Originally Posted by Ieldra2
That change happened when they deleted Daisy, but I don't necessarily agree that becoming a mind flayer is the main intended path. It seems to me that rather, allying with the Emperor is the intended path - supported by your observation that not doing this is underdeveloped - by which you avoid becoming a mind flayer.

I think we largely agree - I just see slurping up tadpoles on the recommendation of the Guardian as being steps on a path to becoming a mind flayer. And if you swallow the astral tadpole Tav becomes half mindflayer - which the emperor calls the next stage in our evolution. 'Next' implying that there are stages after that. The game doesn't tell us what happens to the MC that take the main path through the game. Are we still half illithid?