Imoen in Baldur's Gate 2

demented

So it seems Imoen is considered whiny and annoying in BG 2 by a lot of people. So I'm curious as to what the consensus on this is (because shut up, that's why) and I created a poll.

Mathsorcerer

I had Imoen in my party back in 2000 when I first played BG...and then I found Safana. After that, no more Imoen ever again. In BG2 I ditch her once we are reunited unless I am playing evil in which case I casually allow her to die.

SwordsNotWords

Don't really dig the forced humorous poll options but I've always though Imoen has one of the best characters in Baldur's Gate 2.

Douman

It would be better to have better sister in BG

Silverstar

I never understood why it's perfectly fine to murder your half-brother but super wrong to like your half-sister. Should be about the same amount of badness shouldn't it?

Krieger

I've always thought Imoen was a great addition. Stick her with some thief gear to get her HiS/MS stats up, and you have an excellent Mage/Thief.

Eudaemonium

Imoen is actually a doppleganger. I always ditch her in Irenicus' dungeon lest she stab me in the back. Later, when I find out said doppleganger is also a bhaalspawn I do the only sensible thing and send her the way of my other siblings. =P

demented

Eudaemonium said:

Imoen is actually a doppleganger. I always ditch her in Irenicus' dungeon lest she stab me in the back. Later, when I find out said doppleganger is also a bhaalspawn I do the only sensible thing and send her the way of my other siblings. =P

Not just Imoen, but Jaheria and Minsc too. Each has been rotting in the ground since the events of BG 1 and yet they magically appear in Irenicus' dungeon. Minsc, I slew myself and I made damned sure he was dead.

Eudaemonium

I actually completely ignored Minsc and Jaheira on my current game and pretended they weren't there. If you don't pick the line with Imoen about finding help she doesn't bring them up so... *whistles innocently*

Aranthys

Imoen is one of my favourite party member in BG2.
Her french voice is also totally awesome (Where it SUCKED in BG1, heh !)

nano

She's a cutie! Definitely my favorite character. Doesn't have a lot of banter but I don't mind because her personality makes it easy to imagine her interactions with other characters. I've been writing up my adventures to try and get more out of the game and she's been super useful from a storytelling point of view, unlike say, Minsc who is too much of a caricature to do anything with. I should really boot him...

Frkun

For me Imoen has an inherent value in story terms. You spend half of the game trying to rescue her and the other half wondering about what happened to her while she was absent. The only problem I see in her is that she takes a valuable slot in my team that could be taken by a serious character like Nalia (which performs better as mage), Aerie cleric mage FTW), or any other interesting character in case the MC is a thief or mage.

The only reason why I would have her in my team is for a romance. Yes, she is my sister. Yes, it's incest. Yes, that's what would make it an awesome turnabout.

rdarken

I made a post about the difference in her voice set v. dialogues before, but in my opinion her voice set is still somewhat cheery (though not AS cheery) v. BG1. But her dialogue is just uggghhh

stargazerb

I can't stand her and always kick her out the second I can. I don't find her as grating as Jaheira, though.

ajwz

The truth about Imoen:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/6392/fan-thoery-the-truth-about-imoen

Aristillius

I like Imoen, but none of these poll options align with my own views. The BGEE community has many strengths, but making polls is not one x)

Awong124

She's whiny and annoying, but nowhere near as much as Aerie.

Coutelier

Love Imoen. I imagine her and Aerie being like the Kirk and Spock/La Forge and Data/Penn and Teller type of relationship in the game. Only instead of teaching her to be human, she teaches her to prank, laugh and say 'yer all buffleheaded' when people make fun of her.

Although her lack of dialogues in game is disappointing. I almost wish she had a conflict with an evil character just to show her with a bit more will of her own, rather than someone just tagging along. Thinking she's looking out for her sibling by getting rid of someone like Hexxat or Edwin, for example.

ChildofBhaal599

can't play without her in the party. i would probably take her even in an evil party

O_Bruce

If by whiny you guys mean how she was acting in the Irenicus' Dungeon at the very start of the game, then I don't think you ever considered the fact that she has been tortured in a manner similar to charname. In her cases, it might be even more drastical, since she was more cheerful and innocent than charname, hence Joneleth had to use more traumatic methods of torture (for example showing her mutilating Khalid's body) to make her soul more "dark" and become aware of her true heritage. He needed these traits to preform a ritual succesfuly, after all.

I've seen someone mention Aerie. It's actually similar case. Naive, innocent, pure-hearted girl gets enslaved, and durning such enslavement her wings she was so proud of was cut off and her wounds were burned out with fire, all when she was still conscious. I think she has a good reason to complain about her loss. I even think it makes perfect sense.

Anyway, back to the Imoen. The character has a sentimental value to me, regardless if its Baldur's Gate I or II. While I can play without her (and sometimes I do), most of the time I just can't resist bringing her along.

