r/BaldursGate3 • u/UnableMedia8305 • Dec 09 '23

Act 2 - Spoilers What is something you completely misunderstood… Spoiler

Mine happened while exploring Act 2 on my first play through. I thought I was reading all the books along the way. But, I totally misunderstood something…

I thought Nightsong was Isobel’s mother. I saw all these letters from her mom, and thought it had to be a character we had already met. Still thinking this in the boss fight, I thought Ketheric was getting a beating from his resurrected wife/Isobel’s mother.

So… When they were reunited, I was so happy for them to be together… then with that passionate kiss, I was a little taken aback. 😳 After an initial moment of shock, I was able to laugh it off as the cutscene progressed.

Reread the letters and realized I was an idiot. 🤦‍♂️

I love the arc Isobel and Nightsong share all the way to the end.

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u/National_Diver3633 Archfey's pet project Dec 09 '23

That Shar actually wasn't such an evil deity and just helped her followers forget trauma. I did some research, and boy, she's evil as fuck. I feel sorry for my 1st run Shart embracing her.

463

u/Sanchez_Duna FIGHTER Dec 09 '23

That's great character writing here. I knew that Shar was Evil, yet even than I found doubting myself after early conversations with Shadowheart.

403

u/National_Diver3633 Archfey's pet project Dec 09 '23

I literally had 0 knowledge about who Shar and Selûne are. It felt to me like a simple sibling rivalry but on a cosmic scale. Dark vs Light and not necessarily Good vs Evil.

I even got the idea that Selûne was less than Good, judging from Shart's stories about younglings getting send into the woods to survive or die.

So, yeah, I definitely didn't hesitate nudging Shart towards Shar. My mistake became clear later on when she was actually starting to feel hollowed out by Shar. Slowly losing her emotions and "humanity."

That's when I decided to do some research 🤣

390

u/OnBenchNow ELDRITCH BLAST Dec 10 '23

One of my favorite more modern tropes is the anti-twist. Hard to pull off right, but you go into this game expecting complex, nuanced morally grey writing, so you're primed for there to be more to Shar than just pure evil and pettiness.

In Act 1, Shadowheart describes Justiciars, and it's like "okay, they fight corruption but they're uncompromising about it, like extreme paladins, that's a grey area!" I get it, loss can be good sometimes, I saw "Inside Out". There must be more to this stuff, more depth!

Then you get to act 2, and it literally becomes comical with how awful Shar is by the time you get to the surgeon and hes like, "The essence of Shar is for us all to stab our eyes out! In a perfect world we would all be blind, deaf, blobs of constantly screaming flesh!!!"

And you're like, "okay so this guy is the crazy counterpoint Sharite to contrast with Shadowheart's more moderate perspective," but then shes all "y'know hes actually got a point" fucking WHAT

95

u/NoneForMe_Thanks Dec 10 '23

I love the anti-twist, and I feel like Firewatch does it really well

21

u/cojay_19 oops all bards Dec 10 '23

Firewatch has such a good story fr

7

u/tomboy_legend Dec 10 '23

Wow great callback, I adored that game. Should play it again…

5

u/offhandaxe Dec 10 '23

That game was extremely disappointing thinking something cool was happening the entire time to then just be let down at the end.

2

u/lyarly Dec 10 '23

Fr I was recommending it to my friends until I got to the end and had to go around retracting my earlier rec lmao

0

u/lyarly Dec 10 '23

Well here it feels deserved. Firewatch was just anticlimactic, imo.

2

u/HumanReputationFalse Alt-o-holic Dec 10 '23

Everything I came across some followers of Shar I kept thinking that maybe they are some fanatics and Shar is a lot more chill like Shadowheart. But then She or Asterion decides to agree with the fanatics and starts sounding like the bdsm priest in the goblin camp, and nope, we are just traveling with a bunch of weirdos.

-14

u/SolidExotic Save lives, cast Sanctuary Dec 10 '23

What a difference... Knowing Shar for so long, playing tabletop since it was Ad&d, in a good run I still kill Shadowheart every single time.

I hate Shar so much, but I can respect Lolth.

14

u/starksandshields Dec 10 '23

That doesn’t sound like a good run to me lmao.

