Talk:Daud/@comment-16533050-20190215111624/@comment-26199726-20190215125325

Hey, I was skeptical as well at first, but after actually playing the game (did you by now?), I find myself unable to agree with that judgement.

As much as I wish Daud could have just spent the rest of his days in a tiny cottage, surrounded by books, occasionally enjoying a cigar or a glass of Old Dunwall, it wouldn't really fit well into the outlook of the world he's in. It would be bright, optimistic, and hopeful, a message of peace and deliverance even for those who don't deserve it, and I don't think that has been the message Dishonored has shown us so far. No rest for the wicked.

And more importantly, DotO's development to a degree fits Daud's character. Ever since the death of the Empress, he's been a man haunted by ghosts, driven by the need to atone for crimes so terrible he knows there can never really be atonement. He knows what he did is beyond redemption - that doesn't stop him from trying, but it also means he just can't stop at some point (like after saving Emily) and say it's enough.

A man who is driven like that may resolve to retire, tell himself and others he just wants to leave everything behind and has had enough of killing, but will be unable to find peace and comfort. Sooner or later, he'll be driven up the walls again by aforementioned ghosts, and find another way to grasp at redemption, like taking out the god who enabled him to do such evil. In so doing, he may prevent a sad story like his own from ever happening again, and the task is so enormous that completing it may ease even a burden as heavy as Daud's.

I've often heard that DotO erases Daud's development of owning up to his mistakes, taking responsibility for his own actions and paying the price, instead making him blame someone else (the Outsider) for his own decisions. After playing the game, I feel that isn't true. Daud still knows he is monster and has done terrible things. His vendetta against the Outsider isn't an attempt to shift the blame, but to do good by removing someone from the world who - in Daud's view - has brought gread suffering to the world. In his mind, the Outsider is just someone who gives great and terrible power to people who he knows will abuse that power, just for his own amusement. That doesn't make them (including Daud himself) any less evil or responsible for their own actions, and Daud knows this. But that in turn doesn't mean the Outsider isn't also evil for giving these people power in the first place.

Daud knows he abused his own power, and still tries to pay for it. But he thinks the Outsider abused his power as well - to a devastating degree -, so he tries to make him pay for it as well. Put differently, Daud learned his lesson about paying the price, and now he thinks it's the Outsider's turn to learn it.

Sorry if this came off a little long or floral, I've just been wanting to say this for some time.