Sorry, I don't at all buy any of the "SH is good" lines. Sharrans are evil. End of story.
But I will grant you your perspective on Lae. I myself have said repeatedly in the past that of all the nominally evil companions Lae is the one I could most tolerate in my all-good party. And so, if Larian is going to provide "redemption" storylines for any of the companions, I do hope it will be for Lae, because she may be the only one truly *worth* saving.
Honestly sharrans are often victims...desperate people in desperate situations driven to committing terrible acts and then controlled through wiping of memories. Shadowheart says it was voluntary but how would she know? She doesn't remember...if she had tried fight or run or disobey those memories would be gone. I believe that all it would take to have her abandon Shar would be full memory restoration. If we can find a way to restore her memories she'd probably have a really bad identity crisis.
Originally Posted by Fox of Embers
Originally Posted by kanisatha
Sorry, I don't at all buy any of the "SH is good" lines. Sharrans are evil. End of story.
I know that Sharrans are evil. You know that Sharrans are evil. There is a high chance Shadowheart does not. She has memory loss (fits Sharran MO) and every time she talks about Shar you get the Shar-is-not-evil propaganda. She doesn't even try to modify it to make it more believable for someone with a passing knowledge of Shar.
This, coupled with her tendency to approve being a secretive, but helpful person led to many people, including myself, to believe she is brainwashed.
And quite honestly, why wouldn't an evil cult brainwash people to send them on suicide missions? Makes more sense then to send actually useful and loyal people there.
To the both of you I would say this: for the sake of argument, let's assume you guys are correct about your "brainwashing" thesis (which is entirely possibly what Larian has written for her). For me, that still doesn't change much. Even if someone were brainwashed or conned or manipulated into their actions, if they committed evil acts, especially acts that caused irreversible harm to innocent people, they are still very much responsible for those acts. They don't get to use the "i was brainwashed" line to absolve themselves of their culpability. They still have to atone for what they did, which includes suffering harsh consequences for what they did. And note, I very specifically don't say doing good things will absolve them, because it doesn't. Doing good things now does not cancel out the evil things one did previously, because if you killed someone, that is irreversible. Saving someone today doesn't do a damn thing for that person you killed yesterday.
