#I'm not even trying to romance gale. I was literally just being nice to him

[kotilae]

gale I understand we all almost died back there but now is not the time

[fainlin]

I never really wanted a Gortash romance, like yeah it'd be fun but there's far more things the game needs done to it than adding more content that would just end up being incomplete. And, I think that is what is upsetting me more than the loss of the Franc letters. Act three is still a mess, Wyll still has less content than literally every other companion even his quest in act three isn't even really his it's a Balduran lore dump. Halsin is still pointless past act two and feels like he's just there to bang, and Minthara still is a mess. There's still content from EA just sitting around, voice lines that make no sense, pieces of content that go no where and are entirely pointless and instead of addressing any of that, Larian seems more focused on changing little things and sanding down their own characters. They feel like they don't even have confidence in their own writing anymore, it's not EA so I don't see why these things are really necessary other than to try to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. Removing the lanceboard scene when the guy in question literally only has eyes for himself, to the point I wouldn't be shocked he has a mirror on his ceiling to watch himself get railed by himself. He has no interest in Mol in any way other than to pluck her soul because he's a devil. He's just gross like that. Then to make Lae'zel nicer, like sure I like the changes for approval I guess but certain changes end up feeling more like they're fan servicey and less about actually improving the game. I understand the outcry when people thought Larian had changed Gale for a moment because Larian keeps doing things exactly like that, albeit in small ways. All I really want is for Act three to have impact and not be as flat and pointless as it is, for the main two villains to actually be villains instead of feeling like cheap tiny lil mini bosses when Raphael gets to feel like a real boss and he's not even main content he's entirely optional. Losing the slithering wet malice thing isn't even that big of a deal to me what is though is the fact they're willing to completely give up character personality and not even address that they're making these changes in the patch notes. It feels like I have to go in and take stock of every letter and every book and every dialogue option before it inevitably gets changed because Larian has no spine when it comes to their characters and their writing. It just sucks, it doesn't feel like this is making way for any new grand content it doesn't feel like anything but sanitizing at this point. I don't even really understand what could come from making Gortash bland boring tyrant no.56093 because yeah anyone could write that, it makes him entirely less memorable and I hate that because Orin and Gortash really deserve so much more than that, they deserve to be as fleshed out as Ketheric thorm, but instead they're just fucking jokes. If that was Larian's goal well I think they succeeded. TLDR; Act three is just incredibly unpolished, and I don't see why kissing animations and changing small little flavor letters, and making characters nicer and this and that really solves any of the actual problems the game still has. Sure it's nice, but I'm tired of seeing this be what the game has ultimately devolved to. Really hope I'm wrong, hope there's big content on the horizon, maybe the upper city making a come back, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Edit: And to be real here, I still like Gortash, I'd still love a romance if one ever happened. It's just I'd really like it to be thought out and not just well thrown together and spit out really fast. I just really want the game to be complete and it's best cause I really love it.

[avelera]

I finally made a good Dark Urge run that I found narratively convincing instead of just sort of "meh". All my other good Durge attempts have just sort of been hodgepodges of whatever class or story choices I felt I hadn't yet seen in the game.

This time I went full Paladin with a backstory that's sort of Shadowheart/Karlach blend, ie, was raised in the Bhaalist cult and spent most of their life wishing they could get out of it, but being the Chosen meant she had pretty much no choice, no hope of getting out.

(Just a bit of rambling about a BG3 run I'm doing, writing about it mostly for my own sake.)

Also for flavor decided to name her Brienelle after Drizzt and Catti-brie's canonical daughter and decided my Durge convinced herself she actually "is" Drizzt's daughter. Is she actually? Absolutely not, the math does not line up. But it's a fairytale she told herself about how her "real" parents are heroes, that they're out there somewhere and miss her, that Bhaal isn't actually her father, that she was "Chosen" because she's a hero's daughter (much like Shadowheart was chosen for being Selunite). As a result, she aspired to heroism but frankly every pressure in her life, her entire upbringing, was channeled to her being the cult's Chosen so she eventually, reluctantly, fell in line. A bit like Astarion in this respect, Bhaal like Cazador was simply too powerful and too able to destroy her if she tried to escape, never mind being able to literally take her body over with the Urges. But now she's conveniently "lost".

I think what finally worked was having someone who wasn't just "good" but who was wholeheartedly dedicated to doing good after never having the chance before. So every rescued person, every kind word, every grateful companion and new friend is positive reinforcement that it is possible for her to lead the life she chooses, to be a hero. So Paladin fits that very well.

My one regret so far--as I try to balance RP with not just making the same choices in every playthrough-- is romancing Shadowheart at the party. Mostly I chose her because 2/3 of my favorite romances, Karlach and Gale, don't have anything that evening and so I've got multiple playthroughs with Astarion as the Act 1 romance before pivoting to friendship with him or romancing all the way through. Gale is the romance I keep defaulting to, I can't help it, I just love that nerd so much. So I really wanted to at least see Shadowheart's romance for once. (For the record, she was my least favorite character for a long time, I've only grudgingly started to warm to her.)

