Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback "Dandelion wannabe(?)" aka Volo the Bard - the playerbases opinion

After finding out about him I must say... he was okay, I think.

But maybe it was because of the stuff I found around him, books, letters & stuff.
I kind off try not to read stuff that was yet not translated into my non-english client.
Simply because I am lazy.

But this dude is NOT SERIOUSLY someone who knows Elminster, is he?
Please not. That feels soooo forced.
Elminster is kind of like a Magic-Geralt of Rivia in the Forgotten Realms.
Please don't.

That feels too coincidental to met a real somebodys friend in the middle of nowwhere.

• Thoughts?

Elminster & Volo are, to my knowledge, much older than Witcher.

Then again, I had the impression Larian was going a bit over the top with their incarnation of Volo. In the Baldur's Gate 1-2 games he seemed quite competent and only a little funny.

You know Volo been in the Forgotten Realms like 30 years, at least back in 2 edition.

Yes, he does know Elminster though Elminster pretty much dislikes / ignores him.

Earliest Volo book I can find "Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (2e)" is from 1992 but Ed started his Forgotten Realm campaign in 1978 so I expect Volo is older then 1992.

The Witcher is old, first book started in 1992 but I doubt Ed Greenwood read it in Polish back when he starting publishing Forgotten Realm stuff for TSR.

Pretty sure Volo is 100% Ed's

Volo seems to have become more of a joke as time has gone on.

Hah, now I'm curious. How old are Volo and Elminster? First Witcher short story was written in 1986, Dandelion was created in 1993.

I tried google when Volo first appeared and not getting it. I know he was in BG1 & 2 as a cameo and in NWN too? Oldest Volo Guide I can find is from 1992.

Ok then. As the newcomer I will keep to be for quite some time, then let me formulate it like this.


How high is the chance to meet a Man like him in the absolute outback of absolute nowwhere.
See what I did there? Huh?
"Absolute". Huh. Huuuuuuh!

But I think the chance is extremly low.
Well what do I know. ^^

Volvo is know for travelling everywhere so I am not surprised in bumping into him.

Lets just say I'm glad we have the option of leaving Volo with the Goblins!

Even though Volo is original and not a dandolion copy, I highly doubt he would have been in the game if it weren't for the Witcher 3.

The Witcher series was largely plagiarized so I don't think the Witcher franchise has any rights to complain if it were:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkiP64adGjY

(disclaimer: I *do not* agree with this guy's politics -- it confounds me that he could be so right about Elric and so wrong about so many other things. Another lesson in: people are complex)

It is true, but we don't deal with the books here, we deal with adaptations. And it's important. It is very apparent in the movie industry, where you have a new highly acclaimed and innovative movie that is not a direct adaptation of a source material, but has enough elements of it, and then when the source material is being adapted and to the casual movie goer looks like a copy of the movie.
Some examples - matrix and ghost in the shell, valerian and the fifth element, etc.

My point is that if we talk about Volo and dandolion, the fact that Volo is the original is completely irrelevant here. Unless Larian can do anything new or interesting with him, he will always be (at least in the context of bg3) a less cool dandolion copy. And the big thing here is that unlike Elric for example, Volo is not a super important character that you can't build a forgotten realms story without. So the decision to add him in is worthy of criticism and comparison to dandolion

Volo has nothing to do with Dandelion. Literally nothing.

Really? The only major difference I see between them ( and I'm talking in game only I have no idea how Volo is outside of bg3) is that Volo is much less sexual and not a manwhore like dandolion

Add here that he's a wizard, not a bard... So you have eccentric wizard archetype against sexy bard archetype.

I don't care about game mechanics that are not even relevant to bg3 (Volo is wizard? Really?) I'm talking about their character. Both of them are super eccentric full of shit loudmoutms that gets themselves into into trouble.

Volo is, if I remember correctly, one of first original characters created back when TSR adopted the Forgotten Realms as an official setting back in... Middle of the 80's I believe? I remember he wasn't actually created by Ed Greenwood but one of the TSR . But regardless he is one of the most iconic mascot characters for the setting.

The bard sidekick (comedic or serious) archetype is itself a very common character in writing. Accusing characters of the same archetype for being plagiarized just because some new hip work also features that archetype is foolish and only showcases how ignorant you are about the greater world and history of literature that makes up the foundation of our cultural heritage.

In short, it's like accusing a hypothetical new Blade adaption of being a rip-off of Twilight because they both feature vampires (despite both deriving vampire tropes from even older works). Even without the faulty chronical ordering the idea itself is ridiculous.



Volo appears in both BG1 and Throne of Bhaal, and also provides commentary in the game manuals in the style of his "Guide to" setting guidebooks. He is also the framing device used for NwN2: Storm of Zehir. He is very much one of the most common poster boys of the setting and is still used as such by WotC.

I mean, I happen to loathe him myself. But this is hardly the first or the last work they've forced him into. He's basically the Wolverine of FR. No story needs him, nearly every story is better from him not being involved, but you'll be damned sure he's going to show up in nearly every story anyway.

I agree more or less - I also had impression that Volo is a little too much similar to Dandylion, I just think he is more like his exaggerated parody. Games and Netflix series simplified this character.

I addressed the first part of your comment in literally the part you quoted but you kind of ignored that. No matter.

About Volo in BG - I played a lot of BG and I had to check the wiki to find out where can you find him in game. What I'm saying is that his roles in the early game was nothing, just a short cameo. He wasn't a character. Just a cool NPC. Bg3 did much more with him. I would claim they gave him a role similar to the one dandolion has in the Witcher - a non fighting companion that is there for humour.

This. Mostly. Except for the part about not liking Wolverine. Wolverine is awesome.