'She was so very well-defined from the get-go': Baldur's Gate 3's Gith darling Lae'zel changed the least during its development

pcgamer.com:

The cast of Baldur's Gate 3 has evolved over the game's Early Access period and beyond—Wyll in particular had a whole rewrite between the game's conception and its full release. Whether it's whole storylines shifting or just toning down Gale's accidental thirstiness, finding the core of a character in a story this large is bound to be complicated.

But not for Lae'zel, according to a recent interview by IGN with Larian's CEO and Founder Swen Vincke, as well as lead writers Adam Smith and Chrystal Ding. «In the beginning she was very aggressive towards the players, so we toned her down a little bit», Vincke admits, but that was pretty much it.

«She is probably one of the companions that changed the least throughout the entirety of development. She was so very well-defined from the get-go,» he continues, noting that Lae'zel's writer Kevin VanOrd «found her voice instantly.» Heads up—I'll be getting into some spoilers for Lae'zel's character arc and endings.

What Vincke is saying here makes sense: Lae'zel isn't a simple character by any means, but she knows who she is—or, at least, she thinks she does. «She has all this confidence, and it's the confidence of youth that knows what is true,» says Smith. As a character, Lae'zel's journey is more about unravelling her preconceptions about the world and her place in it.

Or, in the case of my playthrough, watching helplessly as she heads towards her doom with a smile on her face. «I think Lae'zel has some of the most heartbreaking endings,» Smith continues. I never broke Lae'zel from the shackles of her dogma. In the new epilogue—courtesy of Larian's latest big patch—I got to see exactly what lay in store for her at the hands of Vlaakith. 

For those not in the know, Vlaakith (the