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I'm sure the script has undergone many changes since the game entered early access three years ago but I am glad they changed the emperor to what he is in the final game...pretty much everyone thought that Daisy would be villain...it would have been the most predictable and telegraphed twist ever. Having him encourage you to embrace tadpole powers out of necessity rather than malice and actually being an honest ally is far more interesting and makes the choice of what to do with the choice he presents far tougher than it would be otherwise.

I think maybe in theory the emperor as he has been rewritten might be better, but the execution is just terrible as I look at the narrative. Like he is very obviously set up to be a twist villain in the end (see the reveal cutscene I posted), but it never plays out. If you side with him, he never makes a play for power, he just destroys the elder brain (unless you convince him not to) and then fucks off in the epilogue. So what the hell was his goal? If it was to destroy the elder brain, then why did he not tell us about it early on. They make him act as if he does not know what the source of the absolute actually is, even though he was just under the elder brains control before getting into the prism (was he conveniently mind wiped??).

And then of course, if you side with Orpheus, he just decides to side with the elder brain for ~reasons~, which will lead him to becoming a thrall again.



Overall, I know this thread is about the dream person specifically, but the game's narrative, as I've come to realize this past week, is IMMENSELY flawed and I suspect mostly due to these rewrites. Some plot holes I've come to notice:


-Orpheus is somehow able to turn himself into a mind flayer in the ending even though he is not infected (Larian REALLY wanted someone to turn. This is SO forced. It's not even clear why they need to be a mind flayer. Orpheus is said to be an insanely powerful psionicist, capable of blocking out elder brain communication, but for some reason needs to turn into an illithid?)

-Everyone seems to be keeping their exact same personality when turning into a mind flayer (Tav, Karlach, Orpheus)

-Orpheus says we should have let his honor guard kill us and then they would have freed him and he would have dealt with the elder brain. He has been trapped in the prism with his honor guard, long before the emperor showed up. Why would they be able to free him now? Also, why is the emperor able to free him without the orphic hammer? My understanding is that the emperor put up the 2 force shields (the one around the giant skull and the smaller one around him), but he has infernal binds from when he was betrayed by Vlaakith I. His honor guard has been stuck in the prism with him and hasn't been able to free him from the infernal binds.

-The game also seems to interchange Vlaakith I and current Vlaakith, the lich queen (Vlaakith 157). They are not the same person, current lich queen Vlaakith did not imprison Orpheus.

-In act 3 Vlaakith projects herself into our camp and tries to get Laezel to do her bidding again. Why the hell does she not just wish us dead and take the prism. I get having demi god powered characters can be troublesome for narrative, but then why include them into the narrative? (this includes elminster. Gale explains decently why the gods can't interfere so directly, since Ao would not allow it. But Vlaakith is not a god, neither is elminster)

Last edited by The Red Queen; 23/08/23 02:21 PM. Reason: Added spoiler tags