]

Well, let's see here...

Gaius after Bahamut released got nowhere to go, basically can only rely on remaining outposts and dig out some Allagan relic to find a place for his people. We kicked his arse.

Niddhogg lose its sister Ratawhatever, and go on a rampage, we kicked his arse.

Sloppy wants liberation of Ala Mhigo, but he do it in any despicable way. We kicked his arse.

That no emotion but crazy kid just want a good friend (to fight), we kicked his arse.

That Nadesiko have a shit life and do even shit betrayal stuff, we kicked her arse.

And now we have a fella who has a race to try and restore with race supremacy issues, guess how we gotta roll?

[Selova]

His motives are evil[/size]

His motives are not what's evil, It's what he tried to do to make his motives a realization that is evil. I'm not sure why people claim that he's a tragic character, It's his plight that's tragic. The way they weaved Emet's story was to get the player to understand why he's doing the things he's doing. There is nothing wrong with the intention of wanting to save your own race, but the way he went about trying to do it was wrong obviously. I'm not sure why people keep trying to paint him as some tragic anti-hero.