As the Soul Reaver, is Raziel responsible for it all?

[KainFanatic192]

I was thinking about this as I watched the movies that ChocolatierRob posted on the Youtube website for Soul Reaver 2, from start to finish (had a lot of free time on my hands).

Since Raziel is the Soul Reaver, is he technically responsible for everything that happened throughout the series or just responsible for certain events, such as not killing Kain or Kain and William battling it out with both Soul Reavers?

[ReaverofCupcakes]

Technically yes. But personally, no. I mean, you could say that as Raziel possesses free will and by extent, a choice in the major events that he is involved in, that any wrong choice on his part would be considered his fault. But can you really blame him? Ever since he was resurrected, Raziel has been beset by manipulation on all sides, by all of the parties involved. First by the EG, then by Kain and Moebius, and to some extent by the Hylden. And in the original timeline, before the paradoxes of SR2, Raziel had always played right into the hands of Moebius and the EG, even though he didn't know it until it was too late. And once he was absorbed by Reaver, any attempt at changing his fate was then lost, ensuring that whatever plans Moebius had for the Soul Reaver would come to pass. It was only because of the paradoxes in SR2, that Raziel could reclaim his true destiny, and even then he was manipulated. So in short, while Raziel's nature of choice is responsible for the events of the series, he was only a tool that other people used as a means to further their own agendas.

[The Hylden]

All of those agendas they (everyone but Raziel) are fated to try and carry out. It's most ironic, then, that the being with free will whose very existence and possessing the ability to choose is the cause of all the mess in time changing and destiny altering we see, yet the ones manipulating him to the ends he's chosen, or not chosen, are all fated to do so, and any choice otherwise is beyond their control. Just one of the many, many ironies of the Nosgoth we know and love :p

[KainFanatic192]

I think I'm getting it. It just takes time for me to slowly process it all. :p