But then the day after they shared a glass of wine and slept together, Shadowheart started talking about her aspirations to be a Dark Justiciar and Brienelle's stomach just... dropped.

I don't know if I just hadn't exhausted the dialogue options for her yet or what but Brienelle... Brienelle is like the mirror opposite of Shadowheart. She was raised to be special in the Bhaalist cult and has been trying to escape it her whole life. Conversely, Shadowheart thinks she's just one of many Shar cultists and is fighting to be someone special within the cult.

Brienelle would have felt a certain kinship to Shadowheart over both of them having amnesia, but when Shadowheart began to speak so fondly of life in the cult of an evil deity, Brienelle just felt... pity. And sadness. She felt old. She could see Shadowheart working her way towards the realization that what she suffered in Shar's cult was abuse. She knows that someone, anyone outside it extending a hand to help could help pull Shadowheart free. But Shadowheart doesn't even want to be free yet.

So both in and out of game it feels like Brienelle just... regrets sleeping with Shadowheart. The intimacy was nice. And she cares for Shadowheart. But it feels like she doesn't have anyone she can lean on, no one she can be herself with or seek support from, because Shadowheart is so naive and yet had such a similar journey to her. Like she can't be open about her fight to escape Bhaal because Shadowheart just wouldn't understand, Shadowheart wanted the opposite.

Astarion doesn't appeal to Brienelle either. He's unabashedly evil and while she feels for what he went through and identifies with his suffering, she really just isn't in a place where she wants to be mocked as if being good and caring for others is somehow the weak option when it's actually the hardest but most rewarding thing she's ever been lucky enough to do. How can you have freedom, finally, and not want to be free to not have to be a monster anymore? She loves him but their morals are just too diametrically opposed for more than friendship.

Lae'zel obviously doesn't have good-aligned morals either and wouldn't begin to understand what Brienelle went through.

Wyll is the son of a Duke. He might perhaps understand the weight of privilege, but for him doing good was always an option. He's only just begun to see what evil can do. And if he ever hit her with a platitude about the importance of being a hero or how she should have just fought harder to escape Bhaal, she might actually give in to the Urge right there and stab him.

And Karlach and Gale were off the table because of their two different flavors of, "I might explode if you touch me."

Thing is, I think she might pivot to Gale over Karlach. It's repetitive for me, sure, but I think Karlach's tragedy is just too similar to her own and Karlach going through a similar hellish experience and then choosing death is just... too much. It's not something Brienelle is strong enough to bear once Karlach resolves to choose death.

Conversely, Gale is a mature adult. He has his own life. His morals are good, he always encourages heroism. And he wants to live. He can be talked pretty easily out of sacrificing himself at Mystra's command. He wants to come out on the other side of this. He resents being a god's Chosen, something Brienelle can sincerely relate to.

Their stories don't overlap much beyond that, but that's a good thing actually. They can just be two people, two heroes doing the right thing where they can and being their own people after having their younger years fucked over by being the Chosen of a god. And ultimately, that's what Brienelle wants. Not a life entirely without drama but a life where she can be her own person, with other adults, and pursue her own calling without being chained to the past.

[doublegoblin]

Man, Astarion got the short end of the stick as far as good endings go.

So I was on a walk and talking with the partner about BG3 (because good gamer very fun) with an emphasis on how the (arguably) poster boy of the game really kinda got screwed over.

This is going to involve some VERY HEAVY spoilers for the game so I will be putting the rest under the cut petals~

So I won't go too in depth because time on earth is limited and I'd rather not write an entire dissertation so I'll try and keep this brief and to the point. Also this is only going over the "good" endings for the Origin characters.

So huzzah you defeated the Nether Brain! Good job Tav or Whoever! We are all bathing in the setting sunlight! Oh no! Astarion no longer has his tadpole and is burning in the sun! Aaaaand he's ran off.

Wait what?

Yeah here's my issue with this ending. Everyone else, while maybe a tragic ending (see Karlach), gets one that is full of some hope at least! You have Shart overcoming her brainwashing and learning to live for herself. Lae'zel going off to fight a fascistic lich-queen, Wyll out of his contract (without DYING) and finally being able to tell his dad the truth, Gale no longer worried about the bomb in his chest and fufilling his (shitty fucked up) misson to Mythra, Karlach is in Avernus again yes but she isn't alone (either with you or Wyll) and is taking charge of her own life, Halsin saved the shadow-cursed lands and reunites with his best friend, Jaheira reunited with Minsc who is no longer a statue! Hells even Durge gets something nice in becoming their own person!

And poor Astarion, like I know you can't cure vampirism (I could go on how there should have been a counterpart to the ascended ending for him where maybe not cure but help), runs away and becomes alone again (unless you romance him but c'mon man that won't be everyone's play-through) losing all the connections and found family he has made. Like this guy was juuuuust on the cusp of having something he hadn't had in over 200 years, friends and some positive influences in his life and it is snatched away.

Like I thought I did something WRONG when that scene started playing! And like, yes, he is wasn't the greatest of guys when you meet up but can you blame him? Like this man has had to endure 200 years of no true freewill of his own, his body literally being puppeteered by the whims of his Pimp. He became a monster to survive. Does this make up for his past deeds though? Hells fucking no. But, like, he was on the road to not redemption but rehabilitation.

