Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Please Larian, Rewrite or Delete [ACT 3 SPOILERS] (very long with spoilers)

“You became my mission. To take a child of Selune's, and turn her over to Lady Shar. To show all light fades, and darkness will prevail in the end.” —BG3 Viconia

Turns out Viconia was the sole reason for Shadowheart’s broken family and decades of suffering. Such wow. Remember how she refused to sacrifice a child to Lolth, bearing the exile and the pain her action caused? Forget it, now she’s a professional child kidnapper, she abducted many children, abused and brainwashed them, she even had a 24/7 torture room, full of bones, blood, and gore. Remember how she resented Lolth for what she did to her brother, how she couldn’t help but missed and felt guilty for him? Great, now she also imprisoned children’s parents and relatives, tortured them, made them suffer the eternal torment her brother suffered, she would even let kids do her job sometimes. Why did she do all these, you ask? Remember even when she was dragged to the sacrifice altar, in fear and about to be killed, she still chose to defy and curse Lolth’s name?

“Lady Shar commanded me. And I obeyed. I do not question - I merely act as she wills me to.” —BG3 Viconia

The writer even had the audacity to retcon one of Viconia’s endings, saying how she wiped out the Shar cult was not a rebellious act, but a super smart big brain move to prove she’s the bestest cruelest Shar cultist of all time. I can’t even describe the disgusted feeling after I completed Shadowheart’s storyline. This “Viconia” shares no common point with any version of true Viconia, I even suspected she was one of Orin’s changelings when I met her. A once complex character, who was flawed but had many heroine’s, even motherly qualities, now was reduced to an almost laughable villain of the week, with a vile mustache and no depth.

The writer who wrote this part, were you on drugs? Were you fucking high? I was even impressed because even if you threw your ink bottle on your drafts, the character won’t be this completely 180.

Someone may say, oh but she was indeed Evil, so it’s natural for her to take this path, right? Stop, just stop. Not all evil characters are the same character, and not all evil characters are fanatic villains of the week. Except for those who have real brain damage, every evil character still has their inner logic, their malice needs a direction, and the direction is decided by their motives and life stories. Even an evil version of Viconia would never be a brainless fanatic who abused children, her experiences decide her malice will always be towards gods/oppressors. An evil version of her could be a woman who’s drawn to blood and vengeance, who’s eager to slaughter all the abusers, not to join the oppressors, become a braindead tool of them, and make more outcasts. (And I don’t understand, why the writer had to make her evil?)

Some others may say, oh maybe she’s brainwashed too, you see, her memory was in Mirror of Loss. Stop again. That explanation is not nearly enough. Imagine all your past adventures and memories were thrown into the garbage can by one line. No, we need a longer, more detailed, and more believable explanation. If it was Viconia who chose to look into Mirror of Loss, why? If she was forced to, by whom? Most importantly, players need a way to change her back. Using Mirror of Loss as an excuse is like saying Karlach becomes a demon boss in BG4, who slaughters and tortures people for fun, and the reason is simply her head was hit by a wagon after BG3.

And no, old characters’ words—Jaheira will talk about Viconia is not as bad as she appears (Minsc’s comments on her though, is just like how the writer wrote her in BG3, full of unreasonable spite, make no sense)—can’t save the narrative, either. Actually, they make things worse, because they imply that players’ past adventures and memories with Viconia do exist, but none of them count now, and Viconia was murdered by players’ own hands. And you’re telling me, Jaheira and Minsc, these two who have accompanied Viconia to the Throne of Bhaal, experienced countless things with her, good or bad, have that little to say when they met?

There’s a rumor that it was WotC’s decision to write the characters this way, despite I didn’t find any evidence (all writers of BG3 on imdb are not from WotC), I think it’s possible. WotC has the copyrights, after all, and they’re well-known clowns (their official Baldur’s Gate novels were so bad that they were mocked by everyone for years). But what I don’t understand is, as far as I know, Jaheira and Minsc in BG3 all differ significantly from themselves in WotC canon (Minsc even poked fun at his hair in WotC canon in his dialogue), so why do Viconia and Sarevok have to be this out of character? Maybe the writer thought letting them be evil could make players from old games easier to kill them, no, this is pure delusion, what becomes easier to kill is the desire to continue playing the game.

So, how to improve Viconia in BG3? Here are some suggestions from an amateur: Delete Shadowheart’s parents, replace them with Viconia. I think Shadowheart’s parents are currently in an awkward position, they don’t have good character arcs or interesting characteristics, and don’t even provide new information or context. Players don’t know them, and to be honest, Shadowheart doesn’t know them either, not really. They’re just tools the writer uses to give players an illusion of weight. I found it difficult to care for two strangers that suddenly appeared in front of me. I could only try to comprehend the writer’s intentions rationally, but couldn’t really empathize with Shadowheart. Why not use Viconia then?

