Originally Posted by Marielle

Minthara's story could overwhelm Viconia's story from BG2 precisely because of her history as a victim of the Absolute, which gives opportunities for drama even more than just the story of a drow escaping to the surface. Nere could also be a companion with an interesting story (his manic narcissism looks funny at first glance, but kind of hints at the serious psychological trauma that could be behind it). Honestly, if Halsin, Jaheira and Minsc are on one scale, the other should have had Minthara, Nere and Viconia at least a little bit like herself. But okay, god with them, with Nere and Viconia, one Minthara if normally finalized, but no... The game resembles (and in many ways is) a “dating simulator”, but, unfortunately, designed to the general public so that the general public “tried everything and everyone”.

Viconia in BG2 literally killed another companion, her antagonist, under my nose, no matter how I tried to “ separate them in different corners ', I just found a corpse, and drow with a cute look and nothing to do with it, although everything is clear to everyone ... And no one stigmatized, companions in BG2 could kill each other, betray you, ambush you, and no ‘morality’, and certainly no infringement in the content. Not only does Minthara do nothing wrong, I can't even call her “evil” by her lines (given drow culture and drow behavior in general). She is rather a person who is intelligent, rational, at first distrustful (of course), who has “seen life”, if I may say so. A person who has been through hard times, gained relevant life experience and attitude in the world, but not “evil, evil”. The “good” Wyll and Gale have some pretty nasty lines at times and that's okay, it's fine, they're allowed.

And I understand the frustration of those who played EA (I was given an EA build, I was able to see how promising the game looked), afterwards they went completely in the wrong direction, in my opinion.

Pretty much yup.

Constant prattling about her being irredeemably evil. Meanwhile... their "irredeemably evil" Drow.

For someone so "irredeemably evil" she sure is terribly compassionate, caring, loving, understanding, comforting, uplifting, loyal, selfless, devoted. Wait a minute... I thought they said she's evil.

The existing story (and Minthara) would've been drastically so much better treated if Larian didn't become so biased trying to lecture and moralize players, but just told a realistically intricate fantasy story for the player to roleplay in (which Early Access was all about until they Disney-fied the story with rewrites). Because if we put aside for a moment their terribly obsessive aversion towards evil (and ignore character assassinations of Viconia and Sarevok); them two for example would've been Jaheira and Minsc counterparts for an evil path. Imagine the amount of awesome intricate insight and wisdom these two could have imparted on us if they were properly treated and written without bias.

This is how an actual unbiased BG3 story would look like;

  • Join the Grove - keep Halsin, Wyll and Karlach, but Moonrise Towers becomes inaccessible due to Marcus acting as Ketheric's spy.
  • Raid the Grove - gain Minthara, Nere and Marcus, but Last Light Inn becomes inaccessible due to Cerys acting as Zevlor's scout.
  • Free Dame Aylin to fight against the Cult - gain Jaheira and Minsc as companions, but Wyrm's Rock's Fortress becomes inaccessible due to Gortash's scrying eyes in Moonrise.
  • Imprison Dame Aylin to infiltrate the Cult - gain Viconia DeVir and Sarevok Anchev as companions, along with access to Wyrm's Rock Fortress due to Marcus being a Flaming Fist.
  • Reject Gortash's alliance - keep Karlach as a companion.
  • Accept Gortash's alliance - gain Gortash as an ally with a unique ending (and as an ultimate final boss-fight as an Avatar of Bane if he's betrayed after dominating the Absolute - like Lohse's Adramahlihk in DOS II).
  • Destroy the Absolute - gain the full epilogue as it currently is with all its intricacies.
  • Dominate the Absolute - Either become the Absolute by initiating the Grand Design. Or become Bane's Chosen by conquering the world. Or become Bhaal's Chosen by slaughtering the world. Or become Myrkul's Chosen by enveloping the world in chaos. Or embrace the ultimate divine power for yourself to reshape the world in an Origin ending in which you choose to become benevolent or evil divinity.

*Becoming the Chosen of Lord Bane*
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Do also note the very first response as well, the reason why our main character seeks power in the first place.

Evil choices would not be treated as mere minor deviations to moralize and lecture players as useless eye-candy that leads absolutely nowhere and takes away content, but just regular choices that lead to the other half of the story worth exploring. That's why I adored Early Access so much, because they had a wonderfully intricate realistic fantasy setting (as raw as Game Of Thrones Season 1). There were no blatantly forced good or evil characters and choices, there were simply REALISTIC CHARACTERS. Mere desperate people with realistic dilemmas acting as any person realistically would in such dire circumstances (like Gale and Astarion making a deal with Raphael out of desperation behind our back, or nobody trusting anyone's intentions at camp as complete strangers, or the party accepting the Dreamer's help because they're way out of their league).

That's unfortunately what Larian forgot, they forgot to realistically write a roleplaying story and instead wrote a 100h idealistic lecture about moral decisions... power is evil, ambition is evil, self-preservation is evil, divinity is evil, murder is evil (unless it's Viconia/gobo-kids), vengeance is evil (unless you're Aylin/Karlach), mindflayers have no souls (unless you do the right thing)... like a parent lecturing a child about evil through some children's book in which the hero defeats the villain, saves the princess and they live happily ever after.

Had they any sense then for example dominating the Absolute would not be a Disney-fied exclusively evil choice trying to portray our main character as the most imbecilic psychopath imaginable, but just a simple choice about taking divine power to do something meaningful with it. Just like in Divinity Original Sin 2 where the player had a choice to either leave good enough alone or seize divinity for themselves, share it to all beings in Rivellon, sacrifice it to seal the rift or simply let the God-king into the world. Alas BG3's story is not so intricate... evil evil evil... so rest-in-unfinished pieces Minthara, Sazza, Nere, Kar'niss, Marcus, Ketheric, Gortash, Orin, Viconia, Sarevok and all the choices not following Larian's biased story.