I do think it's a fair criticism about everyone having overly convoluted backstories (except maybe Laezel), but I'd maybe have one counterpoint. We as the players know about this, but a lot of the details are locked behind approval ratios, so the character may not know. I've seen a playthrough where they didn't take Gale along and while he still asked for artefacts at camp, the player's approval never got high enough that he mentioned the orb or Mystra. Likewise I've benched Wyll and never heard about Mizora once. So for that playthrough he was just a bog standard warlock, maybe not even that. So who knows what happens later in the game when you don't get high approval? I mean if you don't take Astarion along with the gur scene I think he refuses to tell you who he's after. Who knows? Perhaps we're only supposed to think these guys are super duper extra ordinary if we actually get to know them?
Yes, but the story is that they are. Isn't that a bit like closing your eyes and start yelling the world is gone?
I'm also not sure what happens if you try to ignore and not actively kill those NPCs you don't want around. For example - what becomes of Astarion if you let him go? Does Gale blow up if you don't feed him artefacts just because you weren't an asshole when you first met? Definitely their stories don't disappear from the world. I'm quite sure we will run into Astarions' vampire daddy anyhow. If we could play just without them (like in DAO actually) it would be a different matter. I honestly don't want to deal with most of the origin characters. I actually rather have them as villians I have to kill later than endure their whining
No, sorry you're thinking about a 'story'. This is an interactive story. Like DnD. Whatever you do happens and whatever you did last playthrough doesn't. The PFH showed the same scene but from 2 different perspectives. There's no one 'story'. You can kill Shadowheart on the beach and she's just a dead person with a strange artefact. The Dark Urge gameplay shows you can kill Gale. That's it. No orb. No Mystra. Presumably no game over too. What you're doing is metagaming here. All you know about these companions is what you find out through gameplay. You can tell Wyll to get lost and he's just some dude with a rapier and a big mouth. You can yeet Lazael in hell or let the tieflings kill her.
Honestly this is kind of like a dm mentioning an npc ooc and everybody in the party using that info in their rp.
The devs have specifically said if you do Wyll's starting quest and make a certain choice, you end up killing Karlach. As far as you're concerned, no demonbane, no Zariel, just a dead tiefling.
