David Warner as Jon Irenicus resulted in some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a video game.

RIP David Warner. Irenicus was one of the most memorable villains in game history and a large part of that was his voice. It's so cold and calculated. You can really feel his malice and how he looks down on everyone. The accent and pronunciation made so many of these lines instantly memorable and quotable. Might be time for another play through of BG 2.

This is what happens when you put a villain in the hands of a veteran Shakespearean stage actor. Absolute brilliance.

Her farm has prospered her name is respected her children are fed and safe, she lived as she thought she should And now she is dead

Most likely the greatest RPG ever made...

RIP David Warner

Rest in peace David Warner, who gave (and this my opinion, you can’t change it) the best villain of all times, Jon Irenicus. Thanks for making my childhood better.

The great thing about Irenicus is that you get to follow him throughout the game, and thus get to know him. He's not just another end-game boss that you only see when you get to the end.

RIP to a real legend in David Warner, the voice actor of Jon Irenicus. I can recognize his voice from anywhere. His voice work for Baldur's Gate II was truly memorable and everyone who has played the game I think would agree that his villain impresses from the very first line he utters to the end. I think I know like half of his lines by heart lmao. Legendary performance for a legendary game, never to be forgotten.

Rest In Peace David Warner

Best fiction villain of all time. Movie, game or any format.

Rest in peace David Warner

Farewell, David :(

"I do not remember your love, Ellesime. I have tried to. I have tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory. But it is gone... a hollow, dead thing. For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. And then nothing. The Seldarine took that from me, too." Somehow those lines hit me infinitely harder now than they ever could in my childhood. Of course he was a monster, but he must have suffered terribly.

RIP Mr. Warner.

Tiax rules all! Obviously a danger, as you can see.

I came here to reminisce after hearing the sad news today 😞

Jesus Irenicus voice actor is SO professional

The dialogue at the tree of life is among the best voice acting ever done in any form of modern entertainment, period.

Rest in piece, David Warner. What a performance.

15:04 Ah good old Baelar PokeStaff! Who has not heard of his endeavours and adventures?

Ever pathetic, ever fools.

Just noticed Imoen voice acting was nicely done too.

Amazing voice. Strong and powerful, charismatic. And his voice acting make me keep focusing on story. Mr david's jon irenicus led me to chasing him by his voice and action. Still my best game ever in my life.

RIP this legend!

RIP David. :(

RIP David Warner.

Rip David Warner...

"So, you have released all of my test subjects? How wonderfully mad of you! I would not have thought of it in the least, so dangerously risky it is." Think I got that right :) There's a few great ones missing.

I must have poured hundreds of hours into this game as a child. It remains one of my favorite PC games of all time. I love RPGs. I love playing another character and watching them grow. When I was very young I may have even wished I could live in Faerun instead of the real world. But this will have to do. "Why do you stand for this? Why do you submit to the flesh when death is bred in your bones?" I don't know why, but out of all of Irenicus' lines, this is the one that's really burned into my memory. It made me a fan of David Warner, that's for sure.

David Warner is God. He and Tony Jay (Kresselack the Black Wolf) elevated PC role playing games to another level. At 19:49 when Ellesime calls him Joneleth he replies "Do not call me that" and you can hear how hurt he is inside how much he has suffered. .Mr Warner gave a magnificent performance.

Irenicus is my favorite example of what I call a “narrowing” villain. He starts off as this colossal, unknown threat. He’s someone who has this unknown, frightening level of power but as the story goes on, the Bhaalspawn grows in myth while he declines. Come the end, we are the almighty demigod, and he goes from this terrifying unknown to just Jon, another wizard grasping at godhood. It’s an awesome idea

RIP David Warner, you were a fantastic actor and VA.

God damn David Warner. WHAT A VOICE!

