Originally Posted by saeran
And he will lash out like a sociopath would. When someone ignores consent ("I'll take that as a yes", the emperor replies, if you tell him no), when they threaten you to force compliance, that goes beyond being angry with someone.

The protagonist's words and the emperor's response are not on the same level. If someone tells you they don't trust you because of who you are, by all means, call them out on being hurtful. But forcing someone to listen how you enslaved someone, to try to intimidate them into obedience, is frankly disturbing. And it is not something I'd ever find any understading towards.

Or maybe he finally hit his limits because of the ungrateful brats he keeps saving all the time that can't stop whining about him being a mindflayer, because after all him being one is the only reason why everyone is still alive grin

*Am implying the party characters here being brats, not players. Hopefully no offense was taken*

It's important to understand that him being a mindflayer has been used against him from the moment he started existing, to the point his own friend even tried to murder him. He's been forsaken by everyone, cannot create any connections with anyone and is clearly suffering from loneliness as the only person he gets to interact with after all these years is the main character. So naturally in an intimate moment where he thinks he has a connection with us (because one can't get this scene by treating him poorly), he'll get infuriated when after everything we've been through and everything he keeps doing for us, we're still discriminating him for being a mindflayer, especially after he already said he has no reason to lie anymore.

So yeah... if you wanna keep thinking of him as just a manipulative monster that's using you and by doing so dehumanize him, he'll show you the monster you think he is if you insist being a stubborn mule about it. Because not everyone reacts the same way, Karlach for example if you break her heart will threaten to murder you too with a ton of rage. Minthara does not even require you to hurt her feelings, she'll threaten to gut you just for thinking about it.

So you know... you can reject him politely without being mean about it. Therefore I disagree that he should call players out on it being hurtful, because I'm tired of all our companions being agreeable stooges without any rough edges in their personalities, discussing feelings and singing kumbaya around the campfire. Screw that, finally someone who has balls between their legs and isn't afraid to stand up for themselves. Hurt his feelings, treat him like trash and he'll fight back. He does not take tsk'va from anybody! grin

[Linked Image from bg3.wiki] Minthara's Compendium Of Issues