The Unbearable Burden of Emet-Selch 

I know I said it at the end of the video, but I want to say again thank you all for watching this video. The reception to this has been great, and I'm thankful for it as I did worry while working on this that people wouldn't like it. That being said I plan on doing more videos like this going forward so be on the look out. Also I did end up making the follow-up video that was mentioned at the end. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OEjeHUMIfrE.html

Emet-Selch probably surprised most of us. Up until his introduction (and even his introduction itself to some degree) Ascians were basically Saturday Morning Cartoon Villains. The "haha I'm evil" kind of villain. Emet kinda started off like that too, but even during his introduction he already had this "sass" that set himself apart from the other Ascians. And the rest is history. He basically humanized the Ascians and actually made me take them way more serious. I'd say Emet-Selch single-handedly saved the whole Ascian storyline.

Emet-Selch's image went from ''ha ha ha I'm part of the guys who are evil'' to ''So uhm I basically wrote these things you should atleast do would you be my friend's successor'' and even sets up 6.1 and 7.0 and a whole alliance raid

"I would NEVER abandon my duty" and that was the truth, to the very end, he did his duty to the best of his ability as he saw fit to do it

So, one additional thing I'd like to add, although it's minor, is Ardbert in Shadowbringers. They spend the majority of that expansion in a state not too dissimilar to the WOL in Elpis, and Emet and Hythlo could both see the WOL. This could suggest that Emet became aware of Ardbert pretty quickly. Then, when you compare the methods that a rejoining use and the circumstances of Ardbert rejoining the WOLs soul, there's a surprising amount of overlap. I think Emet left the scions to do their plan partially because it had a good chance of rejoining a piece of Azem's soul, and even if he wanted to win, he wanted to help his friend even more.

This was the best summary of Emet's actions and feelings I've ever seen. The only thing I felt left out is just a personal interpretation of Emet, so I wouldn't fault you for it. I think there was some deep, deep love (Whether romantic or Platonic) for Azem in particular. You should've highlighted his closing monologue; I feel that most people roll their eyes and go "Oh yes, Squaresoft, you're telling us about expansions" but they miss the context of that last scene; Emet spent ten thousand years trying to return his loved ones, his brethren to himself... all of his talk in quiet moments during Shadowbringers was him trying to appeal to AZEM within us, highlighted by how he often referred to it as "Our people" or "You wouldn't remember that... would you?" During shadowbringers he desperately, desperately wanted to see a hint of the person he loved more than anything. He wanted us to prove him and the convocation wrong, scrambling in his efforts to try and cling to hope for the past he loved. And... in the end. In Elpis... he reminds us that we can bring our loved ones back. Something he could never do... but that's not it. What is the defining moment is that he sees the pain on our face, the discontentment with that he is leaving us after everything... and he sighs, realizing that whether in this life or another, Azem will always be Azem. So he gives the person he loved more than anything the thing they loved more than anyone... He gives us adventure.

One of my friends hated him and the fact that they're trying to make you feel for him. I'm like DAMMIT I'LL TOSS THAT HEART OF YOURS IN THE MICROWAVE AND TURN ON DEFROST, JUST YOU WAIT XD

Emet Selch is by far the best “bad guy” in the entire Final Fantasy series… and he is my friend

Shadowbringers was easily one if if not the single best stories ive ever experienced, with Emet-Selch being such a defining factor of that story, its no wonder hes one of my favorite FF characters! yet alone ffxiv. Thanks for the vid, genuinely love his story and watching a reminder just before the new expac seems like great timing haha. Also, something i didnt notice till the end of the vid, but the white in emets hair is very likely symbolic! instead of growing white as he aged, it grew brown as he became more of a villain, in a sense... the lone streak we see on him in ShB is likely the last bit of his hopes of bringing back his fellow ancients or he last bit of hope for the current peoples of the source to inherit the star. Regardless, just makes me love him even more.

