Somehow this went over my head when I played it the first time (ToB spoilers)

TrudeauIsSanta

...Bhaal pretty much ****** everything that he could stick it in. I just encountered the Bhaalspawn chinchilla...

This expansion... I don't know... it's almost like they were beyond sick of the universe at this point, and the entire thing was just a "**** it" mentality.

TrudeauIsSanta

This is awful! This is awful! I can't believe - how did I ever think this was *good*??? OH MY GOD. I am going to beat it. I am going to force myself to watch this continue to derail. Just. HOW. HOW DID I EVER THINK THIS WAS GOOD? I can't stop LAUGHING. It's SO BAD it doesn't even. No other response makes sense. This is *abysmal*. OHHHH BOY CHAPTER 9 HERE WE GO

This is like seeing your kid get hit by a truck two days after he graduates LOL WHY DID I BOTHER WITH THE REST OF IT LOLLLLLLLLL They should've left this out of the EE and kept the price down to just make everyone forget help them forget OH NOOOOO I can't do I must do I can't I must I must do this HERE WE GO OHHHHHHH NOOOOOOO

YupImMadBro

I don't remember the chinchilla................................

TrudeauIsSanta

YupImMadBro said:

I don't remember the chinchilla................................

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/Walkthrough2/ToB/chapter-8/areas/marching-mountains.php

"Here will be a Chicken Bhaalspawn called Chinchilla who can cast spells, a Xvart Bhaalspawn called Toop the Brave, a Goblin Bhaalspawn called Tibbit, and a Kobold Bhaalspawn called Merlinious."

He screwed all the races. This entire game. The writing. They were just "blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". They were either so sick of the games by then or something awfully terrible happened in their lives and they took it out the only way they could: by taking a huge dump on the end of BG so it went out like an old man who pisses and craps himself every day so his loved ones had to watch the memory of him get utterly ruined as he experienced a slow and miserable death. TERRIBLE

Video (skip to 40 seconds):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er-LQDsRAvE#t=0m40s

TrudeauIsSanta

All these people accusing Beamdog of ruining the BG Saga with SoD when Bioware already did that with ToB in 2001 hahahahahaha

Nuin

You underestimate the writers' sense of humor. If you've been reading your character's BG1 journal/possible dialogue responses to random NPCs it should be painfully apparent that the writers do have a playful (bordering on wacky/weird) side, which is part of the appeal of the game.

TrudeauIsSanta

Nuin said:

You underestimate the writers' sense of humor. If you've been reading your character's BG1 journal/possible dialogue responses to random NPCs it should be painfully apparent that the writers do have a playful (bordering on wacky/weird) side, which is part of the appeal of the game.

BG1: "You are CHARNAME, who is very special because he is one of the few Bhaalspawn."

ToB: "Not only are Bhaalspawn *everywhere*, but Bhaal also impregnated wild animals, because all-powerful God, he got bored. You aren't special. Your kind are *everywhere*. Why did Sarevok see you as the only threat to his attempt to gain the title of "Lord of Murder" in BG1? Why didn't Irenicus capture all the wild animal Bhaalspawn and run experiments on them instead of you? Just play the game. Look - more Bhaalspawn!!!"

Daevelon

TrudeauIsSanta said:

ToB: "Not only are Bhaalspawn *everywhere*, but Bhaal also impregnated wild animals, because all-powerful God, he got bored. You aren't special. Your kind are *everywhere*. Why did Sarevok see you as the only threat to his attempt to gain the title of "Lord of Murder" in BG1? Why didn't Irenicus capture all the wild animal Bhaalspawn and run experiments on them instead of you? Just play the game. Look - more Bhaalspawn!!!"

Ok, wild animal Bhaalspawns was a joke, of course.
Anyway we all saw the ending of bg1, when we just realize there are a LOT of Bhaalspawns.
Why Sarevok and Irenicus were after Charname?
Because he has a great amount of essence of Bhaal, Imoen for example has not so much of it (she can even die and be resurrected, and her Bhaalspawn powers appears in ToB and mostly for what Irenicus did).
Yaga-Shura confirmed this too, pointing that the Five, with charname, got the most from Bhaal and that are the most powerful ones.

Sceptenar

I think you forgot to take your ritalin pill today son.

TrudeauIsSanta

Sceptenar said:

I think you forgot to take your ritalin pill today son.

Did the voices tell you that?

lunar

Yeah tob is a bit lackluster, but that chinchilla thing is the usual bg1 wackiness. In ToB, you will come across a group of lvl 1 intrepid adventurers, too, and YOU can give a quest to them and they will oblige, and then some shenenigans will ensue. It is surreal, and weird but it is funny. There are so many weird and funny things sprinkled throughout the series, especially bg1 has tons. SoA starts out all dark, grim and serious when compared, and some quests are downright creepy (skinner quest, eyeless cult, blair witch-esque umar hills, etc.)

Still, tob is nice for finishing up the story, high level abilities, and Watcher's Keep is immense. Ascension mod fixes the lackluster battles in tob, wheels of prophecy mod restores tob plot and quests to what it should have been, but may be buggy with ee, haven't tested. Ascension works well with a few fixes here and there.

TrudeauIsSanta

ToB is 1/5 the hokey rushjob KotOR2 was. It'll take more than a couple mods to fix it. BG isn't known for being "wacky", either. BG1 had Newhart and SoA had the Blair Witch reference. Those were the extremes. ToB was "**** it, we're done."

lunar

Well I don't feel exactly like that about tob. The areas are nice and variable from forests to hellish dimensions to sieged citites to temples to deserts to underground lairs, music is simply gorgeous, best of the series no doubt, you feel the natural progression to epic levels and power as you battle huge armies, giants, dragons, imprisoned demon princes, but also see the worst of your taint, etc.

There is care and love involved in the making. It was rushed, true, but not made without care, IMHO.

TrudeauIsSanta

If you have nostalgia for it that's fine. But I only played it the one time shortly after initial release, I didn't obsess. I'm revisiting for the first time through EE. It's just bad.

Durenas

Final cutscene of BG1 pretty much shows that there are countless Bhaalspawn. There are endless nooks containing statues representing the children of Bhaal. It zooms in on the statue for Sarevok and it crumbles, showing he's dead.

lunar

Well yeah Bhaal was paranoid a bit, he hid parts of his essence in so many little places. But like others said, it was not equally divided in all Bhaalspawn. Certainly Sarevok, the five and the pc have the bigger portions, while a chinchilla, if the concept is ever to be taken seriously, not so much.