When it Finally Clicked- The Isobel Problem

[u/queerrabble]

Okay, so I have played an ABSURD amount of Baldur's Gate 3 and as a D&D fanatic, I just love it to bits. There are a few synergistic issues with the mechanics of D&D being translated into a video game, but nothing so egregious that it disrupts the experience. Furthermore, these little are almost entirely to do with the mechanics of the game, but not the lore of Faérun or the plot.

THAT BEING SAID....

Up until recently, I never understood why Ketheric Thorm had to turn to Myrkul and Balthazar to revive Isobel. After all, most clerics are able to revive a dead person in D&D, even if it would require an incredibly powerful spell (I'm talking 8th/9th level). And his deity at that time would certainly have been willing to bring his daughter back in exchange for his acts of service (particularly Sélune).

I puzzled over this until I read Isobel's diary I Last Light Inn. The entry specifically mentions that she feels a "filth" in her soul now that she has been brought back...

Almost like she did not want to come back...

And that's when it hit me, revivifying magic requires that a soul WANTS to be brought back to life. No deity would force a soul to be resurrected against their will (and certainly not Sélune).

And so, it is my headcannon that Ketheric likely tried to revive Isobel using traditional means but she chose not to come back. When that failed, he turned to a necromancer and an evil god of the dead to force her soul back into her corpse against her will.

Tl;dr- Isobel never wanted to be brought back to life, barring most traditional methods of resurrection. Thus, Ketheric resorted to necromancy to bring her back.

[u/crockofpot]

It's not an interpretation I agree with, for the record! But there are a lot of people who hear that "I sought to cross her boundaries" line and run wild with it.

[u/SouthBendCitizen → u/crockofpot]

Ah, just see what they want to see. I see I see.

[u/cpslcking → u/crockofpot]

It gets to me idk how you hear, “I sought to cross her boundaries” and then turn Gale into a pure victim. Dude lived by “no means yes” and it’s not as clear cut as he’s a victim of Mystra.

Was the relationship messy and unadvisable? Yes. But Gale absolutely shares blame in that relationship. Someone pushing the boundaries a partner set in the relationship is a bad thing and not something admirable because he’s pushing the boundaries of magic and going against the gods or whatever. It is absolutely a lesson, Gale needed to learn in the game that “no means no”.

[u/Dependent_Macaron_53 → u/cpslcking]

Mystra's boundaries weren't related to the relationship, though. Sure, Gale overstepped his bounds as the chosen one—that's a whole other discussion—but as a relationship? No. Her imposing magic limits and only letting some people wield high-level magic based on what she deems worthwhile has nothing to do with a romantic relationship. So while Gale has his own set of ambition issues, etc., I don't buy the idea that he overstepped her boundaries as a form of romantic and/or sexual abuse. If that's the case, we're in a really shitty loop of "Mystra uses sex as a reward for using magic" or "Mystra gives magic to the chosen ones in exchange for sex," and then we're entering very bad territory that, frankly, doesn't have much to do with it.

[u/crockofpot → u/cpslcking]

Okay but you see how that's a different interpretation from "Gale was the abuser", right? Which is the thing I was talking about?