On the other hand, if we weren't taken from Baldur's Gate, how does that square with our player character pote tially being from there? Will we get to acknowledge why we were in Yartar? Because the cinematic heavily implies that we were taken from there. Or is it just going to be the case that our kidnapping won't be acknowledged?
Again, weird choice.
In the cinematic Laez and PLAYERCHAR are already captured and tadpoled before the attack on Yartar takes place. So presumably at least those two were captures and tadpoled before (I think Astarion specifically was captured in BG, no?). With how quickly things events happen from Yartar to the attack and subsequent escape, I would be willing to assume that ALL playable characters were imprisoned and tadpoled before the attack, however, Karlach supposively jumped into the ship and got tadpoled sometime between the end of the intro cinematics and end of the tutorial, which just seems rather bit off considering what mindflayers seem busy fighting hellspawn and Gith intruders.
I suspect that narrative importance of the attack on Yartar is very simple - showcasing how Mindflayers capture their targets and how, more or less, you and companions were captured before the cinematic started without having to create specific capture scenes for different backgrounds. In the cinematic you just see an example of how you
could have gotten captured.
I was about to write how wasteful it is to create expensive, 6 minutes long cutscene that has so little things to convey, but at the same time it does set up the game very well - overproduced, narratively basic and yet somehow still convoluted and confusing
. I am being overly harsh on it though [the cinematic, not the game :-D] - fairly empty, visual spectacles, establishing tone rather then plot or characters have been a staple for RPGs. But the confusion regarding what it is that we have seen and the need for clarification from Sven isn't a great sign.
*the usual disclamer that the game isn't finished, the intro might be revised and/or Yartar and dead mindflayers on the ship might become relevant to the story once the game is completed.
Edit1. Would it be too crazy to suggest that the cinematic is for EA only? It will be very weird if we we choose Laez as our origin, no? Seeing her being tadpoled, and then cinematic turns to us, but we are also her? Also doesn't she kinda play semi tutorial role right now?
