POLL: Imoen Poll

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OK, here's the question - plain and simple. If someone else were your sibling besides Imoen, do you think Imoen would still remain the most popular NPC? Assume everything else stays the same with the NPC's, but simply that someone else was your sibling. All of the NPC's would be the same class, have the same personality, have the same statistics, dialogs, everything.

Regardless of which way you vote, I'd love to hear the comments on why you think she would still be most popular, or why she would no longer be the most popular.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 52 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Imoen Poll (52 votes.)

Would Imoen still be the most popular NPC if she wasn't your sister? (Choose 1)
* Sure, she's the bomb! - 60% (31)
* No, but I can't ditch my family - 40% (21)

 

Why didn't you add the choice: "Doesn't matter, I always dump her" ?
I'll stop making comments on Imoen from now on. But I still don't understand why people like her .

 

Come on people! I want to hear those who are defending Imoen tell me why she would still be the most popular NPC.

If you vote no, your reason is self-evident. I want to know why you still think she's the best. As I have said before:

Why does Imoen always win? She is a so-so thief, and an above average (but by no means great) magic-user, who is moderately funny, has no romance (un-modded), and is not present for the first half of SoA.

So what's the deal here?

 

Well, Imoen is not my favorite but I would have to say that she is one of the more tolerable NPCs because she has a somewhat normal/balanced personality. Everyone else tends towards extremes.

Well, actually Yoshimo falls into the balanced catagory as well, which probably explains why a lot of people initially liked him and were upset when they reach a certain plot development.

Imoen and Yoshimo are both generally cheerful and have a sense of humour without being completely over the top like Minsc, Jan or Korgan. Me, I don't mind extremes but it is sometimes nice to have someone around who isn't either nuts or ultra-straight-laced.

 

Two different questions
--- -- -
If Imoen were "Imoen", but just not my sibling, she no doubt would still be my fav character in BG2.

If "Imoen" were, say; Haer'Dalis or Jaheira, I doubt s/he would be my fav... If I understood correctly.

...Everybody ... Everybody in the house of love...

 

@ Verne

The reason the question in the poll doesn't completely match the description that follows is because of the character limit on poll questions. I could not fit the question:

"If someone else was your sibling besides Imoen, would she still be your favorite NPC?"

The intent of the question was suppose that Imoen is still Imoen i.e., that she is a childhood friend present in BGI and BGII, but that someone else is a Child of Bhaal, is kidnapped by Irenicus, subsequently rescued, etc. She would still be the same class, have the same attrivutes and all that. Assume that someone else is your sibling, like Haer Dalis', Jaheira, or whoever. It doesn't matter who you pick.

Then I'm asking if some other character was your sibling besides Imoen, would Imoen still be your favorite character?

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm wondering if the fanfare regarding Imoen is simply because of her being another Child of Bhaal and the plot line concerning her, or if people just genuinely like her character. If you feel that anyone who was your sibling would serve as well - i.e., if someone else was kidnapped and a Child of Bhaal, then it means you really like the plot line more than the character. If however, you think that you would like Imoen the best even without that plot line, then chances are you like her character the best, regardless of the plot. (For example reverse Imoen and Nalia's roles in SoA and ToB - would now Nalia be your favorite?)

 

As I said in the NPC poll thread - Imoen is most behaviorally realistic character. Yoshimo/Cernd/Jaheira and (in distant second) Minsc/Jan will fall into this category as well. Everybody else is too extreme (and therefore too artificial for my taste). Minsc and Jan, while funny, just dont have personalities that I like. But in poll I would have placed them on 4-5th place as well. Cernd is too minor of a character. Out of remaining 3 I like Imoen and Yoshimo personalities best and Imoen, Jaheira and Yoshimo bring most to the game. Between Imoen and Jaheira - I like both characters but I do like Imoen personality more (sibling or no sibling). Now if Yoshimo had an option to survive through whole game, was your sibling and had some very crucial role later in game (plot-wise or romance-wise), then it would have been a very close call between him and Imoen (for me). It would have depended on how well Yoshimo plot would have been executed.

