Jaheira and Aerie
OurQuestIsVain
Member Posts: 201
I've been playing through BG2EE recently with Jaheira and Aerie in the party. I've noticed a lot of times on this forum people will talk about how much they hate/are annoyed by both of these characters. I'm wondering if people who hate Jaheira also hate Aerie or vice-verca.
The reason I ask is because these characters are polar opposites. On one end you have Jaheira who is a strong willed woman who knows her mind and is not afraid to speak it. She is wise in the ways of the world and has seen much in her time with the Harpers. On the other end you have Aerie who is naive and innocent in the ways of the world. She hasn't seen much outside of the circus and is very timid.
Both of these characters can be romanced and neither of them is bad as far as abilities go. Their voices are very different as well. They are both far from being 1 dimensional characters and they each grow over the course of the game.
What I'm most curious about are the people who dislike both characters. If neither are appealing what characters do you find appealing and why?
The reason I ask is because these characters are polar opposites. On one end you have Jaheira who is a strong willed woman who knows her mind and is not afraid to speak it. She is wise in the ways of the world and has seen much in her time with the Harpers. On the other end you have Aerie who is naive and innocent in the ways of the world. She hasn't seen much outside of the circus and is very timid.
Both of these characters can be romanced and neither of them is bad as far as abilities go. Their voices are very different as well. They are both far from being 1 dimensional characters and they each grow over the course of the game.
What I'm most curious about are the people who dislike both characters. If neither are appealing what characters do you find appealing and why?
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now aerie on the other hand, she has great potential but that multi-class weakness really hurts, infact, fighters will almost be hitting level 30 before she can cast level 9 spells, while single class mages are casting level 9 spells near the tale end of SoA or near the beginning of ToB, and basically at the 6 million mark, if you are not near the end you are pretty close to it, and also, she has insanely low HP, I have another SoA team with her in it and at 2.5 million XP she only has 51 HP ( 56 with sensate amulet) while anomen at 2.5 million XP has double that, and of coarse single class characters get their high level spells faster, so that is why, sometimes players prefer the single class clerics or mages over her because they can hit those cap spells faster which makes those harder battles easier
but I have played games where I had both of them on the same team, because in reality you can beat the game with pretty much any combo of characters as long as there is a mage and cleric in there somewhere, so that is my guess why people might not like them as much
Aerie I will say I don't hate she was just too shallow.charname was captured, tortured, and lost his sister Jaheira lost her husband, imeon lost her soul, Viconia lost everything she has ever known and worked for... But you cry about your damn wings!!! I only did her romance once and it was a speed run, but I think she only mentioned her family once through her whole SoA romance. I never did it in ToB, so I don't know there.
If she had cried more about how she missed her parents and siblings, her homeland, and just friends in general. I would have nothing but love for her, but really? I'm willing to listen, and I sympathize with you losing a part of your body that you were born with, and knew your whole life, but there has to be more to you girl.
Jaheira's romance with you only comes about if you encourage her. At that point you are both guilty of not letting Khalid's body get cold before moving on. Perhaps players feel guilty about themselves.
I always liked both of them, even from a personality perspective.
From the moment that I meet Aerie and free her from her (invisible) bonds, I feel a sense of responsibility toward her. Call me a sucker, but I can't resist her helpless and innocent persona. I also admire someone who is so ostensibly naive and helpless, but still puts their life on the line in the heat of battle.
I like Jaheira for the exact opposite reason - she is a strong, fearless, defiant, and dedicated sidekick, who has sacrificed so much and will continue to sacrifice much more for your case.
Both characters are generally staples of my BG2 parties.
Before I get into it, I'm going to have to scorn the fact someone took Aerie's loss of her wings as something unimportant and apparently means nothing. She lost her *identity to who she was*. She is no longer seen as an Avariel. She's just an Elf. And being a slave in a cage for amusement isn't mentally scarring enough? Hello?? >__> (This isn't bias at all. I don't understand why nobody truly sees how strong Aerie actually is and what she's also suffered just as much as the rest of the characters in the game.) Please refrain from belittling someone's painful history like that.
Anyway... In regards to Aerie/Jaheira; @OurQuestIsVain (Xan!!!!
