Regarding Imoen's Biography
sersafir
Member Posts: 126
I'm not sure if this is discussed much, but what's up with this? Found here http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Imoen
BG1:" When asked about her past, Imoen slaps your shoulder playfully. She says that you of all people should know, seeing as how you grew up together. Indeed, some of your fondest memories are of meeting this sprightly young lass. She apparently came to Candlekeep much as you did, though 10 years later in life, and she spent much more time with the gruff Winthrop than Gorion, "Puffguts" she would call him, much to the old innkeep's dismay. She seems the eternal child, and is quite content to play the part of little sister, though you are both of comparative ages. You can tell by her hearty smile that she will always be willing to travel with you, no matter what path you take. "
BG2:"Imoen chuckles when you ask her about her past, assuming you are just trying to keep her mind on happier times and places. She indulges you, and certainly does cheer up when speaking of how you spent your youths together in Candlekeep. She arrived there the same as you, in the company of your foster father Gorion, but despite this similarity she grew up much more carefree than you did. Indeed, her lighthearted outlook has long kept her immune to the hardships of the world, though the dark confines and horrors of your current location have definitely taken their toll."
-AREA-
I bolded what seems odd to me, You are not constantly put into dark areas whenever you read her bio. Maybe it would be better to have said, "though the dark confines and horrors of Irenicus's dungeon have definitely taken their toll."
-AGE-
If she came to Candlekeep the same as you, that means she didn't come 10 years later? Or if it's only implying 'same as you' as in 'from a different area' what was Imoen doing those 10 years? I mean, I know the ages are supposedly "comparative" but in BG2 Imoen calls you "little brother/sister" in one of her talks (it's a voiced dialogue, I don't remember where it was.) Is MC 10 years older or what exactly made her unable to remember or be sacrificed?
-PLOT-
Then there's a huge issue of her being bhaalspawn. Think about it. Gorion wanted to take you out of Candlekeep to keep you safe by delivering you to Jaheria and Khalid. But he left Imoen behind and didn't bother leaving her with any indication of her taint. This means Gorion planned to sacrifice Imoen so you could escape? It seems to be implied he knew since he brought her.
I'm pretty confused here.
BG1:" When asked about her past, Imoen slaps your shoulder playfully. She says that you of all people should know, seeing as how you grew up together. Indeed, some of your fondest memories are of meeting this sprightly young lass. She apparently came to Candlekeep much as you did, though 10 years later in life, and she spent much more time with the gruff Winthrop than Gorion, "Puffguts" she would call him, much to the old innkeep's dismay. She seems the eternal child, and is quite content to play the part of little sister, though you are both of comparative ages. You can tell by her hearty smile that she will always be willing to travel with you, no matter what path you take. "
BG2:"Imoen chuckles when you ask her about her past, assuming you are just trying to keep her mind on happier times and places. She indulges you, and certainly does cheer up when speaking of how you spent your youths together in Candlekeep. She arrived there the same as you, in the company of your foster father Gorion, but despite this similarity she grew up much more carefree than you did. Indeed, her lighthearted outlook has long kept her immune to the hardships of the world, though the dark confines and horrors of your current location have definitely taken their toll."
-AREA-
I bolded what seems odd to me, You are not constantly put into dark areas whenever you read her bio. Maybe it would be better to have said, "though the dark confines and horrors of Irenicus's dungeon have definitely taken their toll."
-AGE-
If she came to Candlekeep the same as you, that means she didn't come 10 years later? Or if it's only implying 'same as you' as in 'from a different area' what was Imoen doing those 10 years? I mean, I know the ages are supposedly "comparative" but in BG2 Imoen calls you "little brother/sister" in one of her talks (it's a voiced dialogue, I don't remember where it was.) Is MC 10 years older or what exactly made her unable to remember or be sacrificed?
-PLOT-
Then there's a huge issue of her being bhaalspawn. Think about it. Gorion wanted to take you out of Candlekeep to keep you safe by delivering you to Jaheria and Khalid. But he left Imoen behind and didn't bother leaving her with any indication of her taint. This means Gorion planned to sacrifice Imoen so you could escape? It seems to be implied he knew since he brought her.
I'm pretty confused here.
Post edited by sersafir on
1
Comments
@jackjack Well, assuming it was a plot hole they just overlooked why couldn't it be fixed in Enhanced Edition?
When I raised this same issue recently in another thread, someone else said that the game said somewhere that Gorion didn't actually know that Imoen was your sister/fellow Bhaalspawn when he brought her there - but that would then raise the question of why he brought her there.
And you are using a banned icon which is similar to my 1st april joke
(If it’s Imoen who donates a piece of her soul to bring him back to life.)
Imoen: So ... Sarevok. You’ve had an itty-bitty piece of my soul in there for quite a while now. What it’s been like?
Sarevok: (sigh) Well other than a slight obsession with my weight and the resurgence of a few pimples, it’s been simply grand. Now leave me be, girl.
Imoen: No, I’m serious. Does the fact that you have a little piece of me inside you make any difference at all? Tell me ... you owe me that much.
