Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Lae'zel is the most unlikable character ever created in any video game.

I am loving how this Lae'zel hate thread turned into a Lae'zel appreciation thread. I haven’t completed her arc yet, but so far I absolutely adore Lae'zel’s writing.

I had heard that she was extremely unpleasant at first, but that eventually changed after her stuff at the creche, and that you could get approval if you politely showed interest in her culture. Imagine my surprise when waaaay before the creche, GALE started politely asking her about her culture, and she happily answered. Their banter was very respectful and they even started complimenting each other. I really like when the companions have relationships completely separate from the player. It makes the world seem bigger and more real.
As I got further along in her arc, I was so impressed with her.

She is strong and tenacious, but can still show vulnerability. Her writing and acting are so good.

Laezel is evil because of her upbringing, that she believes in and follows at the time you meet her on game. If you insist on comparing the githyanki to humans, then frankly they share similarities with fascism; the same military nationalism, belief in their own supremacy, disregard for others and xenophobia.

That Laezel does not murder you where you stand is a pretty low bar, btw. She does not so out of sympathy, but because she needs you to even have a chance to make it to the creche, something she is aware of. And indeed she is right, because if you do not recruit her she ends up dead. Not that different from Voss who changes his approach completely once you have something (or rather someone) he needs. But the non-gith that are of no interest to him? He just points his dragon their way.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that githyanki always kill on sight. You could interact with some of them without bloodshed even in original BG2.

The issue with Laezel's writing is that her quest is tied to Orpheus, who is practically a non-entity throughout the game. This revolution of theirs is based on Orpheus' claim to the throne, but the problem is this claim is through Gith herself, who was the one who put gith on the path of conquest in the first place, causing the split with githzerai. So at this point the important question would be: does he intend to follow in his mother's footsteps? Or does he intend going against Gith's own ideas? Which could have been an interesting concept to explore, if Larian actually gave the guy some screen time before the ending.

But they don't, and so Laezel's quest is about turning away from Vlaakith, only to start following Orpheus instead, the guy you know less about than Vlaakith.

All the companions join forces with you because they realise it increases your chance of survival, but while of the bunch from the beach Astarion and Shart try to use you, Gale and Lae'zel treat the group as their comrades. If I remember correctly "you made an ally from Crèche K'liir" is her line when joining the team and she is true to it from the start. She still treats everyone else badly but that changes over time too.

Lae'zel is a terribly-written character because her personality revolves around one thing only.

Larian Studios wrote her and the githyanki as the Evil Yellow People, the savage foreigners driven by beliefs that are not only savage but stupid to even the most casual onlooker.

Lae'zel serves as the representative of Larian's outlook on Evil Foreign People, coupling racist dehumanization of others' cultures and beliefs with fetishization of "exotic" peoples. Her storyline involves her being "enlightened" by exposure to what Larian sees as "white" culture and society, as evidenced by how anyone who isn't human or elven is treated as The Evil Other.

At the end of the day, Lae'zel is a character written without a shred of what we would ascribe as humanity because she's written as parallel to people the writers of the game don't see as human.

That still doesn't make her evil.

Just because she believes in a system that she was brought up with doesn't mean she is evil.

Again, parallels to real life and capitalism. It's an overall evil societal structure (Especially when you look at corporations and their exploitation of third world labor). Yet it's just part of society and doesn't reflect in any way on individuals.

When you meet her in game... Exactly what "Evil" thing does she do? Does she kill you? Does she kill anyone else? Does she cause anyone any harm? (She yells at you and a tiefling... But that's just rude, not evil)

All she does is "Use you(r party)" to help her get what she wants... While also stating that she will vouch for your entire party so you will all get saved by the Zaith'isk too despite being non-Gith.


If we want to go further on this we can if you want.

The Nazi party was evil. But were all Nazi's evil? No. Some actually helped persecuted Jews escape to other countries. But these not-evil Nazi's were still part of the Nazi party because that was the societal structure at the time.


And according to Githyanki values, taught from birth... That is the desired outcome. All people infected by an illithid tadpole must be killed. Infected Gith, included. It's only the notion of being promised a cure from a Zaith'isk that can overcome that.


In BG2 you're not infected with a Ghaik parasite though.


Sure... But that doesn't invalidate Lae'zel's entire character. Nor does it make her evil.

Lae'zel's character exists independently of Orpheus and she has plenty of writing to make her an actually interesting character. It's just her personal quest is marred by the Mary Sue of Orpheus.


The entire point of Orpheus' imprisonment and the propaganda about his demise was that he was actively rebelling against his mother. So he was imprisoned and branded a traitor and then lies were made to cover up the fact that he had issues with the way things were.


True... But we know that Vlaakith is not a good leader, since she has created a society that revolves around her personal wish of ascending to godhood using deceit to offer false promises of glory and status when in reality she just wants to kill Gith to gain power for herself.

I am not sure where you got that the propaganda and imprisonment of Orpheus was because of his mother. Orpheus rebelled against the original Vlaakith, when he learned that she might have betrayed Gith. He was defeated by that Vlaakith and imprisoned in the prism, because he has inherited Gith's powers and Vlaakith did not want to loose that in case the illithid empire returned. He was rebranded as a traitor because Vlaakith's official story was that Gith named her the ruler, and she didn't want anyone to question that.

But Lae'zel never betrays you, she trusts your judgment even if you doubt her or her knowledge. Also by your logic, every race is racist. So therefore, we shouldn't trust anyone!

