Feelings on the Emperor and thoughts on his character (Spoilers, obviously)

[Lil Larrikin]

How is everyone feeling about the Emperor as a character? Do you find his trustworthy and reliable, or do you distrust him and go against his advice?

Personally, for most of the game I was on his side even after finding out that he was an illithid, but many of the details you discover later on in the game made me reconsider my view,
He was an unwitting pawn of the Elder Brain for the entire game and whilst he does save your life on several occasion, he only does this to further his own end of gaining power over the brain/the crown.
If he consented to releasing Orpheus there would be no need to kill him, but instead of doing so he leaves to join your - and his, apparently - sworn enemy, demonstrating that his opposition to the Elder Brain was really just down to his desire to control it, once this is off the cards he willingly submits to it.
If you read into his backstory, he enthralled one of his closest friends and used her as a puppet to control Baldur's Gate and its people just because he liked being in control of "his" city.
Ansur tried desperately to heal him then decided to give him a merciful death. We are told that Ansur approached Balduran in his sleep and tried to kill him, which resulted in Balduran killing Ansur in self defense. The thing is, I'm not sure we can trust Balduran when he tells us this: it seems unlikely to me that an unconscious ilithid would be able to solo a grown dragon, if you directly compare their stats in game this more or less confirms this leading me to believe that Balduran actually assassinated Ansur. Either way, even if it was in self defense, he killed his best friend, covered it up and tried to dissuade you from learning the truth of the matter.
Ultimately he's manipulative an only concerned about power and I reveled in his death.

[Silt]

He's like any other mind flayer, evil. His lust for power is obvious and is one reason why I never gave him a positive response in any dialog with him. That didn't stop him from trying to initiate gay tentacle sex with me towards the end of the game though. In a gayme with a huge number of eyerolls, that was the worst one.

[Poptart]

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Mexicutioner:

How is everyone feeling about the Emperor as a character? Do you find his trustworthy and reliable, or do you distrust him and go against his advice?

I distrusted him from our first meeting, but I had suspected it was the Tadpole in our own heads trying to obtain influence through a different means -- not another being. They aren't reliable, and in spite of the reassurances otherwise --- they have lied to you. They do nothing but lie to you from the very beginning.

They're reading your thoughts before you're even aware of them, and conform their appearance to your design. That's why you can make them in the custom character creator. If they had never lied to you, as they claimed, they would appear to you as their 'Baldarian form' - whomever that truly is under the cloak.

They don't. It's a statistical impossibility, as if you chose a great many of the races to be the Guardian - they cannot be who appears in the cloak in the flashback. So they START by manipulating you as a form you've chosen to represent them.

How they approach you isn't inconsistent with the lore. They do not have an attraction to you. If your trust is determined by your attraction to it, THAT is what they use. Much like Astarion at the start.

If you prefer to be friendly, the mind flayer is friendly. They cannot outright control your mind. To do so, they'd have to stop protecting you from the Brain which is under someone else's control. Thus they're controlling you the old fashioned way. They'll be whatever you need them to be to 'obey them'.

[Sol Goodguy]

That's whats so odd about him for me. If you remove the tadpoles of everyone, he just scampers off without making a fuss about the brain and is pretty ok with the result. The want to control the brain is the odd part that Is badly written I feel. They required a last imposing figure to position as a villain and the emperor fit the bill. I just feel there's no reason for him to keep us safe as he does if he was truly completely evil. I feel like it needed more time in the oven. But the fact is that he did do all that to belynne. If you find that inexcusable I can understand turning on the one thing that kept you alive the whole game. Blind oath it could be, but that man is a part of the group despite all he did. If you betray him just so you can do what laezel wants for her people then sure, but you have to understand that helping gith means the emperor has no chance of survival in the future anyway. That man is a survivor. If you protect astarion for kidnapping children i'm sure you can give a mindflayer, a being that fights a urge to eat brains and memories some subterfuge and want for power too.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Long story short, most people who do not like the character (like myself) would have preferred the original game design where there were no plans with the characters. Instead you spent more time interacting with the thing in your head until a few "rage bait" journalists wrote how having a creature in your head to seduce you was "creepy."

I have zero respect for Larian as a studio, because they threw out a good storytelling device in favor of a rushed late addition to the game.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Pan Darius Loveless:

Daisy > Emperor.

Yep,

The idea of manipulating the player with their own desires was a far better gimmick than the mindflayer who reveals himself halfway through about how you need to help him break into a prismatic skull shaped interdemensional prison that was more fit to appear in a power rangers cartoon than in a fantasy game.

[The Yeen Queen]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sol Goodguy:

If you protect astarion for kidnapping children i'm sure you can give a mindflayer, a being that fights a urge to eat brains and memories some subterfuge and want for power too.

This apple is the same as these oranges!

Hugely different situation mate. Thing is the Emperor shows himself to clearly be a self-serving manipulator who not only doesn't show growth, but actually regresses when things don't go his way. If he can't be the trusted right hand of the grand heroes that save the day, then he immediately runs off to be the right hand of the giant monster bent on slaughtering billions.

