Except that there is much more depth. The intricacies are always in the approach.
Not only David Warner’s portrayal of his arrogant dismissive indifference is a piece of art, but so is BG2’s narrative.
In his laboratory you can find references of how he struggles to overcome the dread of the curse and how desperate he is to restore his nature and the “loveâ€/memories he once had. As someone who already lived enough in an eternal penitence you can feel his sadness or ,more appropriately, emptiness from the delicate mistress room dedicated to keep his memory of Ellesime to the twisted clones he created to emulate her. And how much he dedicated his life to restore this primitive feeling. A subtle masterful construction of the character.
Through his journal you can see how they develop the character further in what I consider outstanding writing:
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"My condition grows worse, and what I remember of my 'home' is fleeting. I see images of family whose names I cannot recall, and dream of emotions I no longer feel as vividly. On occasion I sense nature as if she is my mother, as though never removed from her bosom, but such moments are few. I bear the hallmarks of senility with the rage and power of a young elf to lament it.
Bodhi endured the curse much better than I do now, but she was more focused and, more importantly, undead. She is now thoroughly seduced by her vampiric condition, despite its previous failure to counteract the death sentence she was under. She had embraced her mortality, excited by the urgency of it, but now she is confused. Imoen's soul has restored her, but her motives remain transparent, even simplistic. She revels in her carnal nature, even as the elf within despises the creature she has become.
I would pity my 'sister' if I was capable, but emotions come to me only in violent outbursts. Ellesime has taken my ability to truly feel, and I am left with the threadbare heart of a human, or some other short-lived vermin. I will not suffer this much longer."
And David Warner at the end of the game delivers one of the most meaningful lines with extraordinary voice modulation:
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"I, I do not remember your love, Ellesime. I have tried. I have tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory but it is gone. A hollow dead thing. For years I clung to the memory of it, then the memory of the memory, then nothing, the Seldarine took that from me too. I look upon you and feel nothing. I remember nothing but you turning your back on me along with all the others."
That is great writing in my book (along Spellhold sequence and many others) and he is one of the most conflicted villains ever made.
Oh my... Great and outstanding writing? Most conflicted villains ever made? I mean everything can be considered art from a certain point of view and BG2 has some decent writing, but great? And Irenicus himself isn't even decent, he's at most mediocre writing. The " I do not remember your loves" bit feels so generic and immature, that if I didn't know beforehand that it's from Bg2 I would've assumed it was some overemotional teenager writing to their former sweetheart. And calling his diary outstanding writing when it's on par with an average fanfiction? Irenicus isn't conflicted, he's literally as one-dimensional as possible, he was a beloved and respected elven mage who decided to become god, killed a bunch of other elves, got punished and... decided to become god again with even more murder. Where is he conflicted? The guy is a total and complete jerk. The way his "love story" with elven queen is written it feels like there never was any actual love, but common passion, that simply faded, yet Irenicus is too immature to act like an adult about it and makes a big deal about having feelings in the past and not having them now. He never shows any regret, remorse, guilt, he never implies that his crimes are commited for some greater good or that he has any kind of coherent plan for when he achieves his goals. That is bad writing. When a genius megalomaniac elven wizard who is at least two hundred years old is written as a bitter angry immature teenager, that's bad writing.
Originally Posted by IrenicusBG3
Now that I am playing patch 6, it is really noticeable how bad the writing is. Sentences feel disconnected, there is a lack of flow on dialogue. (and that is not because of cinematics). 90% of Astarion lines are infested with humor, Gale's introduction is an embarrassing sequence of dialogues, and yes, Wyll has this bland personality/dialogues that blends in with regular world NPCs, making him one of the most forgettable companions in history. And every single NPC you encounter makes jokes that you still are not growing tentacles or talons. There is very little to save in BG3 and mostly comes from Lae'zel.
And Lae'zel is one-dimensional, generic and boring. Will has the best writing because he is written like an actual human being. He wants to be hero, but only because for him it's a coping mechanism to deal with his insecurities and issues. He suffers from low self-esteem which he hides behind a facade of arrogant bravado, he wants to be loved and respected by his peers, but he also needs to feel that this love and respect are well-earned. The fact that he got his powers from a pact with a demon makes him suffer from an imposter syndrome, he is ashamed of his dealings with Mizora, he suffers from his need to lie and understands it, but is too afraid to stop lying. Wyll is an interesting and complex character.
Irenicus got mad for power and went way too far in his pursuit of it, but back then he wasn't a monster. He was simply too ambitious and not worried about consequences. So he had to be punished. To do so they took his soul away, and with that his ability to feel anything. Thus he became an induced sociopath who remembers what it was like to feel, but who cannot do it anymore. And he knows that he cannot feel, and he desperately want to feel, but he just cannot.
Intellectually, he knows that he loves his sister, but his emotional capacity to do so has been removed. Intellectually he knows that he probably still loves Ellesime, but he is not capable of love, and his condition has eaten away even his memories of what it was like to love. He still remembers it as a concept, much like one might remember having learned to ride a bicycle or flying for the first time at some specific point in one's life without actually remembering what it was like.
And with his ability to feel destroyed and his memory of his life as an elf badly deteriorated he has become the monster they punished him for being previously. He didn't set out to be a monster initially, but now that he has become one anyway, why exactly should he not pursue his old goal? Why should he care about torturing some shadow thieves or a couple of bhaalspawn? "The law" means nothing to him and his conscience has been taken away with his soul. What is left for him but to seek power for the sake of power, and maybe settle some scores along the way?
As for him being mediocre, I disagree. His plans were pretty solid all the way through. Set up shop and provoke a war with a guild of incompetent losers. His base got attacked sooner than anticipated but it was still anticipated and he easily moved to Spellhold instead. Meanwhile he had dealings with the Drow and provoked them into engaging the surface elves, tying up their forces so he could pursue his actual goal with minimal interruptions. And despite some serious interference from a player character that just will not die, he still executes the whole thing.
