Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [ENDING SPOILERS] Small clarification about the Absolute

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well, because I am not.

So I finished the game yesterday, and yes the ending is awful, clearly unfinished, hopefully will be extended upon in the future etc., but there was something that left me confused.

When you confront the Netherbrain (Elder Brain) it mentions that you coming to it with the netherstones, the Dark God's conspiracy and the Emperor freeing himself was all part of its grand plan (it freed the Emperor on purpose) and that basically by extension everything you did was part of its plan (since you were basically just doing the Emperor's bidding all along by following his infallible master plan which turned out to be the Brain's infallible master plan).

Now the confusion comes from the fact that after that incredible piece of information is revealed the Emperor acts as if I was the problem all along (because I chose not to partake in the tadpole buffet that was offered to me throughout the game), while clearly he was, and expects me to follow his new plan and become an illithid "to be able to take more than one action at a time" (very funny Larian) or give him the stones.

It seemed to me obvious that following his plan again is a trap and that the Emperor (an illithid himself) is being foiled again (the road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that). Why would the Netherbrain be able to foil him once and not twice, and what would be difference now, or actually ever, whether the wielder of the netherstones is an illithid or any other race. It is implied that the Brain's computational power is unmatched, so I assumed the only way to actually beat it, would be to free Orpheus and introduce him as a wild card that might be too much for the Brain to deal with due to his nature.

Ignoring the fact that the Emperor joins the Brain if you decide to free Orpheus for the sake of my sanity, in both cases, wether you free Orpheus or the Emperor consumes him, you still get the same result, and for some reason Orpheus insists that someone needs to be an illithid too? Is everyone just going crazy at this point? Is the ending just a power fantasy that the Elder Brain puts into the characters minds and everyone is actually just laying in a pod on their way to ceremorphosis? That would explain why Gale can just walk up to it, make a snide remark, then proceed with his detonation at his leisure, while if you go there yourself there's a dominated dragon, possibly the Emperor, 50 tentacles and 4 other illithids trying to stop you + a nautiloid shows up to the party providing infinite and unreleting air support. Did they just not show up for Gale because they tought the guy with a nuke in his heart (his condition/presence was also allegedly a part of the Brain's plan btw) was just having a casual stroll atop the Brain?

So what happened with the Brain's master plan? Why did the Brain just sit on top of High Hall waiting to be scaled? Did the Brain get an aneurysm because it broke the 4th wall with its genius and red the script of the game? I guess we'll never know for sure.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the Netherbrain and illuminate me where necessary, as I am deeply confused by this plot point and unsure what to make of this, did my 180 hour adventure even matter? Was I just a pawn in a 12D game of chess, all my choices and decision known in advance and plotted by a litteral giant brain? Is the giant brain a self-insert for Larian's writers? What?