I just adore that he's so coldly factual. Driven by power and revenge, not hatred and anger. Even after he drained you of your soul, he just calmly informs you of your demise and bids you farewell. The elves would have done well to simply kill him, but apparently they really wanted him to suffer. David Warner made this character amazing. One of the best performances I've ever had the pleasure to hear.

Every utterance of this man is iconic and ageless, it will be relevant no matter the passage of time, i hope.

Even to the end, Irenicus was still badass. Stripped of magic, stuck in hell, facing a hoard of demons, he still takes out two of them in combat before being overwhelmed. He was not to be fucked with lightly.

david warner is incredible

I always wanted to be like irenicus, so I made a very powerfull mage, moded kit, made loads of singletarget spells and some aoe with cool effects, some copied and changed from irenicus. Loads of screen shake effects. Sometimes I would save the game and then just slay all the City and all the crowled wizards, and then load again lol xD Irenicus is the best villain i have seen in any game, and this game is the greatest single player game ever as well. Played true it so many times, moded like 12 kits to play with. First was ofc mindflayer. Usually never added npc team mates. Using a custom made thief/mage/fighter allowing all those classes hla's, some custom stuff, adding in loads of the spell i made from other classes allowed me to use all the game mage spells, all the games items via thief use all albility, hide in shadows and backstab, getting tons of xp from dissarming traps and learning spells and then play on the hardest mode xD starting from baldur's gate 1 ee, then baldur's gate 2 ee, then exspansion, I once also drag this char true the new exspansion as well. Anyway, if warzone2 don't cut the crap with their lack of diversity, lack of 1 tap wepons, and their intense skillbased nerfs i think I will run true this game again, maby even finnish my vampire kit. Really struggled to make that one, had loads of help to get starting on mods as I had never used or made any mod before starting on my mindflayer mage xD but vampire was supposed to be nerfed via ring of daywalker during the day and that script was hard and one of the talents crashed my computer xD was trying to summoning in a swarm of bats to attack all enemies within a certain range of me and then feed me their blood xD

Jon Irenicus will forever remain my top Big Bad. Indomitable will and amazing intellect can become a horrible blight on the world. Being an elf with 700 or so years to figure shit can yield crazy results. What would have come out of his godhood?

Dax your Q and A with the description speaks with the attitude and prowess of Irenicus. Well done sir.

I actually wrote a paper while working on my masters degree based on Irenicus. It is a truly great villain when you start to root for him and feel bad about defeating him.

Jon is one badass antagonist. Not many games has chars like this.

"Do not call me that!". David Warner is just beyond words.

Greatest villain in a video game IMO. The voice. The character. The story revealing step by step his past. And this final dialog with Ellesim... my godness. Everything was there.

You're not alone. I logged a shit ton of hours in this game. Hacked it quite a bit too, making cutscenes and the like. This game killed my grades in high school lol

RIP David Warner. Best videogame VA of all time (among a ton of other film and theater accomplishments).

Jon Irenicus is perhaps my most favorte villan of all time loves this video thank you

A power-having and power-hungry villain done right!

Best. Villain. Ever.

Rip David Warner :(

"Hello, little one." I've never forgotten that line and delivery. At that point we, the player, know that Imoen has absolutely no chance of defending herself against Irenicus, so that simple introduction is fantastic. David Warner knocked it out of the park.

Possibly the greatest voice acting in video game history

5:12 Life...is strength. It takes a confident writer to give a simple line such conviction and weight.

my first campaign as a DM was and is still Baldur s Gate , we re playing it in 3.5edition i ll say it was an honor to play Irenicus as an villain and seeing his side of the story

This was a blast from the past. I wish this saga could continue. Lots of love xxx

16:52 My personal favorite quote from David Warner as Jon Irenicus.

Man these games where works of art, even the voice acting is top notch.

My favorite villain of all time....

quite possibly one of the best videos on youtube.

Thank you for this.

Well, I did find out that he got more "hidden lines" If you attack him during his "tour" at spellhold in his form of the coordinator.

5:10 Best Irenicus moment imo, really defines his character.

