#crazy fangirl

[cellphishthekaiju]

Crackpot Headcanon: The Emperor's 'Grand Design'

Goes without saying, that spoilers abound for Baldur's Gate 3 and course, lotta this is gonna be extrapolated ravings of a deluded fan reading too much into events, subtext, and the Forgotten Realms wiki.

This will be a lengthy doozy. I hope it's, at the least, enjoyable or useful.

The Emperor, a.k.a Balduran... our 'savior', ally, and back-stabbing squid friend who does nothing but pretend to have noble intentions from the moment he speaks with you under the guise of 'The Dreamer'. To Larian's credit, The Emperor is a very well-written character, as he can appear as either an ally or enemy based upon how players interact with not just him but the game overall. There are layers upon layers of secrets, deceit and half-truths when it comes.

But ultimately, The Emperor is the true antagonist of The Absolute crisis, only overshadowed by the Elder Brain itself, if the Player goes against him and puts the final nail in the coffin of his Grand Design.

So, first order of business; dissecting the squid's character as much as I can.

The Emperor has a very unique design when compared to illithids encountered in Baldur's Gate... which, granted, is not many as we only encounter one other named illithid and the 'common' enemy types seen, sparsely, across the game. The common sense case of this is because, obviously, this is an important character so of course they'd stand out extravagantly.

But it's this fanciful drip that leads me to believe The Emperor is much more than just some other illithid, that his deception about his opposition to The Absolute is far more sinister than the game makes it appear (and with the way the endings with The Emperor work, this feels further validated)

The Emperor may be a 'unique' breed of illithid known as a Ulitharid, a powerful and sinister 'evolution' of illithid that others view as godly, only second in power to Elder Brains... and this is what Elder Brains evolve from, usually at the Ulitharid's leisure but before it ages too far for its brain to be decrepit.

However, The Emperor's 'drip', attitude... just 'him' just screams he is an Ulitharid that broke away from The Absolute, yet has his own ambitions and no intention of furthering the Grand Design. He simply does not wish to rule a mere colony...

He IS the Grand Design (in his twisted squid brain, at least)

THIS DUDE TRIES TO SEDUCE YOU FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Anyway, The Emperor is quite powerful in his own right, both physically and mentally but when it comes to evolving, becoming an Elder Brain has its downsides; namely that he would become a massive brain forever floating in a jar or Morphic Pool. All that physical power he is proud of would be gone, forever. His mental strength would be unmatched but without a body... The Emperor doesn't seem to like that idea at all, especially if his host had been the 'great hero' Balduran, as he claims (confirmed by Ansur if one does Wyll's personal quest through Act 3)

At first, The Emperor passes himself off as The Dreamer, an entity within the Astral Prism that, repeatedly, tries to assure you that you both are in the same predicament, that The Absolute is a threat to you both and he protects you out of some noble benevolence... as well as that you need to embrace your illithid infection, consume other Netherese tadpoles to strengthen yourself, all for the 'sake' of your survival without actually explaining what is going on or who he is fighting within the Astral Prism (which turns out to be the Githyanki Honor Guard)

Once you hit Act 3, you learn of The Emperor's true nature (surprise, he's a squid!) and the reason he is able to guard you against The Absolute's attempts to transform you is due to dominating the mind of the trapped Githynki Prince to manipulate his unique psionic null-zone powers.

As you continue exploring Baldur's Gate itself, The Emperor continues to try and lure you to his 'side' of things but speaking of how he had once been an adventurer the illithids had captured and turned, how he escaped The Absolute and came back to his beloved city to protect it from the shadows (and how he took the moniker 'The Emperor) but through the course of this deceit, he seems to unintentionally reveal things about his true nature; how he was manipulating magistrates and politicians, such as his dear friend Stelmane.

This is further "supported" in-game by The Emperor attempting to seduce you.

Like guys... WHY?! What about this dude does it for some people? I'm a monster-fucker myself but like The Emperor inspires nothing aside from punching him in his squid face... with a sledgehammer.

When you reject him, The Emperor will still speak to you in a very passive tone (though a bit disappointed) but if you reject him more severely... basically call him a freak, the mask falls off and he will aggressively tell you that you are nothing more than a tool, a servant, to him

Nothing about The Emperor is noble or sincere, hell if you side with him and go full illithid, you are enslaved to him along with The Absolute, free to continue his own Grand Design to dominate the Sword Coast.

Alright, now that THAT part is over, let's move on ya.

So how the hell does The Absolute, the Crown of Karsus and the Astral Prism factor into all this?

