Unpacking Lae'zel - A Baldur's Gate 3 Deep Dive

she's number one in my heart my best friend the voice of reason in all of my campaigns laelle is a real one and you cannot tell me otherwise she keeps it real she's one of the few companions that's very straightforward and straight up with you from the start Lael is pretty easy to read as well she's honest and upfront about her thoughts and feelings even when those thoughts and feelings are nothing but aggression but she's so much more than her rough exterior and and her character growth is honestly kind of beautiful laelle literally spins the game learning how to love romantically platonically either way her heart grows three sizes and I'm not making the Grinch reference because both the characters are green I care a lot about laelle and I will defend her forever but it's not enough for me to just tell you how cool she is I want to take you all on the Journey of her character Arc and unpacking her story so who is Lazelle since I was born in the cold reaches of world space I have known but one purpose to wield a silver sword and ride a red dragon in service of my Regent the githyanki queen vth my first step on this path is to slay a mine flare and bring its head to my Queen there is no flesh I will not carve and no barrier I will not shatter to see it done I am the one who sunders I am the undying Queen's most unshakable Warrior I am Lael of cair lazel is the GI Yankee Warrior born and raised in gith culture lazelle's main goal in life is to serve her undying Queen she has lofty goals of Ascension which is a gith Yankee's greatest achievement ascending to ride through the astral plane fighting for vth Lazelle is fiercely loyal to her Queen and her people and if you know anything about the companion storyline so far you may already see the writing on the wall in some ways lael's story parallels Shadow heart's story it's not an exact parallel but I have noticed a lot of the companions tend to parallel one another in some elements or power dynamics but without further Ado let's dive into the full depths of Lazelle and this should go without saying but Major Spoilers for the entire game in this video so if you have not finished the game be [Music] forewarned Lael is actually first introduced in the opening cinematic and one of the few characters we meet in the prologue it's her that gets infected first we watch in horror as the Mind flare tadpole squirms into her eye socket finding a home in her brain it's her that we watch escape the Pod as the ship comes under attack it's her that we first meet once our own character awakens just outside of the room where our pods were well there's like two rooms I wrote the script forgetting about the room with the kti labiz elf but she is the first person we meet that's not on the verge of death she flies down ready for battle until she realizes is that we are not th but a yet to be affected victim just like her your head throbs and your skin tingles Visions Rush past a dragon swing a silver sword and a flash of your face seen through the strange woman's eyes my head what is [Music] this squa you are no all blackith blesses me this day together we might survive lelle is quick to lower her blade expressing thanks that we are a potential ally and together we can fight our way through the nautiloid it's actually her that pushes for us to go to the helm where we'll be able to escape aerus and hopefully the Mind flares once we land in a safer location Lael is very down to business from the get-go which makes All Things Considered uh she knows a lot about mind flares the gith Yankee are a race of people who used to be mind flare slaves or thw and they were able to break free and they spend their whole lives basically training to fight mind flares so she's extremely knowledgeable about what we're facing which is very helpful I also find it interesting to note that she doesn't seem to care for picking up stragglers other than you when it comes to saving Shadow heart and in in her defense it makes sense because we are already out of our pods and walking and Shadow heart is not her reluctance to helping Shadow heart out of the Pod is usually taken as a point towards her neutral or bad leaning morality depending on how you're reading her but I'd like to make the argument that this is showcasing her fear and urgency for gith Yankee the worst thing that could happen to them is becoming a mind flare laelle is currently kidnapped and infected by the very thing she's been raised to fight against we're also on a ship that is currently under attack by dragons and other keni she knows more than anyone just how dire this situation is laal knows our time is limited this isn't her refusing to help someone in Need for the sake of refusing help she genuinely believes that we do not have the time to stop and help shadowart taking the time to help would likely Doom us all in her eyes she doesn't know that this is a video game and we could theoretically spend forever on this NAU aloid without any consequences so it makes sense that she's like hey we don't have time to help everybody let's go save ourselves I don't think that's a point towards her being a bad person I honestly think laelle is a very kind-hearted person once you get past all the um GI Yankee socializations Shadow heart in toe or not you and LEL will fight your way through to the helm and eventually you end up back in fyon Crashing Down somewhere on the sword Coast but when you awaken lazel is nowhere to be seen if you help shadowart out she'll just be a few feet away from you on the beach and as you explore the area you'll find other victims scattered throughout but still no sign of Lazelle shadowart assumes that she's left us behind went her own way not considering us allies any longer but as you get closer to the emerald Grove you'll soon learn that's not the case at all Lazelle was captured instead a couple of teelings standing near the Trap that Lazelle has been caught in they talk about how dangerous she is and it's pretty clear that they aim to either kill her or keep her prisoner partially for their own safety or who knows they're very afraid of her as you approach the scene Lael uses the tadpole connection to ask for your help she recognizes you and knows that you are someone that she can reasonably count on it's up to you if you heed her Quest or tease her a bit first she will not say please though whether you fight the teelings or convince them to leave the scene laelle will be grateful that you helped her out let's get Las hasn't yet scrambled all your senses auspicious okay I know she's actually a bit abrasive here and some would interpret this as rude but she's grateful trust me she does later tell us that GI culture doesn't even have an equivalent to saying thank you so expressing gratitude is a foreign concept to her but we can see her gratitude and kindness in her next actions lazel shares with us that the teelings had been talking about encountering other GI yane in the area which means a crush must be nearby a crush is essentially a gith Yankee Community pretty much where gith are hatched and raised a training ground for these young Warriors a place where they live more or less she