You can love a villain’s writing. You can empathize with them; understand their motivations. You can absolutely say, “I love this character’s plot” without condoning their beliefs.
The problem is, the character is being morphed by people into what it’s not.
The character is being stripped of their drive to be plushy and all of their sins are being wiped away so people don’t have to ‘feel bad’ for liking the character. You can love the character, but don’t make them into something they are not. Do not wipe away their existence, their personality, their character to fit your desires. Don’t make them into something they are not, because then it’s not the character you love.
An evil person, though handsome, charismatic, and motivated, is still evil. There are real historical figures who reflect this entire persona.
“The Dark Triad” is literally this character.
The narcissistic personality is characterized by a grandiose self-view, a sense of entitlement, lack of empathy, and egotism.
The Machiavellian personality is characterized by manipulation and exploitation of others, with a cynical disregard for morality and a focus on self-interest and deception.
The psychopathic personality is characterized by impulsive thrill-seeking, and in its “primary” form by selfishness, callousness, lack of personal affect, superficial charm, and remorselessness.
I love Emet-Selch, very much. A wonderfully written and expanded character and the best villain I feel Final Fantasy XIV has had to date. He had a reason for all he was doing, a desire to do what he felt was right, but it wronged everything in the world.
He was evil. I’m going to miss him, but fuck that guy.
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