I'd love to see one on Elidibus and Lahabrea too. Their stories are not as in depth and are somewhat intertwined thanks to Pandemonium. But it would be interesting to hear. Loved how you brought in the backstory stuff not in game and from the posted stories. The conversation with Elidibus and his life as Solus are stuff some who only play the game don't get to hear.

That was absolutely beautifully done. Emet-Selch has become my absolute favourite character of all time, including all of the Ancient Lore it’s my most beloved content in the game. I watched a lot of these vids about Hades and this one gave me quite a few small but significant thoughts I will add to my Ancient journal while rewatching. Lots of love to you and to my fav grumpy husbando❤

Really well-done video-the script, narration, everything. That followup vidro sounds great

Well done!! Might have teared up a time or two while watching this lol. I loved how you incorporated some of the short stories! I knew in the game he mentioned that he had sired children, but had no idea about Lucius& just how much his death affected him.

Fantastic video, i learned some new things from this even if i have beaten the game all the way to 6.4 from the start of ARR, all the info in this video was intresting since i did not even remember that emmet have had a child during his garlemald days and amaurot speech hit now even harder when i had beaten endwalker and knew what was at stake and the world would be consumed by the finals days and everything would have been for nothing had the warrior of light failed. I cant really give any help on future videos since this had all that i wanted 😂

I would LOVE to hear the parallels! Please do one! Subbed!

Fantastic video! Absolutely I would be beyond interested to see a video on the parallels and inspirations of Hades!

13:42 A slight error, though it's kinda subtle, upon a complete rejoining of Etheirys, there would be two people, the rejoined, and the new life. The rejoined would be as they once were, ancients, though likely without their memories of who they once were. The new life are those who managed to survive the rejoinings and do not have a reflection, as they are not themselves sundered. They are fresh souls, born of the new state of etheirys. The new life are who would be sacrificed to bring back the ancients that Zodiark had inside of him.

Great video! I recently returned to the game and this was a great refresher on some of the relevant plot points before i continue EW from where i had left off. Thanks for this!

I have to think for hard about who some of the villains are throughout the game with only 1 exception. Emet's story is now what FF14 is all about for me. The early expansions and villains there to subvert expectations towards the depth of Ascian characters. Then in Shadowbringer the curtain being pulled back to reveal an amazingly deep and complex character. Endwalker giving us some closure by showing us the character's early days and sending us off with a reunion and passing of the reins from out enemy turned friend. The early expansions were fun to play through but the story never really made me care like it did when Emet was revealed. One of my favorite characters in fiction right now.

This was a lovely video, I’d love the followup you mentioned

Emet-Selch is my favorite character in the entire FF franchise.😊

There is a bit more info you might have missed out on, There is an ENTIRE Emet Side story in the Neir mobile game that is CANNON LORE that show a bit of what he was thinking in more detail

Hades being one of my favorite characters, I loved this video

brother i didnt find it entertaining, i found it absoutely heartwrenching and now i'm sat sobbing at my desk on a friday night (this was incredible work thank you)

An Amazing video!

Amazing video, hope you get more attention to your channel

Emet Selch is one of the best written characters in FF in general. If he was a full villain he definitely would be up with the greats like Kefka.