I don't like Jaheira, for many reasons. The biggest being how quickly her romance starts with a Male CHARNAME, just because you gave her a shoulder to cry on; After she spent X time with you in BG1. That's just creepy. She's supposed to be essentially your Step-Mother, in a way. Or Guardian. Either way she behaves as a Mother-Figure to you and looks out for you with a straightforward and often at times outspoken tone, because she cares for your well being but also won't allow you to do anything outside of HER comfort zone. Which, to me, is kind of annoying, as she's got a very weird sense of balance and justice. From what I remember, you're not allowed to be "too" goody-to-shoes or "too" evil, or she'll have a problem with it in some way. IIRC (If I remember correctly), she will leave and scorn you heavily if you do even one thing wrong. Her constant scolding and belittling of your CHARNAME really does bother me, I fully understand why her character behaves like that, but doesn't mean I have to enjoy it or like it. It's probably a personal bias towards Jaheira, I get treated like that a lot in my real life, I honestly don't want a fictional character to do it to me even more. But as I mentioned previously, the whole "I can basically seduce my Mother" thing really creeps me out. I could go on about how much I really dislike Jaheira, but it's too negative and I'd rather not keep up the negativity spree haha.
And with that; I saved THEE best(!!!) for last! (If you can't tell, I'm an avid Aerie fan.)
Aerie, on the other hand, I've loved from the get-go, and ever since I started SoA in 2000, I've rushed to the circus in every. single. playthrough I've done. (That's, like, over 400 games, at least?!) just to save Aerie. (Even if I don't add her to the party, I like to make sure she's okay.) I usually always take Aerie, because, not only does she remind me of what we were all like at some time, but she also has a great sense of right and wrong. She always has great character development and learns how to become an adventurer. (Much like how CHARNAME starts off in Bg1 and has to learn the ropes.)
Aerie becomes a great party member and rarely ever speaks out of tone, but don't be fooled, Aerie won't sit around and take shit from anyone and will stand for her beliefs and not be bullied around by bigger people. She's also a very accepting person. Even if she might not like you, she at least tries too. (Hexxat interactions show this perfectly, but possibly a little ignorant from Aerie's side of things. But she at least is civil about it.) I don't find her whiny, never have, never will. But; I can understand how it comes across that way and why people dislike her.
As OP said; Jaheira and Aerie are on complete opposites of the spectrum. I just find Aerie so adorable. (Especially when playing as a Female CHARNAME, that line about blankets gets me fuzzy every time! Almost makes me wish she was Bisexual/Player sexual sometimes LOL.) Aerie just gives off this "Aww, let me cuddle you!" vibe whenever she speaks. Sure, she's naive and innocent, but she's also a foreigner, don't forget that. She's having to learn, not only how to be a Cleric/Mage and follow Gnomish religions, but also how to live on Human Lands AND be an Adventurer! That's a lot to take in, which, again, I think people forget or don't fully understand. Aerie is ridiculously intelligent and I admire that about her character. She learns, she adapts, and she copes the best way she can, which can also be seen as her being shy or a bit of a background character. Her crappy HP stats also refer to how physically weak she actually is. (I mean come on, being in a cage for a long time and having your wings cut off from being infected? That takes a lot out of someone, surely.) I guess you could say Aerie is that "Princess who needs saving" type, but only in a very loose fashion. She stands on her own two feet throughout the game.
There's so much to Aerie that is explained but only if you pay close attention to who she is and so forth. All in all, Aerie is a very well rounded character and there's also the added part of that freaky love triangle with Haer'Dalis, which is pretty interesting haha. Makes me feel guilty just taking her away from Haer'Dalis as they're a pretty solid couple and get on so well! BUT SHE'S MINE! Just kidding. She can do what she likes~
I can honestly go on about Aerie all day, there's a lot to her character development and backstory ect ect. I don't think anyone wants to read too much more about Aerie though haha...
Anyways, there you have it. Reasons why I dislike Jaheira and why I love Aerie. Hope you enjoy reading this Temple of text aha. ^^;
You sound like a person who fell in love with one romance option and started justifying why you won't betray it for others.
Some of the reasons of why you dislike Jaheira are just laughable - if you'd paid more attention to her you'd know through her dialogues that the protagonist over the course of their adventures had gained her respect and she started seeing him as equal, not becoming his "mother-figure" as you seem to think.