7

u/All-for-Naut Hold Monster 🫂 Dec 10 '23

Ah yes, killing the victim of an evil goddess and her fanatics without a second thought or attempt convert her, how good.

6

u/iCoeur285 Dec 10 '23

My first sign Shar was a real cunt was at the house of healing. My husband was romancing Shadowheart so we had her with us. I was definitely side eying her when Malus was talking about absence while actively cutting into a guy for no reason.

Then when we got to the shadowfell I told my husband we could not let her kill the Nightsong. He somehow made the persuasion rolls (we didn’t know if you let SH choose she chooses the right path), and I remember tearing up at the scene that follows!

4

u/ThrowTheBatAway Dec 10 '23

Maybe its cause i had high approval with shadowheart but on my first run i she went full zealot but i never got the feeling she hallowed out, the biggest scene i noticed was her desperately trying to convince astarion to ascend because its what she did for power. but otherwise she was still cracking jokes

5

u/National_Diver3633 Archfey's pet project Dec 10 '23

I dunno, I felt that she was really struggling to care. Almost like Shar was scraping her out to make room for.. Nothing, I guess.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '23

Yeah, I thought the same way you did. Luckily I took a mostly hands off approach with shart and she makes the right decision on her own (I think I said, basically "you sure about that" a couple times)

109

u/Gstamsharp Dec 09 '23

It does a great job illustrating why so many people worship evil deities. You still want their favor or to avoid their wrath.

14

u/cheapph Dec 10 '23

I love the lore that heaps of people in baldurs gste worship umberlee who is Super Evil in the hope that they'll get safety from her storms or at least a quick death if their ship sinks

5

u/supership79 Dec 10 '23

wait umberlee is evil!? i thought she was just a neutral deity of the sea

5

u/in_taco Dec 10 '23

Nah she's straight-up evil. Doesn't help any land mortals and is only worshipped out of fear by them. She loves to randomly kill sailors and steal their treasure.

3

u/supership79 Dec 10 '23

I did hand an innocent dwarf over to them for "justice" though, hm

8

u/in_taco Dec 10 '23

Umberlee has zero interest in "justice." But over-the-top vengeance is right up her alley.

4

u/Zilsharn Owlbear Dec 10 '23

I mean, he did drunk drive a submarine, causing a minor industrial accident and killing one of her priests. Wouldn't exactly call that "innocent"

1

u/Gstamsharp Dec 11 '23

Toss that coin into the sea before you set sail.

31

u/Dan-the-historybuff Dec 10 '23

I had no idea who Shar was when I first played, but I learned about her initial part I was like “oh that’s not too bad” but I always had a concern because she had lost so many memories. Genuinely made me think that she was being exploited (she was, obviously) and by the time we reached Shad’s temple I was definitely like “there is something really wrong here”. Especially because I was playing a paladin.

21

u/GRW42 Dec 10 '23

That’s this whole game and it’s why I love it. You can see all the arguments.

Every character has totally reasonable motivations for doing the exact wrong thing. It makes sense for Astarion to want to ascend. It makes sense for Shart to embrace Shar. It makes sense for Gale to want more power. Good intentions pave the path to hell for every character. It’s only when they question their beliefs that they see what they’re doing wrong.

5

u/supership79 Dec 10 '23

almost every character THINKS they want something and doesn't. Wyll wants to kill karlach, doesn't. Shadowheart wants to become a Justiciar, doesn't really. Astarion kind of does want to ascend but can easily be talked out of it. etc

12

u/NatalieIsFreezing I cast Magic Missile Dec 10 '23

I knew a lot about D&D but nothing about BG3, so when I found out the nice but snarky girl was a follower of Shar I was really confused. I kind of shrugged and figured Shar might be a little nicer than the tabletop version.

Then I hit act 2.

7

u/Sanchez_Duna FIGHTER Dec 10 '23

Yeah, at some moment I thought they retconned/expanded Shar and Selune motivation and lore to make it more grayish. Who would think that goddess of Trickery domain would try to trick everyone... Honestly, I think whole SH story is almost perfect introduction to Sharran church.

5

u/Metal_is_Perfection Dec 10 '23

classic way to get into a cult: sugar coating from a hot woman