Another high quality post from Crimsonrider, nicely done.
I agree 90% but here are the bits I'm skeptical about:
players couldn't for the life of them pick up on all the clues clearly hinting that Daisy ain't the tadpole nor the Absolute
While I think daisy became the emperor, in EA Daisy was the absolute speaking through the tadole. The absolute allows people to live in a fantasy world on their choosing while it dominates people. You saw this in EA with the thralls on the main deck. While a battle raged around them they thought they doing things like taking care of the farm. If Orin kills Zevlor and you speak to his corpse it's clear that he's living in a similar fantasy. The absolute restored his paladin powers and led his people to safety.
Daisy's promise was like the offer made to the protagonist of the film
The Devil's Advocate The devil wants our hero to agree to deal that would bring about the end of the world and the triumph of hell over heaven. But our hero wouldn't be care about the deaths, screams, gnashing of teeth ect. He'd be experiencing pure bliss that could take any form he liked. The thrill of winning a court case or the first smile from a skeptical juror. Whatever the bliss - conquest of the sword coast, seeing Cazador burning in the sun, the approval of Dark Justiciar Kethric Thorne - the Absolute could deliver if you joined her down by the river.
Or to put it differently, Daisy was offering power and a trip to experience machine:
Now to be fair your interpretation does a better job explaining one of the first illithid slates we encounter. It speaks of another rogue mindflayer disconnected from the others which would support a 2 mind flayers interpretation
As it stands it works as the emperor talking about Omelleum. But, again, the two mind flayers theory doesn't deal with the nature of Daisy's seductions. She and the absolute use the same seduction strategy.
2.
he's beyond such things because he sees the bigger picture when the fate of the whole existence is at stake, so who could blame him when he does truly end up saving the world and us multiple times.
That's certainly the way he presents himself to the party and the way he would want to be perceived. But that's at odds with his actions and, as the book says, we need to judge illithids by their actions not their words. The emperor cares about his life and his independence. Full stop.
The emperor only wants to save the world because he has to live in it. Unlike Omelleum he would be happy to see the world burn if burning it could guarantee life and liberty for him. We see this in his decision to join the absolute when Orpheus is released and we see this in his decision to control the brain and become the emperor who oversees the grand design.
Someone cared about the world before their own life - someone like Gale - wouldn't make such a decision.