Idk like I said I want to keep this short but damn, he is the ONE character to not have an ending with even a crumb of hope.

ALSO WE CAN JUST STAY IN BALDUR'S GATE AND HIT HIM UP, WE KNOW WHERE HE LIVED! Also like, you've made good with the Guild, you can have that favor and figure out where the guy is...just so he doesn't have to lose the few people who he may care about.

Okay okay now I'm good. Trust me though, THIS is short compared to the thoughts I was having and very loudly proclaiming on our walk. I know a lot of the nuance is being lost by keeping this short but yeah. Bleh, they did my stupid sexy vampire dirty and he earned a smidge of hope imo.

[some-thrilling-heroics]

rant incoming and it's gonna be messy bc idgaf

as much as i enjoy some of the weirdest fucked up smut out there (affectionate) i'm really tired of things like 'oh the way he looks at you, he's struggling not to bend you over the table there and then' and 'he dreams of fucking you every night' when the chara is just looking at you with affection. and im tired of the 'once you get married / once you have sex...' - what if never? hm?

we can have bear sex with halsin, we can have tentacle monster fucking and all that great shit but i guess we can't let go of sex as the pinnacle of how love and affection is shown between two or more people.

and it annoys me that i feel the need to do all these disclaimers to indicate it's not smut itself i have an issue with. that horny posting is fine. but sometimes i see somebody post a thing and half of it feels unnecessarily extra strongly sexual.

why is every look from x companion indicator of attraction and steamy thoughts? why is waking somebody in the middle of the night automatically 'oh he's down to fuck' and not literally anything else?

give me platonic smut - give me sex that isn't steamy and passionate but just part of mutual care, that isn't 'oh my gods i've waited so long to touch you and now that mystra put a safety pin on the orb i can tear of my undies'. karlach hasn't been touched in a decade - give her a nice bath and a night of sixty consecutive orgasms - tav's just taking care of their girl. why is it any different to how gale has been cooking for everybody everyday at camp? it *doesn't have to be any different* is my point. give me companions who don't give a fuck.

wyll is in no hurry to have sex, he's firm on waiting for it. he likes classical romance and ballroom dancing. what if after he proposes he just isn't interested? (i know in canon that's when he and tav have sex bc... of course it is *sigh* but what if... not?) not bc he doesn't love you or whatever, he'd just rather express all that through dance, or storytelling - those are things close to his heart and how he shows affection. what if he is very much interested but more like once every two weeks? what if once all is said and done, tav teaches wyll to love his body again? ridges and bumps and horns and all of that - not in the 'you're so hot, im gonna use those horns as handlebars' way but in a this is your body, it's useful to you, it does what you need it to do and you are beautiful way? what if they just spend evenings naked chilling and doing things, wyll liking the way tav's body looks in the candlelight and even if he is attracted and the two of them enjoy sex - sometimes a body is just something pretty to admire. like a marble statue. without being weird about nudity all the bloody times.

i get what astarion is doing but it's shitty (personally for me, im not talking bad writing) that to get the 'i never had any friends, i think having one would be nice' followed by a hug in act 2 i need to start it off by fucking him. listen. i support all the dorky headcanons abt him, and how he's a gremlin (he so is) but those pick up lines? made me fucking cringe. i was fucking excited when he asked if we can stop with the sex as he figures himself out but now imagine at the end of the game, he's gone on this journey and had his great arc of self discovery and wants to reclaim his sexuality (good for him /gen) - do you think he'd walk out on tav who tells him they'd rather not bring sex back into their relationship? show me how they navigate that. show me a tav that's more interested in astarion teaching them how to pick a lock or a pocket than fuck.

i want you to try a thought experiment for a sec. i get sex can be fun and feel great but it's not magic (unless gale does it /jk). have you ever thought of it on the same level as any other bodily function? not disgusting, just... present. like washing your hair or pissing. as maintenance.

[ask-karlachbear]

Congrats on 100 Tavs, Karlach 💚 sooo first off, I'll tell you about some spicy ships I have of you & your companions. You+Wyll/+Dammon, a sweet wholesome romance, Lae'zel+Shadowheart, love-hate very passionate relationship, Gale+magic artifacts, he loves them very much, Astarion+anything with blood <33

Okay now about myself... I'm introverted, depressed and like to cause chaos (because I'm bored most of the time and need others to entertain me) and then watch it from the sidelines. I'm asexual who switches between being touch-starved to being disgusted from the idea of someone being even close to me. I hate authorities, hate submitting to anyone, and hate being told what to do (unless I ask for it). I like sarcasm and dark humour. I'm kinda nice and loyal to those I like and I offer free "therapy". I'm shy and dislike loud noises and crowds of people. I like cats, nature, games of any kind, reading and writing. My Sun is in Leo. 💥

Wyll, Dammon and I? ALL THREE OF US TOGETHER? Now im a blushing mess, thank you.

