#even when showing deference or respect. and Minthara is so so loyal and so confident in who she is and the Absolute | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene · 4 months ago

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Something I really adore about Minthara is she's the only companion--and honestly the only major character really--who truly brings the horror and tragedy of what is being done to the True Souls to the forefront, and reveals just what an awful fate you and the companions avoided by mere chance. Because at that point you're mostly thinking about turning into an illithid and true destruction of the self, not how you would've been a True Soul--but still you--slaughtering your way across the countryside like every other infected.

Because it doesn't matter how good or noble or strong-willed you are. Every companion, from Astarion to Wyll, would've been willing to commit atrocities in the Absolute's name were it not for the Prism.

The way she describes the Absolute is so insidious. How she had no choice, or more accurately her mind had been warped to the point that whatever the Absolute wanted was the best choice she could ever make. Minthara is Minthara, she expresses absolutely no shame for some truly horrid things and proudly claims evil actions taken in the name of survival or faith as her own, and yet what she did under the Absolute's control is what she outright rejects as being in any way her fault. The way Orin tormented her and then it was remembered as something revelatory, divine, rather than a moment of fear and violation, is so fucked up. Minthara is such a genuinely proud woman, so seeing her so affected and her declaration that she'd rather die than have her mind and agency stolen again, is very disturbing.

There are a few moments where the True Souls get a bit of narrative sympathy and humanity. Those siblings outside of the Grove for example. But Minthara is the one who truly brings home how every True Soul is a person who has been taken and violated and exploited with no real say or ability to resist. They are victims and their Chosen-ness is almost a mocking parody of the relationship between the gods (Bhaal, Myrkul, Bane, Shar, Mystra, Vlaakith) and their Chosen (Durge and Orin, Ketheric, Gortash, Shadowheart, Gale, Lae'zel) where the entire farce and delusion of it is laid out for us to see. At the very least the vampire spawn have some sort of will outside of their master, the True Souls don't even get that. And you still have to kill them.

Very fitting for the tragedy-horror theme of the 2nd Act though.

#bg3 #like there's also some environmental details that also really hammer it home #the schoolteacher who took all those kids to Moonrise where they were sacrificed for example #but idk... Minthara just makes me crazy. listen to all her dialogue and she's just so! everything to me!#like as a companion SHE'S the main insight we have into what being a True Soul is like and it's SO fucked up #scary fucked up woman with big sad eyes full of pain and fear and rage I love you #the way she begs for her life. MINTHARA begs for her life. and beforehand they're boxing her in and leading her to a trap #and Minthara is still too brainwashed to do more than argue her devotion which Ketheric knows is true. knows that True Souls #literally CAN'T give anything but their best but he lets her verbally hang herself while trying to argue for her own life #because it's all a goddamn farce. and Minthara doesn't even realize it until you save her and get her out #and the WAY she pleads with Ketheric is so creepy because the Minthara you get to know is nothing like that #even when showing deference or respect. and Minthara is so so loyal and so confident in who she is and the Absolute #simply... steals that. turns it to its own uses and then when she fails strips her of what was already stolen from her #I always give her the ring you can get from Omeluum. I don't really need it but Minthara surely would appreciate it

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