It's funny how basically every reactor I'm watching and most of the people in their comment sections, all HATe essek now with the same logic:
Essek betrayed his best friend and got him killed, for no reason, just because he's an asshole. How dare he?
Completely ignoring how half of his lines in the show were "Well, I'm gonna report this and get you and/or your mom killed, but because I'm such a nice guy I'm giving you an extra day to feel normal before I rat you out."
Essek had the perfect oppertunity to get rid of this guy clearnly, by not saving him from the beacon attack. He saved his friend because he cared, and eve nafter doing so, that friend still chose the *faith* that Essek hates, that has only ever taken from him and his family, over Essek and his mother. When someone tells you over and over "hey I'm gonna get your mom killed, get you killed, but like it's the right thing to do" no, you getting him killed is not an unfoudned betrayal, it's choosing yourself over him. This guy literally had his life SAVED by Essek and still chose to get him killed, if anything this is Essek fixing his own mistake in saving him.
YES there's moral complexity here. The war in general is the reason so many people are in danger, Essek made mistakes, yada yada. But this show has only reinforced to me that Essek's choices make rational sense. As long as this Kryn system of ritual sacrifice and refusal to understand keeps going the more people are going to get hurt and it takes someone acting selfishly, someone looking to CHANGE this eternal cycle of pain, to make a difference. Let's not forget that this system literally keeps the upper caste of it's society immortal while punishing the lower caste, the Kryn Dynasty has just as many faults as the empire but unlike Dwendal, the brightqueen has been ruling it personally for what, thousands of years? Essek has a *point* that his people and their faith is upsetting and wrong and if they are going to insist on killin their own people with a smile on their face why are so many viewers upset Essek killed one more, who is trying to get Essek himself killed. Did they forget he was minutes away from getting him executed?
Choosing to save yourself at the cost of a freind's life is selfish, true. But the context the show gives us is that
A. This "friend" chose the death cult's ways over the life of Essek or him mother
B. This "friend" is about to get Essek killed, not because he has to, but because that's just what his duty calls him to do
C. This "freind" is also many lifetimes older than Essek and in the end seems not to actually care all that much about him on an individual level.