Aradin, an NPC you meet at the beginning of Baldur’s Gate 3, is so controversial a lot of players don’t know if they hate him or just feel bad for him. I, for instance, hated him from the very beginning.
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for those who haven’t finished BG3.
You meet Aradin in quite a stressful situation right in the first hours of BG3 when you witness him and his party get surrounded by goblins in front of Emerald Grove’s gate. After you help them defeat the goblins, Aradin will converse with the Tieflings’ leader, Zevlor. That enough was a reason for me to sucker-punch Aradin and knock him out, but apparently, a lot of people on Reddit feel sorry for Aradin because he didn’t know what he was getting into when he accepted a contract to retrieve the Nightsong.
I’m guessing a lot of people feel sorry for Aradin because they either don’t sympathize with the Tieflings or because they’re unaware that Aradin pulls quite the snake move in Act Three. If Aradin is alive and he finds that the Nightsong is alive in your camp, he’ll cross your path once again and ambush you with a dozen other mercs after you take a long rest. Though I disliked Aradin from the very beginning, I was shocked when he ambushed me in Act Three the first time I played BG3. From that point on, in the other runs I’ve started, I let the goblins kill him during the fight in front of Emerald Grove’s gates to prevent the Act Three event from triggering.
The only controversial BG3 character I feel sorry about is Gale. Yes, he’s messed up, but at least he was always honest whenever I interacted with him. Aradin, on the other hand, doesn’t deserve any empathy.