And while I am not extremely familiar with the githyanki, I have reason to trust Lae'zel because she knows what she's talking about regarding the Creche and what solutions the party can seek. She's not evil because she allies and travels with you despite what she knows to do, she is willing to go along with friends and potentially help them figure out answers to the parasite. Like Taril mentioned as well, she doesn't kill you from the beginning despite that might be what other githyanki do. She is remarkably one of the least evil members of her race.

Like a lot of people both in fiction and real life, Lae'zel is just another person who grew up and was raised in the mindset of kill first, questions later. But she is much beyond that when you meet her at the beginning of the game and even helps get you out of the nautiloid alongside her.
So no, Lae'zel is not evil, and she does experience character development and sees past the murderous ideals of the githyanki.

The githyanki are racist because they view everyone who is not them as lesser, this is literally what Laezel says in some of her dialogue, "our lessers", and because their supremacist society is based on raiding and killing others. So I really don't follow your own logic here, because most races are in this setting are not like that.

The closest comparison would be drow following Lloth, who also leave the Underdark to raid and kill. And indeed are feared on the surface because of that, which is a reaction you will sometimes get when playing a drow. Githyanki are simply less known, so most people in Faerun don't recognize them for what they are, e.g. one if the tiefling kids asking a githyanki if they are a swamp elf. But if you play a character that is familiar with them, then there is no reason to trust Laezel.

Lae'zel is my favorite character, and is great as a love interest. She reminds me of Gomorrah from Guardians of the Galaxy. She respects honesty and strength, she always has your back and will stay in a relationship with you even if you end up as a mindflayer. If you cheat on her with the devil she kicks you to the curb, if you ask her to join the drow prostitutes she says no. She is quick to have sex but to get to love takes some work and requires total commitment and monogamy.

What some here are calling "evil" I'd call pragmatism. If your race is constantly being attacked and hunted by mind flayers you'd end up being militaristic as well.

I found Astarion much more unlikable, because in the short time I allowed him to stay in the party he was always making snide remarks or popping up "Astarion disapproves" every time I wasn't a dick to someone. Lae'zel was a bit grating at first, but once she settled into the group (and I told her I didn't want to have sex with her) she made a good companion. I don't think she and my character ever became true friends, but I think there was a good mutual respect between them. And her exclamations always made me smile.

It's normal for compulsory video game companions to be designed to be likable, but none of the companions are compulsory and it's nice to see some variation in personality. According to the BG3 art book, they softened Lae'zel's appearance to look more human and make her more appealing. I always interpreted anything inappropriate in her behaviour to her youth (the art book suggests she hasn't quite reached maturity), unfamiliarity with culture, and her upbringing.

In other words, much like Karlach, Larian made her look more Caucasian because they view that as the only proper standard of beauty and because they associate not being Caucasian with being an evil, stupid savage (i.e. Lae'zel's entire story arc).

What? Seriously? First off I don't think Lae'zel looks very much "caucasian" at all, probably even more asian if you really want to foce it, but overall, I think she looks first and foremost Githyanki - but if you WANT to find proof for your theories I guess you can find it everywhere.

On topic, I've seen enogh Let's plays where it's pretty obvious players reacted to her rudeness in the very beginning and just left her at camp from then on, instead of even trying to find out more and giving her the chance to warm up (yes, her character change and becoming a great companion depends on at least some interaction and approval). And wasn't it some Dev who said it? If she was male most people wouldn't have any issues with her, in fact her character is almost a stereotype for some grumpy male warriors audiences usually find rather cool and edgy. Astarion for instance is complaining and disapproving so much more than her but gets a pass. So yeah, while not seeing that "racism" argument above at all, I think a little bit of sexism can't be denied when it comes to her.
Personally, she annoyed me for maybe an hour but I kept her in my party, soon she changed to funny, later to warmhearted and BFF - her romance arc is one of the better ones too with some real heartwarming scenes.

My issue with our Gith friend is trying to fit her into my party given her character. Not in the sense she is hard to get along with, but in the sense that it doesn't make sense. Why is she willing to follow me? Why does she put up with not heading straight for the Creche? Why doesn't she kill SH immediately when the artifact is revealed? I've tried fitting her in but I've never managed to keep her past a certain camp cut scene where I choose to stand back. I just can't resolve the contradictions in a satisfactory way.

I am going to try a run as Lae'zel at some point and she definitely will be calling all the shots then.

She appreciates your leadership qualities. She says something to that effect if you take her place in the Zaith'isk (Which actually gets approval from her).

She's clearly not accustomed to being a leader, likely due to the fact that she's young and low rank. She's used to receiving orders from superiors, so she's willing to follow someone who shows similar qualities to those superiors.

Even if it delays her main objective, you are showing strength in what you do (Either massacring the goblins or the tieflings, taking on Ethel, going through the Underdark etc.) so she defers to your judgment. Especially as her urgency is quelled by the Dream Visitor indicating their protection from immediate ceremorphosis.


Because she knows that the artifact is somehow keeping the party from becoming Mind Flayers. She doesn't want to simply hand it over to the Gith - Though it creates a moral dilemma for her putting her duty to her race vs her self preservation instincts (Which are strong enough that she puts up with a bunch of non-Gith with tadpoles in their heads in order to receive aid to get to a creche for a cure)

Also, she respects Shadowheart's abilities. She puts value in those that perform to a high standard, that's why she doesn't care for the Gith that she killed while training they were weak and so insignificant. Shadowheart shows adequacy, heck she almost kills her during their camp scene.


You should try to stick it out. She literally explains everything over the course of the game.