According to the original creators (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsc), Boo is just an ordinary hamster. In fact, I wonder if this is one of those "Lassie" situations where several different animals have played the same part? Perhaps I shall wander in the Mists of the Unknowing to ponder this some more ... or perhaps not.
What I find much more interesting is that Minsc has a younger sister! Now that is something a writer could work with, eh?
But it’s not funny if Boo is anything more then a normal, unremarkable hamster.
What I'm slightly worried about (and it's really way, way at the bottom of my list of worries), is that BG3 will probably have to settle the question :
Is Boo actually a smart, miniature giant space hamster, as Minsc tells everyone Boo is ? Or is this all Minsc imagination running too wild, and Boo is a regular hamster ?
As far as I recall, BG1&2 as well as the comics didn't really settle the question. And this was great. It allows everyone to read the Boo-Minsc situation the way they want.
In the comics Boo could fight, sneak into enemy bases to spy, coordinate his attacks with the team, detect evil, could react to both Minsc and the others' commands, and generally showed initiative. If he's a normal hamster, he must have chewed a lot of Tomes of Intelligence.
I wouldn't mind either version: normal or giant miniature. If the writers are smart about it, they can make it fun. I really liked the comics - as weird and goofy as they could be sometimes.
Minsc is Minsc. A very polarizing character. If we do get him as a companion, he'll be on my team because we need some goofyness after Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale's doom and gloom. In fact, I'll probably keep both Minsc and Astarion to see if they ever fight each-other, BG1-2 style.
When it comes to insuferable characters, Jaheira was that for me. A dozen 'yeeesss, oh omnipresent authority figure?' later she went off to fight a dire wolf. By herself. So tragic. Much cry. Khalid was devastated, but he got better.
The comic was...OK I guess? I didn't finish it...wasn't good enough IMO, and I didn't like them killing off a particular BG I party member in the penultimate issue. Thought the pacing was a little fast. Minsc himself seemed pretty one-note, and not really sure what the deal was with the Neera knockoff.
As for Minsc and hamsters etc. I can't help but feel he's a little flanderized by a lot of WoTC marketing, the way he's essentially turned into a mascot. Easy to see how, I think his character lends itself to being exploited for that sort of thing, being made into memes etc. But there's certainly something of the original character that's been lost. Dynaheir is basically completely forgotten, like his rivalry with Edwin. His Rashemi heritage might as well not exist. His....personality largely being the result of a traumatic brain injury basically forgotten in favor of him just being a loveable and dimwitted but heroic oaf. Likewise the fact that (what he claimed to be a miniature giant space hamster) was by all indications in the original games just a normal...hamster is ignored because making it a *real* space hamster is just *so* much more wacky and comedically memorable!
I liked Minsc in the original saga. He was wacky but there was an attempt to actually ground him in the setting with stuff going on with him beyond being a cartoon character. IMO bringing him back was a mistake. He had a great epilogue in ToB that felt really touching. Bringing him back to cavort about like a clown seems just slightly grotesque.
I'll be really disappointed if Boo is a real MGSH in BGIII. Particularly if they decide to make him into some sort of 'master blaster' duo or something absurd. Boo was Minsc's beloved animal companion. He shouldn't overshadow the bald guy himself.
My personal hope (OR theory) is that Boo will be smart, and able to "communicate" with us similarly to the squirrel in BG3.
However, I would like to see Minsc using the idea of the tadpole in his head (If he also has one) as his idea of Boo speaking to him, when we clearly know that it isn't. Would definitely lead to some interesting situations.
The comic was...OK I guess? I didn't finish it...wasn't good enough IMO, and I didn't like them killing off a particular BG I party member in the penultimate issue. Thought the pacing was a little fast. Minsc himself seemed pretty one-note, and not really sure what the deal was with the Neera knockoff.
As for Minsc and hamsters etc. I can't help but feel he's a little flanderized by a lot of WoTC marketing, the way he's essentially turned into a mascot. Easy to see how, I think his character lends itself to being exploited for that sort of thing, being made into memes etc. But there's certainly something of the original character that's been lost. Dynaheir is basically completely forgotten, like his rivalry with Edwin. His Rashemi heritage might as well not exist. His....personality largely being the result of a traumatic brain injury basically forgotten in favor of him just being a loveable and dimwitted but heroic oaf. Likewise the fact that (what he claimed to be a miniature giant space hamster) was by all indications in the original games just a normal...hamster is ignored because making it a *real* space hamster is just *so* much more wacky and comedically memorable!
I liked Minsc in the original saga. He was wacky but there was an attempt to actually ground him in the setting with stuff going on with him beyond being a cartoon character. IMO bringing him back was a mistake. He had a great epilogue in ToB that felt really touching. Bringing him back to cavort about like a clown seems just slightly grotesque.
I'll be really disappointed if Boo is a real MGSH in BGIII. Particularly if they decide to make him into some sort of 'master blaster' duo or something absurd. Boo was Minsc's beloved animal companion. He shouldn't overshadow the bald guy himself.
+1
I haven't read much of the comics besides a few panels, but I agree with everything else you're saying.
