Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Just figured out why I don't like Wyll

I want to like Wyll. I try to like Wyll. I just don't like Wyll.

It's because he's not intimidating. I'm not intimidated by him, not at all. There's no edge. In fact, it's like all of his edges were intentionally smoothed out. He feels young and naive.

Whereas Lae'zel. Say what you will about her, but I think her character projects hardness and strength, loyalty and aggression. I can believe that the NPC she just jumped in front of is scared of her.

Gale is exactly what he says he is and there's a strength to that. You have a sense that maybe his arrogance is well earned.

See what I mean? Astarion drips with a sense of danger. But not Wyll. Wyll is more of a boyscout grown up to be pack leader.

And since I'm not intimidated by Wyll I can't imagine any of the villains in the game being intimidated by him either.

Are you sure about that?
There is other explanation ... since we spend whole EA with entirely different Wyll, we did get used to everyone else, but not this one.

I discovered that I like Wyll's story a whole lot better if I just do as Mizora asks in Act 1.

When you kill Karlach, Wyll is rewarded for his deed with a robe and later, during the tiefling party, he is downcast because he wonders how many other innocents (aka none monstrous devils) he has killed while doing Mizora's bidding. He questions the integrity of himself as a hero while bound to Mizora. The theme of being rewarded for services to the hells is again touched upon when you take him along to the battle with Ketheric and Mizora rewards him with a special blade for the occasion. Freeing him from his pact isn't purely about saving his soul and freeing him from his abuser in this version, it's about him only being able to be the hero he wants to be without devilish gifts empowering him. Much like with Astarion and Gale, it's about relying on his own strength and values.

This gets brought to a last tipping point when the desire for freedom and integrity is directly opposed by the desire to save his father, whom he greatly admires. It's a bit of a shame that the discussion about saving Ulder without Mizora's help isn't fleshed out a bit more. Without Karlach, Wyll also has extremely nice epilogues with lots of stuff to say, and overall, after having him in the party for a bit, I enjoyed some of his more cut throat comments and banter - he could do with a few more of those.


Otoh, when you save Karlach he worries about spoiling the party for everyone, which is a very weird take considering the prejudices the tieflings are facing on a daily basis - and you can't even point this out. Freeing him from his pact is just about devils being mean and how nobody should be enslaved to them. He has basically no dialogue during the epilogue if he and Karlach go to Avernus together, and they added an extra scene during Last Light to diminish his fame as the Blade of Frontiers compared to Karlach's wrestling prowess. That along with the whole Mizora-fan service adds to making him a secondary character in Karlach's story instead of allowing him to shine on his own.

I like Wyll, he's got that classic chaotic-good hero doing the wrong things for the right reason thing going on, but I'm not going to pretend that he doesn't also suffer terribly from rewrite-itis. It's pretty obvious that the writers had their favourite characters, who got the bulk of the detail, and characters like Minthara and Wyll (and Helia, who was so underdeveloped she got cut) were left on the shelf.

I agree will lacks an edge. His story seems fine but something is lacking in the writing and/or VA. I think the first VA was better.