Schneidend

I've been playing a lot of Evil parties lately, so I kick her out. When my Chaotic Good half-orc Barbarian gal gets to BG2, she'll keep Immy around.

zerckan

Only problem i have with Imoen is her being dualclassed to mage.
It must have been somewhat trendy to convert thieves to mages when developers made original BG2.
When i play mage as charname, i don't want another mage to control in party. And when i don't play mage as charname, i'd rather use a single class mage. This makes Imoen,Nalia,jan out in both ways.
Only thief i'd rather use is Yoshimo and well you know...
I'd use Clara also and again you know...
-_-

shawne

Depends on how you see your main character, I suppose. The first time I played the original, my PC was a Neutral Evil sorceress but she genuinely cared about Imoen and thought of her as a sister (which turned out to be a fortunate coincidence). Sure, they were different, but that's partly why they got along so well - even when they never saw eye to eye, they still respected each other.

My current PC, on the other hand, can't stand her. Not to the point of wanting her dead or anything, but he thinks she's an airhead tagalong and keeps trying to get rid of her, only for her to pop back up like a bad penny. First he ditches her at the FAI, then she turns up at Chateau Irenicus; he'd be willing to let her rot in Spellhold except he really, really wants revenge on Irenicus so he might as well spring her in the process and send her on her way again. And since I'll be playing BG2:EE with Ascension, that storyline is going to come to a very satisfying conclusion at the Throne of Bhaal:

Amelyssan is going to summon Imoen - "oh gods, not her again" - and turn her into the Slayer, at which point my team will finally have no choice but to kill her.

Awong124

ZelgadisGW said:

If by whiny you guys mean how she was acting in the Irenicus' Dungeon at the very start of the game, then I don't think you ever considered the fact that she has been tortured in a manner similar to charname. In her cases, it might be even more drastical, since she was more cheerful and innocent than charname, hence Joneleth had to use more traumatic methods of torture (for example showing her mutilating Khalid's body) to make her soul more "dark" and become aware of her true heritage. He needed these traits to preform a ritual succesfuly, after all.

I've seen someone mention Aerie. It's actually similar case. Naive, innocent, pure-hearted girl gets enslaved, and durning such enslavement her wings she was so proud of was cut off and her wounds were burned out with fire, all when she was still conscious. I think she has a good reason to complain about her loss. I even think it makes perfect sense.

Anyway, back to the Imoen. The character has a sentimental value to me, regardless if its Baldur's Gate I or II. While I can play without her (and sometimes I do), most of the time I just can't resist bringing her along.

I understand the reasons behind the whininess, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

nano

I actually don't find her whiny at all and I was pretty surprised to find out that other people did. But to each their own.

Mrpenfold666

imoen is really the only romance option if you think about it from the arc of both games she has an air of drama in her story. she sees you leave with gorion and her trickster nature she sneaks out not knowing whats going to happen, sees gorion's body, helps you when your most down and alone and even in learning what CHARNAME is, she stays with him/her knowing that CHARNAME is essentially an avatar of destruction considering everything CHARNAME kills throughout BG 1 and the time between games. and after being trapped in irencius's dungeon being tortured, and hearing CHARNAMES torture, and being terrified of being in the place of such horrible acts, thanks to CHARNAME's presence she manages to stay sane.

but after trying to defeat the big bad person she gets arrested because of it? causing CHARNAME to hook up with strangers invade the super prison to try and save her and to find her emotionally broken from the sounds of it

i think its a damn strong character arc, and maybe she does whine but im pretty sure most of us would if in that setting. would you complain if you had to fight giant 6 ft hyenas with halberds? i would. the rest of the above statement i dont count as spoilers as it happens in the beginning, and the gnoll thing well gnolls are common enemies in D&D settings so....yeah

geselle

She is the only non-evil character I'd ever take into my evil party, not because she won't leave despite being a homicidal psycho, but rather because I see her as the only remnant of the pc's former life and she represents the last bit of goodness remaining in my pc.
And on top of that the pc takes strength from her friendship or memories of her during spellhold.

Coutelier

nano said:

I actually don't find her whiny at all and I was pretty surprised to find out that other people did. But to each their own.

Complaining about things like kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, having your wings or your soul stolen, is just whining, apparently. It's not like the real problems that I'm having right now. I scolded my hand by spilling coffee on it... but, you know what? I'm going to be brave. I'm a big man. I'll learn to live with it... and the stupid ******* cup... it's all fine.

But actually, if you go through Aerie's dialogues you find that far from 'constantly whining' about them, until you get to the romance she almost never talks about them (the only times she does are when other NPC's ask about it, and then her answers are always very short). Imoen will naturally try to hide her feelings behind humor and being silly, but the mask has got to slip occasionally.

Schneidend

Awong124 said:

I understand the reasons behind the whininess, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

The point is that being traumatized by kidnapping, rape, body mutilation, and torture isn't "whining."

nano

Yeah, considering what she went through she held up really well. A lot of people in real life would be quivering wrecks after all that. I honestly expected more "whining" from Jaheira and Minsc because we'd been tortured for weeks or months but I suppose Irenicus was mostly focused on the Bhaalspawn.

Awong124

Schneidend said:

Awong124 said:

I understand the reasons behind the whininess, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

The point is that being traumatized by kidnapping, rape, body mutilation, and torture isn't "whining."

It's a game and she's not real, so forgive me if I'm not overly sympathetic about her woes. If she sounds whiny and takes away from my enjoyment of the game, I'm dumping her.