Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Let's make Minthara Great Again

I don't really care about Minthara, but I get it, that her Fans don't Like the new look and I'm sorry for them.
How ever, is it really necessary to open up a third thread, when her looks were already discussed in the other two threads?

I'll simply say that whoever made the decision to change her design does not know much about subtlety in facial aesthetics; sometimes more makeup is not always the best thing for a woman's appearance; I myself use very little eyeshadow; too much just looks unnatural and bright colors like garish silver; I think that's pretty awful; as for her hairstyle I think it is too neat for my taste; my preference would be a messier, more discordant hairstyle; I think that suits her crazed personality.

Ok, I got this game already on patch 5, and I'll say that she IS ugly AF, nothing about her made me think I should do an evil run for her. She is annoying to talk to, and seems incredibly boring. But, the previous design seems way more interesting and natural. I think they should have left her as she was, or at least only changed her hair, it's clear by the SS that they changed more than just the hair.

Nearly everyone was discussing her hair for the most part; I didn't see many people at all discussing the difference between the pre patch 5 and patch 5 facial aesthetic and the affect her makeup had on her facial expressions. Your welcome to vote and share your opinions.

I think the appeal about Minthara is that she's crazy and unpredictable; she's certainly not the most attractive woman in my opinion; but her natural facial features do hold a certain charisma; the sort of charisma you perceive when staring into the eyes of a psychopath; in Japan there's a word for eyes like those, Sanpaku eyes; it's like when you look at a person and there's really nothing strange about them until you look into their eyes and for some reason; you just get this feeling of certainty that the person is mentally unstable and that something is very wrong with them; it also could be an indication of trauma in a sense. Just about everyone I think uses eyes to read people; it's how we read emotions in people's faces; bright eyeshadow sort of lessens the intensity of those expressions. As I see it Minthara has Sanpaku eyes and they sort of act as an alert to the player that she is a crazy woman basically; so reading her face and especially her eyes is absolutely essential to a good experience with her in my opinion.

I see a lot of RPGs that do this; but in my opinion it never actually makes the characters look better; since BG3 has real life scanned faces; their faces look very good but they are ruined when they apply superfluous makeup to them; I barely even use the eyeshadow for my own created characters because the natural faces look so good.

Interesting, the more I look at the pictures the more I get the feeling that the newer version looks older.
I only started after the patch, so I have never seen her ingame with the old look.
But comparing the two pictures, I do get the feeling that the old Minthara looked younger. Not that she looks old per se, but a bit older and more experienced?
Hard to put into words, sorry.

• Her eyeshadow/make-up makes me think about certain "real-world stereotypes" even more.
  Drow define themself with their dark skin and are proud of it.
  It is what seperates them from the filthy "surface Elven races".
  
  To see a Drow using a make-up that makes a part of her face highlighted brighter,
  or putting up make-up for an environment in which she is surrounded by nothing but lowly savages anyway - it feels very much out of place to me. She is not in Menzoberanzan anymore but somewhere at the surface, surrounded by "lesser non Drow beings".
  Why would she care what those inferior creatures think?
  She is not going to a party but to war for her mislead beliefs in the Absolute.
  
  In that sense I find her new design inferior to the former one as well. Unrelated to her hairstyle.

Funny fact Drow do not have natural red eyes!
Maybe some of them have, but the majority is getting them from Lolth. That is actual canon lore.
Any Drow that Lolth favours in general and deems useful for her cause, she grants those red eyes - which is also why they sometimes glow when a Drow gets worked up inside.

Lolth does that to make the Drow look more ferocious and threatening.
( A~nd even though I thought I find the video where this was stated... alas I cannot find it right now. -_- Fffff... anyways! =D )

I find it most amusing that Minthara still has red eyes regardless of her obvious breaking with Lolth.
That shows that a true evil Deity is only amused by "its propertys" little insane episodes and still favours those cute little puppies.
But even if Minthara's fate is true and Lolth might feel that...
... as long as Lolth deems her useful for her own Agenda ( aka 'eternal dominance, subjugation of all other races, conquering with force' etc. )
we can bet that the Queen of Spiders won't take the red eyes from her anytime soon.