I think you sort of exasperate the side of Emet that actually has a modicum of care for the reflections. From the beginning, especially due to his nature as an ancient, has respect for the nature of their sacrifices, sure he cares about Azem in spite of him defecting from the convocation cause they're likely the person he cares for the most period, and of course he's saddened by the fact he had to lose Hyth to the sacrifices, but also it's not like he blames the convocation for that over the actual calamity and if he did there's no record of it. He simply made the Azem Soul Crystal cause he deeply cares about Azem and didn't want his legacy to be lost over the millennia's it would take to execute their plan. He also in Elpis states that he would hold those who sacrificed themselves to Zodiark in the highest esteem, that he would never forsake them, and sure obviously the complexion of this changes over time, that is the nature of Emet's character but the change isn't caused by the final days, rather it's cause by his unbearable burden. He didn't start off by carrying Azem's ideals by trying to learn about the world and it's people and interacting with it's heart like Azem and Venat did, he was disgusted by the state of their world and the lost people who had put all his hopes in him, the NieR x Reincarnation event explains as much "Such an outcome is unbearable. The man throws himself into restoring his star, his people...his paradise." You also mention that the birth of his son marked a time where Emet was actively proud and had faith in the new generation, but also you miss the nuance that he also loathed the fact that the Garleans would praise his body since it was not even nearly comparable to the greatness of the ancient people: "As the boy grew, his physique was held in awe and admiration by all, though to him it was a source of great vexation." This hope he puts in his son also is not like a big shift from him lessening his Azem-y ideals (which he doesn't really ever have, it's only by convenience that his role would lead him to discover so much about the other reflections), it's as it's a put "a momentary lapse". You also seem to assume that Solus was the first time that Emet has ever put himself in a human body, and while we don't have official confirmation of any other time he's done it, in his speech he says explicitly "I have lived a thousand thousand of your lives, I have broken bread with you, fought with you, grown ill, grown old,! Sired children and yes, welcomed death's sweet embrace." which seems to imply that he's done that kind of thing with Solus many times over and over, obviously we don't know if we can take his words as they are, but I don't think he has much reason to lie in that scene, he does truly believe everything he says, they are the ideals he claims to be "invincible". This lapse though seems to be the first time Emet has begun to start to crack under the pressure, though it's possible it's happened before, but it's not as if he was always this way, he had always believed this from the beginning and our ways as people only served to exasperate and prove his ideals correct. Also you say Emet's actions in ShB are not "letting himself fall into that trap" in reference to him putting hope in the new generation, but his entire plan in ShB is exactly to do that. Knowing that the WoL is a remnant of Azem he wanted to gauge their worth and to see if they could really live up to his old best friends will and if so, he'd feel content letting the WoL carry his legacy. Of course we don't live up to that and we "disappoint him", but his plan in approaching us is to gauge this ability. But of course his selfish desires to rest and let his plan go are to strong, and so he begins to give us a ton of tries to prove ourselves, but he's so conflicted and locked by his desires and his ideals that he can't bring himself to accept that half-truths, half-measures that his weary body has begun to begrudgingly accept, and so he goes out kicking and screaming, yelling at every turn, unable to truly accept what he has and wants to do. This confliction is even mentioned by Emet in Elpis when he says that "I even invited you there, invited my own downfall", and there's a line said by the Wandering Minstrel when unlocking Hades EX which goes "I must say, I find it quite fascinating how this Emet-Selch chose to reveal his true name on the verge of the battle that would prove to be his downfall. I am reminded that the Night's Blessed have a similar tradition, in which they conceal their true names outside of rare occasions, such a funerals..." indicating Emet's hidden desire in his final moments to literally put himself to rest and die. I think the video is great btw and gives a cool summary rundown of the complexities and some hidden emotional sentiments of Emet-Selch that you might otherwise miss if you're so focused on the surface level content of his character. My own personal interpretations just happen to differ and stray a lot to yours when it comes down to the nuances and hard truths of his character. Tbh I don't think you're able to place such strong marks on why he did specific things without generating at least like 4 different reasons, no specific areas where his mentality shifts to clear answers. He is a walking contradiction, a paradox, and I wouldn't want him any other way. (if you want any clarifications or want to counter anything I've said please lmk, I'm always down to discuss the greatest character ever made).

I dunno if Hades realised, at least consciously, that the WoL is Azem. Otherwise he wouldn't have been so shocked at seeing Azem in their place for a second before you fight him.

Very good video my friend I think you did everything right good work!

pacing was good, you didn't repeat stuff unnecessarily. Great video!

