#but the way you're expressing it is kind of taking random potshots at the small Emp fandom that's all I'm trying to say have a good night

[enchantrum]

I'm sorry I'm legitimately not trying to debate lore because I think that's pointless. I just keep seeing remarks you attach to your comments that are basically "I wish everyone thought like me", like your accusation that other fans are woobifying him.

I don't know what fans you're talking about or what takes you're talking about because you attach it vaguely. either way you come across as resentful of other fans and not like you'd be receptive to what anyone has to say, so no one wants to directly engage you.

literally just stop implying the rest of us are dumb lol. anything I've said beyond this one message is me being incoherent.

genuinely don't care otherwise and don't feel compelled to share my thoughts with you specifically. you can search Emperor on my blog for an idea of my perspective on his character but idk how many of my serious posts I've bothered to keep up.

Having to work with the Emperor is morally gray, but the Emperor himself is not morally gray. You cannot be a "master manipulator" and be morally gray. I wouldn't pity him, personally.

The Emperor enjoyed being a shadow mastermind within Baldur's Gate. He misses his relationship with Stelmane because she was a perfect puppet. His emotions don't quite work like ours and he is clearly fond of her. But it is fondness like the fondness for developing a good strategy for playing the stock market. She became the perfect tool. Everything was perfect. All things went according to plan. What more could you want from an "effective" partnership?

The game is very clear with its allegories and parallels. If the only way I can survive my circumstance is by killing or preying on the blood or brains of others, I am not absolved for becoming the creature I've become.

When you get good at it, you have to resist the urge to devolve into a beast. Ascension is intended to describe that perfectly in game. Vampirism, The Dark Urge, Gortash's rise to power, and especially needing to become a corrupted monster to hold absolute power describes this perfectly.

Too many fans see the above and look at the Emperor as "Poor baby, it's a shame it has to play mindgames and eat brains to survive. 🥺" When really we need to view the Emperor just like we view the Dark Urge, Gortash, or mindflayer!Tav in the epilogue. We can ally with him for as long as it is useful to us, but never forget that you are playing a dangerous game.

The Emperor is very good at what it does. Do not misread betraying him in one of the endings as proof that he only turns on you if you give him reason to. That's not the point.

The point is that you can't.

You don't have the power to betray him. Just because it chooses not to wholly mind-dominate you when it could at any point in time, does not mean you can trust it. If you have no leverage over him, he will always have power over you. You cannot trust someone who needs you to do something and has power to make you do it or manipulate circumstances to ensure you have no other choice. Especially don't trust them if they pretend you have a choice when you don't.

There is no point in the game where the Emperor doesn't need something from you. Every show of "you can trust me" is part of its manipulations. Again, you can both use each other as allies for freedom, perhaps even power, but to trust it would be as foolish as trusting any other villain in the game. Always question others' motives and the part you play in it.