Besides which, if you've read about Tethyrian history and her personal one, you'd know that she's not that much older than the protagonist, even though she acts as wise beyond her age. Aerie though is probably older than Jaheira's and protagonist's ages combined, lol. I won't even mention Viconia's age here
Jaheira is indeed at times bossy and patronizing, but that's because she's a no-nonsense, strongwilled woman who takes her obligations to the Harpers and to her friend Gorion very seriously. As a guardian she has a duty to keep the protagonist safe and on the right path, and therefore is not shy to make suggestions about the best course of action, from her neutral point of view of course (although there is a consensus about her actually being neutral good, but 2nd edition not allowing it for druids). And though she may be upset if you steer too far from neutral reputation she never leaves the party if you've heroic reputation, she does that only if you're an utterly evil bastard.
Personally, I like this type of character in women - strong and confident, but with an occasional desire for a stronger shoulder to lean on. If she wasn't so dead serious she'd make an excellent tsundere material - the most popular and funny anime archetype. But alas, the crown goes to the true tsundere queen - Viconia
Personally, I can't say that I dislike any of the vanilla romances, they all have their interesting moments, even Anomen, but EE characters and their romances never grew on me, they seem kinda..I dunno, out of place, not as good written?
Jaheira is first and foremost a fighter, not a spellcaster. Jaheira's fighter levels are not significantly hampered by her multi-classing, and the multi-classing gives her access to Ironskins and Armor of Faith, which make her significantly more resilient against enemy physical attacks, compared to a single-classed fighter. Earth Elemental form, at 3 million XP, also gives her high physical damage resistance. With Death Ward and Chaotic Commands, she's also much more resilient to enemy spellcasters. Her STR is low, but that's easily resolved with BG2 magic. She can only use druid weapons, but that includes the excellent Gnasher+Belm setup, one of the two most damaging weapons in the game.
You can't judge a character by the standards of another class. Saying Jaheira is weak because she doesn't have many level 7 druid spells is like saying Edwin is weak because he can't use Carsomyr.
In a word, Jaheira does big damage and is hard to kill. That's a strong fighter.
For the same reasons, it's a mistake to doubt Aerie because she won't get level 9 mage spells until 6 million XP. You're judging a Cleric/Mage by the standards of a single-class spellcaster--that's not what Aerie is for. Aerie has tremendous versatility by virtue of her two classes. Having access to nearly every spell in the game means she can adapt to virtually any encounter, and always has something useful to do. She's not going to be throwing out Time Stop for most of the game, but spellcasting in BG2 is more than Time Stop and Summon Planetar.
You can't judge a character by the standards of another class. Saying Aerie is weak because she doesn't have level 9 mage spells is like saying Korgan is weak because he can't cast Stoneskin.
In a word, Aerie has lots of spells that are useful for any fight in the game. That's a strong spellcaster.
Agreed, Jaheira is an awesome selfbuffing tank, especially if you give her good shield and armor. And, being a druid, she can lend support as a versatile offensive/defensive spellcaster. Though Aerie in that role is even better.
I just like Aerie the most out of all the characters, I'm not scolding you for being up Jaheira's Ass, why do you have such a big problem with me liking Aerie? Jaheira is probably the only character in the entire series who I really just don't like and for very good reasons that I pointed out. I dislike her condescending tone, which means I won't experience her character to it's full extent. But that in no way means I didn't at least try. I romanced her for a little while with a Male CHARNAME, just to see how it went and I found the whole thing creepy and stopped it. I have played with Jaheira in my party quite a few times, either for loot (usually for the former) or to get to know her, and I just don't like how she talks to my CHARNAME in the game. But let me just state it again; You need to like a character to want to take them around with you. You won't learn everything if you don't like their first impressions. Hence why people aren't incredibly informed on every single NPC in the game, because they don't all fit into everyone's idea of a merry or dastardly boat. I spent time trying to get to know Jaheira, but, her constant attitude got in the way, so I stopped taking her beyond the start of the game. I switch her out for Cernd ASAP. But that's just how I play.
