I'm suddenly realizing something else about the story. It doesn't have a main villain, not really. And it makes sense in hindsight. Way back when they first revealed Kethric, they said he was a lieutenant of the main villain, like the other three chosen. And I think that's how they're written
Look at it this way; at the start of the game in act 1, our main enemy is the vague concept of the Absolute and its cult. But then Kethric becomes the main villain for act 2, but the Absolute is still above him. And then the reveal. The absolute is actually a lie, a tool, wielded by the chosen of the dead three to enact their masters plan. But... the dead three never take centre stage, and set 3 has the looming threat of the elder brain, which is the absolute, breaking free, something even the chosen are worried about, so we have to worry about that. And we kill yhe chosen before the end of the game and the final battle is against tbe brain, which is never an active presence in the story. So... who is the main, central antagonist?
Yo don't HAVE to kill all of the chosen.
I honoured my deal with Gortash and we went to face the netherbrain together after I killed Orin and got her stone. Him holding on to his stone, and me carrying those of Ketheric and Orin. We can't control the crown however and the brain blasts Gortash before the emperor appears to give us shelter on the astral plane.
So in this path, Gortash is not a villain with respect to the player. We're both villains.
I haven't playeed the inverse , kill Gortash and keep the pact with Orin, but somehow I think Orin will want to kill you anyway.
My poiont still stands though. He's not really the central antagonist, so there is no central antagonist. The game is just unfocused, forcing all these potential antagonists to share screentime in a way that diminishes all of them. If the game had just picked a lane it could have felt much stronger and more narratively clear. I think the Netherbrain should never have broken free. It should have always remained as a tool for the chosen, and if we were to fight it, it should have been because the chosen sent it to attack us.
Are they though, structurally? The dead three themselves are just distant entities, not characters we really deal with, beyond having brief exchanges with. We don't get a chance to feel anything towards them as antagonists. The netherbrain isn't really the central antagonist until the very end. Before that it's not a character, it's just a force of nature at best, but it takes focus from the chosen, who should technically be the central antagonists by virtue of being the most active antagonists. But we don't even know who they are until the end of act 2, at which point their big concern is the netherbrain that isn't even a character.
There's no focus, same as every other part of the main plot.
Lots of media have more distant/mysterious antagonists, so for me, it's not the biggest issue, it's that it's not well executed. Even if they are not as present, there should be some incentive for them to feel like antagonists.
We're in agreement on this point. The problem is that the dead three aren't just distant, they're absent. They're not really characters, they're a vague threat. Which is fine, because when that's the case you use the villain's enforcers to serve as the personal antagonists that the audience and the protagonists feel invested in. But the chosen really aren't that.
I gave the question some more thought and what I enjoy most about the main story is, when it is more a theme that the other stories are riffing of than an actual story. In Act 2 everything is about gods and the relationships the characters have with them. Lae'zel and Shadowheart have their different brands of deep devotion, Gale and Halsin have more personal relationships with their respective deity, Kethric changes gods according to his needs, Astarion has given up on them and sees faith as a tool of worldly power, etc. I like how they explored theses themes and I like finding about more about the cult and about what happened to Kethric's army. I am not sure if the main story is good but I like the investigative work you can put in to piece everything together.
I think you are absolutely right on the money here. Act 2 is my favorite act potentially, because it feels actually focused. Act one is all about exploring, ostensibly to find a cure but they really pull the rug out of your ability to emotionally invest in the stakes of that search, so you just end up roaming around doing stuff for the sake of doing it. In act 2 though, we have a consistent goal that compliments our exploring the area. We also get a secondary character in the form of Jaheira, who actually has some significance and presence in the story. We have a clear antagonist and purpose, it all comes together.
