@@prideofasia99 unless you break Wylls pact, she still has full rights to his soul. Ironically if you do break it though, Wyll would get to keep his warlock powers due to her addendum to the contract that explains why he keeps the powers
@@disquietellie yeah but technically that doesn't break the pact, he can still accomplish it even if he becomes the absolute. Maybe there is a section for this situation but I think it wasn't mentioned at least on my runs
@@disquietellie She wouldn't dare request control, if Wyll don't fulfill the pact then his soul is Mizora's and he is transported to eternal suffering in Avernus as a Lemure, that's what is in his contract, that's the only thing that can happen, no control over him. Now, would she want a rouge Netherbrain or Wyll who she has a small chance to manipulate?
I agree, Wyll's and Astarion's line delivery here is simply incredible - but I wouldn't say the rest are bad. I liked Karlach's nuance and Lae'zel's... reluctance, in a way? She is accepting and embracing what her whole kind stands against here. No wonder she isn't as enthusiastic as some here.
Well, pretty much after being in the leash by a devil, heartbrokened and casted out by his father, and must indulge into the untold truth about his sacrificed for Baldur's Gate, maybe there's a glimpse of dark revenge inside his deepest heart. Then, when he got the absolute power, he could throw all of that feeling away. He finaly snapped and fuck it, i'm no goody woody boy again. When reaching that absolute power, the concept good and evil doesn't exist for him anymore. The only thing that exist is only him, because he is the absolute.
Astarion with the half-illithid look on that throne looks fucking fantastic. As the one companion who probably _would_ take over the brain if given the chance, his stood out to me. Wyll's delivery of 'In my name.' was good too. Deliciously evil.
It does, but it's also possible. The cycle of abuse. She said it herself once she found out Gortash only did to her what was done to him. "When you get fucked up, you fuck up." It's absolutely possible she could have just turned out the complete opposite of who she is There's not much excuse for Wyll though. All that time in Avernus could possibly turn him evil though.
@@melissajade7717 I can just see this version of Karlach pretty much saying "Just try and stop me now Zariel" as she uses her newfound power to eliminate and dominate all things that once crossed her.
Karlach and Gale: "Wait, what the fuck am I even doing?" Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Tav/Durge: "There I said it. Happy now?" Wyll, Astarion and the Emperor: *actually leaning into those villain vibes*
Wyll feels like he tried too hard, astrarion and emperor are just being them normal self. Shadowheart is being an evil teenage girl as she should. Gale is quite on point tbh, he wants to be god not necessarily a villain. Lae’zel couldn’t do an evil voice because….let’s face it, her voice doesn’t really have much tone/emotion except for annoyed + angry.
The Emperor one is particularly interesting. He is the only NPC to be granted this status, and in addition he must be persuaded. He is not even that ambitious, otherwise it would have been the opposite. He’s so alien. I truly consider him as the eleventh hidden companion. Present from the beginning but only available at the end.
He's so interesting to me too. Oddly, if it's just the two of you atop the brain without other companions when you convince him to dominate the Brain, he doesn't enthrall you.
@@hamsterpad3093 I was septic, then shocked. But yes, it would seem that the Emperor doesn't enthrall the MC if they are alone with him agaisnt the Brain. I reloaded my last save to see it, as Lae'zel ironically, (the greatest traitor of the Forgotten Realms). This. Was. Wild. It’s amazing but why did Larian do this? I wondered if it was done on purpose... It’s practically the same cinematic as the one we see here. But no glowing eyes, no focus (at 27:16) on the Emperor. It’s just mysterious and very intriguing. Thank you for sharing that, I would never know otherwise.
@RE-dy1cc In the endgame, the Emperor can become the Absolute. You have to : - side with him back in in the Astral Prism, - then give him the Netherstones - at last you must persuaded him (20 difficulty) to rule the Brain after defeating it If you are with your team he enthrall all ove you. If you solo with him, he become the MC and you litteraly become his Mithara. Because why not.
@@menajack i did side with him and give him the netherstones, but for me there was no persuasion check to get him to become absolute. The only option i got was to let him defeat the brain or betray him and become absolute myself
Astarion’s line is definitely the best one out of every one of em. Astarion nails it in every single serious scene he’s involved in. No wonder Neil won the Golden joystick. He’s incredibly talented.
here's a scary thought. what if Lae'zel's plan would be to turn all of that psionic power towards Vlaakith and then either freeing or enslaving the githyanki, effectively giving her access to not only illithid shenanigans but also githyanki shenanigans and maybe red dragons. it's just a thought.
Doubt it as red dragons are not slaves, they sided with Gith to fight the Illithid, common enemy. So it would rather be Gith and Illithid vs the Dragons, but I also doubt that Gith would follow someone only because he defeated/controlled their queen, when she is clearly on the side of their main enemy. Thats why they live by the sword from the moment they are born and go across worlds - to fight Mind Flyers.
@@huntcringedown2721red dragons work for the gith because Vlaakith stole a ruby scepter from Tiamat, goddess of chromatic dragons. If Lae’zel beats Vlaakith and takes the scepter… well…
@@huntcringedown2721 that may be but I didn't mean taking control of just Vlaakith. I meant killing her and dominating the rest since no one except Mother Gith and Orpheus appears to possess the ability to disrupt the mindflayer hivemind. and with something like this Netherbrain and what could be a unified illithid force, it's not far fetched to assume the githyanki could be mentally dominated again.
