Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion *Spoilers* Guardian is ridicolous

The emperor and Stelmane can also be frenemies, easily. Consider this series of events :

Duke Belynne Stelmane, leader of the Knights of the Shield, is also servant of the pit fiend Garguath, the hidden lord of the shield. She serves the council of four but is truely trying to free her master from his prison. Comes Balduran, returning to the streets of Baldur's Gate as a mind flayer secures his survival by joining the Knights of the Shield. Having a mind flayer is such an asset to the organization activities he rose through the ranks, enough to learn the secrets of the Knights of the Shield's leadership. Learning of the hidden lord, the emperor concludes the devil is a threat to his continued survival, ambushes Stelmane in her home, rakes her mind of information and placing her under a geas, compelling her against her true purpose and not act against Baldur's Gate and the emperor, installing himself as the new puppet master of the Knights of the Shield thwarting Garguath. Stelmane discovers she cannot act against the compulsions without damaging her position of power as well her body, so she complies biding her time. The emperor in his new position is even more isolated, more so as a renegade mind flayer aberration in surface city, Stelmane becomes the emperor's only source of social interaction. Over the next decade or so they operate the knights of the shield as partners without the influence of Garguath, Stelmane would come to respect the Emperor's mental acuity and knowledge, being his confidant in the business, but wouldn't hesitate to gut him in the name of Garguath if and when she manages to break free. But for the emperor, being the only source of socialization and one who knows his identity for well over a decade, she would been his only friend since Ansur.

Stelmane was the emperor's friend, or just one sided friend if you prefer and still consistent with the assertion the emperor never lied to you.

Do you even have a choice not to do it to the netherbrain underground ? lol

Nope, no choice - obviously Larian isn't as morally opposed to such things as I am. I would've preferred to just take control of the crown and use its power to kill the brain/tadpoles without domination.

What was strange in the first place was his reactivity if you didn't consume tadpoles. He stopped talking about it but still always mentioned when there was a tadpole nearby. I found it a bit sad that there was not much more to refusing all of the tadpoles.

The initial reveal in Act 3 wasn't bad when I experienced it. For me it made sense that I fought against the Githyanki as I didn't have Lae'Zel in my party anyway. Though I have read that you don't have a real choice at this point. That leads me to my main problem with him: You are entirely at his mercy. If I understood correctly you can only use the Orphic Hammer in the end, right? So you have to put up with him until the point of no return. And I found this a bit disappointing as he is far far from an unproblematic character as many have already enstablished in detail.

I felt that it took away Player agency where it would have been interesting and could be expected. There isn't a meaningful way to detach yourself from him. A moment that upset me for example was the encounter with Ansur. I played a draconic bloodline Sorcerer and after Ansur was hyped up a bit by Wyll and Duke Ravengard, I was excited how my character could interact with him. I was even glad I spoiled myself and knew he was already dead because there was sadly no real choice or reactivity at all. I had one answer because of the race that didn't change anything, my class didn't matter and the Guardian somehow killed an at least Adult Dragon on his own. And after the short dialogue where I couldn't even really critisize the Guardian, I'm forced into a fight my character would never want. After I didn't get the mechanic in my first try I just fled the fight, at least trying to forge my own childish headcanon how that encounter ended. And though my character now should know that Ansur was killed by Balduran the game pretended like the encounter didn't even happen. That was bad. I know that was a very character specific view of this encounter but for me it initially seemed like an important story beat that fell completely flat. Is there meaningful dialogue after you re-kill Ansur?

So even if your character starts to hate the Guardian, you can't leave. You have to put up with him.

With this in mind I just don't get the image that they seemingly try to paint with the Guardian. He doesn't seem good at heart or morally grey at all to me. Omeluum seems to have good intentions, the Guardian just says he does while killing the "Heart of the Gate" and manipulating left and right. In the end Mindflayers aren't the people they were anymore and I don't think I like that the game pretends they now more or less are.

To be honest, I get the feeling that they like their Mindflayer-Idea just a little too much. I found myselft thinking about the Source Collars in DOS II and comparing them to the Tadpoles. I thought getting rid of the Tadpoles at Moonrise and then feel responsible to put an end to it all could've also been an interesting solution. DnD has so many option to handle so many things, but at times it feels like the game brushes them aside so the story works (Gale's Scroll Of True Resurrection always comes to mind. Dying makes the tadpoles leave a body, so crushing the head and using such a scroll should do the job?).

There's no such thing as a "one sided friend". Friendship by definition requires reciprocity, otherwise it is no friendship at all. Furthermore, even if you respect someone's abilities that doesn't make that person your friend. I can respect my worst enemy's qualities but that has absolutely no bearing on my relationship with them. Stelmane is more like a caged tiger whom the Emperor considers his pet despite the fact that it would likely try to kill him if not for the bars.

So yes, the Emperor is definitely lying by characterising this relationship the way he does.

Also what makes it "sick and degenerate" is not the mind control part per se. I don't see a big problem with mind controlling some villain and using them to e.g. subvert their evil organisation for a good purpose instead of just outright killing them. What makes it sick is that he abuses this arrangement and controls Stelmane to engage in certain social situations with him because he feels some kind of void due to being Mindflayer who has residual attachments to his past life as a human. He effectively makes her act out his fantasies. That is just deeply disturbed and depraved behaviour. Most people will ultimately view that is wrong to transgress certain parts of someone's personhood even if that person is "evil".

later revealed to be Balduran. Imagine embarking on a companion quest to uncover the Emperor's secret hideout and then confronting the Ansur. That would have added a fascinating layer to the narrative.

later revealed to be Balduran. Imagine embarking on a companion quest to uncover the Emperor's secret hideout and then confronting the Ansur. That would have added a fascinating layer to the narrative.

later revealed to be Balduran. Imagine embarking on a companion quest to uncover the Emperor's secret hideout and then confronting the Ansur. That would have added a fascinating layer to the narrative.

they banged.