#lemme be a big sentient turtle pls

[mtreebeardiles]

Hmm ok so thinking about that BG3 post, particularly in terms of the main villains and

Spoilers ahoy!

I gotta say, the more I think about it the less I agree that the narrative of the game positions Ketheric as more important or having more character weight than the other two, in terms of the stuff you gotta get through to even reach those final fights

Now I have **not** gone after Gortash directly yet, so I can’t speak to his fight, but I have done the lead up for all three villains and I think they kinda work out fairly evenly?

Ketheric-related quest lines: gauntlet of Shar (which is as much tied to a main companion as well) confronting Balthazar (I think this fight can even be skipped? Idk if he tries to stop you later if you bluff your way out of a confrontation since I usually just dive right in hahah), ending in moonrise. He does have 1-2 bonus stages leading up to the Avatar of Myrkul final, though one of them is optional if you manage to hit certain checks

You can argue confronting the other Thorms is part of it, but those fights can also be avoided and are optional

Orin - starts antagonizing you right out the gate, shape shifting into various people to mess with you. The serial killer subquest could be optional? Maybe? Might be harder to get into the Tribunal without it, and I’m fairly certain taking down Saarevok (spl?) is necessary to even reach her in the temple. You could luck out and find the entrance to the tribunal without following the murder mystery questline maybe? 🤔 but in terms of narrative weight, having to fight her grandfather, learning that aspect of her history beyond talking to her mother’s corpse (which I actually didn’t think to do but still got her backstory for the most part? I’ll have to remember next time), is pretty solid I think. In terms of fights, you’ve got Saarevok, the gauntlet leading up to the temple, and Orin goes monster form in her final fight. Similar in structure, I’d say, to ketheric’s questline

And now Gortash. I can’t speak as much to his questline since I haven’t finished it (no idea if it’ll trigger any end game stuff, so I’m avoiding it until I finish exploring the Gate), but you’ve got the submerged prison fight (😫), the steel watch foundry fight, and at least a few fights in wyrm’s rock (I think that’s where he’s holed up?) before reaching him. You can find his parents in the city, and unlike the other two you can kinda stumble upon them by accident — there doesn’t appear to be a related questline for it so far as I know? But you do learn from his mother that he’s trapped them in their own minds, that they sold him to a warlock when he was younger, and just… yeah. Yikes. Idk how any of that plays out later or if it ever does, but I’ll keep an ear out when I finally finish that questline 🤔

But yeah, idk how fair it is to say the narrative tilts more in Ketheric’s favor when the underlying structure is about even. Maybe because he’s more directly tied to a few companions? His quests overlap with Shadowheart, Halsin, and Jaheira, whereas Orin’s only really connects with a Durge run and/or Jaheira and Minsc (both optional companions, though I guess you could say the same of Halsin, though he and Jaheira are not formally part of the group until near the end of Act 2 and beginning of Act 3, respectively) and Gortash’s impacts Karlach and Wyll

Idk I’m rambling at this point, might revisit this after I’ve actually finished a run 😅

#rambling #bg3 spoilers #bg3 #again the only thing I want #is a tortle dlc #lemme be a big sentient turtle pls