Another alignment discussion: Neera

Nihilus

Isn't she more like a chaotic good? The first thing she does in the game is to go out of her way to save a little girl and I didn't see much in terms of moral ambiguity from the time I had her in my party. I suspect the devs' line of thinking was that "eccentricity equals chaotic neutral", but that's not necessarily true (Minsc). Thoughts?

Loub

Judging by her constant refusal to accept any sort responsibility - "Oh yes, I cheated on you, but I am a horny b**** so whatevs"; "No, it was your fault Adoy couldn't help me. Blah blah blah, I hate you"; "I am a free spirit completely incapable of stability, and as such I'll play hard to get for the rest of your effing life, constantly running away and possibly even commiting suicide just to escape being tied down" - and abandoning of the people she had injured instead of helping them in her backstory, I would most definitely not think of her as "chaotic good", but "chaotic neutral with good tendencies" (2,6 in the morality scale, to be precise).

Heindrich

I think there was a bit of an "Wild Mage must be Chaotic!" thing going on with regards to Neera, but I'd say that she's a pretty good representation of Neutral on the Good => Evil axis. She has some empathy, clearly, so certainly some Good tendencies there, but she also shows a fair amount of irresponsibility throughout both games, and did some questionable things in Baldur's Gate.

I think her 'Chaotic-ness' is overplayed though. Her magic is unstable, yes, but that does not reflect necessarily on her attitudes to Order and Anarchy. In fact her quests have a degree of Lawful-intent behind them, seeking to control her unpredictable power and creating a safe haven (and the organisation that implies) for wild mages. A truly Chaotic Neutral Wild Mage would probably embrace their powers and seek safety through individualism and self-reliance.

Lesse

Neera's personality grates on me a little for that reason. They just seemed to have wanted to make her all "cool and random." Don't get me wrong, I think she's funny, and I liked her quests a lot. But it's inconsistant. Rasaad doesn't like the idea of attacking his own people. Hexxat's decisions to deal with Clara are...well, she says its regrettable but necessary. I won't even comment on Dorn. Neera blows up a mage and...it's meant to be funny? And random? Because "oh, yeah, I didn't mean to do that!" ...Huh.

She is also very inconsistant to me. Her whole rage over the refuge getting attacked was fully understandable and showed a different side to her, and definately made her more likeable to me. I just feel they thought wild mages *need* to be random, and chaotic, and they don't. In all, I think mainly she was still on the teenage rebellion stage of her life. A lot of thoughts, feelings and good intentions but a little nonsensical, doing what she wants and showing her caring side when people close to her got hurt.

There's also something which bothered me, and I'm going to reference Tord here. His Letsplays had Lilly choosing to be a wild mage in BG2, and she was lawful evil. Why? Because of her curiosity and thirst for power and knowledge. Which I thought was an interesting take. Well...if one "chooses" to be gifted by such a thing, anyway.

element

I would say that Neera is a vey good representation of chaotic neutral certainly the best I can think of in BG.
She has a great reluctance to allow herself to be contained or restricted in anyway be it from external threats such as the Thayans or more mundane fare like her relationships. While she is understanding of others and at times compassionate she also displays a tendancy towards selfishness and feckless behaviour.

while I agree with others that wild-mages can be just as diverse in personality as any of its arcane siblings there's certainly no problem in portraying them in this way. I at least am pleased to have another proper neutral character added to the game as there is a real dearth of decent neutral characters with regards to bg2.

Stasis_Sword

Neera's alignment is fine. No one would argue the chaotic part. She is more neutral than some other supposed maintainers of balance *cough* Jaheira *cough*.