All I saw was a creepy objectification of a woman and a desire to own her, not love.
That is the intentional representation of his character. How the love he once had became a twisted obsession. And, at the same time, his struggle. We see Irenicus at the end of his character arc, where he is desperate to obtain the PC's soul to replace his, and his sanity is irreversibly gone.
Originally Posted by Alyssa_Fox
I actually prefer realistic villians with motivation that complements their nuanced worldview, Master and Kerghan are good examples, and so are Illusive Man from ME, Kreia from KOTOR2, Caesar from Fallout New Vegas.
I don't know how the Master is realistic, since he is parody in himself. Kerghan also starts as someone craving for power, then desiring immortality through necromancy and ends finding peace in the void and realizing that life is suffering; can't say that is original. Ceasar has some interesting beats, but again he is parody, not realistic. All simple ideas and what matters at the end of the day is the delivery. And Irenicus' delivery is a quite powerful.
The Tim Cain approach of making villain suddenly change the plans they put together for centuries at the last minute with some dialogue is an interesting game mechanic but rather unrealistic I would say.
Originally Posted by Alyssa_Fox
First of all, he literally says he is waiting for Halsin to return and also is somewhat resigned to his fate, considering how overwhelming the recent events were for him.
Sure, waiting days for a single option sounds reasonable. Overwhelming for him? lol.
Originally Posted by Dexai
Sure, Irenicus (the forum poster) is in my opinion completely inflating Irenicus' (the character) complexity.
I am not inflating, all that I said is in the game and is not even an interpretation, it is quite explicit (examples included pages ago). He does have cliches lines for the public, as all villains listed here also do, and that is ok, it does not take away the depth of the character.