*clears throat*

The theft of the Crown of Karsus and the Astral Prism are integral to the Emperor's plan; The Crown of Karsus would enable him to dominate and control the Elder Brain via the use of the Netherstones and the Astral Prism, due to Prince Orpheus's unique psionic abilities, would enable him to preserve and guard his mind (I assume to prevent his evolution into an Elder Brain and/or protect against other illithids, including Elder Brains)

However, he needed to orchestrate the theft of the Crown of Karsus, which lay in Mephistopheles's vault in Cania, the Eighth Layer of Baator (The Nine Hells) and the Astral Prism from some unknown location, likely guarded similarly to her phylactery (perhaps Larian referencing the old lvl 16-20 adventure module 'The Lich-Queen's Beloved')

The Dead Three were easy to manipulate, Chosen of godlings with grander ambitions but at odds with each other otherwise. Through them, The Emperor fostered his plan by managing to fool them into stealing the Crown of Karsus. Convincing and fooling the Dead Three into thinking an army of illithids, rehensible creatures without souls, was how Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul would ascend to Jergal's

This plan, in part, can be learned through finding texts in Kethric's personal quarters in Moonrise Towers along with looting Gortash's Vault in Baldur's Gate.

The theft of the Astral Prism, however, likely proved much trickier for The Emperor, since it was under the possession of, what is essentially the Apex Predator of illithids; The Githyanki Queen Vlaakith CVII. This is how Viconia and Shadowheart become involved. He needed a backup plan in the event the Dead Three failed to retrieve the object.

Manipulating disciples of Shar, especially Viconia DeVir, was likely the best answer, especially if he needed agents that had a chance to retrieve the Astral Prism, given how obsessively Vlaakith likely guarded the device and being a powerful lich, her safeguards would be powerful and many. The Emperor, and by extension the Dead Three and The Absolute would lose nothing.

Heh, irony amirite?

I suspect The Emperor found some means to convince DeVir, under the pretense of Shar's command, to put together a means to steal the Astral Prism. Unfortunately, all the game ever gives us is a list of who was on the strike force, including Shadowheart, who does have the Astral Prism when introduced.

However, there was always something that bugged me about this part and that is in the notes about the theft. The Dead Three were planning to make the theft themselves, using tadpoled agents and a nautiloid (though giving no indication WHERE they were going) with the assumption that The Emperor was leading the team (believing they controlled him and not the other way around).

This, kinda, explains the 'story' of how Tav and the rest of the characters are tadpoled on the nautiloid together. (The Dark Urge was tadpoled before but that's a whole other thing)

My thoughts?

Ready for more crazy?

The Emperor manipulates DeVir and the House of Grief into going after the Astral Prism. The Dead Three 'assign' The Emperor to go after the Astral Prism but he simply intends to 'retrieve' (ala kidnap and tadpole) what's left of the Sharran team and collect the Astral Prism for himself. We see the first signs of his duplicity in the opening cinematic, even. Several of the illithid crew are dead before the githyanki kith'rak attack the ship... but there's no indication as to how and why they were killed

(There's some thoughts to be had there)

Interestingly enough, The Emperor planeshifts the nautiloid to Yartar and starts attacking the city, which seems to draw the Githyanki raiders to attacking the ship... then he jumps it to what is (presumably) Cania, the 8th layer of Baator (where the Crown of Karsus had been stolen), then ultimately Avernus before taking shelter in the Astral Prism... which I think man explain why we find Shadowheart's pod seperated from the cauldera room Lae'zel and Tav (Any Origin) start in.

To make a long, lunatic story endless, the Emperor manipulated everything from the day he left The Absolute (his story about leaving The Absolute twice is absolute horseshite), envisioning himself ruling all of the Sword Coast with Baldur's Gate as his 'throne'.

Welp, this went on WAY longer than I expected but I hope it was, at least enjoyable. If folks enjoy my crackpot theories, ah... well, you're welcome to ask me stuff or a pitch. Asks are always open (I think)

[wpekew]

Let’s go goddess

[priceofreedom]

#Elmyra approving of Zack makes me so happy 😭 FF7 Rebirth 20 / ?

[moonpleaser]

some vip stuff :3

[kingbaldwinthe4th]

Some of the wildest comments on my TikTok edits of Baldwin

Someone even said "A tear ran down my thighs" like gurl 🤚😭😂 (HELP I can't move on from the first and second one😫😨😭)

[vampireapple]

Beware Human Fangirls

Humans will pack bond with anything. Anything. Even imaginary things. Yes, really.

.  .  .

Alien: I would like to meet your friend Harry. You seem fond of him, and he has led an interesting life. Please introduce me.

Human: Oh, sure, let me you the first book.

Alien: Do I need to present the book to Harry?

Human: No? I can get you the audio version if you want.

Alien: I just want to meet Harry.

Human: … Do you think Harry is a real person?

Alien: Of course he is real. You speak of him often.

