PoE plot analysis.

[Rostere]

The herbal diarrhea cure must have happened offscreen, then.

No, actually. The game tells that you don't feel ill once you become a watcher

Maybe that is because between the time you become a Watcher and the time you are ill, you lie passed out shitting yourself. Maybe that section was also written when Obsidian still were working at Stick of Truth .

That makes him the second highest-ranking member of the Leaden Key (or whatever Thaos' organization was known as in missionary times) we know of in the story.

Also the lowest ranking member that we know of, incidentally

Except Iovara whose only known title was "missionary", and the other Engwithan missionaries, and the Leaden Key NPCs we meet in the game (hell, we might even count Aloth).

That is, in one model of continuity between Thaos' missionary work and him being a leader of the Leaden Key. For all we know they are the same organization (same insignia and symbols - also, remember Woedica was once the leader of the gods) but in theory, they might not be. It is clear that when a young Iovara joined, Thaos was heading a cabal of Engwithans who were all in on the secret of the gods. Presumably, they were all gone by Iovara's death, if I interpreted her right.

Wait, there was an animation for Aerie giving birth??? WTF Bioware?

Are you surprised? It's the flower-ish thing opening, same as for monster summoning (IIRC).

Anyway, remembering the cringeworthy "animation" for Aerie giving birth in BG2

huh? I don't recall this

Seems like we need to find out if I remember correctly then.

 

[Sensuki]

That's not an animation, it's VFX and I do remember that but I was not bothered by it at the time. What else were they supposed to do? Party has gained an item and VFX is the most cost effective way of handling it in that engine.

 

[A horse of course]

Oh I thought you meant Aerie's sprite/bitmap/w/e actually had some unique animation.

 

[Volourn]

Bottom line is the story is not only meish... it's pretty much a 'rip off' of DOS. LMFAO A reincarnation of a previous powerful dude with connections to the main character. The story reeks of Chosen One shit. The story is by far weak. I don't know how many dialogues I just skimmed because it was simply fukkin' boring. FFS This is no MOTB. FFS This is no IWD. LMFAO

 

[Bleed the Man]

Well, fortunately there wasn't any animation. Unfortunately I have read a bit of dialogue, don't know if I will be able to recover from this.

 

[Rostere]

Sorry if I had you confused, obviously "visual effect" was the word I meant (not a native English speaker).

 

[Sensuki]

Well, fortunately there wasn't any animation. Unfortunately I have read a bit of dialogue, don't know if I will be able to recover from this.

Well BG2 was a PG13 game or whatever and I believe the target audience was teenagers. I fucking loved that shit when I was 13 years old . Also it was the first game I ever played that allowed you to do that. It's p funny that BioWare's relationship shit hasn't gotten any better (from what I understand it's worse even).

Nowadays I couldn't care less about that shit.

 

[Bleed the Man]

Well, fortunately there wasn't any animation. Unfortunately I have read a bit of dialogue, don't know if I will be able to recover from this.

Well BG2 was a PG13 game or whatever and I believe the target audience was teenagers. I fucking loved that shit when I was 13 years old . Also it was the first game I ever played that allowed you to do that. It's p funny that BioWare's relationship shit hasn't gotten any better (from what I understand it's worse even).

Well, since Inquisition we have BEWBS, so I call this a win.

 

[A horse of course]

Sorry if I had you confused (not a native English speaker).

Oh don't worry about that, this forum is run (loosely speaking) by an Australian.

 

[A horse of course]

Well, fortunately there wasn't any animation. Unfortunately I have read a bit of dialogue, don't know if I will be able to recover from this.

Well BG2 was a PG13 game or whatever and I believe the target audience was teenagers. I fucking loved that shit when I was 13 years old . Also it was the first game I ever played that allowed you to do that. It's p funny that BioWare's relationship shit hasn't gotten any better (from what I understand it's worse even).

Nowadays I couldn't care less about that shit.

BG2 romances were aimed at teenagers and people who read romance novels. Modern Bioware romances are aimed at teeangers who are attracted to ugly women and transexuals, furries, and tumblr body acceptance bloggers.

