You're right, I had forgotten that bit. Better than I was giving the section credit for, but that still doesn't excuse the lack of agency within the dream itself, in my opinion. Also yeah, we were given a portion of canvas and told "hey, what do you think of this portion?" Larian clearly agreed that the final product wasn't going to be worth it either. I'd be interested to hear what your interpretation of the scene was, but you're right that my mind's made up overall. Not just about Daisy, but aboutu the game as a whole. I had various issues with the game's freedom to roleplay and develop our characters that I actually still have in the final release version. I was unimpressed with the game back then and I remain unimpressed now. I think the guardian is the lesser evil in this dichotomy, but I now no longer believe that Larian's vision for this game was ever going to align with something I found satisfactory.

Also to just give my thoughts on another seemingly popular theory on how the Daisy plot would unfurl, which is that our mind was being fought over by Orpheus and the tadpole, that seems like another plot point that's cool in theory but Larian's approach to it wouldn't have worked. For one thing, we could completely miss learning about Orpheus until act 3, because even in EA the route through the mountain and through the underdark was framed as a choicie between the two. Given Orpheus' relative lack of consequence to the plot as it is now, it's already dumb that we can just skip past learning anything about him. Imagine if he was actually more important? People think the emperor reveal was bad, imagine that; oh no, it turns out our mind was being fought over by the tadpole and... this guy we have no context for. Also, what's the fun of that struggle if we can't understand hohw the struggle itself is affecting us. Not just having the tadpole and being tempted, but being pulled between the two sides?