The Watcher as a character after Deadfire

[Voss]

Nah, the Watcher is a Chosen One, which helps make the story even more of a joke. The gods are desperate for you to help, and several talk to you personally about other things. (Hylea and Ondra). The game gives you every reason to think you matter, queens and power players just accept you showing up and inserting yourself into effectively global politics.

 

And them you just sit back as a witness to nonsense.

 

And this is an Epic Story that Changes the Entire World. (That hasn't had enough time to develop, much like DA or ME). Its... just a really terrible approach to the whole thing.

[FecklessFool]

I think the Watcher's story arc ended in POE1. 

Eder has more validity for being in Deadfire than the Watcher IMO. 

 

That's why I think this game would have been better if they just had a new protagonist, the privateer captain, because that's what 90% of the game is about. It's about exploring the Deadfire Archipelago. There's a huge disconnect between that and the main quest.

 

Trying to shoehorn the Watcher in the game just because he was the protagonist in the first game feels like a disservice to the rich world and lore that they have created. 

 

It's not like the Watcher's soul talking powers factored in much in this game, and I don't recall it being mentioned in the first game that only a Watcher can interact with the gods. They'd have to be pretty weak gods if they couldn't make themselves known to mortals. I mean how did Magran get 12 people to build the godhammer? Were they Watchers?

 

And it's not like having a new protagonist doesn't mean you can't import a save as that could be the basis for the world state. 

 

If it's about how being a Watcher opens doors, well with how you are treated in this game, I think a privateer captain would work just as well. Gain prestige with a faction in order to open those doors and that can be tied up to progressing the story. 

[PatrioticChief]

I think the Watcher's story arc ended in POE1. 

 

Eder has more validity for being in Deadfire than the Watcher IMO. 

 

That's why I think this game would have been better if they just had a new protagonist, the privateer captain, because that's what 90% of the game is about. It's about exploring the Deadfire Archipelago. There's a huge disconnect between that and the main quest.

 

Trying to shoehorn the Watcher in the game just because he was the protagonist in the first game feels like a disservice to the rich world and lore that they have created. 

 

It's not like the Watcher's soul talking powers factored in much in this game, and I don't recall it being mentioned in the first game that only a Watcher can interact with the gods. They'd have to be pretty weak gods if they couldn't make themselves known to mortals. I mean how did Magran get 12 people to build the godhammer? Were they Watchers?

 

And it's not like having a new protagonist doesn't mean you can't import a save as that could be the basis for the world state. 

 

If it's about how being a Watcher opens doors, well with how you are treated in this game, I think a privateer captain would work just as well. Gain prestige with a faction in order to open those doors and that can be tied up to progressing the story. 

 

Yeah I prefer keeping a character, a la ME, because you can really expand and grow relationships. When you were shooting cans with Garrus in ME:3 it felt so natural. You and your old war buddy just shooting the ****. 

 

But this game has very little of that. Being able to talk to souls have little narrative import that could not be easily edited. I like the premise of a continuing character but it doesn't feel as if they maximized the value to a significant degree. 

[FecklessFool]

Yeah, I wouldn't love character continuation if the game really made it matter, but in this case, you could swap out the Watcher with anyone and it would work fine.

[tela2k]

Yeah, I wouldn't love character continuation if the game really made it matter, but in this case, you could swap out the Watcher with anyone and it would work fine.

I think the problem is, if you create a new protagonist then you need to come up with a new excuse why he/she gets involved in everything. The player would already from the first game know everything about the gods, but the new character wouldn't so there would have to be some pretty lame story where your character learns all the stuff you already know if you played the first game. The advantage of the Watcher is that they already know all this and you can just get to new stuff straight away. The good thing would be that maybe you could already be in the Deadfire Archipelago for whatever reason, learn to care about something and THEN they make it personal with a crisis of some sort. Or the F:NV style character where you just get involved in the local politics and completely scrap the Gods plotline from the story or make it a discovery kind of sidestory thing.

 

The Watcher however, being the open kind of character that it is, has very few personal reasons to get involved. The only things that they have after PoE1 for certain are Caed Nua and their life (unless you died in WM2 obviously). So that is what they take away from you to make it personal, your castle and since you can't play a character that is dead, your soul. And then you are forced by Berath (unless you say, no I don't want to play this game) to take part in all the stuff in Deadfire. So from the writers point of view it makes perfect sense for the protagonist to be the Watcher, but from the players point of view it isn't as clear as to why we would be motivated to do anything at all. You don't really get to affect at all how the main story plays out and the only point of satisfaction you get is getting your soul back, which only works if as a player you care about it. I didn't. So then who am I and why am I doing any of the stuff I am doing?

 

 

[Aramintai]

Btw, I didn't see it being brought up here, but at the beginning of the game Berath says she needed the Watcher because

1) part of your soul is still in Eothas,

2) his whole body is full of souls,

so it'd be easy for an experienced Watcher to track him down through souls.

Kinda makes sense and she mentions any Watcher would do, so you're not some special snowflake.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Aramintai