Same here. I understand that the development of ToB was rushed and the Five (and the other antagonists) were supposed to be much more fleshed out than they ended up. Maybe we would have seen an explanation for that council if they'd had the time to realize all the plans they had for the expansion.
The development of BG2 and TOB were both rushed at the end and enormous amounts of content were cut.
You can see signs of this all through the game. The twisted rune makes no sense at all, the mysterious compound in the temple district takes up half the map, is loaded with interesting gear and characters, and is connected to nothing. The mages stronghold is detailed, the paladins stronghold is... the stables? There were lots of interviews with the devs at the time, will see if I can dig some up.
A lot of the cutscenes were created early in development, and by the time the game was done they made less sense, or prominently featured characters who were far less important. But cut scenes are (were) expensive to make, so they threw them in anyway :-)
I would have loved to see the game as it was originally intended by the designers. But on the other hand the final result is one of the best games ever made, so maybe those cuts were for the best.
I had always thought the people around the table were meant to be the Six, but the cinematic was made before Bioware had really fleshed out who they were going to be.
Now that you mention it, that makes sense too. Thing is, I always thought there were 7 at the table but looking closer I see that one chair is empty. Wonder if that had any significance.
It's also funny that they mention "THE child of Bhaal" if they all are...
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Same here. I understand that the development of ToB was rushed and the Five (and the other antagonists) were supposed to be much more fleshed out than they ended up. Maybe we would have seen an explanation for that council if they'd had the time to realize all the plans they had for the expansion.
You can see signs of this all through the game. The twisted rune makes no sense at all, the mysterious compound in the temple district takes up half the map, is loaded with interesting gear and characters, and is connected to nothing. The mages stronghold is detailed, the paladins stronghold is... the stables? There were lots of interviews with the devs at the time, will see if I can dig some up.
A lot of the cutscenes were created early in development, and by the time the game was done they made less sense, or prominently featured characters who were far less important. But cut scenes are (were) expensive to make, so they threw them in anyway :-)
I would have loved to see the game as it was originally intended by the designers. But on the other hand the final result is one of the best games ever made, so maybe those cuts were for the best.
It's also funny that they mention "THE child of Bhaal" if they all are...
a comparison i like was to one piece and when they introduced the warlords of the seas. one of them was female but all the shadows were cleary male.
maybe the five weren't originally bhaalspawn when that scene was made?