Sarevok: What do you wish to know, girl? What are you curious about? Perhaps you would be interested to know that I can feel the knives of Irenicus, slicing into my skin, torturing me. I can feel his hands and his breath, I *know* what he did to you, girl ...
Imoen: Al-alright, stop ... I wasn’t really serious ...
Sarevok: How about the agony you felt as your soul was ripped from you? The despair at being left only with the cold voices of your tainted heart, discovering what was inside you all along? How about the hurt you keep deep down within, wondering if you weren’t good enough for Gorion? How about the loneliness ... the unrequited longing you -
Imoen: Stop! Enough ... I won’t bother you, Sarevok, just -
(If Sarevok’s still evil)
Sarevok: You are pathetic, girl. When the true Bhaalspawn come to claim your essence, I hope you bring yourself not to flop onto your back at the first sign of danger!
Imoen: I ... I was enough to help kill you once, Sarevok! And I’ll stand by (CHARNAME) to the end, just you wait. It was ... obviously a mistake to talk to you. Excuse me.
(If Sarevok changed alignment)
Sarevok: I feel many things, Imoen. And I know that you are stronger than you think you are.
Imoen: I ... thanks, Sarevok. I guess. Um ... excuse me ...
Imoen: What ... what was it like to die, Sarevok? Seeing as you’ve been through the experience repeatedly I can’t help but wonder if you’ve developed some perspective on it.
Sarevok: Do you intend for me to believe that a weakling such as yourself has never needed to be revived by a priest? Bah! I imagine this group has obtained a discount at the temple of Helm for you, dear sister.
Imoen: Yeah, but that’s different. That’s just some blackness and then like, ‘oops, here you go!’ I don’t think that I’ve ever been really, really dead like you have.
Sarevok: Keep prodding me and that could quickly change.
Imoen: Oh, you don’t fool me. I’m an archmage after all ... and you’re nothing but bluster. Tell me what I want to know!
Sarevok: The knowledge would do you no good, now, dear sister. And by the time you need it, it will be too late. Now leave me be ... your constant chirruping is giving me a headache.
I also looked over all of Sarevok's lines in ToB in Near Infinity and it didn't seem like he knew about Imoen (at least back then).
As for how Sarevok and Irenicus found out, I'm not sure. Irenicus I can probably write off as noticing that Imoen was becoming more....mmm, fascinated by death the more he tortured her/others around her, guessed she was a Bhaalspawn, and started focusing on her in an attempt to see if he was right. Sarevok? Maybe he could somehow sense the Taint in her, but only in TOB, since that was when it had awoken.
In Imoen's bios, "same as you" probably just means "adopted". You were fostered by Gorion, she by Winthrop. You remember her being 10 years old when she showed up in Candlekeep. You were probably 11 or 12 at the time. ("Stop calling me 'child', I'm not that much younger than you!")
If Gorion knew Imoen was Bhaalspawn, he probably kept it a very strict secret. The attempt to split the two of you up just before he died would have been done for similar reasons as when Obi-Wan and Yoda decided to split up Luke and Leia and to keep their origins a secret from both the public, their foster families, and from each other - increased safety and better chance for at least one of them to survive. I think a lot of the BG writing was inspired by the Star Wars saga.
It's hard to write anything original in the shadows of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings - everything gets compared to those two.
@SharGuidesMyHand That would be an abnormal coincidence too.
@Apocrypha What seems weird though is how she slipped past the priestesses when she was a baby, or why no one seemed to know of her origin. Like you mention, if Gorion didn't know, why did he bother bringing her? I know her int implies borderline genius, but still, she's a theif...
@Belgarath Yeah, I think starwars is surprisingly similar to BG. I know with "canon" info things tend to give precedence to the latest info.
I found it hard to believe the "Imoen being a Bhaalspawn" idea was only thought up in making SOA. This role was just made for it.
Edit: looks like wuthering20 already made a few of my points
I read somewhere Imoen was literally a last minute addition in BG1 when they found mages just started walking around without Imoen (who was barely in the game files as a practice character) got killed very quickly by wandering gibberling blue things. They added a couple lines of dialogue and decided to have her help along. As to why they gave her such great stats, I don't know.
But I'm pretty sure when SoA popped by they werent sure what to do with her. I think she was a bhaalspawn last minute because literally NO ONE, even seemingly Gorion and Sarevok, suspects Imoen of any taint, and she shows no signs whatsoever, and as noted before, the bounty hunters aren't after Imoen. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting twist, but it messes with the canon way too much for me to suspect they thought it out.
I'm also a little curious about Sarevok's knowledge of death...
Also, in BG2, Imoen was supposed to get killed off, and this explains why she has little to no dialogue in ToB. The only reason Imoen didn't get killed off was because she was a huge fan-favorite, and in ToB she kind of suffered for it mostly because she had like no dialogue. Then, there was a favorite mod that came out, and made Imoen awesome. No, I'm not talking about the Imoen Romance.
Off-topic, but I remember when Bioware used the 'Fan-favorite' logic again in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. Except, you know, Oghren wasn't really a 'fan-favorite'. However, since he's voiced by Steve Blum, Oghren will always be known as Dwarf Spike Spiegel. This is irrelevant to the Imoen conversation though.