What about Keldorn's personal quest, that was the kind of story that plays into alignment that wouldn't be out of place in any number of current rpgs.
Hmm, I can’t say I have strong feelings about Keldorn’s personal quest one way or another. Perhaps because, iirc, it’s over and done with quickly and generally I leave him after that if he was in my party before, and to be honest I don’t remember it in much detail. It’s okay I guess? I do think that, ideally, how a companion’s character and story turn out should come down to more than what happens in a single quest in a game these days, which is standing on the shoulders of what BG2 did and should do better and be more sophisticated.
It's come up before, but Dragon Age 2 had companions whose personal stories were about whether or not they would be overcome by their own tragic flaw, and I loved that aspect of the game. If BG3 has a similar dynamic going on for each of the origin characters I would consider that 'bad' or passe.
I’d also hope that BG3 forges a new path rather than treads ground already covered by older games, and that it doesn’t go for something as simple as every companion having a fatal flaw to overcome or not. (Is that what DA2 did? I confess if so I didn’t realise the stories had such a similar shape, which I guess is to its credit.) But people’s characters and choices being influenced by but not (usually) totally upended by what happens in their lives, which is what I’m perhaps badly trying to advocate for, is really general and I can’t see that any game can claim monopoly of it. Or that it leaves other games anywhere to go if it’s ruled out. Except having characters all stubbornly unchanged by anything that goes on (or at least having had their characters unalterably fixed by different events that happened prior to the start of the game), but while that might work for a few characters such as Minsc and Jaheira who are each peculiarly inflexible for different reasons, it would seems unrealistic to me for most people. And even Jaheira I’m sure could change, though I think it would take a lot!
PS Regarding Sarevok, I’ll keep what you say in mind and reassess in my upcoming playthrough. It’s possible I’m misremembering how well it works just because I recall enjoying having Sarevok in my party. Viconia’s reassessment will need to wait longer as I’ll be playing a female character so not romancing her, but as mentioned I do feel the very fact that makes a difference is a strike against her arc.
