Originally Posted by Rahaya
More people should understand that if you need to handwave/assume/headcanon something to make it make sense, then you are saying it is poorly written, full stop. A good story explains itself. I've graduated to just viewing BG3 as a modern day reboot of the franchise instead of a sequel, because yikes and oof. It managed to 'reimagine' the plot of BG1 and fill it with more holes than swiss cheese at the same time. Which is typical of modern reboots, really.

One thing that BG3 has over modern reboots is that BG3, whether by design or not has a strong foundation for a potentionally breathtaking story.

I'll bring up Star Wars again as an example, and the more recent Ashoka series at that. Whatever plot they were going to delve into, it was never going to work, as they had already told those stories much better in previous shows - it's just a cheap case of plagiarism. BG3 on the other hand, while significantly messing up continuity could have told a great story, even if some bits are repeated from previous titles. As I outlined in my post that I linked before, you could have had Durge defined as the main antagonist/protagonist, you could have had a significant power play between the Brain, Bhaal and Emperor/Balduran (even Jergal on the side, masquerading as Withers) as they try to convince an amnesiac monster to be on their side... There is significant potential in there. You could have had each origin's playthrough alter the outcome of the main story, you could have had proper friction amongst the player and the many NPC-s around them, you could have hand many different endings, you could have had an epilogue...

Unfortunately, it's a case of could have been, in a plot that was set up in one way but then completely taken a way that should have been impossible to travel down on, according to the very script itself. And I have hope that it might still be, in the form of a definitive edition for this game, because it desperately needs one.