** Shadowbringers and Endwalker Spoilers **
When Emet-Selch first saw the Warrior of Light in the First, he recognized them as his old friend Azem. But what was his game plan in Shadowbringers, and why was he confused when he saw Azem in the Tempest?
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This is a good video. I love discussions about Emet-Selch and Azem
I would say Azem of the first rather than the first Azem, could be understood wrong
I love watching you sped spuds over analyze this shit when squares writers basically pull this shit out of their asses and retcon their antagonists.
I loved this! Thanks for doing a deep-dive, I think I and many others needed it. I hope you will be making more on the Amaurotines because there's just so much to talk about there and a lot of what was inferred could easily have been mised.
I could never wrap my head around why Emet let all the Scions live, was surprised during their fight when he already knew WoL was Azem since the very beginning. Not too sure about the specifics but my interpretation of him having the WoL find him in Tempest, it was not only his last ditch effort to seeing if WoL will remember anything but also thinking it'd be fine if WoL kills him anyway? This was something his past self couldn't wrap his mind around.
I don't see their last battle as a battle of strength but a battle of wills. He shot Ryne but she was only incapacitated. Why? I still don't know but this video helped contextualise some ideas for me.
The one thing that was absolutely certain was they shared a close relationship, which makes his story all the more tragic.
Great Analysis! This video deserves more views! 😊
One of the best recommendation by YouTube
One little thing to add from "Tales from Shadows": The "soul-seeing" isn't actually a rare gift among the Ancients, all of them posses the ability to see a color of a soul, the only difference being the strength of their sight.
This explain why, for example, Themis for a moment mistakes WoL for Azem, seeing as both souls are technically the same and then corrects himself for making a mistake after seeing our appearance.
Thank you for your succinct summary and analysis. I recently finished 6.0 and have been scouring the Internet for others' reactions, analyses, and such. Well done.
After watching your vid I see Emet’s plea to remember in a new context. He isn’t just asking us to “remember us” (the ancients and their civilization.) that “us” also includes the WOL as the reincarnation of Azem. “Remember us” also means remember me (Emet) AND you (Azem) as we once were. “Remember us, remember that we once lived.” is not just a dying wish that the ancient civilization isn’t forgotten, but a message of hope that we will remember ourselves as Azem and our relationship with Emet-Selch.
I like your read on EW's ending… In the end Emet got what he truly desired. To be reunited with his two best friends and save the world again like old times. I've rewatched that scene many times and guess that kind of flew over my head.
I think you're right, especially about Emet-Selch being proven wrong in that moment, and him violently rejecting that proof.
When Emet-Selch saw the original Azem in that moment, he was shocked. One particular moment, however, pushes him to the point where he actively starts lashing out at us: G'raha summoning 7 other heroes from across the Rift to the Warrior's side… in a very distinctive configuration of very distinctive pillars of light. G'raha, using the Allagan technology of The Crystal Tower (and remember, Emet-Selch created the Allagan Empire) unknowingly recreated Azem's signature spell. No wonder Emet-Selch completely lost his composure. This is a sight that he had probably seen dozens of times, probably had been in one of those pillars of light, and now he is on the other end of it.
No wonder he doesn't want to believe his friend is turning on him like this. No wonder the music (Invincible) sounds like this is the first boss that is actually trying to kill us. No wonder he doesn't want to accept us as Azem, until the bitter end. He wants to put us down, because he's trying to prove to himself that the Warrior of Light is not Azem. He wants to fight the Warrior of Light, because he doesn't want to fight Azem.
You forgot to mention tht in the fight against Elidibus as the first warrior of light, Emet Selch showed his truw conviction
What makes the relationship between the Warrior of Light and Emet so unique is you could quite literally look at it from any perspective that the story allows you to choose from (friend, lover, brother?) and the story is still just as heartbreaking regardless. This is important because the entire story of Shadowbringers is about love (this is also loosely? supported by the fact that the bosses in the dungeons are all named after forms of love). The WoL "destroys" these versions of love through the story by killing the Lightwardens, which is in my opinion symbolism for love as a whole. There are no different versions of love. Love is love, and it's part of our humanity to remember that, and that's why I ultimately believe Shadowbringers resonated with so many people, and why Emet gained the cult-like following that he has.
Emet's entire story is about his love for the WoL.
So anyway yeah, Zenos definitely wants to coitus with the WoL so in some twisted fantasy, irony? I mean that final scene in Endwalker got my noodle rock solid like overcooked pasta at my local Olive Garden.
Great video! Side note: your WOL is gorgeous!!
I can't begin to tell you how much I felt for Emet-Selch (Hades). I actually cried when he died in Shadowbringers and wished there was another way.