Sue me for not liking one character, god. I don't want a party member who is constantly going to sass me at every moment. I also wrote "iirc", which means I was probably wrong, which you indeed went out of your way to prove me wrong in quite the rude, but informed, fashion. I accept that I got the good thing wrong. And obviously I have not read into Jaheira's extra backstory in the Tethryian lore, so obviously I am not informed, but as I stated earlier age really doesn't matter and is entirely irrelevant. So I'm not entirely sure why you'd bring that up as some "She cant be your guardian cus she's only X older than you." when she quite literally tells you she is now your appointed Guardian now that Gorion is dead.
Anomen and Jaheira probably aren't that far off from each other, really, in terms of how patient you need to be and if you say the wrong thing, end of the line for CHARNAME. They both take quite a long time to get into their "good" moments. Understandable or not, not everyone has the time or patience to get through a cream egg for it's delicious center and heavenly moments.
I get that you clearly hate the guts out of Aerie (At least you've come across that way), but can you just stop being so rude to me based purely on my like of Aerie. You haven't even tried to be nice, straight off the bat you've been aggressive to me without me even so much as saying anything to you. I don't even understand why you've taken such a heavy tone with me, it's so unnecessary and rather random, gives me this impression you're trying to get an argument out of me and on my bad side. But I'm also not the type to sit around and be told my opinions and experiences are laughable. Perhaps if you want to discuss this is a more mature fashion and educate me more on Jaheira, I am happy to listen, but do not tell me anything I say is laughable.
On the "power gaming" note, Aerie and Jaheira are as strong as each other for different things. Jaheira is obviously the perfect tank due to defensive druid spells, fighter stats and good rolls. Aerie is the perfect spell caster due to decent stats and being a Cleric/Mage, only thing Aerie actually sucks at is her low constitution, but that is technically explained as to why her con is bad. Which I like, she has a bad stat but it makes sense so you don't question it.
The fact that both are also mid-tier NPCs isn't helping.
While the whole submissiveness of Aerie is cute, there is a time where she has to stand on her own 2 feet, and Jaheira and Viconia will/can do this, Aerie not so much from my perspective.
An above poster mentioned how Aerie was a slave, but she rarely fucking talks about it other than just being in a cage showing off her wings. What else? Because there is lot more to being a slave then just being showed off, history is proof of this. I mean if you take the things she say through her romance on a literal level, she is not ugly, like 90% of females in videogames, she didn't get beat with the ugly stick like alot of guys. Do explain to me how the hell she held onto her virginity being a slave? She does say, you made her a woman after sleeping with her the first time, this usually means you took their virginity.
She could've talked more about the circus life after she lost her wings, again her family. Hell, hell what made her study magic and be a wizard? I mean seriously, bitch I'm a wizard I can cast a spell to fly. I'm a Sorcerer I can freaking teleport, you were born with wings a Sorcerer is born with magic... Yea, I think we win the born with Viconia game here.
I mean shoot, Jaheira runs was more or less a quest of self discovery and moving on with her life, Viconia's romance was another quest of " omg I have emotions other then lust and pain!" I mean shoot, only reason Lolth let her live so long was because her whole life after turning her back on Lolth was pain. I mean come on, she is attacked because she's a Drow, was raped because she is a Drow, got geased becauae she's a Drow. Then what happens when love starts to seep into her, when starts to find comfort and trust in someone? Lolth strikes! Cause pain and discord in her life again.
Neera, aka my little loose cannon, even she doesn't constantly go on about the red wizards. Even though as I try to find stealthiet solutions to our problems, she just wants to kill them all and take no names. Even then, she talks about everything from her home to her interests.
Aerie stands on her own two feet, maybe not as much as the other girls, but she still does it.
I don't get why Aerie always gets into shit for being one of the "weaker" Females in the game. Loads of Strong Female NPCs, but so god help us if there's a single one that didn't get over their troubled past? Oh no, she's such a terrible character design. I don't think I want to imagine how you guys treat real people after you slate a fictional girl for being enslaved and made a joke out of for money, whilst in a cage and later her wings become diseased and get sawn off! I mean I get it, the weak get preyed on by people with some superiority mind-set, but this is honestly starting to get ridiculous. What next, hate on Viconia what for happens to her if you romance her? Is she a whiny, weak Woman too? Jesus...
What so automatically all slaves are meant to be subject to rape and sexual favours? It was a circus and she was lucky enough not to get raped, how can you even try to use that as some kind of bad thing towards Aerie. I can't believe my eyes when I read all these comments bashing Aerie for being a pure, honest, shy virgin. At this point I just don't even...?
