PatrioticChief

I voted Ydwin but Konstatine would have been funny too.

Sweet. Was waiting for the patch before I go on my Wizard run.

Eder my favorite and Pellagina my least favorite. I was a big Pellagina fan from PoE1 but she seemed like a mega whiner in POE2. I've only had one play through though so I intend to flip companions around to try and get to know her better this time.

I would just make it so that you had some real influence with the faction you sided with and be able to steer them to some extent to the path that your character would take. Being able to pick who to install as chief isn't all it's made out to be considering how things were implemented in the game. Not only are you a lapdog to the gods, but if you choose to side with a faction and have that come up in the ending, you also end up as a lapdog to a faction. What a useless guy this Watcher character is. The battle between 4 factions is a battle of ideology, what each of them view as the rightful state of the Deadfire. Considering how long and intense they have been fighting each other, persuasion should stay off the table because there's really no reason for them to cooperate as none of them are in any real immediate danger with a common enemy. Even Eothas doesn't really care about them so unless he stomp all over Neketaka, there's no reason for them to view him as an immediate threat. Has there been this long intense war? And don't they know he is trying to break the wheel to end life as we know it? Not saying them bickering regardless is poor writing but I think that claim is inaccurate that he doesn't represent an immediate threat.

Yep. There is a way to strip players of agency that feels narratively satisfying. Just don't think they pulled it off here. I will commend the art team though. From a visual perspective I do think they did a great job of portraying Eothas as an unstoppable force of nature. Showcasing Eothas as this unstoppable force was definitely done well, and one part of the main quest i really loved, both in art and narratively, was the vulcanic eruption and Ondra's tidal wave following your conversation with him at Ashen maw: that actually felt like a conflict between gods, in which all the Watcher could do was watch and hope Eothas manages to keep him/her alive. I agree completely. Arguably the best part of the critical path.

I guess I haven't talk to her enough to realize she was a vampire. Honestly kind of ignored the sidekicks outside of netting the achievement. Thanks for answering!

Also is it a bug you have to kill the death wards at range? Because on the wiki it says you can kill an eotan for a ward that will let you pass but I went over every inch of that cave and could not find one.

I almost feel like the writers had an idea for a setting and then realized another setting would be better so they set out to create it through POE2.

Everybody does. There is a zombie girl in the game?

Freaking love time parasite. So much fun.

Junvik village. Northeast on the map.

Yep. There is a way to strip players of agency that feels narratively satisfying. Just don't think they pulled it off here. I will commend the art team though. From a visual perspective I do think they did a great job of portraying Eothas as an unstoppable force of nature.

Again, can't actually discuss Eothas motivations or what I think of him in this topic as it is sitting in the spoiler free section. So you can apply whatever word you want to him, the game starts with him literally killing everyone you are close to (other than a statue, Vela (if you have her), and some old companions), destroying your home, and stealing part of your soul. The player has lots of good reasons to see him as an enemy, especially at the beginning of the game. I have a few points to make here so I will number them. 1. You're doing the same thing you accused me of. I stated Eothas was the villain in my original post and I defended that view in the second post you quoted. The only adjustment I made was acknowledging that you could also view him in a more positive way too based on his stated motivations and goals. 2. I apologize if you felt I was calling you out as someone who was unreasonable. I was to an extent, and I will be getting to that, but the venom in my post was more targeted toward these crazy paranoid dudes. 3. It was targeted at you to an extent however because I reject the idea that you could interpret any of those things as making this some type of SJW crusade. Your framework is essentially anything that skews toward women is some SJW queer theory fem critique is a horrific paradigm. Extending that logic out means pretty much everything in the game would have to favor men which is a ridiculous standard. Sometimes the male adviser is a spy. Sometimes the female adviser is a spy. Can't including women in more prominent roles just be for the sake of the story. Or at most trying to be inclusive to the other 50% of the planet that might play video games and wants to be represented in them. Why does it have to be a piece of some feminsta crusade? 4. If half the female characters had big **** and dressed like skanks that wouldn't bother me. If I'm gonna quest than I am happy to have some eye candy on the way. Conversely, if every woman character is not aesthetically appealing and no interest in sex a la POE1 that is perfectly acceptable too. The Witcher series began with an utterly misogynistic view of women and it was still an excellent game. The Witcher 3 maintained the element of female eye candy but wrote fantastic female characters and even poked fun at its misogynistic roots with its ending option. 5. I guess my point is that the end of the day we should let art be art. Don't let yourself fall into this hyper sensitive trap where every narrative decision is part of this political web you need to get triggered over. I am not saying you can't critique the social aspect of a game but do it in a measured way, not like some whiny baby the way the OP and several other commentators on this board seem to.

Your female adviser is a spy. Your diplomatic adviser is a woman. Your military adviser is a man. What. The. Hell. Are. You. Talking. About. Can't people just write a god damn story without being pigeonholed. Jesus.

It is stated early in the game that as long as Eothas has your soul you can't stray to far from him as it would kill you. Yet you can traverse the far flung edges of the deadfire without consequence. At least in tresspasser your character was constantly keeling over in agony to remind you of the threat.

Woedica is literally the worlds biggest bitch, Xoti can become a psychopathic serial killer, and Maia is an assassin. Are men really so insecure that they can interpret having the main villain be a bad guy as an attack on our sex? Dear god. She's a likeable assassin though. She feels bad afterwards lol. And she doesn't like slavery. Wait, xoti can be a psychopathic serial killer? Yeah, if you take her down the path of pushing her towards hoarding souls and "looking for the darkness", she goes ****ing *NUTS*. That actually sounds like fun. The things you miss out on when you are not an arsehole in game! Or in my case even when you thought you were being a nice guy!

