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So, a thread on why I like Egil so much and why I think he is genuinely an interesting character.
1) Egil is a foil and parallel to Shulk, and I find Shulk to be genuinely interesting as well. They are both young men who are attacked but what seems to be an unstoppable and undefeatable force, both lose their people and their best friends (Arglas and Fiora), and both--
--are willing to destroy whatever and whoever it takes to stop it. The difference comes in the fact Shulk had support from friends and was able to regain Fiora -- Egil's people turn their back on him and he never gets Arglas back in his life. He is what Shulk could have become.
2) The Machina and the way they speak about him paints quite the picture of who he was before things went so wrong. He is called a kind man, his friendship with Arglas was well noted, and the villagers note his pain. It is made clear he became as he did because of his--
--love of his people and the fear of Zanza coming back to finish his genocide against his people. Egil is a man who feels too much and it is what leads him down such a dark and horrible path. It's also worth noting that Fiora says the villagers and Meyneth all loved him.
3) Egil and his statement about the screams of his brethren make it clear he has PTSD and likely also suffers from auditory hallucinations. This man is not well and he's lashing out because of it. That doesn't make what he does alright in the slightest, of course, but--
--he is very much a victim of genocide and is still struggling with what has happened. He is throwing himself at whatever he believes will bring peace and silence those voices he hears.
4) Egil is the only one who knows the name Arglas -- this is small but I think it's telling that he knows him and saw the downward spiral into being Zanza. It plays into why he so fully rejects Shulk and his friends and all they say. Arglas fell to the curse. His refusal to--
--listen until Mechonis Core, until Shulk denies what Zanza compells him to do makes a lot of sense keeping that in mind. At Agniratha, as far as he knew, Shulk was to fall victim just as Arglas had. It was not until he saw Shulk directly break the cycle that he could trust him.
5) His relationship with Vanea. She is the only one to stand by him, though she tries to convince him to stop. I believe this relationship is just as important to Egil as it is to Vanea, even if not shown, due to an NPC saying they used to be inseperable. This is why--
--I believe his reaction to Vanea siding with Shulk and co resulted in such a harsh. The one person inseparable from him seeming to turn on him leads him to reject her wholly and fully to save himself any pain.
6) The way he puts his trust in Shulk specifically is honestly very powerful to me. He is willing to die because he knows there is hope in Shulk -- he is willing to do what it takes to ensure Shulk can make it out alive. This was the first person he could truly trust and--
--feel understood by in years ("We share the same pain" as Shulk would say), and it shows in how he really does believe in him and his friends.
7) Subtle body language with Egil can be amazing. Look at the scene in Agniratha, when he says Meyneth has betrayed all who worshipped her. Look at the way his hand shakes. Why his voice does not always make it clear, his body language shows how badly affected he still is by--
--many things. He is in pain, a victim as much as he is a perpetrator of the cycle he is stuck in.
8) Speaking of that cycle -- that is the point of Egil's character. Fear gives rise to more fear. Egil's fear and his dealing with it led to fear in the Homs and hate in the Homs at is led to hate in him. It led to Shulk and Reyn deciding to wipe out the Mechon. He was--
--stuck in a cycle he could not break. That's why it's powerful that Shulk *does* break the cycle at Mechonis Core. That he listens to Fiora's pleads and Alvis's words of finding his own Monado. It's why peace can be found in the end.
9) The fact the party is always somewhat torn on him is telling. Reyn for example is ready to fight him, Shulk is torn until the last moment on if he will kill him or not, and Fiora is clearly wanting to reason with him thanks to Meyneth. They all have different feelings--
--towards him and I find that fascinating to look at.
10) The way he and Miqol both represent the ways fear robs us of reason. Egil lashes out, hurts people, while Miqol hides away and tries to stay out of everything. Neither think to fully reach out to any life on Bionis, and really, how could they? Bionis life was--
--integral in trying to kill then and Homs lifespans are far from long enough to really understand or believe anything the Machina say. Would you believe it if strange people said your home attacked theirs?
TL;DR: Egil is the perfect cocktail of tragic antagonist, overthinking material, parallels to others, and hidden characterization in NPC dialogue which are all things I go ham over.
(also he's hot but that's like 10% of why I like him)
(also he's hot but that's like 10% of why I like him)