shares with us that there is a cure for AR ppll situation at The Crush and she offers to take us with her helping us out as well now it's my understanding that this willingness to share and help Outsiders is not typical of gith yane it's rather soft of laelle to offer this cure to us and our companions gith Yankee are proud of their race and carry an air of superiority looking down on other life forms pretty much they look out for their own and even then LEL makes GI culture sound very harsh and victim blamy so they really don't even look out for their own this understanding goes along way to show us that laelle is not as mean as she first comes off as and let's be clear I am not saying she doesn't come off as mean and aggressive because she definitely does and we all know that gaining approval for her in early act one means forcing some guy to bow to her and I'll be honest this does feel more like showing her as a dominant personality and kind of showing what to expect from her in more intimate settings cuz if you romance her especially her act one romance scene she is very dominating so that's what that feels like to me but it can also be read as her being a little bit cruel and uh aggressive and just not the nicest person it's how she comes off in early act one at least but generally she does approve of actions that are direct and efficient she is prioritizing the tadpole situation so she does disapprove of choices that get in the way of curing the tadpole business she's not here to dilly dally and spend time helping other people with what she considers to be less serious problems in her eyes we are on the brink of death or even worse becoming athid she doesn't approve of being outright cruel and is fine with you being her IC she just wants us to stay on topic more or less she doesn't want us getting distracted basically and funnily enough laelle actually calls aarian out for being a bloodthirsty [ __ ] when he makes a comment about how he was disappointed she didn't kill the tling we interrogate in the Grove you're not going to eviscerate him I was hoping for a show call your blood I'll indulge you soon enough so it's it's pretty clear to me that Lazelle is not as bloodthirsty and cruel as some may think she fights when necessary sure but she doesn't indulge in Bloodshed for the sake of Bloodshed after finding a lead for where the crush may be LEL is actually pretty patient with us when it comes to exhausting our other options yes I know that this is because the game is not forcing us to do things in a certain way or a certain order but it's implied characterization Lael will tell us that we should go to the crush but she will not force us she works with us willingly to rescue hson from the goblin Camp our other lead for a cure she understands that we may want to try this other path first and that we may be inclined to help the tling refugees before making our way up to the crush she doesn't even threaten to leave the party if you refuse to go to the Crush until you make it to moonrise Towers in Act 2 that paints the picture of an incredibly patient and loyal woman if you ask me me she's committed to working with our little rag tag group of infected adventurers even if that means prolonging what she is 12% certain will be a cure waiting for us at The Crush with the fellow gith yeni but she's going to work with us to eradicate the Goblins see if hson can help us maybe even hit up Auntie Ethel first she's committed to our group and our friendship The Fierce and fearless Warrior Persona that she starts with begins to melt away though as we travel with lazel one long rest after crossing the bridge at the goblin camp and triggering the first encounter with the absolute Lazelle will approach you ready to slice your throat she talks about how she feels that you are all about to transform into mind flares something you all should have already done at this point she's clearly shaken by this possibility but is Duty bound to eliminating everyone at camp who is infected and then herself to prevent the transformations however you are able to easily convince her that everything is fine that it's just an illness that'll pass and she concedes saying she cannot trust her own mind she's placed so much trust in your hands she's placed her life in your hands she's going to take your word over hers however she does promise that if the feeling does not pass her execution plan is still on and I would also like to add that earlier in act one like your very first long rest if it's early enough she's going to be like yo bud why are we resting we have things to do like she she's very worried and concerned like more so than anybody else seemingly about the tadpole everyone else is pretty chill to take things at a leisurely Pace but lazel is like buddy my guy my pal huh how can you rest so easily when when we have this dooming fate lingering in the Horizon like what let's let's deal with the tadp bud we don't have time so I do think I do think that's coming from a place of fear on her part and back with the scene where she attempts to murder you this look at her fear is raw and we can see that she's in over her head and it makes sense Lazelle is in a foreign realm surrounded by strangers and strange customs with her imminent Doom on the horizon laelle is out of her element tossed into the thick of it with nothing but a mind flare parasite and a dream anyone would be scared out of their mind in this situation and quite frankly it would be weird if she wasn't scared it's very common for people to feel fear and very out of place and isolated when going through new experiences adjusting to new environments is incredibly difficult for the vast majority of us and and LEL is going through that at an extreme level so it is understandable that she would be fearful and wanting to get to a cure as quick as possible and honestly it would be wild if she wasn't but despite her fears she is able to cling to the teachings that she grew up with she clings to her loyalty to vth and that helps her push through Lazelle is also very sure of herself when it comes to battle she's a fighter and has spent her whole life learning how to fight and proving herself a force to be reckoned with she'll make comments about how in G culture the weak are often purged through battle or whatnot so she knows that she does have some level of skill that surpasses some these combat skills are how she honors and serves vth and it is also worthy to note that GI yane kind of see themselves as more powerful beings or that's the vibe that they give off in this game that they are stronger and more powerful than non-g Yankee life forms at least that's how that comes off to me whenever I come across the G Yankee in this game but we can see lael's loyalty to vth and her assuredness and her skills when she confronts shadowart about The gith Relic that she carries loyalty to her Queen and her people Lal demands answers and calls shadowart a thief and seeks to reclaim The Relic on behalf of the gith Yankee people people not even knowing that there's a group of ganki already looking for it two groups if you think about it self-confident in her combat abilities Lazelle is quick to ask for a