I'm really curious as to your thoughts on Johanna being Emmrich's ex wife. I agree there seems to be deeper feelings that than he lets on. I was personally thinking unrequited feelings at one point on Emmrich's side. But I see him being a little too cautious and afraid of attachment to have been married before.
Hey!! I think that's a pretty good interpretation of Emmrich. My perspective is similar, just executed a little differently. I see having her be his ex-wife as accomplishing a couple different things. First, honestly, and this is just me, but I think it would be kind of funny lol. Like this just insane twist: We have this man who is so disciplined, so whimsical and stoic, but... he's got this thing that he's hiding. He's not ashamed of it. He just doesn't want to deal with it, especially if he's romanced. Like, at one point, he sort of humbly dismisses Rook as they're talking about their pasts. I can't remember when it was. Maybe the dinner date? He is like, "Let's just leave the past alone." Something along those lines. Having an ex-wife like Johanna Hezenkoss would have created a bit of crazy human drama imho, which would foil nicely with Emmrich's sparkly, romantic, magical air.
Also, it feels a bit like a missed opportunity to establish some sort of richer backstory for his character. At ~50yo, he is older than the characters we are used to meeting. And unlike characters who are in their 20s or even their early 30s, he's had a TON of experience in the world, and beyond the most obvious stuff, we don't know much. An ex-wife fills in tons of blanks for me. Like, I picture these two young grad students. They are swept away! by passion for the work, and for each other! Etc. Etc. Etc. (Note that I fell in love with my husband in grad school so I'm biased lol.)
Further, in my opinion, and because I'm always looking for patterns in character motivation, vibing with Emmrich's former marriage to Johanna might help us better understand his attraction to Rook. In my romance with Emmrich, I noticed that he compliments Rook on her sense of adventure, how she is well-traveled and interesting, and how he finds this to be exciting. It draws him to her. He has spent his entire life in Nevarra, and I understand why he'd be drawn to this kind of wild innocence. I'm sure, too, that Johanna, who kind of reminds me of Ghilan'nain, once had a similar quality that he liked, ie: unpredictable, interesting, adventurous. But unlike Rook, she let ambition get the better of her, and this would have probably spooked Emmrich badly, who is very pure in his pursuit of necromancy. He sees it as this beautiful calling, a gift, not a way to gain power. This would have disturbed him, and she may have viewed him as "too soft."
I see it like, if he were divorced, and his ex turned into this kind of monstrous person, this would definitely explain his hesitance with Rook, at first, and then later, too, when he's contemplating his mortality. Not that he thinks the same thing would happen with Rook, or even that it has anything to do with who Rook is, but just because being in a longterm relationship that's failed, this might have closed off his heart a little bit, damaged his trust in others and in himself, and hurt his ability to think in the longterm about love.
Anyway, this is just my opinion. And people are definitely free to disregard it. Maybe it's because I'm almost 40 lol, but I personally was just a little surprised they didn't at least pretend to go there with a 50yo man who's that charming.
