Baldur's Gate - Discussion

When I was just a young punk, back when games came on multiple CDs, I'd grown quite fond of an RPG called Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2. An isometric tactical RPG where you control 6 characters, yours and 5 NPCs.

All my friends talked about the combat, the ruleset, the puzzles, the villains and story, the loot, the exploration.

I talked about Jaheira.

Back in Baldur's Gate 1, Khalid was a cowardly but good half-elf man, a fighter, and he was married to a beautiful half-elf fighter/druid named Jaheira. Khalid was a timid thing, but Jaheira was blunt and had bite. I really liked the two of them, they fleshed out my party well (especially considering how silly Minsc was).

Khalid dies at the beginning of BG2, but Jaheira and you (and Minsc and your childhood friend Imoen) escape the villain's dungeon. Naturally, this destroys Jaheira, and she succumbs to depression and anger.

You come to realize that, while Khalid relied Jaheira for overt things like battle and quests, Jaheira relied on Khalid for more personal, hidden things, like happiness. And me, having gone through BG1 with this woman as my companion, tried my hardest to fill that role for her. I wanted her to recover from the horrible situation, and find her happiness once again.

Then, over the course of the game, Jaheira not only slowly gets over the death of her husband, but finds herself falling for you. It's the slowest building romance in the game, but it's so beautiful how this woman, torn asunder by the death of the person she relied on, manages to not only pick herself back up, but find that same happiness in you. It's such a great romance story because of how real it feels! I knew Khalid, I knew what I was doing by comforting Jaheira, and I knew again what I was doing by encouraging her to find happiness again. And I knew that Khalid would have been happy if she found that happiness with me.

You'll notice in my stories that the romances are pretty much never, ever about young people falling in love. I really can't stand the 'boy meets girl, girl meets boy, sparks fly, barriers rise to separate them and are subsequently defeated' romance. In my stories I try and approach the romance from more interesting angles, like Jaheira.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPST9bJfCpo