So what happened... why did Minthara who was genuinely loved and consistently receiving development (also the only one with a fully-developed sex scene at the time) end up as the most underdeveloped, nonfunctional and abandoned character of the entire cast?
Most people today upon seeing Minthara's state or these disingenuously presented stats come to the conclusion it's due to "lack of character's popularity"; but for retrospect Jaheira did not exist during Early Access at all, yet she does not suffer from any of the issues that Minthara suffers. Even has miniscule details covered such as having voicelines for the [Sentient Amulet] from ACT I, whereas Minthara does not.
The truth simply is that Larian abandoned her at the peak of her popularity due to their poor development management and afterwards failed to ensure their cast of characters is equally interesting with equal amounts of content due to blatant favoritism post-launch. That's why the quality and the amount of content between companions vary so drastically today, that's why Minthara, Halsin and Wyll are in the positions they're in, that's why Sarevok and Viconia are just shallow throwaway villains, that's why it took a whole year for us to get proper evil endings as the final content update, that's why the evil path is so deprived of content, quality control and development care, etc...
Poor development management back then, blatant favoritism since then.
Why is Minthara still broken as an Early Access character a year later when she had so much content written for her behind-the-scenes?
Why were Sarevok and Viconia not made companions for the evil path as direct counterparts to Jaheira and Minsc?
Why weren't Sazza or Nere made companions to compensate for the loss of Halsin, Wyll, Karlach, potentially Gale, potentially Minthara?
Why does the good path gain 9 companions, but the evil path takes away over 60 NPCs and 4 companions while giving only 1 companion that's not even functional?
Why do all evil characters we peacefully interact with either run off-screen or die off-screen?
Why does the evil path entirely feel as just a slight variation of the actual intended good path with drastically less content in it?
For me personally Early Access was drastically a far more superior version of the story than what we got since release as it was more complex and cohesive. I honestly wish Larian stuck with what they had originally written, it's why I have it backed up and wish I could play their original story. It was dark, gritty, serious and a way more mature (and graphic) story while all of the companions wonderfully fit within that scope when the game actually tried to stick to the whole '
who can we actually trust' theme. Nobody could be trusted because everyone was so self-centered and skeptical of each other and I loved it so much, especially when the Dreamer came along with the dreams and consequences which pushed that mistrust theme into overdrive. I was so fascinated by the Dreamer, the dreams and the overall illithid implication because the entire plot clicked into place perfectly by having so many fully connected intricate details that were so well connected to the point some of us on these forums managed to deduct most of the plot based on pure EA details. It was that well written.
It was a wonderfully mature story and I never understood the need for extensive companion personality rewrites based on just 10% of the story at the time, since I loved pretty much all of them because they all fit perfectly within its theme.
- Shadowheart I loved interacting with because she behaved like an actual zealot with a tremendously enigmatic aura. So secretive and cruel with her snarky outbursts, yet so innocent at times. It was an interesting dynamic, despite being blatantly obvious she's actually a Selunite.
- Everything about Lae'zel fascinated me so much, from her expressive annoyance to especially her mannerisms, I would end up mesmerized just observing the way she speaks and moves. She was my favorite companion in Early Access, so beautifully unique and I was very sad when most of her mannerisms got dialed down with entire voice lines even changed to portray less of her racial annoyance.
Her scene when she describes Crèche K'liir was my absolute favorite scene of hers, looked forward to it every single playthrough of Early Access. The way she so beautifully gazes at the sky with a glint in her eyes to talk about her home and then so gently shifts her gaze towards the player with a saddened look when mentioning K'liir *CHEF'S KISS*. Such a beautifully made scene with a ton of emotion conveyed, I LOVED admiring such details in characters. But then with full release we get this piece of tsk'va instead, with her barely looking at the sky and the camera focusing on our own character... Shka'keth!
- Astarion was from a writing standpoint the most complex written companion, because unlike the others, his writing focused more on psychological traumas by having to very carefully navigate around his mental barriers like they're a minefield. It is what made me love exploring his character so much back then. The layers of psychological barriers he kept up in each dialogue was astounding.
I always fondly remember the dialogue right after the party's dreams (when only 2 companions could talk about any camp event); if he was the first to be asked about his dreams he'd pretend they were just as enticing as everyone else's. However if the player passed a hidden check they'd find out he was actually lying and terribly tormented by them, after which the player had to carefully navigate the dialogue to reveal more of his torturous past because if the player tried to offer him sympathy he'd lash out or even threaten to kill them. It was so brilliantly written him not trusting anyone and being paranoid to death.
- Wyll I also loved a ton, his story was super interesting. Why are we pursuing Mizora, who even is she, why is he so pissed off about goblins, why did Spike still have his eye after all those years, could we even possibly restore his eye later via Ethel or someone else? So many interesting things happening at once, so much potential as the most connected companion to ACT I... only to be reduced to Karlach's useless sidekick later. What a freaking letdown.
- Gale I liked, he was just always nice. Mysterious, but nice. I never saw him as someone that could not be trusted, just private and I always respected that about him.
I loved that they were rough around the edges by being heavily opinionated, I loved that they had actual clashing personalities and felt like actual strangers a person would get stuck with if something like this happened in real life. Until Larian unfortunately decided to terribly smooth out their personalities and remove most of their complexity to the point none today have any sort of rough edges, they just agree to pretty much everything and, other than Lae'zel, barely clash against the player when they don't...
(...) It just freaking hurts my soul... neither deserved to be treated like this.