Yk, about shadowheart and lae'zel i've been noticing that sexual tension, and honesty, you are right about them.

I think gale has a thing for magic boots in particular, whenever i pass by and he's eating something, it's always a boot..like the other day he was devouring those boots that electrify water and i was afraid he was gonna electrify the water in his body and die, but he never refuses boots... curious uh?

Astarion and his blood bank are so sweet together..

Anyways everyone might say that Rolan is just a whiny bitch, and they would be true, but he's a very chaotic person at the end of the day. He's so stubborn you could enable him and just look at him fight with someone like a rabid cat, and that's a different level of entertainment right there.

He's Ace too, and definitely understands when you are repulsed by touch.

He will be there cheering on you as you refuse to follow rules, as you punch someone in the face for telling you what to do, like HE WILL OPENLY SUPPORT YOU IN PUNCHING THE GUARDS THAT GIVE YOU A WEIRD STARE.

He literally answers only with sarcasm so you are gonna be FED.. Your dark humor cracks him up, like you are gonna see him falling off chairs laughing.

Deep down he's actually a sweet and caring guy, and you find out because he will accept that free therapy, especially after you get rid of Lorroakan. He will literally pour it all out, he starts talking abt his sister, and ten minutes later he's sobbing in your arms talking about that time, when he was 6, that is the seed of his trust issues...

He will act all pissed when you ask him to join you for a walk or to play something with him, but deep down he does it out of habit.. he hates that his first instinct is to be a bitch, but he actually enjoys his time with you, and he will try anything you propose him.

[annakie]

Very mild spoilers up to early/mid act 2 and Gale romance.

I didn't really want to believe it, but the ninjamance IS really strong in this game. There are definitely bugs to work out behind the scenes.

Despite a dance with Wyll, that ended in a head-turn and no kiss, I have single-mindedly perused Gale this entire time. I have gotten propositioned by literally everyone at camp, save maybe Astarion, including Halsin, though I have definitely done my best to avoid romantic dialog choices with any of them. And everyone else backed off after a polite turn down.

I am loving the Gale romance, btw. Just spot-on perfect romance for my bard. I know this character so well from years of playing her in D&D and she's never had a romance in any D&D game I tried to bring her into, which was always fine, she's got a lot going on. But Gale feels tailor made for her in almost every way, and except for that one dance with Wyll, I never doubted that for this character, this was the right romance.

Not only did I feel confident I was well into relationship status with Gale and nobody else based on my dialog choices, but also some things that happened in-game. The most recent being someone trying to probe my mind and I shoved them off with thoughts of Gale. No one else was dialog choice to think about at that time.

I was starting to feel like people were overreacting about the ninjamance. Like, Gale's "Hey come feel the magic with me!" scene early on gave you several clear outs including the narrator LITERALLY telling you "this is an intimate moment" and the dialog choices clearly giving you polite backout choices in that moment. I thought people complaining about a Gale Ninjamance probably kept going at that point, which I believe IS a romance lock unless you choose one of the ruder choices to push him away?

But hey me? I've got one focus (Gale) and everyone else I'm just friends with! Won't happen to me!

So after a lovely evening with Gale that I was very happy with (after trying both directions I went with the "tamer" choice, because it just felt more real, but the other one was amazing too) the next morning we had a lovely chat, affirmed our relationship and also saw he'd moved on for sure past the ex, it was great. I was hoping to go get cute dialog with my other companions, happy that Gale and I had cemented things at last.

The first person I went to talk to was my buddy Karlach, sure that she'd be thrilled for me since from very early on I made it clear we were just friends and we'd had like two conversations since then where we affirmed our friendship and how glad we are to be good friends! And then....

Wait... wait wait wait... what the fuck?!? What do you mean I'm sorry but I want to be with Gale? Karlach and I most definitely were not in a relationship? I gave her a friendly hug when we got her heat problem fixed. I'm looking out for her, and again, a couple of clear "I'm so glad we're good friends!" dialogs have happened recently. Why the fuck would she think we were in a romance!?!

I went through the dialog choices, trying to see if there was a mistake or a joke, but nope, it's clear it's the entire breakup scene as if she and I had been lovers for months. Karlach no, I never meant to hurt you this way because we were never in a relationship.

I hate this so much! I adore Karlach! I never would hurt her this way and took great pains to make sure I never would! What the hell, Larian?

I backed out, reloaded my last save, and went around to the rest of the camp and luckily I didn't have to "break up" with anyone else. And for now I'm just avoiding the conversation and hoping it will go away.

I just really hate that most of the time when I've seen people complaining about it, juuuuust like in Mass Effect, they blame the character for being "clingy" instead of the game for having obvious bugs, clunky mechanics, or unclear dialog choices that make "I'm being nice to my friend here!" into "We'll bang, okay?" This has nothing to do with Karlach, or ANY other character that has happened to others with, and everything to do with the game itself.

Hopefully the next patch or two will make this stop happening so we can all be friends with the people we want to be friends with and not feel like we've gotta hurt the characters we like. Ugh.