But if everything stays the same plot-wise and everyone in your part became bhaalspawn - I would still would end up choosing between Imoen and Jaheira and would go to Imoen side based on personality.

 

due to her teletubbie-like comments all the time she should have wisdom max 3. if she wouldn't be the PC's relative i would neverever let her live more than 30 seconds

 

Like Nocturnal Nomad, I just can't figure out how anyone could have Imoen as their favourite NPC.
She's one of the most annoying NPCs out there.

Maybe it owes to the French translation. Dunno. She's even more whiney than Aerie. Yuck.

 

arutha they both are whiney in english version and german version, too. yeah, real heroes with bag of tears and longbow of stutter and belt of despair and the allmighty robe of the archcriers.

 

Well, I don't think she would be my favorite in that case, but still, she's cool.

 

Yes, I completely agree with Nocturnal Naomad. I hate Imoen, and I always drop her, in fact, I don't even take her through Irenicus' dungeon with me.

 

I'm glad so much people agree with me, but where are the Imoen-fans ? Seeing that she won the contest and most people, according to this poll, think she's the bomb, there are not much people actually defending her. The only argument I've read is that she's well-balanced. That's a good point but I need a lot more to convince me.

 

I have already posted my reasons for not thinking Imoen is not all that great of a character. I was hoping for people to expand upon possible reasons for liking her. My thinking is that she is only slightly more functional than Nalia, and no one likes her, so it can't be her classes and statistics that people like.

My theory on this are that people like her because she is an intrinsic part of the storyline (in which case any BGI original who turned out to be a Bhaalspawn would easily be able to take her place) and that she is familiar because she is a BGI original. But if that is the case, then you like the storyline - making you a BG fan - but not necessarily an Imoen fan. I love the storyline, and I will readily admit that Imoen is an intrinsic part of it. But ANYONE could have been another Bhaalspawn from BGI, and the possibilities would have been vast if more of the BGI original characters were written into BGII as playable NPC's.

In my next game through as an evil party, I will go to Spellhold and accept her into my group on a very temporary basis. I will do this to kill her, as anyone playing an evil character would do. As a Bhaalspawn, other Bhaalspawn represent a clear and present danger to you, so if you're evil it's just good role-playing. So I'll kill her, and then pick up whoever I asked to leave (and told to wait there) while I killed Imoen.

 

Afriad I'm not much help in revealing Imoen's popularity either. I liked her okay in BG1, but in BG2 she's nervous and whiney.

Yoshimo wins in my *most normal, easy-going, fun person to be around* category.

I can't figure out why Imoen's popular except for storyline either.

 

Finally I am satisfied. Beren has finally made a good arguement. I do try to role-play whenever possible, and is arguement regarding the role-playing perspective of using Imoen is very convincing. (The powergaming bit was pretty good too, but I wouldn't have been sold if it was just that.)

 

Your question is not an easy one. While it is easy to imagine another NPC as Child of Bhaal, trying to see Imoen in a different role is a little bit trickier. Many, if not most, of her dialogue lines are related to her relationship with your character, so taking that away would make her a bit shallow. However, if her personality would be properly expanded, I believe she would still be my favourite NPC. Her innocence and her light-hearted approach to adventuring are a welcome addition to my party. And good aligned NPCs tend to be too much on the serious side of life (Minsc being the exception here, of course !)

 

I would have to say yes. Imoen is very versatile, having a decent find traps ability, and still is a good mage. I don't see having missed out on 40,000 or however many XP points from the first game is a drawback. Her stats are great for a mage and she has a good Dex bonus to boot which frees up the bracer spot for another type, other than bracers of AC#. Still, I think it would have been better to have a romance, but since the Mod has been made, I am happy ...just need time to play it ....

[ July 17, 2003, 15:31: Message edited by: dAS ]

 

Well, I think she's whiny and annoying. So there. But sometimes I have to use her. Oh well. Jaheira is worse and luckily not essential.