The existence of Imoen in the Baldur’s Gate series is one of my favourite stories of game dev fuckery because she literally wasn’t even supposed to be in the game, and the whole reason she was added at the last possible minute is because the devs realised “hey, a lot of these early game challenges assume that the player has access to thief skills, but you don’t actually have to play as a thief, and the only recruitable thief NPC in the front half of the game is a chaotic evil jerk who will murder your other party members”, and then somebody said “well, what if we add a thief NPC to the starting area, and make her a cute girl with major childhood-friend-who’s-kind-of-into-you vibes so that everyone will recruit her?” – so they did and it fucking worked.
Imoen: In an effort to avoid supporting megacorporations, I shall now be posing questions directly to you all that I would have otherwise googled. Question one: If mayonnaise is just eggs and oil, why it creamy?
Ajantis: Because it’s also evil.
Imoen: Thanks! Have scientists figured out what dark matter is yet?
Neera: Yup! It’s anything that takes up space, has mass, and is goth.
Imoen: Wow! What happens if you eat 23 packages of peeps?
Xan, deadpan: You meet the gods.
Imoen: Thank goodness! What’s the correct way to eat a banana?
Minsc: Whole, in one gulp!
Imoen: Delicious! Who is the muffin man?
Khalid: F-f-father of the muffin boy.
Imoen: Makes sense! Why is my car making a ker-klunk noise?
Yeslick: Car’s haunted.
Imoen: Uh oh. How to fix a haunted car?
Dorn: Slam into a priest at a crosswalk going at least 40 miles per hour.
Imoen: It worked! Where does the wax in scented candles go?
Garrick: Into the sky, where it turns into stars.
Imoen: Cool! Why are weddings so damn expensive?
Jaheira: Priest has to pay for medical expenses related to a haunted car crashing into him.