There is a *lot* to unpack here. I might not touch on everything.
THE EMPEROR
Okay. Just... I don't like the Emperor at all. Maybe he could've worked if he wasn't so godsdamned linear. He always forgets our previous conversations - even if I tried to kill him, or threatened to do so. 'Hey, let's bang. I already have my shirt off'
Just prior to Act 3 you get this 'okay, now you have to choose moment' wherein you can side with the not-githzerai.... And then, the game doesn't let you. So, you're stuck with him until the very last....... Where he JOINS THE ABSOLUTE? Noooo.
Secondly, he *is* a villain. But siding with him, you never get the consequences for that.
Lastly - the bit where.. Oh, that's Wyll's Quest. Well, let's do that first.
WYLL's QUEST
I don't like how Wyll has absolutely ZERO agency. He might as well be one of the tieflings and it being 'Mizora's Quest'. Hell, come to think of it, Zevlor has a better arc than Wyll does.
Then, his dragon quest. What a load of nonsense.
You should totally recruit the dragon.
Well. Dragon was already dead, Emperor killed him
That's fine, if you can defeat a dragon, we didn't a dragon.
Hokay.
The Emperor turned out to be Balduran.
That makes no sense, we will never speak of this.
LAE'ZEL's QUEST
I really like her quest. It has something to keep in mind from early on in Act 1 to the very literal end. It is entirely woven into the main story.
That also means, that if you don't have her in the party, the whole main plot falls flat on its face. NO more Voss, no more reason to free Oprheus, no more 'why making a choice here is important'
In my first two playthroughs, Lae'zel died at the hands of Shadowheart and it wasn't until later how much more sense the main plot makes with her around.
The way I see it, Lae'Zel is the main character. Not Tav, not Durge, Lae'zel is.
Gale's Quest doesn't really kick off until Act 3, which is a long time into the game. Other than that, I feel it's fine. I like how he has a stake in the Main Plot.
Astarion's Quest, I hate to say, I've not too much to say on. I don't like Astarion. I've killed his master, but never with Astarion actually around. I don't care. He's wrritten for very specific demographics of which I am not a part. If Astarion didn't have something very handy to do in Act 2, I'd never have him in my party ever again. Maybe on a super evil murder-hobo run, but I don't like how that plays out.
Shadowheart's is fine, whichever way it goes. I like it well enough. I wish it had something more of an impact on the main story. But, only Gale and Laezel have a connection to the main plot, so.. I guess it's fine.
Orin v Gortash is, again, fine. I wish they were antagonists earlier but we don't meet them until it's basically over already - and it's already established they're just in your way and not the big bad at all.
Pets are fine. Look, I will never ever get enough of the Owlbear Cub so anything that has more Owlbear cub would be great. But by the same token, I know that most players have this towards Astarion.
