Ha, guilty, I guess. I find that analysing a character adds to my enjoyment of them as characters even though I might still not like them as people. I hope this makes sense in its brevity and does not digress too much. I am equally sorry for derailing a bit, Red Queen.
Yeah, I would find it much more interesting if we had the inability to ever call her on it. Otherwise it comes across as...not a self-insert, but like a self inserted ideal. Which, inevitably not everyone will agree she is. But it's going to break the fourth wall for me when I sense it.
It's also what makes me a little apprehensive to try her Origin because from clips I have seen, it slides even more deeply into this idealised self insert territory. I don't like it if my character is singled out as the hero for things which have been group efforts, and I equally don't enjoy being fawned over by my companions too much. I guess the line between caring for the PC and fawning over them is a fine one.
Talking about the companions as Origins (I hope it is alright and not too much of a derailment to talk of the companions when playing as them) I was surprised how much Wyll and Astarion's relationship changes /can change depending on if they are both companions or if Astarion is Avatar. For Avatar-Astarion, Wyll doesn't seem to be bothered by the whole vampire situation, so I wasn't prepared for all the jabs against Astarion when they are both companions. That really took me by surprise. Otoh, I find Wyll's indecisiveness during his quest much more bearable as Avatar-Astarion because you can play the "I used to be in law" card and basically become Wyll's lawyer when dealing with Mizora.
By contrast, I enjoy Gale's origin a lot because the other companions aren't necessarily much nicer to you, even if they are a bit more sympathetic. You just can't feel very heroic when your cat, the space warrior and the resident vampire all boss you around. Talking about the latter, I do find him much more enjoyable in Gale's Origin too because he seems to have a bit more agency in it. He basically becomes the devil on your shoulder who advertises free will (that one is bugged atm, unfortunately), power, and taking over the cult as an alternative to death and redemption. Which is of course very sinister but also makes for such a good story. By contrast with my Avatar-Shadowheart Astarion's attempts to power-grab feel a lot more random.
