Oh give me a break. Sorry I shared my opinion about NPCs in a game I don't have an eidetic memory of. Though, remember no matter HOW HARD you go on this forum those characters aren't getting full rewrites.
Your apology would be accepted except you seem to believe than an outburst is warranted in any way.
You chose to make an argument based on cherrypicked memories and not the full picture.
I'm talking generally, renegade drow like half-dragons are a kind of precious unique thing. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying the characters *bad* but this attitude that Tiax or Minsc were some masterful creation that goes down in the history of CRPGs as one of the all time greats and Shadowheart is some trite character is just really off base. The characters were tropey and fun. Shar-Teel is basically Xena. Montaron and Tiax are insane but it's really in a fun goofball way. Minsc is completely hammy and overacted and fun and so is Edwin. I'm not trying to tell you these are Invader Zim characters her but certainly part of why you like them is because they were presented in a fun way. I mean even Jaheria and Khalid have a really ridiculous tropey dynamic of her being this ball buster and him being the meek stuttering husband.
I didn't find Tiax or Montaron to be goofballs. Xena is not a goofball character so I don't understand what that comparison elicits. Minsc confides in you several times throughout BG2 about how his cheery attitude and hijinks are the coping mechanism he uses to deal with the fact that he believes he is a failure. Even in BG1. He knows he is an idiot.
I could get behind the argument that BG3 NPCs aren't as fun as BG1 or BG2 NPCs and are maybe too broody, but the opposite? No.
It is not a black and white choice. BG NPC's are not broody they are complex, full of depth and personality and they are very real and flawed people. Just like in real life very few people are not dealing with problems and trying their very best at it. There is no guidebook to life. These characters reflected it. They could be goofy, or funny, and funny things can happen to them but ignoring the reasons why these things happen detracts from the writing on a fractal level. Missing one detail makes your impression of it completely incorrect. For example many people talk about Edwin and the belt of gender but seem to forget that it is a genuinely cursed item and the only reason he is in that situation is because he is arrogant and impatient because he believes himself to be better than anyone else while also knowing that there are people stronger than him. He isn't simply power hungry. Comedy comes from that situation but there is so much more depth to it than "lol genderswap hijinks".
Dynaheir, Minsc, Garrick, Imoen, Viconia, Xan, Xar, Montaron.
Oh man, I'm using "straight" as in "played straight" not to refer to sexuality but to refer to the characters being hammy/tropey.
My bad, it's hard to tell sometimes and I erred on the side of caution. These characters still stand. They ARE played straight while continuing to be as realistic and multi dimensional as possible. There are some obvious inspirations in the characters but I don't think they can fall under tropey the way that BG3 characters do. The thing about calling something a trope is that there is usually no explanation for their behavior or it is incredibly one dimensional. I can explain those characters in great depth years after I've played the game because they made such a strong impression on me during a time where my only other pass time was reading. I can go on and on and on about this subject but my point is that people always describe the older characters as funny or goofy or whatever because they are trying to prove that BG3 characters are brooding teenage edgelords but the reality is that you can be troubled, haunted, struggling, vulnerable, insecure and many other things while not acting this way. These characters can still be humorous and funny and constantly pulling pranks and hijinks and still be incredibly deep and complex.
BG3 characters are not bad because they are tropey. They are bad because they are poorly written and extremely underdeveloped.
