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WHY EMILE DRAGALIA LOST IS AN INTERESTING CHARACTER AND VILLAIN, A THREAD BY SOMEONE WHO NEEDS TO STOP PICKING UP ASSHOLES AS RP MUSES AND THEN GETTING OVERLY ATTACHED TO IRREDEEMABLE BASTARDS;
ok so Emile as we know him is prideful, arrogant, self serving, a coward, and basically just a Liddol Bastarde all around like he fits so many basic cartoon villain tropes in the way he acts. BUT. Dragalia sure does like giving us lots of to think about and they def do that w/
Emile! to start, one of the things I find most interesting about him is that he serves as Euden's polar opposite. they both struggled to match the standards their older siblings had set, but where Euden used his struggles as motivation to get stronger, Emile let his jealousy turn
into hatred, spite and anger instead. he developed an incredibly severe inferiority complex. and to make matters worse, as of the events of the game, now even his younger brother, the one person he considered himself truly better than, is growing stronger than him. we can see how
this affects him in much of the game's dialogue. he's so desperate to be stronger than someone, and Euden, the person he SHOULD be stronger than, takes his strength from him when he convinces Mercury to his side. It's a devastating blow to his self esteem
we see this take full effect when he fights Euden over the right to form a pact with Jupiter, when he practically snaps and reveals all of his inner anxieties and fears. the pressure of being as great as his siblings has created a monster that cares only about taking down those
he believes are the causes of his suffering; Euden and his friends. In his own words, he was finally smarter than someone, stronger, better, and yet somehow still, Euden overcame him. And this clearly is devastating to Emile.
And of course none of this excuses his actions. Euden calls him out on the fact that pursuing this grudge isn't going to bring him satisfaction, but by this point it's too late. Emile is too wrapped up in his pride and anger to accept his brother's help.
and it's this sad empathy you feel for him that i think makes him such a great villain. you can SEE exactly what lead him to become like this. being one of the youngest of many siblings, expected to be as good as them, all of the pressure to be better, it warped him. and it's
just sad to watch. his actions aren't excusable, but you have to wonder, where was the support he needed growing up? no one turns out this way all on their own. WHICH LEADS ME TO SOME THEORY CRAFTING
so there's a few theories about how Emile came to be so twisted. perhaps he was neglected of the care he needed growing up and had no one to fall back on. Euden had his twin Zethia supporting him, and perhaps had Emile had someone like that behind him, he too would have been more
motivated to succeed.
...
but what if it's something more?
...
but what if it's something more?
There's a line Euden says after fighting Emile in which he states that Emile has "known more suffering" than any of them. This could just be referring to the pressure Emile faced growing up, but so far cygames has really liked giving us seemingly unimportant lines that turn out
to be very important later on. what if we took this line seriously? what if something DID happen to Emile? something that twisted him in the same way Leonidas was twisted by his mother's death? I think, I HOPE, we'll get an answer to this soon.
a personal favorite theory of mine is that Emile was close to the fifth heir. this makes sense timeline wise, as they would have been close in age. we'll know soon enough the fifth heir's identity, so I'm very much looking forward to knowing if this idea holds any merit.
regardless, I hope in the future we do get another Emile centric chapter giving us more insight on his motivations and his wants
anyway that's my thread about Emile Dragalia there's more i could ramble on about so hmu if you ever wanna theory craft or yell about this game's lore
anyway that's my thread about Emile Dragalia there's more i could ramble on about so hmu if you ever wanna theory craft or yell about this game's lore