one-on-one fight with shadowart seemingly sure that she'd win Lazelle doesn't see it as a risk and quite frankly per Customs she grew up with if she were to lose it would be deserved a failing on her part that deemed her unworthy to continue to live and serve vth if you were able to appease the situation though without shadowart or Lael killing one another Lael is seemingly fine to move on like nothing happened Our unbothered Queen She expresses a sentiment that through conflict people are able to strengthen their bonds but she's not keen on Shadow heart seeking more conflict with her which is funny since laelle was definitely the one who started this even though it ended with Shadow heart sneaking up on her while everyone slept Shadow heart didn't start this fight but she was damn sure going to end it in lel's eyes though she did her part to appease her sense of Duty towards her people but she concedes her loss Lazelle is fiercely loyal to vth but she is also loyal to us and our group this whole conflict with shadowart though and the resolution also shows us that Lael was raised in a very aggressive culture if you hadn't picked up on that that based on what she has said by now but if you remove her from that aggressive environment she's going to adapt yes she's still aggressive but her willingness to solve things semi- peacefully and drop the conflict seems to not add up with what I have grown to expect from a GI Yankee in balers Gate 3 disclaimer though pretty much everything I know about gith yanky culture comes from what lasel tells me what I've observed in the game and what people have corrected me on in the comment section of my YouTube videos which I acknowledge is not a full picture of things I am very well aware of that but we are looking at things in context of balers Gate 3 specifically so LEL is almost a subversion of what one would expect to gith Yankee to be like yes on the surface she matches up with the stereotypes but when you spend more than a couple minutes around her and look at her actual actions we start to see a gith Yankee who is willing to work with Outsiders as equals willing to appease conflicts without Bloodshed willing to help fellow victims of Mind flare tadpoles despite them not being gith and despite pretty much every other gith Yankee in this game considering us a lost cause and already a mind flare thrall just on the nature of being kidnapped and infected and every gith Yankee in the game is basically like death will be your cure bestie Lazelle clings to her faith and to hope that she'll be cured in Black's name and she seeks to share that hope with us she wants us to come along with her she's grown attached to us in the short time that we've spent together in the time that we've spent fighting side by side the GI Yankee are often described to me as a race of people who believe they are superior to any other race and we see that the GI in the game are very very proud of who they are just by nature of being gith yane and they look down on others who are not gith yane but laelle does not do that at least not to the same degree as the other GI in the game sure she makes comments alluding to her Superior skill and at the start of the game she is definitely prideful but she sets that pride aside to work with us she adapts to her new environment instead of forcing the environment to adapt to her she seems excited to share more about G culture with us but she's also interested in learning about fyon which can be seen when you correct her on her pronunciation of the word tling and fyon I am unfamiliar with the well I shall not say culture custom perhaps you will educate me on matters of this fun um actually it's fyon she asks you to educate her showing an interest and she could have easily brushed it off as a stupid irrelevant thing but she shows that she's interested in learning fyon is worth learning about in her eyes even if she is a bit embarrassed and rude about it I I thought it was a really fun and cute scene that seems to not really say a whole lot but when you think about the gift Yankee as a whole I feel like it it says a lot about Lazelle that she's like you know what yeah I do actually want to learn about fyon I'm a little embar that I got this wrong and I would like to learn more please teach me even if she didn't say it like that that's at least that's how I'm interpreting it the Catalyst of lael's character Arc though is when we go to the crush typically it's going to be like the last thing you do in act one she's certain that the zisk will cure her she's faithful to vth and the teachings that she was brought up with so laelle is 110% certain that she will be cured once she reaches the crush she feels that she is owed a cure due to her loyalty and her faith she pretty much says as much to any Geth Yankee who question her along the way however her loyalty starts to falter when she hides the fact that your group is in possession of the artifact that the gith yanki are in search of it's easy to persuade her into deceiving kith Voss when we first come across him however she is a little bit regretful she can't believe that she did that but she can understand and reason with the fact that this artifact is what's keeping you all from transforming and losing your freedom to this absolute so she'll rock with it for now but as you enter the crush Lael Falls right back into her duty to her people she places all of her Trust on this group of strangers just by sheer virtue of them being gith yane and also followers of lath Lazelle is in her element though and once we make it to to the infirmary it's best to let her take the lead she'll share her condition with the doctor gustl honestly gustl reminds me of Hani from Attack on Titan but instead of being fanatic for these giant monstrosities gustl is bordering fanatic about the Mind flare tadpoles that she's been investigating and experimenting on but that may be due to the fact that the tadpoles relating back to the absolute cult have been altered with magic so it's not your average mind flare tadpole so I can understand the enthusiasm to explore and learn more about this thing especially considering that the gith already know a lot about mind flares so they they would know that this is like extra weird and would probably want to get to the bottom of it gustl will then lead your group to the zisk where you can be purified Lael does ask or urges to be the one who gets purified first and I always let her it's big approval points and also it just makes sense sense to let her go first I mean this is her thing so it just makes sense to me however once lelle is in the zisk and the device is activated it becomes painfully clear that this is not the Cure she was hoping for through shared pain the dream guardian and just strange Vibes we are able to know that the zisk is killing Lazelle there is no cure no purif if ation just death the whole point of the zisk is to extract the memories of the person in it and kill them that's it you can attempt to persuade lelen to removing herself from the device but it is a very very difficult role however if you do fail to persuade her the zisk will break leaving her uncured but still alive due to interference from the