AhIrenicus is a slamdunk antagonist who made history, and the themes behind him are very deep for those who might care
I always thought Irenicus was good because he was voiced by Ras Alghul
And because he was a simple villain that served the game excellently without overwhelming whole world and whole setting with his desire to destroy the celestial heavens and bring down the world order - he just wanted to be god, like many other D&D people, why hate the dude, eh? He was like a character a D&D player could come up with and finish at high level, as crazy but fun. He had small humane(elvish) part about banging elf queen and then betraying elfs, but was completely evil and irredeemable (before modders fixed it). He was larger than life and a powerful wizard, serving as a live presentation of one of the best systems in the game. And he was dangerous, because spellcasters are dangerous. And annoying. And his dream sequences while retarded, carried a simple message. He was also interesting in a sense that he was not, in fact, a bhaalspawn, but wanted to replace you.
Overall, I wouldn't even say he was written better than Sarevok, especially if we combine BG1 Sarevok with ToB Sarevok (I just like the idea of 2 bhaalspawn, blood relatives, one of which got all the good mentors and another was abandoned and got all the evul ones and how roles could be theoretically reversed), but he worked. He was memorable. And also the end fight against him, just as against Sarevok, was friggin bonkers and larger than anything, and it did feel personal to your character. Hey, not just your character actually. For Jaheira, and Minsc too. And Valygar who hated wizords. In fact, all companions seemed to be itchy to fight the bastard. Worked well, surprisingly, even without too much extra content for this part.
Was larger than anything PoE has with it's own boss fights, that is. None of them are personal, and none provide similar satisfaction of a win against thing which felt so unreachable before.
Irenicus didn't have any "depth", imo. No more than any D&D villain had in some D&D books like loldrizzd. But thing is, Eothas does not have any either. He's pointless. Your journey in the end feels pointless. Eothas is no Myrkul or some other character from MoTB. The THEMES seem to repeat themselves (hey let's destroy thing holding souls), but the execution is like on whole multiple layers beneath writing MoTB has. Is there ever a friggin actual deeper twist on the whole thing? What is the conflict? What does one game matter? If in the end, Eothas just does his thing, and you just observe it. And then read bunch of slides about your gay friends.
An example of dialogue from PoE2:
Xoti: Eothas, look at me it's me, Imoen!
Eothas: Yeah yeah ok
An example of dialogue with your companion and a god about souls from better game IN LE BORING FORGOTENREALMS SETTING HURR:
Fuck. Where did it all go so wrong? Why did we lose this?
Fuck.
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