[fatalelity]

oh yeah here's tav! addison (or as i like to say ... taddie. bc haha tadpole .... okay bye)

basic rundown ( spoilers for act i mainly ) :

she was born to a dynasty of surgeons, doctors, spellcasters etc in baldur's gate

she's a medical doctor — trained surgeon to be precise, but god she is not a cleric and will go on a 'not all doctors are clerics fuck you' rant

a lover of wine, literature, and just having a good time mostly

she's a pacifist at heart so you can imagine how she feels with what happened to the goblins (yes, my party's on permanent knock ppl out mode)

oh on that note, she became an accidental necromancer... hahaha

being a variation of tav, she's special in the way that she has an innate ability to turn back time (never forward) — if you're familiar at all with "reset theories" this is what i'm going for. for those who don't know, the tldr is that she will remember every event that happens even if she goes to another spot in time (aka reloading a save state). she can't will it to happen. it triggers upon intense emotional responses. it's only been triggered twice in game. it'll take a toll on her and she won't be able to rest for at least two nights

so, that being said she is a sorcerer!

her main party at the moment are with shadowheart, karlach, and gale

she's definitely polyamorous. she has intense feelings for both shadowheart and gale, which is one of the points in the timeline that fucks her up the most

she really does like karlach, but probably wouldn't try to pursue a romance or whatever with her. they vibe. they get angry together. it's fun /*shrugs*

ACT ONE.

she accidentally got lae'zel killed by the tieflings who held her captive — she thought they'd leave the other in her hands but alas. they went into battle, rolled initiative and she wasn't fast enough to stop people... she still feels horrible about it

she's spurred events that lead to the druids attacking the tieflings twice — those were her two resets. she still feels guilty about it, even though the current timeline they are fine... mostly

needless to say, she did not side with the goblins. whilst she actively tried not to kill them, it's hard not to when you use magic and your self preservation instincts kick in

she didn't actually kill minthara, knocked her out real good and hoped she lived

she consumed a tadpole once and that was that

got beef with astarion, tbh they probably would've had hate sex or something idk man. it's a weird relationship she's either being really nice to him or roasting him alive

actively trying to get shadowheart the fuck outta sharran but like, won't judge her for her faith bc it's all she's got since her memories are literally taken away

she's learned to lie real well since travelling with the cohort

scratch, owlbear, arabella, plus mol's gang are her kids. do not fuck with them. i'm serious. she almost killed kagha during the first reset because of it.

unfortunately due to her being single minded of wanting to get the gang to baldurs gate and find answers, unless she sees your suffering, gets lost herself, and/or its something related to her personally she will not engage in the side quests

that being said, they did spend some time in the underdark but very briefly because they got lost and ended back in the camp

so instead, she opts to go through the mountain pass but again got lost and ran into ethel

she accidentally uses necromancy to make mayrina's husband er ... undead. needless to say she feels like a sack of shit for doing that and wants to undo it but this is ultimately mayrinas choice so she let's them be

since on the topic of necromancy, she does still have that cursed necromancy of thay book in possession. no idea what to do with it but yknow, it's not an active problem

in the mountain pass she will not make a detour to the creche, she will go straight to the shadow cursed lands

ACT TWO.

shes actively trying to not have gale go blow himself up... desperately.

there's some strain between her and the others minus karlach, her mvp ... the fires of avernus can sure be comforting in moments that feel so cold to her

I will say this : the decisions she makes here are NOT good. at this point she's mostly focused on keeping everyone alive and kinda forgot about the fact that halsin is Here to lift the curse

she follows kar'niss, does the whole cutscene at moonrise tower and reluctantly agrees to help balthazaar

she goes into his room and er, let's just say her party (NOT HER) took more than just the moonlantern

she will get lost because she's a rich girl from baldurs gate who never learned how to USE a compass ... anyways, let's say she does not go to the mausoleum first and ends up trekking backwards ....

before reaching last light inn, she meets the boy Oliver and plays only one round of hide n seek with him because she has a mission and that triggered the scene where she had to fight his family and pissed him off so royally that it locked her outta lifting the curse. oops. she doesn't know that though ...

when she finds dammon she will actually make the detour to find karlach her metal. she adores karlach. she wants her to live. she wants to give her a real hug.

during said metal excursion er .... let's say she finds her way into the house of healing and she found arabella's parents before arabella herself... the house of healing was where she did her first act of mercy killings outta the many

arabella obviously will stay in camp and tbh, she has this gnawing feeling so she looks around to see if there are any other surviving tieflings (there were not, she was distraught and during long rests the more restless companions can hear her cry in the corner)

i know she said no detours but she saw a night orchid by the cliff and HAD TO get it for shadowheart because God she would kill for some joy — shadowhearts little reaction / joke made her smile for the first time very sincerely

anyways, she finally finds their way into the mausoleum and ahahaha .... hahaha ....

the gauntlet of shar was probably one of the most painful things to witness shadowheart go through. she did not like it and in fact at some point she takes over and sacrifices her own blood

she ignores raphaels entire request lmao

uhm, I'd say what she did with balthazaar was er ... some misty steps, and she pushed him off a cliff out of self preservation

taps into shadowhearts goodness and let her lean into her own intuition which resulted in aylin being spared

after shadowhearts been exiled, she will literally do whatever means to comfort her oh dear God

jaheira does die in moonrise tower ... she feels like shit about it (lol what's new)

anyways, the big boss battle happens and they make their road to baldurs gate

ACT THREE.

