Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Problems with an evil Dark Urge's story (spoilers, NSFW)

6. A severe mischaracterization (heavy NSFW)

Now, this is ultimately a small criticism in the grand scale (a nitpick if you will), but this is something that has strung me along all the way to the end of the game from the first quarter of Act1 only to never have a payoff. I was always curious as to what is acceptable to put into a video game and what isn't. Across the history of gaming, we've had stories like Mortal Kombat being way too gory, or something like CoD Modern Warfare2 where you get to be in the boots of a terrorist and slaughter an entire airport. Thus I was instantly hooked the moment this was revealed as a possibility, as it would have taken MASSIVE balls to pull something like this off to further solidify the character of the Dark Urge.

After you kill Alfira in Act1, Sceleritas randomly drops the fact that the Dark Urge used to be a necrophiliac, and that they will "have it back on their schedule soon". Now, we know that the only thing that matters to the Urge is to "kill, kill and kill again". It is the one and only motivator and the purest instinct they have. The thing is, there are PLENTY of moments where that - let's just say hobby - could be explored during the plot. However, this is never touched on afterwards, leaving this one small one-liner in a weird spot.

The thing is, any type of nercrophilia or sexual assault falls WILDLY outside the characteristics of the Dark Urge - in fact, I don't think there are any other times in the plot across all the origins and possibilities where anything close to this comes up. So by the end, this small one-liner is simply meant to be there as a weak attempt to further portray the Urge as an unhinged villain without actually committing to it. And again, this is something that is very, very questionable to put into any media, but if you don't commit to it, why have it? That one liner could easily be removed, and the character would actually come off way better (not to mention the company itself removing a giant legal and safety risk). But of course, you can also choose to commit to it to extend and complete the portrayal of the evil you play as.

Non-NSFW TL;DR: The vileness of the Urge is presented in an extreme way that is then not explored, only leaving the character weaker. The character would be better off with that one small one-liner removed and forgotten about - or expanded, which comes with major risks as they often do in any media when artists try to portray the most inhuman behaviours possible.