dream Guardian so luckily for me cuz I always fail these roles here luckily for me we can't lose her yet when the zus breaks though lelle does not realize that it was working as intended gustl is upset that her life's work has been ruined and laelle is so certain that gust was trying to kill her out of like a malicious desire or some sort of betrayal not that that's what was supposed to happen it's honestly hard watching lelle try to rationalize what happened without acknowledging that there was no cure that the only cure was death still clinging to gith Yankee loyalty and hope for this cure that she was promised laelle feels she must report gustl to The Inquisitor for her betrayal The Inquisitor is basically like the leadership position that works directly with lath from my understanding so The Inquisitor is a big deal LEL is still holding on onto the idea that she can get help from the crush ignoring what seems to be clear and obvious to the player when we make it to where we can report gustl the leadership in this crush is not interested in a seeming traitor amongst them instead they are almost entirely focused on recovering the artifact in which we carry Lael urges us to work with the gift Yankee and giving them The Relic she sees it as the best thing to do in this situation still believing that we can OB Ain a cure from the gith either through fighting or being allowed in you make your way down to where the Inquisitor is but instead of talks about a traitor or a cure we are met with a mission from vth herself enter the artifact the astral prism and slay the Abomination inside Lazelle is still fully devoted to vth considering it an honor to do this for her and being pretty much Star Struck that vth even knew her name Lael is will be upset with you if you do not show respect and like bow to lath um it's also just a good way to get lasel approval if you are farming that but during this Lael is Promised a cure for herself and the rest of us she's promised Ascension as well this is everything to her this is everything a young GI Yankee in the situation could have asked for and more so into the prison we go because why wouldn't we if you've played this far in the game then you know that we are tasked with killing the dream guardian and we can either decide not to or kill them only to find out that they cannot be killed at least not in the form that we are witnessing and when you go back to the group laelle is upset about this inability to follow Black's orders but she eventually understands that was a really quick rundown regardless of if you attempt to kill the guardian or not you and Lael have new information that Lael feels vth needs to know we know that the dream guardan Ian knows something that'll ruin vet's rule we know that the power that the dream Guardian uses was stolen and is likely related to vth in some sort of sense it's going to bring her demise Lael rushes out of the prism begging to speak with vth once more begging to share what she's learned whether that's this thing is [ __ ] in killable and it knows how to topple you or just the threat to topple her but we're met with a fight instead the narrator reveals to the player that regardless of what happened in the astral prism the gith Yankee were given orders to kill us again the Cure promised is death after fighting through the crush LEL is left feeling confused and betrayed she struggles with where to place the blame is it true that vth is not as cracked up as she seems to be or was it a faulty Crush betray raying her as the party leaves the mountain pass during a long rest kith Voss will visit Camp sharing with us that he is rebelling against vth and basically revealing to the player where the blame needs to lie here he explains that vth is a liar and not someone who needs to be worshiped or have this power that she has and he asks us to Ally with him and help him believing us to know the truth of the astral prism believing that we know what lath is hiding and that we know about Orphus if you already know about the Orphus legend or have played the game before when in the crush you'll also notice a comet drawn onto the painting of lath which is a symbol of the Rebellion a symbol of orus it's a fun little detail but one I i' like to believe Voss Drew to like signal to allies or something I'm not really sure it really could have been drawn by anyone but in my mind I could I just think it's so fun to think of Voss vandalizing this painting lelle can't believe the blasphemy she's hearing from Voss but she still hears him out she's willing to entertain a world where vth is a liar to entertain a world where she AIDS a rebellion against the queen that she has devoted her life to lasel is starting to piece things together the seeds of Doubt were planted and Voss has shown up to water them but she's got the journey into balder's gate to mle things over lelle is honestly just chilling in act two as much as anyone could be I feel like I've said this in every unpacking whoever video but act two is where Shadow heart shines and most of the other companions take a backseat to her storyline much in the same way that everyone took a backseat to lel's storyline in the mountain pass however if you are Romancing Lael her act 2 romance scene is honestly ly worth talking about and shows just how far her character has grown how the love and friendship she has experienced in your group has started to change her lelle will come to you requesting a duel more or less to prove your Worth to her as a partner if you beat her the duel ends and she's like you are the reason for my bruises how romantic how cute y'all are a thing and it's like it definitely leans into a relationship dynamic that is like Mutual possession and it just it works for lazel considering gith um but the the part of this that really shows her growth is if lazel beats you instead Lael stops The Duel she's distraught at the idea of hurting you she wants to protect you and she wants you to protect her it's a level of emotional vulnerability that seems to be new for her as if if she's realizing what love is for the first time we have no way of knowing if Lael has ever been in a romantic relationship before she has shared previously that the GI Yankee pretty much don't have to worry about pregnancy so they can seek all the physical Pleasures they wish and there's nothing to worry about it's clear that she slept with people in the past and she's not shy about expressing her physical desires but emotional intimacy romance friendship even all of this could likely be very new to her if you know a lot about GI just outside of balder's gate can you like confirm if they're a culture that like does do emotional intimacy because it feels like to me they don't but I don't know if that's just like because the game doesn't really have much of an opportunity to delve into that or if I'm is this is this a thing more or less um whether it's that was a valid reading of laelle and gith culture by the time you reach act to laelle has started coming to terms with the fact that her life has been built on a lie vth isn't what she's cracked up to be she's been named a traitor and has been abandoned by her people more or less all Lael has