I meant that mostly as a joke. Naturally they aren't making a feature just for the sake of tricking a player and doing some shallow plot twist to subvert expectations that comes out of nowhere. They however do not do black and white Disney type stories where the villain is a villain just for the sake of being a villain. The stories and outcomes are usually gray and obstructed with an incredible amount of subtle hints and clues that a player might pick up on by paying attention to all the details.

We know the tadpole is bad. We don't know whether the Dreamer is bad, though I personally think they aren't exactly because the dreams seem to be misleading into making us believe they are and the tadpole wants to murder the Dreamer at every single chance it gets. so if the murder monster that acts purely on instinct wants to kill the Dreamer so badly, then the enemy of my enemy is my friend I suppose.

And it seems likely to be due to all the reasons mentioned in this thread.

So I don't think it isn't roleplay, because it is. You're roleplaying based on what you perceive as the right thing to do in a given situation. But it may not be so black and white as it seems to be and knowing Larian games it usually isn't because hints and clues are all over the place foreshadowing such things from the very start of the game. So it is roleplay based on your own decision on how you perceive a situation.

It is incredibly important to not separate the Dreamer and the tadpole, but also to not put them in the same basket. Because the tadpole grows yes... but so does the Dreamer. Which is evident just before the first dream. We go through the first sign of ceremorphosis and then are cured immediately the next morning by none other than our Dreamer.

That right there should be proof that not everything is black and white as it seems. So it isn't like it will come out of the blue, the hints and subtle clues are all over the place and it is precisely because of them that we are having such an interesting discussion here. Without all these subtle hints and clues this discussion wouldn't exist ^^


For example, in Divinity Original Sin 2;
Dallis is constantly perceived by the player as a villain, except she isn't whatsoever. She is doing what she's doing to save the world from her own kind.

And there are an incredible amount of clues that subtly hint she is not who she seems to be. Apart from notes, letters, books and other items, there is even a gameplay hint that suggests she is not who she is, because dropping Death Fog on her does nothing to her and Poison heals her. So the game is filled with such an incredible amount of subtle clues that the player may not pick up on immediately, but clearly hint that not everything is as black and white as we think they are. Things are usually gray and complex.

[Linked Image from bg3.wiki] Minthara's Compendium Of Issues