Many people complain that Wyll’s questline is subpar compared to other companions, which is ironic because he arguably has the most ties to the main storyline, especially in Act 3. But in practice, every single part of his quest he has his spotlight stolen by someone else: Karlach, Mizora, Florrick, Gortaash, Duke Raavengard, the Emperor. He has no agency over anything and constantly gets sidelined by more impactful characters or events. The Ansur quest is where this peaks.
The Balduran reveal is bad enough in that it is a very easily missable side quest of a companion quest instead of part of the concerned character’s (the Emperor’s) storyline. Worse, there's a complete lack of companion reaction, and any subsequent Emperor scenes, if you’ve done them out of a certain order, don't recognize the reveal. But the worst thing that scene does is completely sideline Wyll, even though it didn’t have to:
It was the perfect "never meet your heroes" setup, and it was ruined. Wyll's more upset that a dragon we didn't even know existed until five days ago is dead than that his hero turned out to be a Mindflayer who doesn't give two shits about ideals. And the way his end-of-quest lines trigger right there and then, it looks like he gets over it in a matter of minutes.
He should be shaken by the Balduran reveal. Let him go to camp, brood on it for a couple of long rests. A scene where your character walks in on him and the Emperor discussing heroics and morality in the Astral Plane. Then he decides to look ahead.
Similarly, his "should I be a hero on the streets or can I do more good from that high backed chair" dilemma would have been a perfect one if it was triggered by Wyll observing the Absolute's ploy, how Gortash gained control, how he could do some good from that same position. But as the scene is currently presented it goes: "the dragon's dead I amount to nothing > no, I'm actually strong, I'm a hero! > Wait, I can even rule the city thanks to daddy! > omg what should I do, PC?"
I do not pretend to know what to prioritise when working on a game. But tweaking Astarion’s questline (referring to the music change) even though it's the most consistent one in the game, or editing Gortash’s “love” letters, seems redundant to me. Especially when there’s whole story paths that feel like unpolished, late game additions in Act 3 – Wyll, Karlach, the Emperor, Minthara. Ofc small tweaks like letters and music are much easier to implemment than big changes that include voice lines, just saying why waste resources on parts of the game that have nothing wrong with them when you should be focusing on parts that are lacking/wonky.
Anyways, in Wyll’s case I think the whole questline would look significantly better if he had a proper end-of-quest reflection. And personally it'd have been interesting to see more interaction between him and his former "hero". What do you guys think?
edit tl;dr: The problem isn't Wyll's character or questline, but his complete lack of agency over it, plus lack of coherent, fleshed-out quest resolution and reflection.
Last edited by kirkoni; 18/01/24 11:28 AM.
