But we get breadcrumbs because we like the one truly evil companion?
The thing is she isn't a truly evil companion whatsoever, but I don't blame you for thinking so because Larian intentionally made it impossible for most players to perceive her any other way due to how much is lost by legitimately recruiting her (something that's not even her fault) and using absolutely everything against her trying to make her look bad.
She's in fact an almost-exact reflection of Lae'zel and even better than her, because unlike Lae'zel whose biggest flaw is her own dense sense of honourable duty no matter what to the point she'd even doom everyone around her, Minthara is a calm pragmatic who looks at a situation and acts accordingly out of necessity and logic, not out of malice or any misguided reasons.
- Both come from a brainwashing society with very deep rooted cultures (which is why Minthara is fascinated by Lae'zel a lot)
- Both kill and enjoy killing, however unlike Lae'zel who literally does kill for the sake of glory and doesn't have a single issue with murdering the Grove, Minthara hates mindless purposeless killing (both for the Grove and Dark Urge)
- Both are loyal to no end, except Lae'zel remains loyal as long as your actions align with her own dense sense of duty. If they do not, she'll betray you in an instant even if it dooms the party or the world.
- Both are reasonable, however Lae'zel (once again) stops being reasonable when her duty clashes with what must be done and would doom the party or the world.
- Both are exiles in a world they know nothing about, with their own cultures often clashing due to their inexperience.
- Ultimately Minthara is a calm pragmatic, while Lae'zel is a blindly emotional honour-bound naive fool (I don't mean this as an insult, she just truly is a blind naive fool who's unable to see what needs to be done).
And most importantly; the Minthara raiding the Grove is not Minthara, that's just a dominated puppet. The real Minthara is the person we meet during the love scene in ACT I and afterwards in ACT II once she's rescued, someone who would never even raid the Grove to begin with, not because she is a saint, but because she would have no reason to mindlessly kill refugees.
In short;
I would fully put my life in Minthara's hands and sleep peacefully at night without a care in the world because she is the epitome of loyalty, I can't say the same about Lae'zel despite how much I also love her. So although I understand why people think that Minthara is truly evil, she is in fact not the worst companion at all. Astarion would be the worst as he truly loves inflicting misery upon others, followed by Lae'zel and only then Minthara.
But thank you so much for joining the forums, every voice is appreciated in support of Minthara!
