BG3 rant with spoilers, don't click if you don't want spoilers

[Evil Peter Griffin]

The only problem with this theory is that the remnant could not have created a human daughter or human granddaughter. That point of lore would have required the original human Sarevok.

Maybe Bhall reanimated his corpse to serve him?

 

[Rick Nekieta]

Maybe Bhall reanimated his corpse to serve him?

This is where the straw grasping really cements. Bhaal had NO emotional attachment to any of his offspring, he intended to sacrifice them all to restore himself and failed by both a) the betrayal of Amellysan (sic?) and b) the triumph of the protagonist of BG/BG2/ToB. He does not view Sarevok sentimentally. If one considers the pragmatic argument that Sarevok is a shatterer of worlds and a valuable servant, this runs contrary to Sarevok's nature, as once he no longer had the essence of Bhaal in him, his ambitions of being top dog were effectively gone, even if he retains his chaotic evil nature. Sarevok never had any aspirations to be Bhaal's servant at any level, even the highest one possible, he had aspirations to *be* Bhaal. He briefly had aspirations to be among the ToB protagonist's favored when he/she ascended to godhood, but that ship sailed 120 years ago.

This is just extreme levels of deus ex machina that can't be squared by even the most generous of interpretations. There is a reason it aggravates me to no end. It makes me try to ascertain even one plausible case for that outcome and I come up dry.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

This is where the straw grasping really cements. Bhaal had NO emotional attachment to any of his offspring, he intended to sacrifice them all to restore himself and failed by both a) the betrayal of Amellysan (sic?) and b) the triumph of the protagonist of BG/BG2/ToB. He does not view Sarevok sentimentally. If one considers the pragmatic argument that Sarevok is a shatterer of worlds and a valuable servant, this runs contrary to Sarevok's nature, as once he no longer had the essence of Bhaal in him, his ambitions of being top dog were effectively gone, even if he retains his chaotic evil nature. Sarevok never had any aspirations to be Bhaal's servant at any level, even the highest one possible, he had aspirations to *be* Bhaal. He briefly had aspirations to be among the ToB protagonist's favored when he/she ascended to godhood, but that ship sailed 120 years ago.

This is just extreme levels of deus ex machina that can't be squared by even the most generous of interpretations. There is a reason it aggravates me to no end. It makes me try to ascertain even one plausible case for that outcome and I come up dry.

Maybe Bhall got desperate after BG2 and revived Savrevok since he was the strongest Bhallspawn.

 

[Rick Nekieta]

Maybe Bhall got desperate after BG2 and revived Savrevok since he was the strongest Bhallspawn.

This is the *least* senseless possible explanation. First, you have to accept their explanation as to *how* Bhaal revived despite the outcome of ToB. That is also an unsquarable circle, but let's accept it for sake of argument. If Sarevok were restored with his old viewpoints, he would not willingly serve Bhaal, as this was an option he forewent in favor of other paths previously. The LEAST senseless explanation (which still has holes, just the minimum number of holes) is that he is like the spirits behind him and simply a force in motion that lacks any true agency as the name "echo" implies. He showed an awful lot of exposition for his viewpoint for having a lack of agency. The *least* senseless explanation to this is that it is not so much the result of a thought process, as it is just a recorded script, as one would find in a voicemail or answering machine, that just gives a scripted output for a scripted input and these were imparted by Bhaal (this is just the in universe equivalent of "he was programmed" the same way he was literally programmed in the game code). This just upgrades him to an extremely sophisticated golem with pre-programmed protocols, which is the *least* senseless answer.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

This is the *least* senseless possible explanation. First, you have to accept their explanation as to *how* Bhaal revived despite the outcome of ToB. That is also an unsquarable circle, but let's accept it for sake of argument. If Sarevok were restored with his old viewpoints, he would not willingly serve Bhaal, as this was an option he forewent in favor of other paths previously. The LEAST senseless explanation (which still has holes, just the minimum number of holes) is that he is like the spirits behind him and simply a force in motion that lacks any true agency as the name "echo" implies. He showed an awful lot of exposition for his viewpoint for having a lack of agency. The *least* senseless explanation to this is that it is not so much the result of a thought process, as it is just a recorded script, as one would find in a voicemail or answering machine, that just gives a scripted output for a scripted input and these were imparted by Bhaal (this is just the in universe equivalent of "he was programmed" the same way he was literally programmed in the game code). This just upgrades him to an extremely sophisticated golem with pre-programmed protocols, which is the *least* senseless answer.

The programmed golem might be likely considering how the Dark Urge was "born." He was made by Bhall from his own blood.
Basically divine parthenogenesis.

 

[Rick Nekieta]

The programmed golem might be likely considering how the Dark Urge was "born." He was made by Bhall from his own blood.
Basically divine parthenogenesis.

Let's say we accept this level of suspension of disbelief. We are accepting that Bhaal is back and Sarevok is just a sophisticated golem that is not a continuation of the BG2 Sarevok. This took a LOT of unconfirmed fan theory crafting to even do enough mental gymnastics to get something that is (maybe) just barely tolerable in terms of deus ex machina mechanisms. The official explanation that most players will uncritically believe is absolute garbage. The only way to square it is to infer that the truth is vastly different and nothing that is stated in the exposition matters.

I'll provide an alternate way of writing it that makes FAR more sense than what we were given. We know that Sarevok did not find another lifelong lover because he was a lonely drifter who pined for his BG1 lover until his final days. This is also true of unredeemed Sarevok. But, we can also assume he had the occasional tryst or fling. If one of these created a child he was unaware of (or cared nothing about one way or the other) who had a line of succession down to Orin. Sarevok's role in the family tree was MEANT to be secret for the same reason Gorion and the noble who adopted Sarevok intended to keep it from the protagonist and Sarevok. Orin is a born psychopath and learns of Sarevok's role as her ancestor and his legacy. She is a devotee of Bhaal and becomes the Slayer and one of the 3. If you absolutely MUST incorporate some version of Sarevok just to have a cool fight with some cool gear (I am against this, but let's just say we hamfist a Sarevok fight into the game), make it some result of Orin's dark deals with Bhaal (I don't care how, as long as it has some plausibility. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to avoid gaping holes.)