is you and your rag tag group of weirdos but y'all are her weirdos and she cares deeply the relationships between the companions are only ever hinted at when they com on each other's big story beats but it seems clear to me that the entire group grows closer as friends or more depending on how you read certain interactions and silly little party banter as the game goes on laelle possibly for the first time in her life has a group of people that she has grown to care for unconditionally has a person that she loves in a romantic sense and wishes to protect and be protected by if you would have told act one laelle that she was would have had a desire to be protected she probably would have at the very least laughed it off and threatened to skin you alive for such a Preposterous lie I mean how ridiculous could that be but here she is loving and being loved protecting and being protected as a team unit as a friend as a romantic partner as a person worth protecting something that I feel like isn't a concept in GI culture at least not in the way that she talks about it at the very least laelle was not raised in an environment where people were worth protecting you protected yourself and that was it is the vibe that I always get so this this seems very revolutionary to LEL and a really important beat in her character Arc at the end of act two the final long rest the transition between the shadow cursed lands and act three Camp is awoken One Night by pleas from the dream guard Ian a portal opens up and we are attacked by GI monks this is where the player learns the true identity of the dream guardian and the true nature of the power that protects us a mind flare that's using the power of Orphus to protect us orus being the GI Prince who's been held captive inside the astral prism the very being that would undo vth the being who would allow for the gith yane to break free from vet's rule the being that saved them from the Mind flares however long ago and the being that vth has been telling everyone is dead I do not know much about gith politics beyond what the game tells me and the game does present this um orfus freeing the other gif as a good thing to do it's not touched on that Orpheus is seeking world domination or anything like that that people keep telling me in my comment section on the emperor video that orus is a genocidal maniac and it's not a good thing to free him and while that may be true for Forgotten Realms Lord and balers Gate 3 does take a lot from Forgotten Realms lore I don't think that's entirely relevant to baldder Gate 3 and not a factor in lael's character Arc there are quite a few instances of balers gate ignoring established elements of lore for the sake of crafting their own narrative and building up their themes and I do believe that that's the case here with orus orus is kind of a tool in lel's story in a sense she now holds proof that frak Voss was telling the truth proof that orus lives despite what vth tells her people proof that vth is not what she makes herself out to be proof that lel's seeds of Doubt were warranted and I think this does help her come into her [Music] own early into act three you were able to meet up with Voss again as he is pleading with Raphael to make a deal for the orphic hammer the tool to freeing orus Raphael states that Voss does not have anything he wants and instead turns to us we could get the orphic hammer and in return all we'd have to do is pass the crown of carsus to him a very easy thing and it costs us nothing unless you wanted to ascend Gil to godhood but like technically you could still do both cuz I've seen an ending where Gail ascends as a God and doesn't give the crown to uh Raphael and it's kind of sick it's a cool ending beside the point it's something Raphael has wanted for a long time and now is his chance we can make a deal right here right now and get the hammer securing a way to free orus and securing a way to basically start the Revolution and the freedom of the GI Yan people or we can deny the deal and find our own way to break into Raphael's house and steal the hammer for ourselves or just ignore it altogether but since we're talking about LEL and we're caring and loving LEL we're probably not ignoring that Quest I do prefer breaking into Raphael's house though because I do not trust him with the power of the crown and also that's a fun part of the game sure Raphael has been nothing but mostly honest with us and is not the worst guy we've come across but is he really the person that should have the power of the crown of carsus should he really have the power to combine all nine layers of Hell bring everyone together in unity that's a discussion for another day but if you refuse the deal Voss will be upset but he does understand and trust you to find another way to get the hammer which is wild considering he barely knows us Lazelle does not have to be present for any of this but if she is she does urge the player to consider the deal and to free her prince to free her people but she does understand the unwillingness to hand Raphael all that power and she she does get it she levels with you she trusts that you will find another way and for for LEL I feel like that trust is warranted and well-placed Voss though he's just letting lelle vouch for us and I don't think he's ever met met lazel in his life before the game so it's kind of funny that Vos is like yeah yeah no I'll trust you but we are his last hope so I guess it makes sense one long rest shortly after this encounter vth will visit Camp basically throwing a temper tantrum the betray of Lies vth will try to bend lazel to her will asking her to slay orus claiming that she'll be honored and ascended laelle will share with you her desire to stand her ground and not be manipulated by vth and it is up to you to support her in this decision or convince her to bend to blackett's Will pushing lelle to bend of LA's will leads to her bad ending which we'll talk about when we get to the epilog but if you support laelle in her desire to stay true to herself she'll stand up for herself pushing lelle to bend to V's will does lead to her bad ending which we will talk about when we get to the epilog but if you support lelle in her desire to stay true to herself she'll stand up against flath and be deemed a traitor but it's not her who was send against FL it is vth who has sinned against her one of the sickest lines in the entire game laal was so real for that laelle is strong in her convictions and she will not be shaken laelle is very sure of herself she's very confident in her decisions especially now that she knows the truth about orus Lazelle is the UN unshakable Force at least without your persuasion she trusts you and your traveling companions more than she trusts her own Goddess that she has spent her entire life living for she'd put her life in your hands in a heartbeat and she trust you not to betray her which is why I feel like you even are able to persuade her to go against everything she has learned and side with lath I feel like her trust in US her love for us her friendship with us is what allows us to manipulate her into doing something that she is so against and you can also see that honestly