The introduction chapter is the only one I want to skip. Let me load my world space, create my character, and move on.

Woedica is literally the worlds biggest bitch, Xoti can become a psychopathic serial killer, and Maia is an assassin. Are men really so insecure that they can interpret having the main villain be a bad guy as an attack on our sex? Dear god. Eothas is the *antogonist*. He's not a villain; if anything he is by far the most caring, nurturing, forgiving, and *compassionate* of the gods. And he's a dude, so take that for what it's worth. Antagonist is a more accurate depiction. Though I don't think viewing Eothas as a villain is wrong, I think viewing him in a more positive light is definitely defensible.

Woedica is literally the worlds biggest bitch, Xoti can become a psychopathic serial killer, and Maia is an assassin. Are men really so insecure that they can interpret having the main villain be a bad guy as an attack on our sex? Dear god.

Incel is just a new word for virgin. Like thot is a new word for s**t. That's all it means - it's a way of shaming men who haven't had sex, or aren't "studs". Every male who has ever existed has seen this in high school - the sex bragging etc. It's in its way a very teenage word. It's just the rebirth of a very old idea. I'm not sure its accurate to ascribe political ideology to a word that just means you can't get laid. I'd personally be suspicious of any doomsdaying threat narrative article that does so, especially if peoples way of doing so is taking the ideas of some subreddit as an emergent ideological faith. You can't get by a day without some moral panic from the left about some new bogeyman - Nazi's, the far left, the alt-right, mra's, male supremicists and how they are all going to take over the world and bring about the demise of liberal democracy. I guess that's why the handmaidens tale does so well. The right used to do the same thing, banging on about satanic child abuse, reds under the bed, or how d&d turns people into serial killers. They still do sometimes. Maybe sometimes those risks are valid, but most of the time a moral panic seems to be unjustified. Personally as someone who is 40, I've got no time for people who think being a virgin is something to be ashamed of. You shouldn't seek your validation in other people, life will teach you that one way or another. Nor do I have much time for moral panics either - civilisation is probably an instable proposition anyway. Everything from food scarcity as the population grows, war, to national debt causing a global depression, to an asteroid wiping us out is always on the cards. Those threats are always there. Society is changing at a pace, and that itself could be unstable. Easier just to enjoy what you have, support reasonable thinking, and accept that not everything is in your control. It's *really* important to note that "incel" is *NOT* simply another term for a virgin. EVERYBODY is a virgin until a certain point in their lives; not everybody is an incel. "Incel" is a term *from their subculture* that is used by people to self-identify as members of a particular subculture. This subculture revolves entirely around these mens inability to obtain a sexual relationship, to such an extent that they consider "not having sex" to be a, perhaps the, *defining trait* of their life. They've developed all sorts of subcultural jargon revolving around this aspect of their lives; "incel", "a chad", "a stacy', etc. It's highly interwoven with the "pick-up artist" subculture, as the people who describe themselves as "incels" are basically the monetary bread-and-butter of the pick-up artists "self-help" career. Incel was coined as a derogatory term for virgin. It's a meme. Much like "chad" is a meme. And 'stacy'. Incels didn't invent the term, nor stacy, nor chad. These are all just words millennials made up online, in their little jingoistic way to describe things. if it's become associated with some subreddit, or online subculture, that's secondary to it's inception, and general meaning - an insult for guys who can't get sex. When you look at the hackjobs the left have done on MRAs or the new right, or centrists like Jordan Peterson, I'd definately be relunctant to get my info directly from them. Feminists have latched onto this term much like they did "nice guy tm". Could be that this subculture of people who self-describe as incels is exactly as you say. Or maybe it's exaggerated. Hard to say, but the feminist quarter doesn't have a good track record in hyperbole and moral panic. I'm sorry, but you're *dead* wrong about this. The term "incel" derives from "Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project", a website from 1997, whose first newsletter was titled "INVCEL". The term is self-derived within the founding of the subculture. Well it's definately used as an insult for men who can't have sex in the same way virgin was. And I don't think that it's only use these days is people who self-describe as incels and have a particular ideology. That's not how I see the word used - it's generally used by people to describe other people, not people to describe themselves. As you can see, chad and stacy are not incel inventions: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chad-thunder**** Maybe I don't attend the right websites, but I've never seen anyone ask if someone identifies as an incel before they use the word to describe other people. Chad came from the bodybuilding community, same as "soyboy". Just because it's used as an insult doesn't mean that's how it started or originated. As the incel community has gained prominence, they've been derided and insulted, as their own word for themselves has been taken and used as an insult for a large group of people whether they're a part of the subculture or not. It's a not-uncommon thing for a word to be taken out of it's original context and used as an insult later. I can see the logic of this argument.

I looked up incel on urban dictionary and laughed my ass off. I totally know the types of guys they are talking about and it describes them perfectly. It's not hard to have sex. Go to the gym a few times a week, get a job, and don't be an ass. Someone, maybe not the hottest chick at the bar but far from the fugliest, will want to bang at some point. Stop whining.

I am extremely disappointed that I was the only person to rec this.

I cannot like this post enough. That is exactly how I felt about the ending of DAI and the ending of Trespasser. Trespasser was honestly the only ending I've ever really loved out of a Bioware game. And that's not to throw shade at some of their other endings which were definitely decent (ME:1/KOTOR1) or good (ME:2). But they never had the same umph for me.

Have a rec. On another note I think I'd rather come back to this with a sharper and more accurate opinion. If a dev wanted to lock it that's fine with me, though by all means let folk continue to discuss. I'm just not a big fan of that first post I made after some of the arguments I've heard here.