How is it hard to understand how a Winged Elf can cast Arcane Magic and also become a Cleric under a Gnomish God. Do you need to be spoon fed how she learnt magic? She's a freakin' Avariel. Yes, Aerie is very secluded and has fairly minimal back story and not much is explained about her, the writers made her that way. Her character is pained and secluded, she doesn't want to remember the past and has high respect for Quayle. Actually, how is it hard to imagine anyone being able to cast magic in a fantasy setting. Almost everyone can cast magic to some extent in Baldur's Gate. It shouldn't need to be explained as to why she started studying magic. I don't entirely remember if it is explained, however; it has to do with Quayle being a Mage/Cleric, he raised Aerie so she was raised as a Mage/Cleric as well. So that makes it self-explanatory if it isn't mentioned in-depth or at all. Her class makes perfect sense. It probably doesn't if you didn't play BG1 or don't know Quayle is a Mage/Cleric.
Got anything else to shoot Aerie down for? I'm here all days folks, I've got time to educate and explain.
By any means, do PM me if you want to get away with fouler language and bully poor Aerie some more. Fictional or not, none of the characters in the Baldur's Gate setting deserve to get outright bullied because it's not to your taste or you've somehow found a problem with them. But hey ho, I'll wait for someone to bring up something new about Aerie or something that doesn't sound absurd like her being a virgin is somehow bad and how she wasn't raped so therefore "omg stupid, make her get raped pls, she has to be like the other Elf Females!". Sure, express your opinions and experiences; But at what point does it become okay to hate on a character just purely based on him/her not being overly strong and resilient? To me, it's absurd. It just reminds me of all that "Cernd's Werwolf form sucks! Waaaah!" "OMG DORN IS BISEXUAL EWWW!!" "Hexxat! WTF BEAMDOG!!! SHE'S NOT HETEROSEXUAL!!" crap that gets/got spouted all the time. Honestly boys, do you need all your girls to be battered up for you to enjoy having them around? That's what it sounds like so far. "She's not been beaten enough. She wasn't raped, not interesting enough for my tastes." Some fucked up White-Knight crap right there, I can tell you that for sure.
That's the closest analogy I can think of. Aerie has had *two entire limbs* amputated, without anesthetic, and I get the impression that it hasn't happened very long ago. Who wouldn't be emotionally traumatized by that, and need a companion they can talk to about it?
Would anybody tell a disabled veteran in a wheelchair, or a scarred burn victim "Shut up talking about your disability and your scars all the time, you're too whiny"?
Maybe one reason for the lack of empathy is that Aerie is a magical, fantasy creature with six limbs. Some people can't seem to relate to what it might feel like to have an extra two limbs, wings, as part of your body, and have a magical gift of flight through those wings. If an Avariel is what you are, (Aerie isn't human), then losing those wings is in the same category as losing your arms or your legs, but the unsympathetic among the Aerie-haters can't seem to imagine or relate to that for some reason.
Another possible reason is that these people just don't want such a serious, horrible story as part of their role-playing gaming experience. Aerie's story is part of the darker side of BG2. Charname, Imoen, Jaheira, and Minsc have been tortured both physically and psychologically for who knows how many months, and Khalid and Dynaheir have been tortured and killed, in a medieval torture dungeon straight out of a horror movie. Meanwhile, Aerie has been held in a cage that is so small she cannot even move her wings, possibly for years. Her wings become infected, and are then amputated, with no concern at all for pain or even partial healing from a cleric. This is not rainbows and unicorns fantasy, and it's not Hercules and Xena comedy-fantasy. This is dark, scary, fantasy-horror.
And so some people don't like that Aerie needs to constantly remind them of that, or so I'm guessing, in trying to understand their mindset.
I think I would just want to remind people here that the stories of BG and the characters in it are works of fiction, albeit very compelling and immersive fiction that makes us want to relate to the characters and pretend, for a time, that they are real people.
As you can tell from reading this thread, some people get emotional about their favorite characters. I encourage everyone to respect each other's feelings and interpretations about these works of fiction, and refrain from harsh language in explaining why you don't like this or that character. And of course, as per the forum rules, we should not attack each other personally over our opinions.
