[spoiler] I'm wondering if the Hunter was saying some meta things about the game

[TheRightDoorIsNotTheLeft]

I know, the Hunter is supposed to be the "bad" guy, but when you actually talk to him on the multiple available occasions, he explains he takes the shortest path to getting the artifacts because the long, drawn-out process of forming alliances and waiting for the right time to steal artifacts was tedious and time-consuming. After multiple playthroughs, I'm also attacking or killing key NPCs when that's a faster option than going through the same old precisely-identical dialogue trees. I'm wondering if that's a meta way of saying that nothing really matters and that the end result is the same: the quick way of outright killing people or the long way of going through precisely identical dialogue trees. Like talking to Petrov in the Buried Temple scene. The first few times, I talked to him until I realized I could simply kill them all on sight and take his key. 

 

And get this. Both the Hunter and the Emissary have gone through the Unity hundreds of times, when you can only max out your powers after the 10th run. Which explains why the Hunter eventually gives up and becomes Aquilus. Why bother going through the Unity again and again if nothing ever changes?