 

[themadhatter11401]

Bottom line is the story is not only meish... it's pretty much a 'rip off' of DOS. LMFAO A reincarnation of a previous powerful dude with connections to the main character. The story reeks of Chosen One shit. The story is by far weak. I don't know how many dialogues I just skimmed because it was simply fukkin' boring. FFS This is no MOTB. FFS This is no IWD. LMFAO

Yeah, thank goodness there was no Chosen One shit in MotB. You were the one who had a special shard in you from birth. You are stricken by the soul of Akachi to undo his curse, and you happen to be then the incarnation of the Founder's lover.

It's so bad in PoE. You are one of many who had history with Thaos in a prior life. You are one of several Watchers (though many were killed in the Purges). And you are the one person who set up Iovara to be captured, having had some player-defined prior relationship to her.

 

[Volourn]

"And you are the one person who set up Iovara to be captured, having had some player-defined prior relationship to her."

I did no fuckkin' such thing. Don't fukkin' lie and besmrich my reputation. As i told her, I have no fukkin' responsibility to some joe blow she knew before I was even fukkin' born so FUCK OFF.

Also, MOTB may not be perfect but it rose above its imperfections... PE did not. At times it came close but not quite. The story is exactly as I said. Meh.

\DEAL. WITH. IT.

 

[themadhatter11401]

"And you are the one person who set up Iovara to be captured, having had some player-defined prior relationship to her."

I did no fuckkin' such thing. Don't fukkin' lie and besmrich my reputation. As i told her, I have no fukkin' responsibility to some joe blow she knew before I was even fukkin' born so FUCK OFF.

Also, MOTB may not be perfect but it rose above its imperfections... PE did not. At times it came close but not quite. The story is exactly as I said. Meh.

\DEAL. WITH. IT.

So it's even less of a chosen one story for you. That's the ink fucking thing you complained about.

 

[Volourn]

It's still a chosen one story. Don't be an Obsidianite BIo Hybrid Moran.

 

[Mastermind]

Volourn shut the fuck up, it's not a chosen one story. It's a shit story but it's no more chosen one than BG2's (whose strength in this department it clearly tried to emulate and failed). There's more to a chosen one story than just being speshul.

 

[themadhatter11401]

It's still a chosen one story. Don't be an Obsidianite BIo Hybrid Moran.

You have pretty weak criteria for what constitutes a chosen one story. If all it requires is above average talent and a specific past history, then that's pretty much every game.

 

[A horse of course]

It's not a "Chosen One" trope per se, but it does involve you having a very specific and ostensibly important (even tho it makes no fucking difference) relationship to the main antagonist and his organization.

 

[Shevek]

Damn, so, its an "Important One" trope? Or maybe a "Aquaintance" trope? Man, you guys are really reaching here.

 

[agentorange]

Who the fuck cares if it is a "trope"? Fuck off with that word you stupid fucking morons. It is a contrived, uninspired, lazy setup. That's all there is to it.

 

[rezaf]

One thing I was wondering about is: Why didn't they actually make the PC the reincarnation of Eothas and only have him realize this as time passed (via flashbacks).
It'd have made things much more personal right there and spiced up a lot of what's in the game. For example your stance towards Durance - he'd have helped build the weapon that killed you, basically.
And Eder, one of YOUR last followers. The ruined temples that used to worship YOU. Etc.

AND you'd find out eventually that YOU are actually an artificial construct, made up by Thaos and his people. How does it affect you knowing that you're not REAL?
What about your relationship and dealings with the other deities?

With a little skill in storytelling applied, it could also have provided for engaging endgame decisions. You capture the machine with the souls. You CAN use the souls, amassed by foul means, to reinstate yourself in the pantheon.
But that's not what a god of light was supposed to do, right? But if you return the souls to those they were taken from or return them to the great cycle, you'd have to forego your own godhood.

To me, this sounds vastly more interesting than what is in the game...