One has to break entirely with evil or violence to truly make Lolth take their red eyes from them
like with those loyal to the cause of Eilistraee.

It's side effect of pale brows and more prominent eyeshadow. I once had to makeup myself to look older and I just used more prominent makeup, worked like a charm.

"I find it most amusing that Minthara still has red eyes regardless of her obvious breaking with Lolth.
That shows that a true evil Deity is only amused by "its propertys" little insane episodes and still favours those cute little puppies. grin
But even if Minthara's fate is true and Lolth might feel that...
... as long as Lolth deems her useful for her own Agenda ( aka 'eternal dominance, subjugation of all other races, conquering with force' etc. )
we can bet that the Queen of Spiders won't take the red eyes from her anytime soon." - KeinSklave

That is interesting; I wonder if Larian will explain Minthara's red eyes in the future; I find it strange that she still keeps spiders; even though she's serving the absolute now; I would imagine she would know the spiders won't serve the absolute.

I'm sorry, but I'm not remotely interested in that character, she is just dead meat in my playthroughs. So hard pass. I was just surprised, that some minor character is worth three threads of discussions.

All I'm interested about Minthara, is her Amulett of Misty Steps. Let's hope, that won't get changed

okay this is getting silly, how many threads do we need in the suggestion forum about Minthara's makeup?

Let's take a look at Minthara in the sunlight.



The brightness of white hair and silver eyeshadow in the patch 5 iteration seems to really be overwhelming in sunlight; I think the whiteness of the hair, lashes, and eyebrows would be sufficient for her Drow aesthetic; In the first iteration though the eyebrows are darker I don't think it would affect much if they were changed to the white of the patch 5 iteration; it really seems in my opinion when she's in the sunlight it's more aesthetically pleasing to the eye when the silver eyeshadow is not applied. Kazuliski might've used some reshade in one or both of these videos; but I think it's still a good comparison.

I guess it's a bit strange; but I think those of us who love crazy women with a passion love Minthara; I love looking into her crazy eyes and the voice actress's dominant tone makes it even better.

The one that Onemanarmy made mostly had to with her hair and very few people were talking about her facial aesthetic, expressions and so forth; I also made this thread to compare and contrast pics and gifs with the community; so we can share our opinions about the effect the new aesthetic has on facial expressions, scenes and whatnot; so your opinions and your vote is welcome.

The white eyebrows do make her look older in a sense; but I think the eyeshadow has a bigger effect in that it's harder to see the youthfulness of her eyes during her facial expressions; I think her face is actually quite a youthful face; but the patch 5 iteration presents such a white, silvery aesthetic by adding the eyeshadow to her already white hair that she has a rather strange look in my opinion.

What is there to explain?
She is Lolthsworn Drow (Read as: She was born in some city that is devoted to Lolth). O_o

Either she is fugitive, who was unsucessful in their society (wich as far as i know, is something you dont wanna be) ...
Or she was simply kindaped and brain washed ... since she is after all tadpoled, and have no idea about it.

I was referring to KeinSklave's statement.

"I find it most amusing that Minthara still has red eyes regardless of her obvious breaking with Lolth.
That shows that a true evil Deity is only amused by "its propertys" little insane episodes and still favours those cute little puppies. grin
But even if Minthara's fate is true and Lolth might feel that...
... as long as Lolth deems her useful for her own Agenda ( aka 'eternal dominance, subjugation of all other races, conquering with force' etc. )
we can bet that the Queen of Spiders won't take the red eyes from her anytime soon."

I thought it was interesting; yes I do know she's Lolthsworn.

Here's some gifs of her when she uses her illithiad tadpole during the goblin attack.



I think the patch 5 Minthara's white eyebrows and silver eyeshadow might be contrasted better if she had a darker skin tone; maybe, maybe not.

After looking at this image way to long, I think I spot a strong difference, aside from the make up.

I think the new version has more pronounced wrinkles on her forhead and even the wrinkels next to the mouth seem more pronounced.
Also, the thinner eyebrows also help.
That, together with the brighter skin, makes her look older to me. For whatever reason I seem to associate lighter skin with higher age when it comes to dark elves. Not even sure why..

Probably much strengthened by the make up, like you said.