say no to evolution god please. she hates the emperor and will do things to piss him off such as steal from the house of hope

she completes companion events in this order (as of now): shadowheart, astarion, karlach, wyll, gale

she didn't actively encourage shadowheart to kill her parents but shadowheart did; she DID actively encourage astarion to not ascend and free the spawns ... oops. monster hunters hate her so much rn

she's deeply tormented by orin. like i mean deeply. she's in despair. she wants it to stop so bad.

obviously she chooses aylin and isobel over some wizard in a tower

she wants to fist fight shar and mystra. so bad. she may be a healer but *cocks gun*

i will add more to this and then write a cohesive page as the game progresses here lol

[soclam]

i've been taking a break from playing bg3 so i don't get burnt out between filling my time with solely that and schoolwork, but because of brainworms i'm still thinking about it so here's victri's first impressions of the origin companions! (in order of when she met them)

Lae'zel: She's literally the first person Victri SEES after getting abducted by the mind flayers. When she bumps into her later, she's so happy to see someone else who can help her fight her way out of this place. She also thinks Lae is cool as hells because she kicks major ass. In her mind, they have strong bonds formed by the nature of them being in the same predicament so she's lowkey offended when she finds out Lae'zel doesn't think of them as besties?? Ma'am we fought together, we could have died together, and we're just allies? The fuck?

Shadowheart: (This is very funny because I failed the roll to free her from the pod and I didn't know I could just.. switch to Lae and try again so I left her behind by accident sdlkfhskhld) So Victri does her best to free Shadow on the ship but can't figure it out, so she promises to come back for her - and she means it! But then shit goes down and our silly little bard is waking up on a beach wondering why she isn't like beyond dead. When she starts to wander down the road and finds Shadow on the beach, she's genuinely so elated - you didn't die!! And of course Shadow is like "oh it's the bitch who left me behind :) i mean, at least you tried i guess". Victri starts sweating bullets and is like "haha let's travel together my fellow half-elf!" and Shadow hits her with the "we are not kin" and Victri gets ready to eat sand and die right there. Vic really wants to make things up to Shadow because she feels so guilty about not being able to free her (even though things turned out okay in the end). Vic is also very nosy so she's like "let's get to know each other!" and is thrown when Shadow is just like "let's not!".

When Shadowheart and Lae'zel start fighting or bickering, Victri almost always thinks they're trying to sway her out of concern for her. Like "aww my bestie wants me to make the right choice :)". No girl, they just want you to side with them. They don't like you (yet).

Gale: A strange magic man just came out of the portal in that rock, of course she's intrigued by him!! She also thinks he's really cute (this will cause problems for us later!) and is so genuinely relieved to encounter a person who is just?? polite?? He didn't try to kill her, he's been nice and seems normal, this is a man we can trust. When he asks for a tasty snack of some magical items, she has many questions but is basically just like "okay :) I love my good friend Gale" and hands him a fancy sword she found on a corpse while her other companions are begging her to give him something shittier. She also might have accidentally led him on without realizing? (This was a result of me planning to romance Gale but then finding out that Astarion is actually charming and they didn't lie to me on Twitter. Gale I am so sorry I still love you I am just bad at planning-)

Astarion: Since Vic and Astarion become an Item later I could write a whole essay on them. Basically she clocks him as someone who is capable of handling himself in battle, but is still clueless enough to turn her back on him. She's wary of him for about ten seconds and then hits him with the ol' "Wanna join my crew party?" With Astarion's admission later in the romance that he doesn't like Tav at first, I imagine that he meets her and is taken aback with how... gullible and naïve she seems (putting it nicely). Victri is like "oh cool, this guy who is skilled with knives is teaming up with us :) a great asset for our cause" and Astarion is like "it's gonna be so easy to manipulate this moron". She's a bard and likes to flirt but it usually doesn't go farther than that for her. When Astarion comes onto her, she definitely takes it at face value and is super earnest about starting to have feelings for him as they come. By the time he admits his feelings for her, she's already fully in love with him. His whole "aha so this was basically me manipulating you but I caught feelings oops" catches her by surprise because she's SO BAD at romance but she strongly believes on judging people in the present so she's more happy he's being honest now than upset about him lying before.

Wyll: THE Blade of Frontiers?? Victri is a bard so yes, she's heard the stories. She's stricken with how down-to-earth and genuine he seems. He's a little subdued compared to her other companions, but he has a strong sense of justice which she really resonates with. She thinks he's just the coolest, I like to imagine that he's kind of her rock throughout the adventure in a platonic way. He's always ready to lend an ear or a hand, based on the situation, and she'd do the same for him in an instant. Most of his values line up with hers and she feels like he's such an asset to the team. Does not even flinch when he gets devil-ified because she lowkey thinks the horns look good on him. She tries not to say anything though because she wants to be respectful of his feelings! The only thing holding her back from trying to kill Mizora is the knowledge that Wyll would die as a result. She would do anything for him, honestly, he's like a brother to her.