Astarion was the victim of some pretty extreme abuse and was in a situation where he felt he had no choice. It's not the eating brains that count against the Emperor, by the way. It's everything from the casual way he justifies "Hey, they're just criminals" to his own manipulation and lies. And he DOESN'T fight the urge to eat brains. He brushes it off with that justification. He's more comparable to Cazador than Astarion.

Epilogue spoiler:
Mindflayer Karlach in the epilogue party shows there is a REAL human application for her to sustain herself, helping those who are at the ends of their lives pass on with minimal suffering and preserving a part of them in the process.

[Gracey Face]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Tech-Priest:

Long story short, most people who do not like the character (like myself) would have preferred the original game design where there were no plans with the characters. Instead you spent more time interacting with the thing in your head until a few "rage bait" journalists wrote how having a creature in your head to seduce you was "creepy."

I have zero respect for Larian as a studio, because they threw out a good storytelling device in favor of a rushed late addition to the game.

I had thought in the early "early access" the guardian had been called "What your heart desires" or something like that.

As a concept it might be a better approach but I don't know if it really would in game. You'd have no good reason to side with it since you just know what it is and there'd be no breakdown of the perception of reality for you the player like there would be for your character.

[Gracey Face]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Night Foxx:

Epilogue spoiler:
Mindflayer Karlach in the epilogue party shows there is a REAL human application for her to sustain herself, helping those who are at the ends of their lives pass on with minimal suffering and preserving a part of them in the process.

Yes, because when I think minimal suffering and a part of me surviving onwards I always picture having the back of my skull cracked open and my brain slowly sucked out while I am still alive and then my memories being digested by a cosmic monstrosity.

[Kurell]

If you've played enough/payed attention, the Emperor is Lawful or Neutral Evil, without a doubt. Everything he does is motivated by his own survival/power. He did horrible things to his last "close" ally, Stelmane, when she broke lockstep with him, and even if you have to persuade him to take control of the Absolute, he says himself that his hesitation is that he isn't certain he would survive it, and then sits down and says "In *my* name," after immediately enthralling the entire party, including the player. There is a plethora of other revelations that can happen to drive that point home, of course, if you fully play the game and pay attention at all.

Orpheus is the "good" choice without a doubt. His best friend, Voss, cannot be evil because he risks not just his own survival, but powerful position in Vlaakith's hierarchy, to free his prince because he wants change. Orpheus will volunteer to become a mind flayer, the thing he loathes most and potentially forfeiting his soul (though he has no tadpole, so how does that happen, but that's a different discussion :D), in order to save his people. And even after becoming one, he wants you to kill him rather than existing as what he knows to be a monster. Both Orpheus and Voss are motivated by a greater purpose over their own fates, which probably puts them in the Lawful Neutral category. Not good, given what Voss has done to maintain his cover, but not evil either.

Ultimately I missed the gorgeous dream companion I had created, but have not been able to side with the Emperor on any playthrough yet, because even as an evil character his constant deceit, numerous revelations about how he actually thinks and what he has done to former "allies," and even just Orpheus being the guaranteed power to stop the Absolute always outweigh siding with him. Everything he does for me is ultimately for him, and using Orpheus' power to do it.

[northernwater]

My first major disappointment was finding out the good looking advisor I had was an Illithid. I never trusted the creepy thing after that,

[northernwater]

The DOS2 ending was so much better than BG3. BG3 is a well done game with a terrible ending. The ultimate antagonist(the brain) turned out be a silly corny gimmick.

[Neru]

Even if you don't like him there's no option to go against him without turn into cthuhul the second you picked that option. So much for the "your story your choice" xD
Granted there was the part where you rescue Orpheus, it just irritating me more.

[seeker1]

The Emperor's scene after a violent rejection by the player lays the cards on the table. He rreveals to them that yes, he psionically dominated Stelmane, then when she was no longer useful, incapacitated her with a stroke. Not in any way how he portrayed the relationship, earlier. Secondly, they should consider themselves lucky he hasn't resorted to that, yet, but let's get things clear "YOU ARE MY PUPPET". Nothing else.

We only have his version of what happened to Ansur. He's lied and deceived us constantly up until that point. I'm not sure he can be believed. I'm not sure if it's just retcon-timeline problems, but I get this feeling the Emperor is LYING about being Balduran. Ansur concurs but ... there are timeline problems. The Emperor sides with the Netherbrain IMHO if you free Orpheus because, well, he knows the Gith and all the others will soon seek revenge for keeping him prisoner further without revealing it to anyone. He's a dead man once Orpheus is free to seek revenge, and he's going to choose survival over freedom. There's also the "fan theory" that it is actually the Emperor who is tadpoling us in the opening cinematic. I'm less skeptical of this possibility than I used to be.

[Tal]

I think he was fine written character, could have done it without him being Balduran since it seems hardly relevant but oh well, he definitely isn't a 'good' character. The mindflayer parasite has definitely taken over Balduran and warped his personality so much he would forsake all values in return for self-preservation. Now it just so happens he aligns with our goals but I believe freeing Orpheus is the greater good choice.
I'm certain if you let him live he'll continue do nasty things in his quest "to become greatness".