Villain has a point...

[Sephiroth]

The Shadowlord in Nier. (SPOILER)Dude's genuinely just trying to stop some out-of-control synthetic beings who think they're humans (sympathetic or not, regardless) from obliviously slaughtering the actual human race. He's the mostly unambiguous hero of the story. And for a guy whose life and identity have basically been stolen wholesale by his doppelganger, he's still remarkably calm and professional about what he has to do up until the player brings it all tumbling down toward the end.

I have said it often and will say it again: Except the replicants are humans, or lifeforms so to speak, nonetheless. It does not matter what Popola and Devola told them. They are clones that are connected to the Gestalts. And they have not asked to live. It just happened. And the Gestalts can't just go out and steal those bodies just because long ago they were made for them - even worse, other than Nier Replicant the Gestalts as well as the original Nier were aware of whom the Gestalts attacked but they did not care. The Gestalts were incredibly hypocritical. "Oh, oh. Look at us. We are so much to be pitied. That horrible man will come and kill us", they say while animating the bodies of the clones already meaning they take away the life of the clones (and psychologically spoken, what we really are, our existence is the consciousness/ego and they just like Yonah Gestalt did, live in a body were they are conscious now while the others are powerless or maybe don't even exist anymore). Shadowlord Nier does not have a single point except for saving Yonah. And his own Yonah was the only one to understand that the Replicants also had a right to live a life. They gained consciousness and started to live. Seeing them as 2nd class entities that can be killed "because they are no normal humans and they were not supposed to live in those bodies" is THE TRULY inhuman way of thinking. Yonah Gestalt sacrificing herself was one of the most impressive moves ever. There is only one thing were Shadowlord Nier is to be pitied and that is his desire to help Yonah, just like his clone also wants to help his own Yonah. Sympathise with the Shadowlord or not but he is far from being the "most uambigious hero". Just like his clone he would do everything. And by the end of the day HE was the one who started taking away the other one's Yonah, not vice-versa. Just because "they were their bodies in the first place". No. They weren't. Not the moment a psychological instance of life was formed in that body. It can never be a healthy way and a way to be proud of to think that one lifeform is worth less than the other one. Whether they were conceived naturally or created to serve as shells and then suddenly started to live, it does not matter. Both Niers are totally to be understood. And the really impressive one is Yonah Gestalt.

That said I still feel for Nier Gestalt. Same goes for others in similiar positions like Caius Ballad.