Karlach: Love. I could literally just leave it there. When she first runs into Karlach with Wyll, she senses something's up before the tadpole fuckery starts. Just looks her up and down and is internally like "this... is not the person Wyll described at all". She's all too happy to go fuck up the fake paladins for her newest bestest friend! Vic and Karlach have a lot of similar feelings about their friends ("we love them") and their issues ("that's so fucked") so they get along well. From the jump, Victri is like "I'll do whatever I can to help you [with the engine]" and when Karlach mentions needing an infernal mechanic she gets a literal exclamation point above her head and runs in circles because "I KNOW ONE OF THOSE!!" (Unfortunately for Karlach and Victri, I had already finished the Grove questline and Dammon had left for Baldur's Gate! So we had to wait until Act II with all this infernal iron burning a hole in her backpack teehee).

[soldiermom1973]

I. Am. A. Fucking. Idiot.

I am, what... halfway? through Act 3 and ONLY JUST NOW figured out how to switch fucking spells around. JFC my next playthrough will be SO MUCH EASIER. Also, that means I reloaded that last fucking save for nothing. FML.

Anyhoo - I had to redo a bunch of stuff, including the fight in the park. Gale had See Invisibility which was fucking useless. I wound up casting Cloud of Daggers to get the inviso-guy to reveal himself. Google was no help - there's conflicting info about how exactly See Invisibility works. Some people are saying the invisible party has to succeed a saving throw and others were saying the seeing person has to succeed a throw. Regardless, it's messed up and it'd be cool if Larian would fix it.

Reloading the save also meant I had to redo that stupid cistern puzzle in the sewer again and listen to Orin tell me she has my damn druid again. Although hearing Karlach talk about Halsin being 'her' druid was nice. That might be a ship I didn't know I needed, though I'm not sure if it would work (I know at the end of the game she leaves to go back to the hells & I'm not sure Halsin would want to go along, especially since he's such a nomad).

Reloading also meant I got to do the astral boat scene again. I didn't notice before, but the orb's tendrils go up into Gale's face. It's really faint, but they're there.

Speaking of Halsin - I think my next playthrough will be as Gale & I'll romance Astarion so I can also get my hands on Halsin.

Can I also just say that I WILL NEVER GET TIRED OF WATCHING SCRATCH AND THE CUB PLAY IN CAMP??? Those two are too damn adorable.

Did anyone else notice Jaheira feeding/talking to a rat in camp?

Auntie Ethel is no more. I felt bad for Mayrina, though. I convinced her to let Connor go. I also hit up the cemetery. Didn't know I maybe shouldn't have let that girl try her hand at necromancy, now the people in the mortuary are pissed at me. Oh, well. Also hit up Karlach's parents' gravesites. That was sad.

I played this game literally all day and all I really wanted to do was get to Cazador's palace and free Astarion. I kept getting sidetracked with other quests and shit and now that I'm actually at the palace door, it's after midnight and I know damn well this thing will probably take me hours (and several reloads) to get through, so here is where I stop for the week. I'll pick it back up on Saturday.

On another note, I really wish there was a better way to sort the inventory. Like a search feature, maybe? And previewing dyes would be fantastic, too. I also decided that since I'm at level cap and my squad is pretty well kitted out, I'm about done looting corpses and stuff. Might take a peek here and there, but I don't need camp supplies, I have a ton of gold, and the gear is all good. It should honestly also speed up my playthrough a little.

I still have to take care of Shadowheart's quest and find The Stone Lord/do Jaheira's quest. I might do all that after I take care of Cazador. Part of me also wants to ruin Gortash's day so I can get Halsin back ASAP.

Oh, am I the only one who pictures those fucking mutant wasps from New Vegas whenever that vampire's name gets mentioned? He's probably just as annoying and hard to kill as they are. Might have to commission some fan art of him surrounded by a swarm of those fuckers.

Updates might slow down soon, too. I'll be back to working 2 jobs again and will be working 60+ hours each week, including most (if not all) Saturdays for the next several months, so I'm not sure how much BG3 gaming I'll get done.

Oh, and I'm not sure if it was in this post or someplace else where I said about my Tav being taller than Gale and I loved it when they kissed. I fucking love how she has to tilt her neck down for him...

I still hate how she looks with the half squid thing. I don't think I'll be doing that ever again. The only one of those extra powers I find myself using is Black Hole and I don't even use that one much.

My youngest got me BG3 for my birthday. I want to like this game so much... I hope I don't have the same problems with it like I did the witcher.

[littlemisssquiggles]

I'm just absolutely sick to death of how the main character couple always seems to get together at literally the last minute in everything, and I'm so worried that's how it's going to be in RWBY with rosegarden. I just wanna see my adorable cinnamon rolls be an awesome battle couple One Time, is that really too much to ask???

…Hmmm…I don’t know about that anon-chan. While I’ve always favoured and been a firm advocate for the possibility of a Rosegarden romance given the focus and development that the pair received over the volumes, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Rosegarden will be endgame and Oscar will ultimately grow to become Ruby’s partner in love.

