Spoilers Ahead........
So can anyone explain to me the logic behind the last interaction in the Astral prism before the elder-brain fight? You are pulled into the Astral Prism by the Emperor after he realizes you can't use the nether stones to defeat the brain. He then claims "only an Illithid can use the stones". Firstly that seems to be a rather big design flaw by the Human Netherease Wizard that created them but lets go with it. The Emperor than say either he can use the stones or you can (but you'll need to change into a mind-flayer) but even then only if you/he eats Orpheus' brain. The two big issues I have are:
A) if you object and say you will release Orpheus, the Emperor just gives up any attempt to remain an individual and immediately goes off to be a slave to the Elder-brain. This makes no sense! Even if your chances of success are very small he could just go hide somewhere and, if you succeed he gets to remain free and if you fail....well he's no worse off. The idea that he just gives up in a fit of peak is ridiculous.
B) once the Emperor has left and you release Orpheus it turns out that he, despite being able to hold back the power of the Elder-brain, he can't use the netherstones either. He tells you that you or he will need to become a mind flayer (it's also a bummer of an ending if he changes as the gith race is now screwed). If you refuse, he becomes a mind-flayer, but how? There is no explanation. He doesn't have a tadpole so what happens and why can't he just change back whenever he wants? If you undergo the change apparently you don't need to eat Orpheus' brains after all, so you could have released him and had the Emperor use the stones and everyone would have been happy but the Emperor won't entertain that fairly simple idea and goes off in a sulk!
The result is that you have to make a difficult choice for really no other reason that Larian think it's dramatic. Am I missing something or is this all as silly as it seems?
Last edited by trs31; 23/09/23 01:18 PM.
