Nightmare Mantis

I think the Emperor is just gonna eternally remain one of those characters that I find immensely fascinating and fucking frustrating in equal measure. Bro be like Emperor: "I really need you to trust me or we're all dead." Also Emperor: proceeds to spend half the game lying about what he is, withholds important information about himself after claiming to be completely open with you, is very obviously trying to seduce you to make you more pliant and is in general constantly acting sus as hell

Like, I get the Guardian thing at least, since people generally aren't going to be open to having a reasonable discussion with a mindflayer after they were just abducted and infected by them. But he definitely should reconsider this approach if your character is chill with Omeluum; whom I trusted with my life and had my whole heart within basically two seconds of meeting it because it doesn't bullshit around and is fucking adorable.

I had to make a conscious effort to keep trusting the Emperor despite him being a communist parade worth of red flags. I was genuinely surprised that he really won't stab in you the back so long as you don't press the Orpheus button; and that YOU need to be the one to convince him to pick the evil option should you give him the stones.

Even after playing around with the different endings I still feel no closer to fully understanding his motives and intentions. I can glean some things just from the general lore, like how he probably views you more like a beloved pet at best if you go all in on romancing him. But I'm not entirely convinced even the writers know what he really wants, lol.