To the person who decided that killing a pet in the story was a good idea, [Removed by Support]

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_Daybit_ wrote:

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raics wrote:

So, my beef with this choice is that the imagery they used invokes more feelings in us than your average joe in the world of PoE, and for entirely different reasons.

Yes, you're right. But that specific symbolism is so infamous in the real history, so using of resembling symbolism in fictional setting is an equivalent of saying "those characters are 100% evil". For us, the reader, not for the characters inside of the story.

The locations like Slave Pens or Control Chamber in Act 5 just amplifies that feeling, setting the Templars as complete monsters.

And the problem is that hard to see Victario or Geoffri coming from the place like that. Why would Victario have any problems with Malachai's experimentations if Templars themselves did the same if not worse (at least, the Gemlings were consent with experimentations, IIRC)?

It could be explained by the Dominus' corruption, the Templars become like that under Dominus, because he need test subjects for his search of godhood, and he just used the ideas of purity to achieve his own goal. However, as we see, Innocence (God) had no problems with current state of Oriath, instead of being displeased of Dominus and his methods, so it implies that the Templars were always like that.

It feels like Act1-4 and Act5-10 are just different disconnected stories.

I assume that the public face Malachai was putting on his work was much prettier than what was going in in his lab, might even have a pretty public lab and also 'site B' like in Jurassic Park.

Victario probably found out the truth and took an issue with the means to the end and Voll objected to the whole thing from the start for ideological reasons. I imagine that there was a lot of internal strife and political maneuvering within the templars, as much as they seemed like a unified front, and not even the rank and file always agreed with those in charge. Some defected, like Petarus, or just kept their head down and tried to keep their hands as clean as possible, like Bannon.

Innocence wasn't always as deranged as he eventually became, it was downward spiral of a flawed deity corrupting his followers and then decaying further as he got worshiped by madmen.

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LeknaatTrueRune wrote:

what? whose pet?

I saw it OMG

One thing that must be kept in mind is that Templar's rule was either one of two possible choices, and those choices were always alternated in all Wraeclast's history:

> The "purity" High Templars: They are the follower of the Phrecia lineage, the then founders of the Eternal Empire that fought against the Vaal and the Consuming Darkness that was about to swallow the whole world (The same, apparently, you fight in Act2). Since what happened, they believed them to be the only righteous path to walk and deemed anything else, expecially "blasphemies" like Vaals and Ezomytes as a Sin to eradicate or to keep as slaves - which, it must be rememberd, is always to be considered a human being stripped from his very humanity and used as a flesh drone for fulfill duties. They kept their rule over Oriath (Sarn was ruled by an Emperor who occasionally bent to the Templar's will) with authority and an overall thoacracy. Examples: Voll, Venarius, Avarius

> The "corruption" High Templars: They are the follower of the Vaal lineage, whose leaders (Atziri and her advisor Doryani) ultimately wanted to rival the gods (which do exists, with good peace of Niles) and achieve godhood via corruption (the Beast). Those Templars too are more focused on studying the Beast's bounty (Virtue Gems) and research a way to, ultimately, let them ascend to a godhead status. Their rule over Oriath is stiff and even more paranoic, but rather than impaling every sinner like a marshmellow on a pyre they use the pretense of "sin" in order to get more experimental material to test on. Examples: Dominus, Chitus (not a Templar but a precursor of this whole lot)

In both those cases we can see there is a justification for slavery, either as an ultimate disgrace/penitence or an excuse to use them as guinea pigs. We can also see there is a will to keep up the order façade.

The use of fascist/nazism dressing code was mostly used in order to evoke the intrinsic sense of order a dictatorship gives - they are all forced to obey the will of a single person, after all. Sure, there are other real world dictatorships that were far more cruel, far more destructive (one can still find people who can actively and costructively argue that either fascism or nazism had an actual, positive change on the occidental lifestyle or at least Germany/Italy, and not necessarily among their grandparents which may have been washed by the then propaganda. Not like they could not let the propaganda inside them, on pain of violence and/or death), but Fascism/Nazism were those who were most on the media's spotlight, and one of the few that actually used full dressing code rather than just marks or insignias.

The use of the religious order and the typical Christian dress code may have been used because:

> Before the concept of allowing each and every citizien to express their political preferences, at least in Europe (we had to wait a long time before "We The People" became a thing) the power was held by only 3 parts - the King, the Pope and the peasants -, and the first two were usually supporting each other. Since "the King" is there in the form of the Eternal Emperor, they had to puy a "the Pope" in the form of the High Templar

> Christianity itself was, back then, an empire on their own, administred like an emperor would with their conquered lands. The main difference was they had to follow what was written on the holy texts (and eventually what the most eminent cleric in town had to say) instead of royal writs and laws.

> Crusades are a thing (albeit in recent time the Pope himself apologized for them being, a thing), and are one of the most violent - and sponsorized - forms of dogma Europe had seen so far. Since the whole Viridi (Path of Exile's "Earth" = Wraeclast + Sarn + Theopolis + Oriath + Karui lands + whatever GGG will invent) seems to revolve around bashing each other with a stick in order to solve conflicts, some Deus Vult would actually be in flavour with the aforementioned points

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On topic, I'd like to see it's quite fascinating that we started from a gutted kitty-cat and we've reached about talking about good and evil in real world dictatorships. I find it of the most fascinating sides of social interaction.

EDIT:
LeknaatTrueRune, Hana was already a Meme Cat, but your image is just priceless!