She starts out somewhat naive/sheltered, since she grew up in an isolated civilization and then was stuck in a circus. Though at the same time, I’m not sure that naive or sheltered are really the best words, seeing as she went through being enslaved, imprisoned, and neglected/tortured/abused to the point where she had to have a pair of limbs that were necessary for life as she knew it removed. This is a sort of long way of saying “her wings got infected and needed to be cut off,” but I feel like the part of the fandom that doesn’t love her often overlooks the fact that this would be something like…I dunno, a human having their legs cut off and then wandering around a culture where everyone walks around on their hands. I don’t know, I just get angry when people complain about her being “whiny” when she’s honestly traumatized from losing her wings and still managing to go off and walk for days and help kill dragons.
…So when you meet her, she’s new to the whole adventuring thing, and not really sure how much help she’s going to be, but she’s had training and she wants to see the world. Over the course of your adventures, she gains confidence and comes somewhat to terms with having lost a major part of her identity, though I feel like maybe you get to see that more if you’re romancing her and I’m just working off of the change in her voice set from SoA to ToB and her epilogue. She also gets more hardened to violence - from her kind of shaky “Oh my” at getting a crticial hit in SoA to “This is going to hurt you a LOT more than me” in ToB to (potentially) going full-on avenger terror-of-the-slave-traders in her epilogue.
She’s a very brave young elf who has survived some very terrible experiences and still looks for the good in people and the world and helps where she can. But she’s also got a backbone of solid steel and learns not to take any shit. And I feel like I’m probably simplifying and possibly misrepresenting her somehow, so I’m going to publish this in case any of my followers want to add things.
By neranishin.
So, yeah. That. All that. Aerie is badass.
I also don't think it's fair to label Aerie as the "save the princess" trope simply because she relies on someone. I'm a woman, and I rely on men all the time. I rely on my boyfriend for love and support, my father for guidance, my brother for laughs, my male friends for enjoyment. Much in the same way that Aerie relies on Charname for love and support, on Jaheira for guidance, on Imoen for laughs. Male or female, people rely on each other all the time when they feel down and helpless. Doing so does not make you weak. It does not mean you don't stand on your own.
In fact, I'm sure it takes an enormous amount of bravery for Aerie to confide in Charname and relive all the trauma she's had to endure every time she talks about her wings. It's not something she does with any other character, and she hardly complains about anything else. Being honest about your experiences with someone else, without any idea of how they will react, requires a lot of strength too.
If being thrown in a cage and simply shown off like a prized pet is what happened to her, while I in no way shape or form support ownership of another sentient life, but all tragedies are not creared equal. She barely touched the hardships of freaking slavery.
At one point when Viconia actually owned her own land and home outside of a town, she trusted on man enough to show him her face, and guess what happened? He invited her over for lunch and then his sons along with himself beat her, raped her, and then proceeded to bury her alive. Then when she got her revenge, she was chased out of town for killing them.
Imeon was kidnapped thrown in a cage, raped, tortured, and then had her soul stolen for being born something she didn't ask to be.
In my very first post I said I have no hatred for Aerie, and I still don't, but I'm not going to cry when no evidence beyond her being thrown in the cage and losing her wings is the worst thing to happen to her, especially when the main character himself has gone through WORSE! She has my sympathy for losing her wings, my grandmother had to have her leg cut off in her 80s because there was a blood clot that was causing her to get closer and closer to a heart attack. So I feel for her, but if her wings make her who she is, then she is empty, the end. Complete irrelevant to anything I said. Now you're just making assumptions, who said they didn't find it upsetting? Just because something is upsetting doesn't mean everyone is going to like that character. Viconia lost everything because she saw no point in killing a damn baby!! She lost EVERYTHING, he status, her brother hell she was the complete downfall of her house. But people still hate her... Why should Aerie be any different? Hide it, hide what? The fact she was thrown in a cage? She doesn't fucking hide it. It's like the second or third thing she fucking says something to you about and she doesn't talk that long about it. Hiding would be not mentioning it at all, remember they open up to you and tell you all their whole history. It's not like Dragon age or freaking kotor where you actually had to walk up to the people and ask them questions about their past. Literally anything they don't want to tell you in the current dialogue, they are going to tell you in the freaking next.
Viconia teases every damn body, and arguably no one gets it worse from her then Charname, with Jaheira coming in second. So that is in no way shape or forum a valid argument.
