I'm sorry it took me so long to log in to praise this post.
Really, really good work. I like that you've come up with a solution both for people who want to see The Emperor as an ally / romantic partner and those of who want to see him as villain and end boss.
Exceptional work, I hope the devs take notice. This never works but I'm going to try anyway: Hey @Salo please read this post
Thanks!
Despite writing up what basically feels like a massive criticism, I honestly liked this character concept and wished that we could have gotten a more fully realized version of them. The Emperor invoked a lot of tropes that I find interesting to explore, but unfortunately, it felt like the writers didn't have time to actually explore them (the Emperor is not alone in this during Act 3, and I sympathize with time constraints). Basically, I love explorations of the psychology of inhuman and formerly human characters and their struggles to relate to others and society. And I also love narratives dealing with "evil mentors" who offer some pragmatic assistance like providing protection and shelter, at the cost of emotional abuse and manipulative behavior. The Emperor had both of these, but in a very... weird blend. At times, you could seem to separate the potential paths based on your dialogue options, like getting to have some sympathetic conversations with the Emperor vs antagonizing them. But then at pivotal moments, the characters lands in some weird in-between space where they're trying to be both at once. Both of the times you're asked to choose whether to attack the Emperor feel this way -- I can't imagine either side of the audience being happy with the way the Emperor just kind of pleads with you to take his side. That's not the kind of villain I feel good about having overthrown; it feels more like a problem I failed to solve in a better way.
This is why I really, really wish that at the very least, the Emperor-Orpheus decision (and Netherbrain interactions) can get tweaked, because that's the payoff moment. Even if the game doesn't technically take our past interactions into account, as long as we don't deliberately poke the "other path's" options, we can still imagine that cohesive narrative in our own heads. Like, someone who's been hostile to the Emperor thus far can pick the option for a proper boss fight with him and just ignore that the option to appeal to trust is for some reason still around. But fleshing out both paths only to funnel us into the current endings would be utterly pointless; better to start by tweaking the finale and working backwards.
