Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [Spoilers] Important plot points missing from ending?

So aside from the post-credits the dead three don't feature in the ending at all? I was delighted by the reveal at the end of act two that it's more than just mindflayers, but then in the end it's just mindflayers. Also, Withers tells us we need to find out what they are up to since mindflayers don't have souls that would be useful to gods, and then no follow-up? That would have been the perfect end-game stakes-raising reveal, and without it everything feels a bit wet to me. As far as I can tell the only place that question is answered is if you speak with dead on Gortash's corpse, a brief conversation which is bugged with no voice acting.

In fact the thing about mindflayer souls seems like a really philosophically interesting, thematically rich topic the likes of which all the best CRPGs grapple with, and I'm particularly sad that it's glossed over.

We don't get to decide what to do with the crown? It just falls in the river and that's it, aside from a few lines for Gale? It seemed like it was set up to be a much bigger deal than that. I was sure we'd get to choose to give it to Mystra or Raphael or destroy it, or claim it for ourselves, maybe in some kind of elaborate secret ending where we ascend to godhood like in a certain other CRPG.

This seems like the biggest oversight to me. Raphael is such an important and compelling character I can't believe his presence in the ending is so light. If you didn't deal with him surely he would show up to try and get the crown. And if you did make the deal there absolutely should be a scene where you face the consequences of that. You should have a choice to give him the crown or destroy it, sacrificing your soul in the process, or try to outwit him as is tradition with the devil deal trope. I realise there is a bugged post-credits scene with him if you make the deal, but it's lame.