The story of Baldur's Gate 3 starts with escaping a nautiloid ship streaking through Avernus and eventually crashing in bumfuck nowhere with survivors who have been tadpoled as part of the Absolute plot. Alright. Let's go.
Lae'zael: Mortal enemies with ghaik, on a mission to fuck with their shit but shit got fucked. Super understandable.
Minthara: Has many things to say about the whole Absolute business and would like to say them personally. Cool, makes sense.
Jaheira: BG resident, Harper, call back, no more questions.
Minsc: Was a statue because WOTC, tadpoled ?? Well, okay I guess. Random tadpoling was a thing.
Karlach: Stowaway during the Avernus trip. Tadpoled when? Why!? And one of the bad guys in BG is responsible for selling you. That's...certainly a coincidence.
Wyll: Pursuing Karlach. Tadpoled. ...same questions. When? Son of the duke of BG?? O....kay.
Astarion: Vampire spawn of BBEG vampire who set up shop in BG. Wtf, so did the nautiloid ship go out for a light jog and could only grab people from three city blocks?
Gale: Oh no, someone was grabbed from right outside Waterdeep. Oh, the crown of Karsus is a thing about a guy with the exact same ambition you got punked for. And it's...in BG. Right.
Shadowheart: Sent after the prism. Okay, why does Shar want the prism? Dunno, the Mother Superior must have wanted it for her own reasons. What were those reasons? Dunno. Okay. And this Mother Superior is in your cult center in BG? You...you don't say...So is it just me or do most of you have the same background manipulation story too...?
Halsin: Cities are stupid.
Me: ..why are you even here?
It is my opinion that the companions presence in the story feel far too 'coincidental' for my suspension of disbelief. Not only do most of them come from the same small geographical area, but are also all in the same 'stage' of their life: directly after being let off the leash of their manipulator, on the cusp of a decision of what to do about it. This was probably done for thematic reasons, but imo it was OVER done to the point where there are some questionable narrative elements that don't quite justify their circumstances and in other cases has the effect of making them feel 'samey.' You get to a point where their quests line up and it's 'kay, gotta face SH's abuser and then go punch Astarion's abuser in the mouth and then talk to Gale about his problematic girlfriend and Wyll has a devil jerking his chain and gotta kill Gortash because he sold Karlach to HER abuser...'
Shadowheart and Lae'zael look a lot like they have the exact same character arc and once I noticed that, then I went 'oh and Gale and Karlach both have things in their chest that will kill them and Gale and Astarion needing to eat non-food items is part of their storyline and Wyll and Karlach are both tied to Avernus unwillingly...'
What are your thoughts on this?
Forgive me if this has been talked about before. If so, feel free to point me to the relevant thread.
Last edited by Rahaya; 27/11/23 04:07 AM.
