The moment that inspired this question:

A long time ago I was playing an MMO called Voyage of the Century Online. A major part of the game was sailing around on a galleon ship and having naval battles in the 1600s.

The game basically allowed you to sail around all of the oceans of the 1600s world and explore. The game was populated with a lot of NPC ships that you could raid and pick up its cargo for loot.

One time, I was sailing around the western coast of Africa and I came across some slavers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I was like “oh, I’m gonna fuck these racist slavers up!”

I proceed to engage the slave ship in battle and win. As I approach the wreckage, I’m bummed out because there wasn’t any loot. Like every ship up until this point had at least some spare cannon balls or treasure, but this one had nothing.

… then it hit me. A slave ship’s cargo would be… people. I sunk this ship and the reason there wasn’t any loot was because I killed the cargo. I felt so bad.

I just sat there for a little while and felt guilty, but I always appreciated that the developers included that detail so I could be humbled in my own self-righteousness. Not all issues can be solved with force.

  • @Stovetop
    7•1 year ago

    Agreed.

    !I find myself in the “Emet-Selch” is unredeemable camp just due to all of the mini-apocalypses he causes in pursuit of his goal and all of the lives he took, but he is absolutely sympathetic and I understand his perspective.!<

    !He believes that mortals are not alive in the way that he is alive, and therefore killing mortals is a mercy. It means restoring their souls back to the true state of being in their utopian society. But I think he decided that he must believe that to be the case, otherwise it would mean accepting the horrible things he’s done, which would utterly break anyone who believes themselves to be good.!<

    !And I think that’s why he is in the state that he’s in. Part of him has, deep down, accepted the value in mortal lives, even though he denies it. He loved his family in Garlemald, at least to the extent that losing them caused him grief. His whole reason for helping the Warrior of Light in Shadowbringers was his last attempt to prove that mortals deserved to live after all, and his final confrontation was effectively suicide by WoL, because he could never accept that and continue living with the burden of that sin.!<