I wrote this on discord today;
"The thing is, if we assume it really is a brainwash story, there are only two ways I can think of they can take it once you cancel the brainwash, both are bad:
The Shadowheart after the brainwash is a completely new character, and the old one is just an undesireble perversion. This is the more interesting option, but I honestly doubt Larian will have the balls to do it, and it means that if you like current shadowheart too bad.
The other option is that new Shadowheart will be the same but with minor alterations. It is lame lazy and doesn't make sense, so I'm assuming this is what we'll get.
Either way what these options have in common is that they create a redemption arc without redemption. You just flip a switch and she's good."
I can't agree with you, I think there can be a pretty compelling story to be told about having suppressed trauma resurface suddenly that causes you to revaluate your world-view. It's like if you met your younger more idealistic self from a position of profound cynicism. It's not a flip being switched, it's more like Vader seeing his son, and realizing the ramifications of choices he made years ago. Or like I mentioned earlier Revan in KotOR.
I think maybe it's the term 'Brainwashing' that's making this loaded, because of it's typical use in fiction. I don't think Shadowheart was magicked into being a Shar worshipper, that it could be later 'dispelled'. You get a pretty good bead on where she's coming from regarding her faith towards Shar, it involves stripping away the hypocrisy of civilization, it's merciless, yet we have a character that is shown to be fairly merciful (so long as it doesn't impact her mission)
