I'm not sure if the same kind of premise can be used in a more 'free' RPG where your character is basically their own boss from the very beginning.
The evil path really hammers on the "you are going to use the tadpole to control everyone" options that you get almost exclusively while interacting with evil characters anyway. I understand that BGIII does not allow for clean moral dilemma settings where you are an arbiter of things because that is not the role you are given in this story, but then the question is where the player's agency really lies. Like I said in the OP, you are not working
with Minthara, she just orders you around like a minion. There are even many different scenarios where she either forces the information she wants out of your brain and you fight her in the temple or you double cross her by Helm's Deep-ing the entire goblin army at the gates of the grove. All the while the player is working with denialist lunatics who either aggressively withold or are unaware of information the player has right from the start. If you let Gut "cleanse" you she just captures you so she can observe ceremorphosis up close and you are saved by a
but then when you kill her, a tadpole crawl out of her eye socket and everyone reacts to it?
We and our companions all know exactly that the Absolute is at the very leasy harnessing stolen Illithid tadpoles or is an Illithid construction in totality. None of the Absolute's people seem to be aware of this. I think this is due to the tutorial being made last, but I am not sure if that is true. Either way it creates a huge disconnect between us and all the evil characters when they keep trying to kill me if I tell them they are being deceived.