Shadowbringer is the best of all the expansion.
The culmination of Shadowbringers and Endwalker is the third best story i have ever read/played in my life, I will remember it as long as i live, sooo good!
Replaying shadowbringers after endwalker really does hit harder. Great video, I'll always take a delve back into emet angst 😌
Emet literally says with their final battle, let the winner write the history. So honestly, his last words were more “please remember we were real” than, “I remember you old friend, please do the same “.
Great video
This is a very good analysis
Unfortunately most of the points here are speculative. I would like to believe a lot of them but unless Emet comes out and says something outwrite there is no way of really know what was truth
When I thnk that Azem was a beloved of Emet…..maybe not….but what if he/she was? Of course Emmet would see if what remained of he/she lover remained and invite what remained to Amautot in the hopes he/she would remember Emet. He was disappointed when he believed his friend/lover was gone.
A S P E C T R A T I O
I am so very grateful that someone else gets all of this. It was super obvious to me, but I haven't seen any other video really delving into Emet's motivations in Shadowbringers and how very heartbreatking it all actually was from that context.
When I first heard emet say to me “not that you would remember this,” suddenly everything fell into place
Courting favor with our endeavors, talking about the burden of truth, “with a soul such as that,” trying to lean us into the plight of the ascians despite everything they’ve done to us, etc.
Every step of the way he’s been trying to guide you, the WoL, back to their side and reclaim your memories as Azem
His last ditch effort (almost literally, seeing one of his closest friends’ reincarnations fail his expectations) when he sees you fall to the Light after defeating Innocence is to guide us to the tempest and pray above all else that something will stir
And finally, after reclaiming a piece of our soul after a pep talk from a shade of Hythlodaeus himself, emet sees his friend for a split second
And he knows the future can be carried on, and will be remembered
This was such a beautiful video. Emet is one of my all time favourite characters in any game I can think of due to how complex he is. Plus my headcannon is that he used to date my WOL so yeah I can't get enough of that sassy man
God i love emet
I cried so much playing through Shadowbringers because I understood all this ;_;
This was great, thank you 😀
This is great stuff, looking forward to more videos.
It's interesting to see how loss and grief are the primary motivators for all the Ascians, but with Emet-Selch in particular it was loneliness that fueled his conviction. We know from Endwalker that he took his duty to the Convocation very seriously, and in addition to not being able to protect his people, he lost the two people he was closest to. If we think of it in terms of how the Ancients viewed their life and their purpose in it, then it's easy to see why Hades could not let go; mirroring Venat's mindset, he was unable to simply abandon the people he had sworn to protect and whom he still felt depended on him. He had not accomplished his purpose in life and most likely felt he was neither ready for nor deserved a return to the star. Being alone made it easier for him to focus so completely on his duty, but it was also the thought of reuniting with his friends that kept him from abandoning that duty.
In Endwalker, he is watching the soul shards of a dear friend prove their worthiness to exist against all odds, and soon reunites with another friend as well. It's no wonder then that by the end, he is at peace. The souls sacrificed to Zodiark have been freed from Him, have returned to the star, and can now be reborn. His purpose has been accomplished and he is no longer alone. It's no wonder that he has no need nor desire to live in our world, since it's not his. He may have accepted his defeat in Shadowbringers, but he only truly found his peace in Endwalker.
You hypothesise that Emet took G'raha in order to save his friends – it's more likely he wanted the secrets of time-travel so that he and Elidibus could reverse what happened to the Thirteenth. As it is, they will never be able to get people back to being whole, because of their initial failure in creating that first rejoining and leaving the Thirteenth as a wasteland.
Great video and a recap.
Your WoL is beautiful
"Though you defeated me, my ideals are inviolate, invincible."
You are nearly dead on, in my opinion, as to how all this occurred. Did Emet recognize us from that moment in Lakeland? YES. He recognized the color of our soul and yes, he proceeded to test us. But the reason behind it, while definitely fueled by the [ plutonic, or possibly romantic ] love for Azem, was one worthy of his seat. He was tempered by Zodiark, yes, but if we take what the Lopporits said about summoning a concept back then with creation magic, one such as Zodiark would only give a "slight tug". It was his own ideals, ad fulfilling his duty to the Convocation that made him stop and think there could be another way. Because he's seen this before. Not just the Final Days, but the many journeys Azem made that he and Hythlodeus assisted them. When Azem comes across an issue, just as we do as the WoL, we see people struggle on one side or the other about an issue. But there can always be a third option. There is always another way. THAT is what swam in his head, stronger than that tug, the thought that after all that has happened, perhaps there IS another way, and if anyone could help the Ascians find that way, it was Azem. I don't think he was necessarily sore over Azem's defection….just bitter that the decisions they made led to, in his mind, Venat's betrayal of the Convocation that led to the summonning of Hydaelyn and the sundering of their star.