One of my favorite villains in all of Final Fantasy, if not all of gaming.

re: the followup video, yes please :)

I wonder, with his indominable will, whether in that final moment when we are swallowed up by his darkness but pull through; was it truly us who managed to overpower his burden, or did he falter one more time because he came to see Azem in us and did not wish to kill his friend, instead choosing to believe that they, WE, have the "Answer" to this tragedy.

A notable chunk of the flood of light info is wrong. Minfilia prevented the First from being fully lost to light. Being fully lost to light would have left the First useless for a rejoining. Emet only started (restarted?) plans for the black rose calamity after the flood was stopped. Minfilia's actions ultimately put the First back on the table for the Ascians. He didn't need the Warrior of Light to defeat the Lightwardens for the calamity to take place (in the original timeline, he was never there). He just needed the First to keep that light-aspect (without tipping all the way) when the Eight Umbral Calamity went off. In this new timeline, when the WoL starts taking in the light (tipping the scales back to darkness) Emet needed to either stop him, or let him turn into a sin eater to restore the light aspect into the First. He decided on the latter (supposedly as a test for the WoL).

RIDIIINGG HOOOMEEEEE

Where did you learn about the stuff that we didn’t see in game or wasnt talked about in game?

I kinda miss the part of what he did during his time in the Aetherial Sea. though i kinda understand that being left out as he was talking to the player, not the WoL. when describing the places where the WoL went to next. though considering there are many reasons you can call the WoL Crazy maybe you could say he was talking to the WoL when introducing the EW areas.

I do not believe that Emet set up all of this to test the WoD/WoL like you and many are claiming. He kidnapped the Exarch partially because he created the Allagan Empire and didn't understand how the Exarch was able to control it. He didn't realize the people he created could have created such a thing or capable of such "magic" and wanted to study or question the Exarch. He doesn't know the entire team would show up and assumes only the WoL/WoD would confront him. Many like to push it aside, but Venat knew him very well. People like to view him as some misunderstood hero, but he killed millions of people either as the creator of Allagans or the Empire. And no amount of "time served" makes that acceptable to me.

think you did a boss job tbh, i wouldnt change much if anything.

This was really good but you left out that Ardbert and WoL merged souls during the final conflict with Emet at the end of the world. Its that reason the WoL didnt subcome to the lights burden/toxicity in that instance and why for the brief minute he saw Azem because a part of our fragmented soul rejoined us. Its kinda a big detail in Emet's story as he is the only one who saw it and recognized it.

DADDY DADDY *moans and runs after him*

why do you say that the creation of zodiark required "aether and life energy" as if these were two separate things? the ancients used their lives as fuel, becoming the aether required to summon zodiark.

I LIKED Emet-Selch, but I have to say the MOST BELOVED character would have to be G'RAHA TIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rolling my eyes that yet another male-dominated narrative is obsessed with male progeny and the woman that loved him and went through all of the agony of labor and childbirth is discarded in the narrative and not even named and not even important and everyone is celebrating this man for having basic empathy towards another male child as if that isn't like the entire problem. And everybody who's going to comment on this thread I'm not going to see it but I know that I've triggered a bunch of guys by just pointing this out because it's in every narrative The woman dies in childbirth or the mother's not important It's always the father and the child we have so many narratives about fathers and childs and the woman is just not there. No wonder there's men on TikTok right now saying that biology is basically what the kings of England in the dark ages believed.

I personally don't understand the sympathy towards Emet-Selch. He and Lahabrea commited genocide multiple times just because they thought their ancient civilization deserved to live more than the sundered lives. Shadowbringers had excellent writings for the Scions and especially the Crystal Exarch and Ardbert but the villains (Vauthry, Ranjit and Emet-Selch) are lacking. The overall story arc was also very simple until after the second trial. Kill this boss, restore darkness to this region, repeat 5 times. I did enjoy Ardbert and his friends' story. Excellent writing but overall, it falls below Heavensward and Endwalker and about the same as Stormblood. I'm not invalidating everyone's own experience and feelings, just saying mine. Peace 🙂

I don't know how FF14 could ever beat Emet for a villain. He's fantastic