I argued on all your points, and you still find a way to attack me on something I haven't said or implied. You are clearly arguing in bad faith. You may find the Steam forums more appropriate to your kind of discussions.
I was back from a night out, so perhaps the tone is blunt – but it’s melodramatic to claim it’s an ‘attack’, of all things.
And you reckon all of the characters have a reason to act so chill and smug under the circumstances? I’m not going to look up the lines, and I haven’t played the game in months, but a few random scenes that come to mind are Gale’s mellow introduction through the magic portal – ‘I’ve just been hanging around here, you know, and by the way, very pleased to meet you’.
Nice to know the dude still has his manners, even though he’s aware of both an alien-parasite in his brain – and of course the magical equivalent of a nuke somewhere else. Because why not?
Or the part where he’s checking out his doppleganger, and just waxing mellow about the whole thing. Or where he’s calmly telling you all about his ‘addiction’. Perhaps if this was some ‘quirk’ of his, where he’s this spectacularly divorced from the reality of his situation, I might be on board – but then everyone else is similarly nonplussed. The tadpole comes off as a mere inconvenience – as in, less worrying than, say, a sprained thumb, but possibly on the level of a nettle sting, for all the urgency that’s imparted around finding a cure.
It’s a game, and a game must have side quests, but there should still be some frustration imparted for deciding to go off hunting down the hag, for example. Don’t know about you, but I’d be mightily pissed if the leader kept deciding to pursue these exotic errands, given that there’s a potentially short countdown to your horrific death. I’d even think he has some kind of screw loose.
You’d expect all of the characters to have their own individual takes on this – one being outright antagonistic about it, maybe another being passive-aggressive, another being hysterical, and another being brutally logical about the nonsensical nature of it.
You could have all of that, and still have no gamey-repercussions (as in, no penalties), but it would at least make the party seem more self-aware and bring out their characters to some extent.
As it is, they are just the sum of their various gimmicks: Shadowheart with her gimmick ‘device’, Gale with his gimmick ‘timebomb’, Lae'zel with her gimmick ‘creche’. I never brought along Astarion or Wyll, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have similar anemic plot-shackles.
The writers mostly come off as fearful of not having enough ‘special’ trinkets, events, gods and other excessive baggage attached to their characters and overall story.
If you read the plot synopsis for the originally intended BG3 Black Hound, it has infinitely more intrigue and depth than this Marvel-inspired dross. And the opening just features a mere black hound.
What this really boils down to is that we’re two completely different people in terms of tastes – could not be more different, in fact. That’s fine – I’m very happy with the group of pals I’ve had for decades. And in fact, none of them even play games or read books. But they are repelled by this kind of material in movies of TV. It’s boring.
Side note: I was referring to the ‘The Absolute’ as being childishly named. I can’t say anything about the character, because we’ve gone a whole full act and the writers aren’t confident enough to showcase their ‘big bad’ – it’s all pyrotechnics instead. ‘The Dead Three’ is evocative. ‘Bhaal’ is evocative. I could spend ten more paragraphs elaborating why, but what’s the point? You’d ultimately be baffled by what I’m saying, because we’re not on the same page.