with every companion when it comes to convincing them to use the tadpole Powers because I've seen that you can convince LEL to be like chill with it which is wild why would you do that to her for the most part that's kind of where LEL story kind of plateaus until the ending mostly because if you do not keep LEL in your party there's a really good chance that she's going to spend most of act three kidnapped by Orin just hanging out in the temple of ball so it it's a good thing her big story moments took place earlier than the other companions but when you do finally save her she is incredibly grateful and for me it's typically been towards the end of the game because when Orin said that if I show up without killing gorach she was going to kill laelle I took that literally and so Orin was always like the L thing I did before going to the end stages of the game that's not act you don't actually have to do it that way that's just what I was led to believe so that's how I've always played it but anyway after you save LEL she expresses her gratitude in the best way that she can it is not in a gith Yan's nature to say thank you our language doesn't even have a phrase for it CRA Khan is the closest equivalent I know may your enemies know agony but after releasing me from ain's grip there is only one proper response thank you that's my best friend right there Lael has to have felt the Gratitude so strongly that her normal ways of expressing it were not enough she has so much respect for the player that she searches for the ways that feeling is normally expressed in fyon so that you can fully understand what she is trying to convey I think it's neat how laelle shares so much of her culture with the player letting us get to know her and where she's coming from and how she tries to make connections with what we would be used to I also find it great that her picking up on fyon Customs is not done in a way that feels like she's assimilating she still retains her distinct cultural upbringing things that are very unique to laelle and growing up in crush CER and she shares that with us just as much as we share our own cultures with her we're literally just hanging out in a multicultural camp and it's great we're having a good time and I feel like getting to know so much about the GI through Lael makes us feel for the gith Yankee making the choice of freeing orus and in turn starting the Catalyst that'll free the gith Yanke from blacket rule or damning them all and siding with the emperor a difficult choice at least that's true for a player who may not be familiar with the GI Yankee outside of the game there's so much to D and D and lore surrounding it that it's so easy to play for years and consume so much content about it and still not know about certain things and honestly part of me thinks that the game didn't intend for us to bring in this outside information about the Gangi into this decision at the end as I mentioned earlier yes outside information can Elevate the stories being told but with something as big as hey this guy that you're thinking about freeing um that we're framing as a potentially better choice is actually a genocidal Maniac it it's never brought up in the game it never comes up and I feel like that was intentional I really do feel like that was intentional I have seen people talk about how that detail informed their decisions here LED them to thinking that siding with the emperor is always the better choice but given the themes of the game and the way things play out I do not think that was what the game had in mind mind with this Choice it's simply work with this mind flayer who has manipulated us along the way to ensure his freedom and security and survival or free the man who will in turn free an entire group of people from a corrupt Queen who is only using them to maintain her own immortality and power when you word it that way one choice is objectively better if you are valuing the lives of people that are not yourself not to say you have to play the game that way because this is a fantasy game you can play it whatever way you want but we do agree that the good choice is usually the more heroic choice in terms of uh assigning morality to the stories being told not that it's like the best way to play the game I am not here to tell people how to play the game I feel like I need to make that clear LEL feels very WR L about the freedom of gith yane she's seen firsthand the lies and the deception of the Lich Queen We call blackith it's presented to us as a good thing to strive for and honestly I am inclined to agree and that's not just because Lazelle has me Whipped however I do find it really neat that Lazelle despite being upset at orpheus's fate if he does become a mind flare to stop the absolute at the end of the game she's not mad at us for not making that sacrifice she understands the weight of that choice and she understands why we would not want to make that choice after fighting so hard to find a cure she Mourns her prince sure but she doesn't let that stop her she doesn't hold that against us she was in our shoes and if this were not a video game Lael would have had just as much agency to intervene as we did she's just as responsible as the player and yet she doesn't step up she doesn't make that sacrifice as far as I know the only character who volunteers to sacrifice themselves is carlac although now that I'm saying that I think I might have seen um a clip where somebody got laselle to do it but I need to fact check things more often carlac does though more willingly volunteer for it and that's because because she knows she's faded to die soon anyway I do feel like before the game Lael would have probably pushed for someone to make that sacrifice and hold it against you if you didn't especially considering that g Yan consider themselves the superior beings so a sacrifice of a human or an elf or a tling or a gnome or whatever it is that you're playing as would not hit as hard because you're not her equal I know I said earlier that she is Kinder and softer than the rest of the GI Yan but when it comes to something as big as freeing orus and not dooming him to be a mind flare I could understand if she would be a bit less kind this is a really big deal and it's also just unclear at the start how much liselle actually does look down on those who are not GI yanki she does Express a bit of superiority but just how deep did that run either way laelle has grown past that and sees us all as just people doing our best with the cards we're dealt and she too is just doing her best with what she has and sometimes that means letting your prince make a grave sacrifice for the greater good sometimes that's being a bit selfish after being so selfless throughout this journey depending on how you play I know not everyone is playing selflessly but that sentence just worked really well so I wanted to say it we are all just trying to live laelle included and I think that's [Music] beautiful Lael has three main variations in her epilog ending if you encourage Lael to stay with her convictions and stay true to herself there's a couple of different ways her story can end now for the most part there is absolutely no difference