#what was worse valkorion called him the champion of fear

[eorzeashan]

KOTET CH 1: Wrath and Ruin

Eight: There can be no redemption for the fallen emperor of Zakuul, abandoned by his mother, poisoned by his father. You have failed him, Senya.

Senya: I haven't failed him yet.

Dogged assassin, who reads the lives of others to them as their final death sentence-- there was no choice more fitting though I was afraid of picking it out of sounding too cruel, as DS choices tend to be. I don't think he would've told Senya she failed. If there's one bright point out of all this, it's that he holds no grudges, no vengeance, and nothing personal towards her.

She picked a side, as he did. That has always been the nature of the wars he fought, where he killed as many allies as he did enemies by the smallest of choices. That's all it takes is a fork in the crossroad of ideals and decisions to find yourself on the opposite side of someone you once called a friend, callous as it sounds.

Eight: You fought for the Eternal Empire, the Alliance, for your family. Now you may die with honor, Senya Tirall.

The words alone don't do it enough justice, but his voice was so unbearably kind here. He meant every bit. To a warrior like him, this was the most he could do for her; the highest of honors he could give. He respected her to the end for choosing to fight for what she believed in even if it meant turning against all others.

I imagine Lana cutting in with how she's sorry she brought in a traitor, and Eight silencing her with a look. "Don't call her that. She never betrayed herself, not to her last breath."

This scene reminded me of the one on Ziost, where Theron wants to save Master Surro and Lana wants to dissect her brain. Eight chose to mercy kill her, because he saw how much she suffered; in the same way, he brought the kind of honor he could only think of as a fellow warrior. A kindness that is cruel, and a cruelty that is kind.

It's the middle ground neither Lana or Theron can understand.

Eight: For what it's worth, I regret firing on your ship. I blame it on the heat of battle.

He looks so sad here :(

He wouldn't have said this out loud, but he was thinking it, and he wouldn't have blamed it on the heat of battle either because it was a conscious choice. But...to be unable to even offer that vulnerability and take the full brunt of duty and decision out of respect for another's choice and yours even if it puts you at each other's throats... ah, it hurts. Unfeeling weapon, who never denies his enemies the honor of their ideals, always mere inches away from in another life, we could've fought by each other's side.

But that is what it means to be a betrayer.