You can't even argue this to me without evidence. The key phrase in what I said, was my perspective. Vi has more then proven she can, Jaheira, hahaha I'm not even going go there. Neera, definitely can. Aerie, she first leaned on her uncle and then again on Charname. Maybe she has a coming of age in TOB, but I haven't seen in I SoA. And again, that's my perspective.
Oh god, please tell me that this bullshit wasn't just directed at me. I called her a shallow character and then gave my reasons why. I never called her character bad or terrible. Just because I don't like her as much as Jaheira or Viconia, doesn't mean I put her in shit. If I did that I'd have to do the same with Imeon, since she is also a "weaker" female character, but I like her more than Aerie. Also don't take that as a "I hate Aerie" because I do like Aerie I'm a similar little sister way I like Imeon. You literally just made me face palm myself so hard... Now I know you're not talking to me, especially not making this type of statement. What did you even mention me in this post? You should just quoted what ever you wanted to reply to and called it a day. I'm questioning whether or not if you're actually comprehending what you're reading. Yes I know I've been told I might have dyslexia, yea I know I don't have the greatest grammar, and yes I know I'm using a cellphone, but some of your replies right now are jus, "what?" You're trying to actually twist what I'm saying or you're really just not comprehending it.
Last time I checked, what and how aren't interchangeable, switching them out changes the question COMPLETELY! So now I know you're just not comprehending. Asking "what made her start studying magic and being a wizard" is a question of curiosity. What chain of events led to her picking magic, could have been that she simply wanted to pick up the skill to help Quayle with the show, or did she do it as a hobby to try and take her mind off her wings.
Asking, "How is it hard to understand how a Winged Elf can cast Arcane Magic and also become a Cleric under a Gnomish God."
Is insinuating that I believe she shouldn't or couldn't do both, which is putting words in my mouth, like what you've been doing through your reply. Which is all completely irrelevant since you
1) felt the need to change my original question.
2) doesn't come close to answering the original question.
3) you can't answer the question since you're not one of the original writers, or a writer licensed by bioware to change and/or extend Baldur gates lore. Be real, you're just clutching at straws now aren't you? You can search this entire board, and I put this on everything I hold dear, from my love of dragons and creating aren't to my very breathe that is leaving my nostrils right now. I haven't said a single god damn thing questioning how can she be both a mage and a cleric. I never questioned how or why a overused mythological race can cast magic. I made a statement on how she could've talked on the decision that made her choose wizardry and you grabbed a torch and pitch and came at me with patonizing and condescending bullshit. I'm didn't shoot her down, you just activated white knight mode because I wasn't sucking her clit. Bullied? No one bullied her, you just didn't like the opinions you read.
Finishing reading your post literally gave me a migraine. Do you even know what you're arguing anymore?
*crosses fingers expecting thread to get closed*
As @DragonKing said above maybe there simply should have been more to her than that. Bad things happened to other characters as well and to some of them, like Minsc, Jaheira and the protagonist, very recently to boot, but you don't hear them complaining about it as much as Aerie - they just gritted their teeth and swore revenge.
Aerie's ordeal though, ended some time ago, she lived in a circus for a while now with friends and uncle Quayle who comforted her, so why'd she start chewing the protagonist's ear off about it, a complete stranger from the street? If making people feel sorry for her all the time is her way of getting them to like her, no wonder some of them are annoyed. But unfortunately that's simply her romance hook - bringing this time and again for the larger part of her romance in SoA. I too wish there was more to it than that. Personally, I only started to like Aerie's romance in ToB where she becomes more interesting.
You can say that those other characters who were hurt are tough experienced adventurers who know what is at stake and Aerie's just a newb in this, which is valid, of course. But not everyone wants to babysit a weak crybaby character until she finally pulls herself together, it's simple as that. Some players just want a badass party, not a cryass one.
And then omg, to have her and Jaheira together, just beautiful. It's like putting two vipers in a pit together and Charname is the little rat sitting in the corner.
@DragonKing, you are my favorite angry black man.
Some people see Aerie as whiny and irritating. Some people see her as a gentle soul. And some of us see her as a Cleric/Mage. But I think we can all agree that... uh...
Hm.
Well, I'm sure we can agree on something. How about "we love cookies?"