#when he also actively says that imperfect people should die and arent human

[chainedwarden]

Emet-Selch is a villain.

His intentions were not noble, they were selfish, fatalistic, and cruel. He believed his life had more value and worth than others. The people of Garlemald that he manipulated he bluntly considers pawns and tools, and says to the face of the Scions, that he does not consider the act of killing them to be profane, because he doesn’t believe we are human. The people of the planet are animals in his eyes, ones that he decides the fate of, and will happily kill without remorse. He doesn’t consider it murder to kill another being with sapience. He doesn’t care.

Even Varis, Emet’s own grandchild, has internalized the way Emet spoke, what he believed, Varis himself believed that everyone was flawed because we were all ‘missing something’ and that in itself is from Emet-Selch’s own genocidal belief that all the different races deserved to be destroyed. Garleans with a third eye are a flaw, miqo’te with tails and large ears are a flaw, Au-ra with scales and horns are a flaw -- he is so incredibly selfish and conceited that he has never once saw anything wrong with this. He never once thought why he considered certain features to be “better” or “worse” and it shows how cruel and calculating he is of people.

In the end, he begs for sympathy because he has lost, and begs people to carry on his memory. When he finally has to come to terms with who he is, and what he has done, he actively chooses to tell people that he was worthy of remembrance instead. Did the people he kill deserve remembrance? In his mind, I don’t think he cared. Only he mattered.

So I don’t write Emet as my ‘pathetic little meow meow’ I don’t write him as ‘my misunderstood little scrunkly’ or anything like that. Emet was a dictator. He’s an Imperialist. He’s cruel, he’s hurtful, he’s genocidal, he’s constantly speaking of conquest and hurting weak people. He knows full well the consequences of his actions, and the only time he shows anything similar to remorse is when he loses. 

So I write Emet-Selch as a villain.