One of my favorite parts of Endwalker is Emet-Selch seeing the Ghost WoL, immediately clocking it as Azem Something and going No, Not Today Satan while Hythlodaeus is sitting down beside the Ghost WoL and making pspspspsp noises at them and offering them free hugs and Emet's Aether and giving Emet the biggest wettest puppy dog eyes of Can We Keep Them?
Meanwhile WoL is having some emotional whiplash and an existential crisis.
sometimes I like to reframe the finale of Shadowbringers not as "descend into the villain's lair to confront him" but "attend a theater production at a stage in the depths of the ocean". and the battle with Emet-selch not "stalwart hero triumphantly defeats evil sorcerer" but "dying wanderer reminds grieving old man he can never go home". ShB plays with ideas of hero and villain so much that it feels natural to break things out of the framework of heroic battles and victories
I do like to think of rescuing the Exarch as a fairy-tale-like "save the fair maiden from the grasp of the evil sorcerer and carry her back to the tower (not the way it usually goes, typically maidens are rescued from magic towers), where you then live happily-ever-after together" though
On fire with these commissions this weekend, this one for @azems-familiar based on a passage xe wrote containing the most sexual tension I've ever seen between two old men drinking tea. If EmetRaha is your cup of tea, you can click here to read the fic the passage is from. :3 Even if it's not your usual ship, they're a great writer and really get the characters.
[ Would you like to see pretty pictures with your blorbos? Click [here] for my commission post and [here] for my Ko-Fi. ]
(On our today's run The Most Honorable Emet-Selch of the Convocation of Fourteen decided that he has much more important things to do than dungeon mechanics... and ignored almost every stack-up marker)
First scene gets shot, plays it as a comedic gag, when he first meets the WoL he takes two seconds before revealing his secret identity, offers to help then when asked to help goes "mm no I don't think I will", dramatically gives a whole speech that leaves you feeling that you had a whole divorce with him you don't remember, uses the most powerful wizard spell of all time gun
Point #1: The first thing we learn about Emet-Selch, even before we learn that Solus zos Galvus is Emet-Selch, is that Solus loved theatre.
Point #2: Emet-Selch plays the villain with mannerisms so over-the-top you'd think he's about to burst into a disney villain-style song and dance number at almost any moment.
Point #3: He's self-aware enough to recognize that he is a villain in your story but a hero to his own people, and that whoever wins the battle will write history to declare the loser the villain.
Point #4: The Tempest, the zone where Amaurot is located, is named for the Shakespeare play of the same name, with other landmarks named after characters from the play. The BGM "Full Fathom Five" is also named for an iconic line.
Point #5: Amaurot feels so empty because it is, in essence, a set for a stage play. After the play is preformed it has no purpose.
Back to Point #1: Emet-Selch really loved theatre.
"And though he can carry himself with a certain glib ease, Emet-Selch is not a man to bear his burdens lightly. In fact, I can imagine they have only grown heavier with every passing century."