Originally Posted by KillerRabbit


The Emperor wants to immediately dial the interaction up to 11 and then take Tav's reluctance to stab a defenseless person as full submission to their manipulations. I wanted to Tav to be able to say something to the effect of: "I see what you aren't fooling me" Otherwise this is the Guardian's scene, not Tav's.
This is unfortunately the case with basically every scene the Emperor is in. His main purpose as it pertains to the plot is to leech away player agency. Every scene he's in, he's the one in charge and you can only nod or shake your head (not that it matters). It becomes very noticeable in the Githyanki creché scene where you get to stab him only for the game to railroad you back to the desired outcome. It's even worse at the start of act 3 where siding against him literally results in a game over screen for you. Really? Why can't we leech off of Orpheus' power on our own? The game tries so hard to shove the Emperor down your throat that it just drops any pretense of allowing player choice in the scenes he is in. That would be fine if the game actually set him up as an atagonist you need to overcome but if you actually side against him in the end, he's just another trashmob mindflayer you kill in one turn and there's no real build up or payoff for doing so either. It's just horribly written.