between saving Orpheus and sacrificing yourself to being a mind flare or letting Orpheus make that sacrifice when it comes to lel's endings she fights across the cosmos to free her people she'll either train under Orphus if he's alive or take on his dragons if he sacrifices himself but either way Lazelle will find herself relying on her words more than her blade something she's learned from you she's currently working on securing an alliance with the GI the a different faction of GI that do not follow vth and due to her Mission she can't actually come to the epilog party but she does astral project her self and she seems happy and excited with what she's doing she's learning and exploring the importance of diplomacy and using her words instead of fighting to get what she needs and that is a a far cry from where LEL started at and I think that's so cool it's not a bad ending even if she does deserve to take it easy after all we went through she is still left with a future that allows for her to continue to grow and continue to thrive and it doesn't walk back on any character development that she may have gone through throughout this game however in an ending that might potentially be better depending on how you look at it you can persuade LEL to live for herself to stay in fyon and carve out her own path if you pick this option she'll stay and at the epilog party she's there in person and we'll share with you that she's been making friends and living life and just having a good time it's a great ending for her that lets her explore herself outside of her duty to her people because Lael is just a very Duty bound character throughout most of the game so it's kind of nice to give her a break from that level of responsibility just let her live just let her have a life and hang out and that's great I love that for her I'm not really sure which of these two endings is like the best for her I'm pretty certain it's probably just up to personal preference she seems happy and fulfilled in both of these endings but I can understand how having the weight of freeing an entire people on your shoulders could be a lot and while she does seem happy to do the work she should not have to shoulder that responsibility I'm not entirely sure where this information comes from it might come from that one mobile game that all the uh balers gate characters are getting put into but we have been told that lazel is like 22 whether that's exactly accurate or not not we know she's young she should be living life she should be at the club which is which is basically the uh letting her hang out in faon ending um both of these endings though seem to work well with her character growth throughout the game again none of it gets walked back she gets to thrive and flourish and explore different conflict resolutions and make connections with people and live in a way that is not not typical of the aggressive and battle driven gith Yankee culture that she grew up in um but I would really love to hear what you guys think on these two endings and which one you prefer and maybe why because like I said like I I guess it's like the shadow heart and sacrificing her parents or saving her parents endings where both of them is technically good and it really is just up to personal preference so I would like to hear your thoughts but if you push for lelle to go back to vth she will Ascend just as vth has been promising her but Ascension is is death it's dying becoming a sacrifice to help flath maintain herself as a lich LEL is snuffed out and that's it Withers will say that for gieni the measure of a single mortal life is just a single evening supper for the Lich Queen to be ascended is to be consumed and I think we can all agree that this is her bad ending the worst outcome for her like that that doesn't seem very controversial it may sound crazy what I'm about to say but I do believe that the companions were made to parallel each other and laelle does parallel a lot of the companions I think Lael and just the entire gith Yankee people striving to ascend to be consumed in a way feels like Asian's relationship with kazador kazador literally tells asarian that he was made to be consumed a powerful being manipulating and grooming people to be made for their consumption and vth is doing the exact same thing she's just on a power trip and consuming her people to remain on top a more direct parallel though is lelle and Shadow heart lazelle's story parallels Shadow Hearts in the sense that they both kind of somewhat touch on religious trauma they both definitely have to come to terms with the ways that they were lied to and wronged by their respective gods and upbringing however unlike shadowart lazel story does not tap as strongly into the issues and the trauma that comes with the religious trauma sure in betraying vth she is losing everything she's ever known much like how defying sh costed shadowart her previous community and potenti cost her her parents but it's not a focus for lael's story sure she is a traitor to the ganki but she does not seem to mourn that loss of community she doesn't seem to be as strongly affected by the loss of her previous convictions lazel knows her worth and there's not a struggle to find herself in the same sense that shadow heart has post defying sh laal defies vth but finds purpose in in supporting orus it's a natural choice for her and in sense of community I honestly feel like she builds a stronger Community with us at Camp than she had at her Crush she has community in Vos and the others working to free the gith Yankee from vth she has people she can fall back on she has a community that will welcome her with open arms unlike shadowart although shadowart does have the community of camp and if she really wanted to the community of to lunite worshippers but it's a little bit different for shadow heart um instead lal's character focuses more on her learning more about the world and herself and the ways that she can find happiness and purpose it's the healing aspect of dealing with religious trauma whether that's in supporting orfus or fighting to free the GTH Yan or just stepping down and enjoying life staying in fun making making friends just being alive lael's focus is finding something that will fulfill her another interesting thing about lel's character um just kind of like unrelated to the themes of the story her Fish Out of Water experience mixed with her straightforward nature parallels the autistic experience very well so much so that lasel has been claimed as an autistic coded character and we all say the same thing about Gail but um for different reason Lael being autistic coded is not explicitly Cannon but one of those head cannons that does have a lot of support from The Source material and d'vorah wild the actor behind Lael has shown support for this head Cannon as well but it fits many autistic individuals have a hard time navigating these arbitrary social rules and Customs that don't make sense much like how Lael has to untangle and make sense of Fun's customs she struggles with connection because the rules are different from what's natural to her lasel also says exactly what she means there's no beating around the bush which