I should say, fun cameos for some characters I don't consider bad. Some characters are more deeply written than others. I think you could get away with a "Wink wink nudge nudge oh look it's Jan Jansen! Or Mazzy Fentan!" or something like that.
Other characters, however, are clearly more important and need to have more thought given to their inclusion. Viconia, I think, is a nuanced enough character, with a fantastic enough romantic arc, that her appearance should have been more thoughtful. Maybe I'm biased, because she is by far my favorite romance in the originals (And not just because she's an edgy sexy drow lady, though that helps).
But Viconia is such a tragic character, in my view; born into the heart of evil, into a privileged position there, and even then still having an attack of conscience. And her reward for her conscience is to be persecuted, to be hunted down arbitrarily on the surface. And the only character who treats her with any decency is you, and just being shown a bit of kindness is enough to get her on the path to abandoning evil. In a way Viconia can be read as a character with an innately good nature, struggling against the fact that she grew up in, was brainwashed into, one of the most dehumanizing, sadistic, cruel societies imaginable. And this appearance could have shown that tragically, there is no happy end for her. That absent the redemption path in BG2, she wasn't going to find redemption on her own. She couldn't do it all alone, and in service to Shar the sense of injustice she once had would slowly be chipped away, forgotten, erased from her, even as she erased Shadowheart's identity. Her potential fate in the original games could really make you *feel* what a sadistic monster Lolth was. I feel like if she was written better in BG3, it could have made you feel the depths of Shar's evil.
I don't know, again maybe I'm biased. I just feel like she deserved more.
That is personal taste. What makes Viconia more important than Mazzy or Jan? I personally have Jan and Mazzy always in my party but do not care for Viconia at all.
I would have been more mad, if they brought in Jan or Mazzy and not get them right.
I'm not saying they are more important than Viconia or Sarevok, but from a players perspective neither are less important.
Just because Jan and Mazzy don't have the standard edgy backstory doesn't make them less deep. I personally prefer some more sane and healthy conpanioyover an edge fest.
And yeah,I agree with Bubba, Viconias development was from one crazy evil goddess to another. That isn't much of a development imo. ( and without going into real life stuff: evil dictators, that kill thousands for their world view,are rarely sane, just saying).
I personally would have been ok, if Viconia wouldn't have made a comeback in BG 3. And Sarevok neither. He basically was purged of Bhaal similar to resisting Durge, so I would want an explanation, how Bhaal was able to control him again.