Human: Oh boy. Um, well, I think we need to have a little talk…

.  .  .

Alien 1: You know Human Mara’s friend Edward?

Alien 2: The pale one who is always cold?

 Alien 1: Yeah. Him.

Alien 2: … Is he okay?

Alien 1: He doesn’t exist!

Alien 2: He died! Oh, no!

Alien 1: He’s not real.

Alien 2: What?

Alien 1: He’s imaginary. Some human woman had a dream and wrote a book and then Human Mara pack bonded with something not real.

Alien 2: … Are you sure?

Alien 1: Yes.

Alien 2: That sounds fake.

.  .  .

Human 1 and Human 2: *bickering*

Alien: What are they arguing about?

Human 3: Who’s better, Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark. Its stupid though, one’s DC and one’s Marvel, so its hard to truly compare them.

Alien: Why compare two humans instead of the two countries?

Human 3: What countries?

Alien: Marvel and DC.

Human 3: Those aren’t countries, they’re comics.

Alien: Comics?

Human 3: Yeah, kinda like cartoons in book form. We read them for fun.

Alien: So… these two people they’re arguing about aren’t real?

Human 3: Nope. But they’re still wrong. Obviously the best is Calvin and Hobbs.

Human 1: That’s two, doesn’t count!

All humans: *heated argument*

Alien: *goes to make more notes in their ‘Humans are Crazy’ book*

[craneworms]

sometimes babygirl is a 19 year old boy named usopp

[its-ezraaa]

You know what's actually my favorite part about 2ha? Of course I could list things like the humor, the characters or the writing style, but what really makes it as great as it is... is Meatbun's obvious love and passion for the characters, the world and.. well, everything. It's so blatantly obvious how much she loves the story she created - just look at her unhinged 3AM tweets where she can't stop drooling over her own characters lol (same)

Or the funny little mini theaters at the end of every chapter. There is no reason to write them, they aren't even included in the official English translation. Sometimes these mini theaters are just an elaborate build-up for a silly joke, sometimes she's just bullying her own characters a little, one time she even wrote half a page about potential fanfic AUs for 2ha. I repeat: this is just the author's note and all the fans who only read the official English translation will never see this.

And let's not forget the bonus chapters. At this point it's obvious but I adore these chapters. Xue Meng trying to find a date through some form of magic tinder (and consequentially wrecking havoc in the whole cultivation world), Chu Wanning celebrating his birthday or you know... Ranwan being canonical soulmates who will always end up falling for each other in every universe possible? The bonus chapters are a love letter. Written by Meatbun to Mo Ran, Chu Wanning, Xue Meng and the whole cultivation world she created.

Seeing a writer loving their own work so much just fills me with joy. How proud she must be, how much love and time she must have put into this. It just makes being a fan so much more enjoyable because at the end of the day, I have the feeling that the greatest 2ha fan is actually the author herself.

[readreactrant]

Why is when some dude writes a sci-fi or fantasy anime with psychological undertones, they always make the two main guys a white-haired psycho that isn't "human" in some way and a black haired guy that's just "different from other humans"????

Just a few examples to let y'all know I'm not being crazy ◉‿◉

[angelbambisworld]

God he's so perfect

[xx-sketchy-xx]

Congrats to you and your mom for getting noticed by Clown themself!

I can not even correctly express through drawing the emotions and how they were displayed when we found out. A dying squirrel gets close to describing it, except like, we were happy lol.

[anshiel]

It’s weird to argue over ships in 2023, going to amy rose ship tag and seeing arguments

but also, girls we need to unite against the true enemy, people who hate on Amy Rose STILL

[omppupiiras]

what do you mean he's LOSING money from the european tour?? please say sike right now, that's so fucked up

[ladywren7]

Nothing will EVER make me recover from King Andrias's "Now look what you made me do." as he stabs Marcy.

NOTHINGGG

[some-greatreward]

First you weigh up your commitments Where your loyalties really lie And if you bump into Jesus You just look him in the eye Tell him that you're fine Silently return to sharpening your knife

And finally when the time comes Think of who you really need And close your eyes so tightly you think they'll bleed

[betasuppe]

For what reason has he been sentenced to digital prison???

WHAT CRIMES HAS MY PRESH LITTLE BEAN COMMITTED?!?!?!?

... ˡᵉᵗ'ˢ ᵇᵉ ʰᵒⁿᵉˢᵗ ᶠᵒʳ ᵃ ᵐᵒᵐᵉⁿᵗ... ʰⁱˢ ᵏⁱˡˡ ᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗ ʰᵃˢ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ᵃᵇˢᵒˡᵘᵗᵉˡʸ ᵃᵇˢᵘʳᵈ

But what a convenient blorbo carrying case uwu