I played a “redeemed” Dark Urge, but she didn’t reject Bhal because she wanted to be good, she rejected him because she wanted to hold the power independent of his influence. So her “in *my* name” was like a declaration of triumph over all, including her father. Evil on her own terms lmao.
Siding with the Emperor is such an awful ending. Everyone you’ve grown to know and love, including your own character, is now a ghaik thrall, and the Grand Design is reborn in earnest. With someone as skilled at intrigue, deceit, and politics as the Emperor, it’s HOURS! Before all of the Sword Coast is fighting for their lives, and weeks until all of Toril is at war for their very souls. The Emperor ending is honestly one of those ones where I think even the gods would start getting involved. Maybe not Ao, but Tyr, Mystra, Ilmater, Lathander, Seluné, fuck even Ubtao on Chult, they can’t exist without their worshippers souls in their planes. Bahamut too for SURE. The Emperor ending is by far the worst ending for the world of Toril at large. Talking about soul genocide and the entire continent of Faerûn becoming one giant ghaik hive. It might be worse than the Death Curse. At least a single group of adventurers were able to stop Acerack and his undead god fetus. How do you stop a continent sized illithid nest?
The Emperor will only ever take control of the Absolute if you convince him. He'll always destroy the Absolute if left to his own devices. Arguably any of the Origin characters taking over is just as tyrannical as The Emperor taking over, with the Dark Urge probably being even worse
Thats just another tuesday in faerun scale tho lol There are lichs, wizards, and creatures stronger than the ultimate nether brain hidden in some random ass dungeons and even they get killed by certain adventurers not to mention that elminster and drizzt fought off demogorgon the demon lord from faerun only few years before bg3. So the nether brain thing is a fiasco but its def not end of the world haha
@@blulight5881 true but here's the difference. this netherbrain and the Emperor will have an army of powerful psionic beings at their command rather than facing adventurers alone. and it's all striking very quickly, very hard and seems to be centered around one of the most important places in Faerun. that's not counting however many illithid there could be in the Underdark or outside the city on the surface
So maybe this is a stupid question, and I probably just missed something, but like…what’s the point of taking control of the brain? All the mindflayers go to the brain at the end, so clearly we have some sort of mindflayer army, but are we planning on turning everyone into mindflayers? Or just use it for our own ends? What ends would they even be? Taking control of a city or something? I guess it’s likely up to the player to decide what their character would do with that power, but it’s just hard for me to get into the head (no pun intended) of an evil playthrough like this. Coincidentally, though, I, for some reason, thought the crown was going to be completely destroyed if we didn’t take control of the brain. And since I was romancing Gale and was planning on giving the crown to Mystra, I didn’t want him to die, so I picked the option to betray Orpheus. I realized fairly quickly that I had chosen the wrong option, but the cutscene is still very badass. Voice 7 for my Durge has a great “in my name” line.
It actually makes a lot of sense for an evil Dark Urge run. Bhaal’s Chosen seeks to reduce the world to blood and ash. His ultimate plan is to destroy all life and then have his Chosen off himself. In that case, the brain makes plenty of sense. As for the others like Ascended Astarion and Minthara, it feeds into their world domination plans to be able to dominate the world and then terrorize the way into line.
I guess the idea is to rule the continent. You could make one city all mind flayers so you have an army, take over the next city and tadpole everyone but only enthrall them and not transform them, and they'll work for you for free, making you all the supplies you want, and so on. Just the typical stuff you can do with unlimited power.
watching astarion become absolute after turning half illithid and becoming cazador is so sad. like he was forced into so much and being a vampire forced him to do anyhting for power if u do all those choices. poor guy its so hard for me to make him evil in my games bc he deserves his own life :/
I dont understand with the Emperor's ending, why enthral us? I understand enthralling our companions but what if we've been right by it, loyal, even becoming a mindflayer to the end it'll enthral us? Insurance maybe?
Most likely insurance although, others have pointed out that if you convince the Emperor to control the brain but you don't have your companions, he doesn't enthrall you. You essentially act like Minthara does. I would say the reason for why he does it when you are with your companions is that they follow you over him. And by just enthralling all of you then and there, its easier to ensure rule. But since they aren't and its just you, then its essentially keeping you around as you give up your companions.
Huh. I wonder if there’s an ending for shadowheart where you stay with Shar and she says “in Shar’s name” I know it’s the case with Baal as the dark urge, but what if there are other gods you worship and claim for the absolute? Bane? Myrkul? I’m not willing to play through the whole game to test that though.
For how bland/collected Wyll's actor performance is in general through the game, he gave me shivers with that delivery "In my name." This actor would play a really good villain.
Karlach: The last character I expected to sound smooth and subtle, let alone remotely evil for even one scene. Well played, fire girl. Lae'zel: She just sounds tired. C'mon, if you're going to betray the entire Astral Plane and out-evil Vlaakith, put some gusto into it. Don't think I didn't see Orpheus there either. Wyll: ... I don't know why everybody's praising this one; Wyll sounds like a damn robot here. He nailed the tone, but forgot the energy... and the timing. Pausing doesn't always equal buildup. Astarion: 8 out of 10. 1 point subtracted for looking like he headbutted a tar mixer, and 1 more for the pause (see Wyll). Delivery was perfect otherwise. Shadowheart: ... Did she even want to be there? That one sucked. Gale: Subtle, and I love the little emphasis on "MY" in that line (as if to say "Eat it, Mystra."). And it's coming from the same character who can't fake an illness convincingly? That said, points subtracted for the goofy-looking hat. Durge: " B A L L Z " The Emperor: 2010's anime villain.
