Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion The Emperor tadpoled us!

Betrayed his friend? His stuck-living-in-the-past friend tried to murder him!

First of the Emperor truly is right.

His past does not matter because this ain't a dating show and knowing his past does nothing to better our survival chances, so I don't understand why people judge him or even care about stupid Ansur, because the point of that whole encounter is not that he cannot be trusted nor that he's a survivor. The point is that he won't do anything malicious to you unless you try doing it first to him. And he will regret it, but he'll do what is necessary.

Ansur deserved his fate because he was blinded by what he used to have, instead of seeing what he truly had instead... a mindflayer friend who accepted his fate and is capable of so much more. So can we blame the Emperor for being so secretive, manipulating and leaving out unimportant details of his story when his best friend (and perhaps even lover) tried to murder him just because he is a mindflayer?

Is this not true for all players too who immediately upon learning his past start judging him and condemning him just because he is a mindflayer who prefers to keep his story out of the way? So yes, he is absolutely right to hide details of his past because as you see majority of players immediately convict him of crime, despite him being a victim in it.

Second of the Emperor is not a malicious whatsoever.

• This is proven numerous times because nothing he does towards us is malicious in any way, unless you become malicious towards him.
• This is further proven by a letter [Shield Steward Interrogation Log] showing what happened to a certain steward who happened to stumble across the Emperor's secret room.
  
  
  Transcript of key passage in the interrogation of Flovus Nuge, steward of the Knights of the Shield Hall
  
  Black Hand - When did you begin to suspect that Duke Stelmane was not herself?
  
  Nuge - I cleared her dinner dishes after a meal of mutton pie, but when I got the dish up to the kitchen the mutton was... brains.
  
  Black Hand - Brains?
  
  Nuge - And not sheep brains, neither. So I started poking around.
  
  Black Hand - In the Elfsong Cellar?
  
  Nuge - In the Knights' secret chambers, yes. And I found a cell with a body in it, a corpse in city prison stripes.
  
  Black Hand - A dead state prisoner?
  
  Nuge - If I tell you about this, you're going to let me go, right?
  
  Black Hand - Right.
  
  Nuge - It was a condemned criminal with the top oftheir head shattered and the brain mostly gone.
  
  Black Hand - In Stelmane's rooms?
  
  Nuge - The secret part, yes. That's where she found me.
  
  Black Hand - She WHAT?
  
  Nuge - Found me, it found me. At first I thought she was blue and floating, but then it was just Stelmane. She smiled. I don't remember anything after that.
  
  He found all of the Emperor's prisoners and they truly were convicted criminals, after which he stumbled upon him too. The Emperor did not kill him nor erase his mind entirely, he only erased the fact he saw him as a mindflayer.

So he does tell the truth a lot more than people think and he truly never lies to us after discovering he is a mindflayer. Him not telling the whole story is simply his defense mechanism to avoid what happened to dumb Ansur who only saw a mindflayer as a bad thing. But naturally players just see a mindflayer too and immediately start doubting every single word that comes out of his mouth.

He is far more honest than people give him credit and if you treat him respectfully he'll extremely admire you for your intelligence for accepting him for who he truly is, but unfortunately just like Ansur... players are unable to understand his character because all they see is a mindflayer.

He catfished us for our own good to save us, so he can save himself through us as well. And everything else falls into place. But after his reveal, he not once lies to us. He did what he had to do because there was no other way. I understand his actions despite not agreeing with them, but a liar he is not because as is evident he is right. His past does nothing good, it only throws a wrench into everything and starts destroying the alliance. Just like it destroyed Ansur, just like it destroyed Stelmane and just like it destroys the players if they only treat him as an untrustworthy mindflayer.

All he wants is to live.

Is that truly such a huge crime? Should he have just rolled over and died for Ansur, who's stuck in living the past? People keep using "SURVIVAL" against him like it's a crime, yet it's this same reason that also saves the world because when he has the Netherbrain in his clutches, he does not want to do dominate it precisely because he wants to live.

So truly players do not at all understand the layers behind his complex character;

• Astarion is far more evil
• Gale walks around with a nuclear bomb around without telling anyone
• Lae'zel killed her own cousins without a moment of hesitation at her varsh's command and even sabotages the group numerous times because of her damn idealistic views
• Shadowheart is far more untrustworthy...
• Even Omeluum who players praise as "the benevolent mindflayer" is equally as manipulative because he does want to help the player, but mostly because he gets to study the exquisitely unique tadpole in our heads... He even nonchalantly says if we die that he'll be happy to perform another examination... really?! REALLY?! What a nice mindflayer truly.

Yet the Emperor who does EVERYTHING for us and not a single malicious thing and doesn't even lie after his reveal, is considered an unforgivable untrustworthy menace despite being a victim and on top of it all a mindflayer, JUST because he wants to live no matter what.