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So truly players do not at all understand the layers behind his character.

:p Same advice I just gave to JandK. We understand, we just don't agree. We understand that you are R0ng wink R0NG!

This bit of ire is not directed at you but at the current state of this conversation among RPG fans:

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His racist stuck-living-in-the-past friend tried to murder him!


I hate it, hate it, hate it when people use 'racist' in this manner. I honestly believe it does damage to anti racist efforts. There are some words that one can throw around casually and there are some words that should be treated with both care and rigor. When racism can mean anything it means nothing and we cannot allow that word to lose its meaning.

I saw the smiley and I know you were just playing around smile

His lover tried to save his soul before the worm completely ate it. He still loved Balduran when he had slimy skin and tentacles but when the worm killed Balduran and The Emperor was born. Tragically, Ansur was forced to kill the pod person who had replaced his friend and lover. The Emperor had mentally transfomed into an inherently evil being that needed to feed on humans, had an innate desire to create thralls, thought itself superior to all other beings and had a desire to dominate: to create an empire.

Ansur isn't talking about external appearance he's talking about a personality change, a withering of the soul. Ansur tried to kill the spawn symbiote, not spider man.

[Linked Image from ]


One of the lines I really hate in the emperor conversations is "your presence disgusts me" because it's just a set up for his next line about humans disgusted by his outer membrane. It constructs Tav as a "racist". But the slime is not what disgusts my Tav. The Emperor is admiring his domination and torture of helpless prisoner and Tav feels moral revulsion. I didn't sit next to torturer spike, admire his handiwork and get to know him better so why am I doing that with this evil monster?

Why am I rendered mute when talking to someone just described the subjugation of a living being as "beautiful" ?

I'd prefer to have that line deleted but if it says in I want Tav to have a good reply. "don't gaslight, ghaik! you know I'm revolted by your actions, not your appearance. This might be a necessarily evil but it is evil and so are you"

The Emperor, unlike Omelleum, has taken on the core mind flayer personality. The retention of his memories only give flavor to his fundamental illithid desires: dominate, deceive, enthrall, propagate. Yes he erased the memory of that one steward but his domination of Stelmane reduced her to a husk that needed to walk with a cane and wasn't able to disobey her master.

Somehow Omelleum avoided all those traits despite losing his memories.

Yes, Astarian is evil. I rarely travel with him and end up killing him more often than not. I appreciate that the game gave me that choice and I wish I had a similar choices with the emperor.

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People keep using "SURVIVAL" against him, yet it's this same reason that also saves the world because when he has the Netherbrain in its clutches, he does not want to do it precisely because he wants to live.

Yes I use that to make the case that he's evil but I more importantly I use it to make the case that he's not anti hero. Shar isn't an anti hero but she will aid us the fight against the brain if we turn Shadowheart over to her. He's a bit like Melisandre from Game of Thrones. She doesn't want to save the world, she wants to see it burn, but that puts her at odds with the others who want to make the world flame retardant.

So while it is an enemy of my enemy situation it's not a true anti hero story IMO.