is different from a lot of the other characters in this game and it's also very typical amongst autistic individuals to speak like this which is where the assumption that people with Autism have a hard time communicating comes from it's not an issue with autistic individuals trying to communicate but more misunderstanding with where people are coming from neurotypical people basically people who don't have like autism or ADHD or like anything like that have these unspoken rules and often speak around what they're trying to say instead of being upfront and straightforward because often times being straight up is considered rude or something I don't know either way neurotypical people assume that everyone beats around the bush and doesn't exactly say what they're thinking and there's a lot left unsaid that you're supposed to infer and because they speak that way they assume that the person they're speaking with also speaks that way and should understand that about the conversation and be able to infer what's being left unsaid meanwhile people with Autism will approach conversation a lot more directly and literally saying exactly what they mean and expecting the other person to do the same so you could imagine the confusion when one person says something means a different thing and expects you to understand that they meant something else but you're coming at it saying exactly what you think and expecting the other person to be exact I feel like lasel struggles with this as well she's very literal in what she says she's upfront and doesn't try to leave things unsaid for the sake of being more palatable she's unapologetically herself unapologetically honest and this is probably why I was so quick to trust her on my first playthrough and why why she was my voice of reason if she says something is a bad idea I trust that it probably is it's probably also why I connect so strongly with lasel despite having like nothing in common with her lael's story while still having elements of trauma and abuse does not focus as heavily on the effects of said trauma we see her grow and flourish throughout the game we see her expanding past what the gith yane are raised to be and we see her Thrive if we support her in abandoning vth her bad ending doesn't even perpetuate the cycles of abuse laelle does have to recognize and come to terms with the fact that she's been wronged and the ways that she's been wronged but her Arc focuses more on her growth that's honestly a little bit independent of the choices that the player makes even if you push her towards her bad ending she still spent the game learning to love and to be loved she still grew to appreciate fyon and those that reside within the realm and she discovered more about herself in that sense Lael mirrors carlac there's no ending where they perpetuate the cycles of abuse there's no ending that feeds into their negative characteristics they either work hard to secure their best chance at life or they die both of them focusing on the journey and their growth their love for their friends both of them focusing on living both of them potentially being snuffed out too soon instead of given the chance to flourish Lazelle is also really interesting in the sense that her story touches on elements that parallel with so many companions but the thing that she's Breaking Free from is not the cycles of abuse in a way that does clearcut an individual as say aarian and Cazador laelle is Breaking Free from a toxic Society unlearning the propaganda that she was taught and learning to find her own way she grew up in gith culture that teaches that you have to be strong and powerful and if you are not strong and powerful your victimhood is your fault that's a shortcoming for yourself and that's a personal failure that doesn't sound like a very empathetic culture and it's absolutely not true but LEL is able to grow past that able to learn differently she's able to see the error in those ways and she's able to keep parts of gith culture that are not victim blamy and terrible and expand upon that in FY run with you with with her new friends with her new life or she's able to free the GI I don't know how much of this toxic culture and Society comes directly from like the vth we see um for the sake of making this narrative come together I want to say freeing the GI from black GI will also free them from this toxic propaganda culture they live in but there's no telling there probably is telling if you if you know more about GI culture outside of the game I'm talking in circles either way that doesn't change the fact that lasel is basically unlearning toxic abusive Society basically it's a it's a greater thing that's not as individualistic as the rest of the companions but it still feeds into that the theme of learning to overcome and unlearn the cycles of abuse and honestly that might be a bit of a stretch but that's the way I interpret lel's character that's the thing that I get from her story thank you guys so much for watching me talk about lelf for however long this video ends up being a lot of this was my own personal interpretation of her character and the story beats that that she goes on so I like if you have a different read that's totally fair and valid this is just what I got from her character and what stuck out to me um but this does conclude the unpacking origin companions I don't know if that's the end of the unpacking series I am still going to talk about other balers gate characters like manthara and hson but the it might be just in a slightly different format um because all of these unpacking videos are structured in a very specific way that is going to be a lot more difficult to do with um the non origan companions so this might be the end of the unpacking series but this is not the end of me talking too much about balers gate on the internet so with that being said I am working on a house in video Menara is coming when I finish my run through that has Menara um anyway again thank you guys so much for watching I hope you all enjoyed it and I will see you all in the next video whatever that may be I'm very excited to keep talking about balers gate it is my special interest right now um but I also want to start talking about other things again so we're going to we're going to start being variety anyway if You' like actually watched the end of the video I appreciate you this is great you know I'm a rambling mess um that's a good place to end it I'm off script I don't script my outros which I I think is fairly obvious um yeah I think my next video might actually be talking about an anime series that I have not made a video essay about before um but we'll see there's your sneak peek your reward for making it to the end of this ungodly long video okay they're not that long okay anyway I am rambling way too much I'm we're going to we're going to end it that's it that's my unpacking lasel video that's everything I needed to say and she sneak peeks about what's coming next and I will see you all next time goodbye

Channel: pocket leaves

Views: 14,104

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Id: md84C08IHWc

Length: 65min 59sec (3959 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2024