one thing i want to say about emmrich and all his lichdom stuff
(nothing against people who like the lichdom path — what’s below is just my personal interpretation of the character and some subjective thoughts)
i saw a post here some time ago defending lichdom for emmrich. it said the main problem for most people who disagree with that idea is manfred — and the need to sacrifice him
i thought about it a lot back then, and you know… i personally don’t care that much about manfred. i mean, he’s sweet, i like him. but even if there were no way to bring him back at all, and the choice between lichdom and mortality weren’t tied to sacrifice, i still wouldn’t want emmrich to become a lich
because for me, it’s not really about manfred as a character. it’s about what emmrich’s attitude toward him says about emmrich himself
we know that undead servants are a normal thing for nevarrans — johanna’s reception made that clear. but emmrich doesn’t treat manfred like just another undead servant. he treats him like a son
and i think that’s the clearest sign of how lonely he is. he’s attached to this skeleton because he has no one else. but he still has that need, deep down, not to be alone. it’s something that’s been there since childhood
his parents are dead. long-term romantic relationships haven’t worked out. there’s no mention of any close friends in the game. and a lot of his lines, one way or another, point to the same thing: emmrich has always wanted a family
and the way he treats rook in the romance path makes it painfully obvious. you can see how much he longed for this, how happy he is to finally have someone who loves him and someone he can love. and it’s telling that you can only start a romance with him if, when he asks, “what would they [his parents] have wanted me to be?”, you choose the option “happy with someone who cares for you”
but the lich path? that’s the path of loneliness. eternal loneliness. everything dies, and you remain. always alone in the end
so to me, in his questline, manfred isn’t just a sad character to lose. he’s a symbol. he represents emmrich’s desperate need for warmth, love, family — someone who stays. and even if manfred always died and the choice played out differently, that wouldn’t change how i feel about it
because even though emmrich says becoming a lich is his dream, the game keeps showing the opposite. what he really dreams of is love. someone beside him. the family he lost too early. and lichdom feels less like a dream, and more like fear of death and despair of a man who’s fifty, who’s failed too many times, and who’s already lost hope that he’ll ever truly have those things
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