Hear this: Shadowheart and her parents were still former Selune followers, except Shadowheart was a real orphan this time, who was adopted by Viconia after her parents’ passing. Viconia saw her past self in Shadowheart, she raised her with strict but loving guidance, teaching her everything she knew. Slowly, a bond was formed between them. Shar was pleased as well, she saw huge potential in this Selune’s child and wanted to make her a Dark Justiciar. However Viconia, because of her own experiences and bias, disagreed, she didn’t want Shadowheart to lose herself and all the memories, only to become a tool of goddess.

Wouldn’t this be more intriguing? Now there are two conflicts the writer can explore, one is the dynamic between Shadowheart and Viconia, how would Shadowheart see her dear mother, when she believed in the goddess that killed her parents? The second is the growing tension between Viconia and Shar.

One day, Shar decided to skip Viconia and “adjust” Shadowheart by herself, which of course, was defied by Viccy. The beauty of this is she now became just like Valas, her brother, who defended his family from another goddess. And just like her brother, Viconia was captured and tortured by Shar, and Shadowheart was forced to look into Mirror of Loss, then was given the mission to find the artefact. When the player meets her, she only has faith in Shar, besides some vague memories for Mother Superior, which sometimes leaves her sad and confused during the adventure.

At the end, the choice Shadowheart needs to make is:
1. Defy Shar, endure the pain for the rest of her life, but save her mother.
2. Embrace darkness, kill her mother, become a true Dark Justiciar and the new Mother Superior.
3. Allow the hate and anger—that her parents were killed by Shar followers—to consume her. Defy Shar and also kill her mother, cut ties with darkness and “return to the light”, but become a worse person. (This moment should not happen in Act II, in front of Nightsong, an npc she knew nothing about, it’s too soon and lacks weight.)

Okay, enough fanfiction. But isn’t this better than what we got? By doing this, the writer pays respect to the old character, in the meantime they make players from old games care about Shadowheart more. It’s the daughter of Viconia for god sake, who could leave her in the camp?

I also want to talk a bit about Shadowheart. Her quest is called “Daughter of Darkness”, but she is not dark, not at all, I think “Daughter of Darkness except the writer kinda forgot about the Dark part” suits her better. The writer took almost every opportunity to move Shadowheart away from dark, even in Act I, there were too many hints that she was misled, brainwashed, deceived...she was the victim who always wanted light. Which is related to how gods are portrayed in BG3. I think BG3’s gods, or in fact, goddesses, are all poorly written. For example, Selune and Shar, Shar is the big baddie, she cursed people and lands, her followers are all lunatics who like murder, torture, and brainwashing, she’s also very petty, oh boy you better hope you never meet her; Selune is the big goodie, she protects people and has a gentle heart, her followers are all cool, pretty and handsome, she is the walking epitome of blessing.

This oversimplified black-and-white writing in my opinion is not only boring, but also hurts the narrative. It makes Shadowheart’s choice about whether to turn to darkness actually become no choice at all, she has no reason to, and the player can’t find any believable motives for her either. The choice becomes nothing more than an option only for players’ curiosity: oh I want to see what an evil Shadowheart looks like.

But Shar and Selune are two sides of the same coin. Yes, Shar is indeed the goddess of darkness and loss, but darkness has a gentle side as well. For the outcasts who are abandoned by the world, darkness is the only place that allows them to stay (this is the reason why Viconia served Shar in the first place). Why not make Shar a stubborn but honest goddess, who truly believes that darkness and loss are blessings she could give to humans, instead of the petty cartoon villain we got. And Selune has a ruthless, unforgiving side (like how Aylin beat the old man into a pulp) . Won’t this be more interesting? Do you know for how many people in dnd background, the ability to forget is a real blessing? Put some important npcs like that in the game, show us how they’re truly helped by Shar, won’t that make Shadowheart’s choice at the end have more weight? Don’t just place some hollows in front of the house and call it a day, where am I, Northern Undead Asylum?

What I want to see at the end of Shadowheart's storyline is a conversation about faith between her and Viconia, two real "Daughters of Darkness," with the player or even with Shar. Viconia can tell Shadowheart the disagreements between her and Shar, what kind of a jerk Shar is, but she did accept her when no one else would, saved her and brought her peace in the past. Shar can explain to Shadowheart what love and acceptance mean in her eyes. Not the “light is good, dark is bad, I spit on your face, goodbye” we got right now. The philosophical discussions about Dark and Light Shadowheart could offer would also be very interesting because of her identity. But we got none of those in the game. So many missed opportunities, even Divinity Original Sin 2 did a much better job in this aspect.

(Although to be honest, this is not all Larian’s fault. At this point, badly written evil gods is already a kind of tradition of dnd.)

Last but no least, make Viconia recruitable. Please, many players have waited for this for 20 years.