That all being said, I believe most of the time when Emet spoke, he seemed like he addressed the Scions, but watch alot of the scenes back and think for a moment….that he is addressing you and you alone. The others are lesser creatures. Your soul is far more dense than thiers. (Heck, even Lahabrea recognized this to a degree, but lacked the sight to understand it was this density and not the Traveller's Ward that made you so powerful compared to the others) He is not just testing you witht eh lightwardens' powers, he is testing your memory. He had Azem's memory crystal, and he was the one to restore sundered ascians to their seats. He was simply doing the same for you, because as well travelled as you are as the WoL, you not only seem to have the same color soul, you display the attributes that would have made the decision to raise someone such as you tot he Seat of Azem. So you are SPOT ON when you say discussions like the one at the Great Elevator was Emet-Selch talking to his friend. He completely ran the conversation as if he were there with Azem talking about all of this. It was another method he used to try and jog our memory.
"Remember. Remember us. Remember that we once lived."
He wasn't asking us to remember the Ancients, or Amoraut, or even the duty to rejoin the world. He was begging his friend to remmber themself….and him. It was his last attempt to raise you to the Seat of Azem. Because the moment you remember, you can not only use the magic within the memory crystal, but you will be raised to your seat.
We are not Azem because of who's soul we have or because of who we once were. We are Azem because of who we are and what we do. We can call ourselves Azem not because of the ancient who served and defected back then, but because we were able to prove to the remaining convocation members that we are worthy to occupy that seat and serve until we are ready to return to the planet.
"At Duty's End, we will meet again. We will…..we will." – Elidibus
"Though the world be sundered, and our souls set adrift, where you walk, my dearest friend, fate shall surely follow." -Emet-Selch
Sorry, I'm a bit passionate about the lore behind all this. But I also need to leave you with one correction to what was said in the video. THe Emet-Selch we meet in UT is the same Emet-Selch we fought. His memories returned, so though he looks and acts like his "old self", he is the same man with the burden of millennia of living as a mortal trying to rejoin the shards. We used the Summoning ability of Azem to rip their Aether, albeit briefly, from the lifestream intact, just as we did to Emet in SoS. (I also believe we not only inadvertently do this as part of the Duty Finder mechanic, but also in situations like pulling the eyes out of Estinien, calling forth the aether of Haurchefant and Ysayle from the lifestream for aid.)
Think about it.
Instantly subbed! Wonderful breakdown of this topic – as a new player who barely made it through the MSQ on time for EW (and was still "late" by a couple days), I really enjoyed this detailed refresher of the lore now that the MSQ is done (for now). Thank you! 🙂
I really appreciate that the exact nature of your relationship to Emet Selch is really up to you. Definitely gives those romance nerds something to latch onto XD
As a midlander player, I hate other midlanders.
I had to come back to this video, because it made me realize the core of Emet-Selch's character arc: The Lie the Character Tells Themselves.
The Lie, and how the character reacts to The Lie, is a narrative tool that is used to define a character's arc. This Lie is usually something that is holding the character back, and confronting that lie is a part of the character's story arc. When the character sees the truth, and lets go of their Lie in a moment of catharsis so they can move forward, that is the heroic rise. However, when they choose to double down, and embrace the Lie even tighter, that leads to the villainous fall.
Fordola is a great example of… well, both. She embraced her lie that "this was the only way to true freedom," and kept going further and further, deeper and deeper, and it ended with her friends dead by her hand, and herself in gaol, waiting for death. She then got the opportunity to move forward and help her country, and finally decided to let go of the Lie, and started on the long, hard road towards redemption.
This video essay made me finally understand Emet-Selch's Lie: "The Warrior of Light is not Azem." He originally wanted to be wrong, but finally gave in and embraced the lie, making the wrong choice. And when confronted with the truth, that they were a worthy succsessor to Azem… he couldn't give up that Lie, because it would mean giving up on Hythlodaeus, and everyone else sacrificed to Zodiark. He doubled down. And that caused his downfall. It is only at the end, when he gives his old friend that sad little smile, when it's too late, that he finally accepts the truth.
I wish I could give this essay more than one like. It's inspired me to write two massive comments on it.
Biggest take away here is that somehow, Endwalker made the story in Shadowbringers even better in retrospect.
Aaaaaaaa. Watching the cutscenes with context, the micro facial expressions kill me
Hi I just want to say please keep making these!!!