mirrored viconia theory? do tell :3
Okay, so a lot of people have been calling Larian's Viconia out as being out-of-character compared to her BG2 characterization.
For context for people that don't know her outside of BG3:
Viconia abandoned Lolth because she was ordered to kill a baby and refused, losing her entire house's favor with the Spider Queen, which is DISASTROUS in Menzoberranzan. Her mom desperately tried to get her to apologize to Lolth, but she refused, and mom was going to have her taken away to be sacrificed until her brother killed her mom to save her. Then she fled the Underdark and turned to Shar.
Said brother got drider'd, btw.
She went to the surface, became a sex slave, slaveowner had a heart attack and everyone thought she killed him, so she fled THAT, went off and managed to get a little homestead for herself in the countryside, had a neighbor that she THOUGHT was a friend, but kept herself hooded from so he wouldn't find out she was a drow.
Friend figured it out anyways and had his sons TORTURE HER AND BURY HER ALIVE.
God's favorite princess poorest little meow meow.
If you don't romance her in BG2, her ending epilogue is this:
"No longer with [main character], Viconia went on to found a cult dedicated to Shar in the city of Waterdeep. One of her followers betrayed her, however, prompting the slaughter of the whole tainted lot. Shar admonished Viconia strongly for this, but she was unrepentant and again wandered the Realms. Viconia was still formidable, and went on to prevent an attempt by the Knights of the Shield to take over Calimport, even worked with Drizzt Do'Urden to save the elven city of Suldanessalar from a Zhentarim plot. For this last act, the elves accepted her, and Queen Ellesime bestowed the highest honors of the Seldarine, an accolade never before given to one of her dark kind. Viconia reportedly bowed without emotion, and then left. Her fate remains unknown."
Not something that would point to her returning to Baldur's Gate, let alone doing so to become the Mother Superior we get to see.
However, in BG3, she says this:
Which is more trustworthy? The word of a Sharran? Or the word-of-god narration of an epilogue?
Then we've got this conversation @anderstrevelyan found:
I want to circle back around to Astarion for a second. We all know the song and dance with Cazador, but Cazador was also in Astarion's place; everything Cazador inflicted on his spawn, his own master, Vellioth, inflicted on him.
You can actually find remnants of Vellioth in Cazador's evil basement. Copied from the bg3 wiki:
Vellioth's first lesson is always to dominate. Allow none to be your equal
When Cazador tried to speak with an old friend, Vellioth drained the friend dry while he watched as punishment.
Vellioth's second lesson is that power comes from solitude. To share with others is to be weak, and to be weak is to fail ... and die.
When Cazador rebelled against Vellioth, he had him impaled for 11 years - for his failure.
Vellioth's third lesson is to act not in haste. A near immortal has time to plan, time to act, only when others will pay the price of action
When Cazador had learned all his lessons, he killed Vellioth in The Rite of Perfect Slaugher while they both laughed.
BG3 has a huge theme of abuse, but most specifically, the cycles of it. So many of its villains took the abuse they endured and inflicted it on others. So many of the "bad" endings are the companions perpetuating that cycle themselves.
Gortash was sold to the Hells, to Raphael. He then sold Karlach.
Cazador was tormented as a spawn. He then tormented his own spawn.
Shadowheart was controlled by a cult. She then becomes the head controller of said cult.
I believe that the BG2 epilogue did happen as said. Viconia started a Sharran cult in Waterdeep. They betrayed her, so she slaughtered them. Then she went off and helped Drizzt Do'Urden save a city, and got accolades no drow has ever gotten.
Viconia was caught by Sharrans after all this. After she got her "happy ending." No one knows her fate, the epilogue said.
I think, as punishment for leaving her cult behind, Shar sent her faithful after Viconia, took her to the mirror, and molded her back into a loyal pawn, making her forget everything but the bitterness that turned her towards Shar, and fed lies about what really happened in Waterdeep.
Maybe she knows she was mirrored at some point. Maybe she doesn't. But she's starting to slip again, like Shadowheart was—she's disobeying Shar's teachings by going for the artifact, and strikes at Shadowheart in what she sees as a betrayal, which has to ring scarily familiar to her after Waterdeep. And it would put SUCH a tragic layer onto her that she can't escape the cycle herself, just like Orin and Ketheric couldn't, because the gods have made her a pawn in their larger game.
And maybe that's why she used the mirror so much, even when that would have undone any good to turn Shadowheart towards Shar (via @trappedinafantasy37). Mirrors fix what's broken in Shar's eyes. Right?
Anyways, I think that's the direction Larian would have gone if they'd had enough time to flesh out all of Act 3. You can see the bits and pieces of stories they wanted to craft all over that city.