 

[themadhatter11401]

One thing I was wondering about is: Why didn't they actually make the PC the reincarnation of Eothas and only have him realize this as time passed (via flashbacks).
It'd have made things much more personal right there and spiced up a lot of what's in the game. For example your stance towards Durance - he'd have helped build the weapon that killed you, basically.
And Eder, one of YOUR last followers. The ruined temples that used to worship YOU. Etc.

AND you'd find out eventually that YOU are actually an artificial construct, made up by Thaos and his people. How does it affect you knowing that you're not REAL?
What about your relationship and dealings with the other deities?

With a little skill in storytelling applied, it could also have provided for engaging endgame decisions. You capture the machine with the souls. You CAN use the souls, amassed by foul means, to reinstate yourself in the pantheon.
But that's not what a god of light was supposed to do, right? But if you return the souls to those they were taken from or return them to the great cycle, you'd have to forego your own godhood.

To me, this sounds vastly more interesting than what is in the game...

Yeah, but then you just get accused of ripping off Knights of the Old Republic.

 

[Bleed the Man]

One thing I was wondering about is: Why didn't they actually make the PC the reincarnation of Eothas and only have him realize this as time passed (via flashbacks).
It'd have made things much more personal right there and spiced up a lot of what's in the game. For example your stance towards Durance - he'd have helped build the weapon that killed you, basically.
And Eder, one of YOUR last followers. The ruined temples that used to worship YOU. Etc.

AND you'd find out eventually that YOU are actually an artificial construct, made up by Thaos and his people. How does it affect you knowing that you're not REAL?
What about your relationship and dealings with the other deities?

With a little skill in storytelling applied, it could also have provided for engaging endgame decisions. You capture the machine with the souls. You CAN use the souls, amassed by foul means, to reinstate yourself in the pantheon.
But that's not what a god of light was supposed to do, right? But if you return the souls to those they were taken from or return them to the great cycle, you'd have to forego your own godhood.

To me, this sounds vastly more interesting than what is in the game...

Dude, leave this kind of grandiose crap for Bioware.

 

[Rostere]

One thing I was wondering about is: Why didn't they actually make the PC the reincarnation of Eothas and only have him realize this as time passed (via flashbacks).
It'd have made things much more personal right there and spiced up a lot of what's in the game. For example your stance towards Durance - he'd have helped build the weapon that killed you, basically.
And Eder, one of YOUR last followers. The ruined temples that used to worship YOU. Etc.

AND you'd find out eventually that YOU are actually an artificial construct, made up by Thaos and his people. How does it affect you knowing that you're not REAL?
What about your relationship and dealings with the other deities?

With a little skill in storytelling applied, it could also have provided for engaging endgame decisions. You capture the machine with the souls. You CAN use the souls, amassed by foul means, to reinstate yourself in the pantheon.
But that's not what a god of light was supposed to do, right? But if you return the souls to those they were taken from or return them to the great cycle, you'd have to forego your own godhood.

To me, this sounds vastly more interesting than what is in the game...

Yeah... No.

 

[Morality Games]

To me, this sounds vastly more interesting than what is in the game...

Dude, leave this kind of grandiose crap for Bioware.

In his defense Chris Avellone could have made quite the story from this material and actually investigated the existential implications of a mortal being a god. Bhaalspawn done right. I'm sure they at least talked about it.

It's also not too late. Assuming that the next game takes place a generation later, the PC could be reincarnated with a fragment of Eothas' soul. The dwarf did specify that souls break up and fragments get picked up by souls retaining their basic shape.

 

[rezaf]

Ok, ok, fine. I see everyone would rather have a totally unmemorable crapfest of a boring non-engaging plot rather than a cliched one.

You all have reason to be thankful I didn't work on the game, because that's the plot you probably would've gotten in that case.
Instead of just writing: That's crap! though, please do outline those utterly brilliant ideas YOU have that are non-cliche, haven't been seen before and are infinitely more engaging. I'm genuinely interested in hearing them.

And my main reason for posting it was: Are there bits and pieces in the story (as presented in the game) I missed or already forgot that made this an impossible course of action (besides the different path they have chosen, obviously)?