Talk:Death to the Empress/@comment-30711026-20180628191606/@comment-26199726-20180630151909

I guess the point is not only giving you a choice by any means necessary, but to show how far gone the character is - "what kind of monster" is exactly the point. Only on High Chaos is Corvo / Emily changed so much by the bloodshed and the choices that led them there that they're depraved enough to even consider doing this (or actually do it). Giving you consequences like that for your character and their development is why I really like that part of the ending.

As for killing your alllies at the end "randomly" or "for no reason": Reasons are actually given when you kill them (depending on chaos), ranging from vengeance, eliminating witnesses, misguided justice for Sokolov's past crimes, to plain bloodlust or no reason at all (meaning not a non-explanation, but that the character's grown so indifferent to human life and used to senseless killing that they can murder close allies without hesitation or a particular reason, just out of habit).

So those are parts of the ending you don't have to be partuclarly baffled by. Of course, there are plenty of others: I'd fully agree with Geist that the "solution" to rescuing Corvo / Emily from stone imprisonment was at least severely lacking, especially after the buildup it was given - if you even consider it a solution to the problem at all, instead of just suddenly forgetting there ever was a problem in the first place.

A pity as well that we were never given even a clue or base for speculation on how much of Delilah's claims is true - the question is very prominently raised, obviously important to the main character, their motivation and development, and yet dropped by a simple "guess we'll never know".

One might also say that for the supposed culmination of a story that focuses on the consequenes of actions and their meanings, this level reflects your choices very sparingly: Chaos subtly affects only about three points in the entire level, and your previous choices are maybe mentioned in a dialogue or two you can witness when you're patient.

What a dramatic departure from The Light at the End! With that and the dropped story points, it almost seems as if they ran out of time at the end and just needed it tied up quickly.