I’m sure other people have already said what I’m going to say here, but I still need to get it off my chest.

5.0 / Shadowbringers MSQ spoilers.

I’m really sad about Emet-Selch.

So much of the ShB storyline had recurring themes about how you (the WoL) are not alone, you don’t have to do everything yourself, and that it’s okay to ask for help and rely on others. It’s a very touching and important message and a very good reminder. (Personally, I have a hard time asking people for help, so Shadowbringers hit especially close to home.) The WoL has so many friends and other people who are so eager and willing to help them in any way possible. It’s very touching to see everyone come together to help save the First.

But then there’s Emet-Selch. My heart aches for him.

Unlike the WoL, he is utterly alone. He does not have the ever-growing support group that the WoL has; he has a lifeless recreation of his home city and shadows of the people who used to live there. It’s rendered in painstaking detail and beauty, and it’s clear how highly he regarded his city and its people. Just about every Amaurotine you interact with is intelligent and kind and interested in the greater good of their people. Emet-Selch’s loved ones, his friends, his colleagues – they’re all long gone, but he surrounds himself with their shadows so that he doesn’t have to feel alone.

I didn’t want to fight him. I desperately wanted the WoL to help him realize that he’s stuck in the past, that his loved ones are gone (I think Alphinaud said something to this effect), but also that he doesn’t have to be alone. I wanted so badly for the WoL to get through to Emet-Selch, and let him know that we understand the pain of his loss and loneliness – and that he doesn’t have to suffer alone.

I don’t know how to wrap this up. I just wanted there to be some kind of understanding between Emet-Selch and the mortal races, a tiny glimmer of hope for some kind of cooperation or a new beginning. Even though it didn’t happen that way, I’m still incredibly happy with the story as a whole and I can’t wait for it to continue.