10:14 is my favourite Irenicus line. Still cracks me up with the way he says it lmao.

I still to this day remember "You will suffer. You will ALL suffer,".

Rest in peace legend!

the epic demigod.. Baelor PokeStaff

18:22 It took me a moment to realize where this place was simply because I have yet to play this game (though still plan to). Having read up on the Drow and their hatred of the Elves, it makes sense that Irenicus killed the prisoners before they opened their mouths.

Going to have to play this game again.

I think I will play this game at least once every year till my death. I've already completed it 5 or 6 times, including the expansion, and I never get tired of it for more than 6 months. Someday I end up listening to this video or an other one with Irenicus in it, then I remember the perfect gameplay, the thrilling battles and profound story, the quality of the voice acting and the epicness of the music, and I play it again. BG2 is a Chef d'oeuvre, it deserves to be played even more than it is.

The best interdementional cable I've seen yet from my childhood that I didn't even know I knew about.

I think this was BioWare's best villain, up until Solas from Dragon Age. On that note, it's funny how two of that studio's best villains were elves, isn't it? Also, I love the ending cutscene. Irenicus is almost angry at first for being stuck in the Hells, an unworthy fate for someone like him. Then he realizes he has no power there, and his frustration turns to fear as he subjected to the evils that realm, an eternity worthy for someone as pitiful as him.

Best videogame vilain of all time, a true 3 dimentional personality!

One of the best antagonist (please don't use villain) in game history. His feeling of emptiness, pain, sadness, wish of revenge is something we can rely in bad or dark moments. He fights back, try to find his way out. He is as well clever, hating the mediocrity of people around, no time for stupidity and crap.

Irenicius certainly was an interesting contrast to Saervok. Irenicius had no interest in what happened to you once he succeeded in taking your soul for his own purposes. After that as far as he was concerned the player was disposable; it truly was interesting to learn more about Irenicius' past the further you got into the game. Saervok on the other hand wanted to sacrifice every other Bhaal Spawn and become the new Lord Of Murder.That alone was enough to make Saervok determined to eliminate the player by any means necessary. Cheers for the upload :)

Wow, you sir are a true fan. I can tell from the way you included the music and artwork at the end that you loved this game as much as I did. Great job!

David Warner's voice is very recognizable

11:53 - I love how she refers to Jon and he plays along with it

Thank you a lot for making this. Brings up lots of good memories.

David Warner is a fucking badass. One of the best villain actors of all time.

Ok, seriously, THANK YOU for making this. This is just a delight to watch.

I watch this thing once a day, it helps me live.So thx!

Thanks a lot for making this vid! my fave jon irenicus quote is "silence dog, you have no purpose but to die by my hand" =)

You are my favorite person ever now for putting this up! My favorite video game villain ever!

Best villain ever

His last research project was into the nature of the universe and what lies beyond the gods. Something apparently didn't like him looking.

David Warner is the butler guy Lovejoy with the gun in the movie Titanic. He's also Evil Genius in Time Bandits, and Jack the Ripper in Time after Time.

thanks for this. just watched this to prepare for the announcement

"To end... like THIS?!?" My favorite video game, still!

RIP!

Best RPG game ever made. Especially from Story perspective.

Thank you for quite a recapitulation of ones great mind, fallen for the wrong motives.

Outstanding. Irenicus is my favorite villain. Evar.

good work ! thx you !

16:52 I dunno why, but that gave me a chuckle. I just find it funny how a fantasy villain goes full meta on the player.

oh so many memories

"Mageling" The most insulting thing you can say to a mage. Told by Irenicus, it's perfectly adequate most of the time.

RIP

Cool thanks for that ... remember good times with this game....

As someone who first became familiar with David Warner's voice work through Ra's al Ghul from Batman: The Animated Series, it is a hell of a thing hearing that voice here again. I almost half expect him to call someone "Detective" in that particular nostalgia-inducing tone.