I've always thought that Boo was sort of a receptacle for Minsc's lost mental capacity. It's almost like a multiple personality thing, except that the extra persona is physically projected to Boo, who is really just a hamster. Wouldn't that make a great story arc, where Minsc slowly regains his lost faculties and eventually realizes what Boo really is? A story like that could incorporate some great themes.
The comic was...OK I guess? I didn't finish it...wasn't good enough IMO, and I didn't like them killing off a particular BG I party member in the penultimate issue. Thought the pacing was a little fast. Minsc himself seemed pretty one-note, and not really sure what the deal was with the Neera knockoff.
As for Minsc and hamsters etc. I can't help but feel he's a little flanderized by a lot of WoTC marketing, the way he's essentially turned into a mascot. Easy to see how, I think his character lends itself to being exploited for that sort of thing, being made into memes etc. But there's certainly something of the original character that's been lost. Dynaheir is basically completely forgotten, like his rivalry with Edwin. His Rashemi heritage might as well not exist. His....personality largely being the result of a traumatic brain injury basically forgotten in favor of him just being a loveable and dimwitted but heroic oaf. Likewise the fact that (what he claimed to be a miniature giant space hamster) was by all indications in the original games just a normal...hamster is ignored because making it a *real* space hamster is just *so* much more wacky and comedically memorable!
I liked Minsc in the original saga. He was wacky but there was an attempt to actually ground him in the setting with stuff going on with him beyond being a cartoon character. IMO bringing him back was a mistake. He had a great epilogue in ToB that felt really touching. Bringing him back to cavort about like a clown seems just slightly grotesque.
I'll be really disappointed if Boo is a real MGSH in BGIII. Particularly if they decide to make him into some sort of 'master blaster' duo or something absurd. Boo was Minsc's beloved animal companion. He shouldn't overshadow the bald guy himself.
For people with short memory or that never played BG2 and Throne of Bhaal, this was Minsc's epilogue:
Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
The more I think about it the more I'm convinced there's no way Boo will get an intelligent treatment as a mirror of a deranged warrior's mental health, where the tragedy and comedy would be finely balanced. Instead, he will be an actual Space Hamster, the metaphor will get trashed under more clumsy silliness for a quick giggle, and the whole thing will be extremely cringe.
Larian are going to milk comedy relief and gameplay mechanics out of Boo until there's nothing left. There will be a gamey blinding attack called "Go for the eyes" like what the raven has, he will burrow-teleport like the Badger, and have a Disney-like cutesy human voice and lots of dialogue. There will probably be a grand cinematic where he goes for the eyes of a boss-level enemy, or some other Space Hamster nonsense.
The more I think about it the more I'm convinced there's no way Boo will get an intelligent treatment as a mirror of a deranged warrior's mental health, where the tragedy and comedy would be finely balanced. Instead, he will be an actual Space Hamster, the metaphor will get trashed under more clumsy silliness for a quick giggle, and the whole thing will be extremely cringe.
Larian are going to milk comedy relief and gameplay mechanics out of Boo until there's nothing left. There will be a gamey blinding attack called "Go for the eyes" like what the raven has, he will burrow-teleport like the Badger, and have a Disney-like cutesy human voice and lots of dialogue. There will probably be a grand cinematic where he goes for the eyes of a boss-level enemy, or some other Space Hamster nonsense.
The more I think about it the more I'm convinced there's no way Boo will get an intelligent treatment as a mirror of a deranged warrior's mental health, where the tragedy and comedy would be finely balanced. Instead, he will be an actual Space Hamster, the metaphor will get trashed under more clumsy silliness for a quick giggle, and the whole thing will be extremely cringe.
Larian are going to milk comedy relief and gameplay mechanics out of Boo until there's nothing left. There will be a gamey blinding attack called "Go for the eyes" like what the raven has, he will burrow-teleport like the Badger, and have a Disney-like cutesy human voice and lots of dialogue. There will probably be a grand cinematic where he goes for the eyes of a boss-level enemy, or some other Space Hamster nonsense.
Or maybe we'll go hard the other direction and Minsc goes around wearing a necklace with a tiny hamster skull on it that he talks to. You'd even get a little 'Boo takes up a quickslot' from the old games.
I'm personally not as afraid of them Flanderizing Minsc and Boo.
The remarks earlier about two companions being written by one person is clearly Wyll and Mizora, right?
I read the comics only recently and enjoyed them. They are silly but also funny and I think suit Minsc, and don't negate the underlying pathos of his character as far as I'm concerned.
I also don't think there's anything Boo does in the comics that's definitively outside the bounds of a non-extraplanar ranger animal companion. I think they still keep it nicely ambiguous and I'd be disappointed if it were ever conclusively proven one way or another whether or not Boo were a MGSH, whatever the original intentions of the BG1 writers.
Similarly, I'm fine if Minsc is a companion if Boo does have skills like familiars and animal companions, but I'm very dubious of the idea of anyone except Minsc being able to talk to him.
"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"
Read them together with my son. The cartoony violence and over the top expressions/reactions had him in stitches every other page.
