Kiastmato 🔞 MINORS DNI

in my run for some reason emps wasnt facing the camera, so heres my reasoning

bonus

Ideally, someone would be honest with you so that you can decide, with all the info, whether to trust them or not. But desperate times and all that. He needed our trust. The fate of a lot of people depended on it. Even if he only cares about saving himself, it's still saving a lot of other lives too, including ours.

Also, plenty of people hide or change things about themselves for their own safety or comfort. Queerness, disability, religion. Things like makeup, hair dye, clothes, and surgery can change how we look. Many people don't even use their real name or share pictures of themselves online.

Also, half of our companions lie or manipulate or withhold info from us too. Astarion tries to manipulate you by seducing you. Astarion, Shadowheart, Gale, and Wyll all withhold important info about themselves.

Also, what does it even matter? Elf, half-orc, mindflayer, what difference does that make? He was still doing what he said he was---protecting us.

Also, he's pretty honest about everything else. He tells you right away that he stole the power he's using to protect you. Tells you he's doing this because he wants to be free of the Absolute. Tells you he ran the Knights of the Shield. Tells you how he got captured by Gortash, mind controlled again, and sent on the nautiloid to find the prism. And when he tells you the tadpole powers will help in your fight, that is also simply the truth.

His life and freedom rest in Tav's hands---the hands of someone who has made it clear they still don't trust him and aren't willing to work together amicably even after all these months, someone who might even want him dead. And he knows it.

He only uses threats as a last resort after spending months being amicable, politely putting up with any insults Tav and the party throw his way. And then Tav either calls him a freak or says he's not fooling them with his human impression. BG3 is a game, it can't account for everything, maybe Tav was nice until that moment, but it's likely that any Tav who responds like that has already been treating him like that.

The Emperor can't just give up on Tav, there's no time to put together and gain the trust of a new team (and players would hate him even more if he did that). He also can't keep protecting Tav and co. without getting any help in return because eventually the brain will get too strong if no one stops it. If that happens, the world will be taken over by the brain, and he'll either be trapped alone in the prism forever, or he'll be a mind-controlled slave until he dies. Those are terrible, terrifying options. So that leaves him with the option of still having to work with someone who hates him.

So him threatening Tav sounds like an overreaction without context, but the context is that nothing else has worked, he's desperate and scared and feels threatened himself, and he's fighting for his life and his freedom against the person who has the power to take that from him and has indicated, probably repeatedly, that they might want to. And this is the only idea he has left. Mind control is extreme, but it's really the only threat he has available, so of course that's what he's going to use.

I would also argue that because of this context, you can't even say this is "mask off" or how he truly feels. This is him trying to intimidate you. There is far more evidence in the game to suggest he wants to be genuine allies. He even tries to give you more power and help you find more allies.