Removing the Emperor would do more harm to the story than good. They would have to fill in all the holes where they remove him. It would be a huge undertaking both narratively and from a game development perspective. The amount of work required would be unreasonable. Not to speak of all the work they would be throwing away on top of it all.
It’s better that they improve on his character instead. He is interesting and has the potential to be a very memorable character. He just needs more depth.
Unfortunately most players see him as this manipulative villain. The “bad choice” for a lack of a better word.
If they want to make the final choice carry weight and be more impactful, they need to even out the playing field. The game makes Orpheus seem like this caring, understanding victim. A hero who will free his people from tyranny. It also shows Vlaakith to be incredibly evil. So of course people are going to choose Orpheus without a second thought. They get to free the gith hero, help a companion and potentially stomp on Vlaakith!
The Emperor on the other hand? We get a freedom squid who leaves the second it’s all over and an unhappy companion. It doesn’t help that he gets shown all this dirt in act 3 with little good to make up for it. It’s unfortunate. What should be a big choice doesn’t feel like one because the scale is so heavily unbalanced in favour of Orpheus.
I’m sure a lot of these issues stem from him being a late addition as a Daisy rewrite. He’s much more interesting than Daisy ever was, so it was a good move on Larian’s part IMO. His character just needs a little more time in the oven to bake.
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Also another neat Reddit thread about the gith and emps. Discussions like these are always worth adding. It’s nice to see other people’s opinions on his character. I hope these discussions will help Larian flesh out the Emperor.
https://reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/us0p1J59NR