I don’t even know what the final payoff of Rosegarden is going to be anymore. Outside of a potential romance, I initially pegged that the main reason why Rosegarden was pushed so much over the last few seasons was because I expected at some point for Oscar to be captured and taken prisoner by Salem with Ruby being the one to lead the charge to rescue him---mirroring Dorothy Gale who led a rescue party to save Princess Ozma after she was kidnapped in the Lost Princess of Oz.

I thought this was what the showrunners were building up to with Ruby and Oscar but as we saw of this season---while we got Oscar being Salem’s prisoner, Ruby was left out completely from that storyline (despite her connection to Oscar and her own connection and history with Salem who formerly targeted her because of her silver eyes in the past).

Instead we got Jaune Arc being the one to lead the charge to save Oscar…despite the fact that prior to V8, Jaune was never really the one to look out for Oscar before. At least not until V7 following Argus in V6. Up until that point, it was mostly Ruby always looking out for Oscar’s well-being and that aspect of their friendship remained consistent even up till this season. But as of this season, Ruby was omitted from Oscar’s side of the story with Salem which I felt was completely off.

Even episodes in, it still bugs me to no end how Ruby was kept away from the Salem side of the PLOT on Monstra for V8. This was done despite her being a target of Salem back in V4; despite her connection to the wicked witch regarding her mother’s death and despite what we know about the Hound in respect to what Salem did to Silver Eyed Warriors including Summer Rose.

Here I was banking on the showrunners using Ruby’s bond with Oscar to give her another incentive to pursue Salem and finally confront her face to face in the flesh. But no. Salem was in Atlas and instead of Salem targeting Ruby too---she only targeted Oscar and…Penny???

Instead of watching Ruby confront Salem over Summer, we got Yang encountering Salem and being the one to call her out for Summer’s death…despite the fact that up until this point, Yang has not spoken of Summer since V2????

Heck, the last time Yang spoke of Summer Rose in V5, she addressed her as “Ruby’s mom” instead of her mom too. This is why I find myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the writing of RWBY. The inconsistencies in some of its most important character and plotline details are so maddeningly bothersome at this point.

But going back to the Rosegarden dynamic----yeah I was expecting Oscar to be made into a martyr to force Ruby to come to Salem. However; as I’ll reiterate, Ruby was completely left out of any subplot for this season involving meeting Salem.

So if all the development between Ruby and Oscar from the previous seasons wasn’t leading into a confrontation between Salem and Ruby for Oscar’s salvation then…the question I ask now is what was even the point of pushing the Rosegarden dynamic in the first place for all of those seasons, huh?

As this volume stands, I genuinely don’t know what the showrunners are doing in respect to the Rosegardening pair anymore. I don’t know what the payoff of the Rosegarden bond is going to be anymore. While I still would love a love story to blossom between our two smaller, more honest souls (since I’d imagine it’d be no different than their budding friendship---wholesome , unique in a meaningful way and absolutely precious with every bit of teenaged innocence as one would expect from these two as they are the youngest members of the team with the most weight on their shoulders in spite of their young age), I’ve been trying my best not to bank too much on that possibility given how the showrunners developed the BlackSun friendship for five consecutive seasons before dropping it in favour of Bumblebee without giving that pair even an ounce of the proper fleshing out that they did for BlackSun.

At this point, it doesn’t even matter to me anymore if Rosegarden becomes a couple in the canon or not. As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t just like Rosegarden ONLY for the shipping side of it. My admiration for the bond between these two beans stemmed from how much I adore Ruby and Oscar both individually as characters since they are my favourites in RWBY. Thus I’ve been excited to see what the final payoff of their budding bond would be since they met back in V5 as I’ve been observing the show highlighting it over the seasons especially in relation to Oscar’s side of the story.

Now I’m just confused. 

I don’t want the showrunners to play games with Rosegarden like how they treated BlackSun. That would honestly hurt me as a fan of both the characters and their dynamic. The Rosegarden hug interruption still bothers me even after the episode long passed.

Some fellow Rosegardening Pineheads and Rosegardeners have urged me to remain optimistic since they’re anticipating Ruby and Oscar’s actual hug moment to come from a very important “meaningful moment” for them to clock off Oscar’s arc for this season---y’know a moment like Oscar unlocking his semblance to save Ruby or something like that.

And as much as I’d love to see that…I dunno. So far V8 hasn’t hit any of the Rosegarden story beats I was expecting. I was expecting Oscar to become Salem’s prisoner and be saved by Ruby since she has always protected him over the seasons AND has her own beef with Salem. That didn’t happen. Instead Ruby spent the majority of the season cooped up at Schnee Manor and was totally left out of this subplot despite all the opportunities that it had for her story and character and that hurt me a lot.

I was expecting Ruby and Oscar to at least share ONE nice heartfelt reunion hug. That’s all I wanted. Just ONE hug between these two beans ESPECIALLY after Oscar returned from being tortured for hours on Monstra and…that didn’t happen either. Instead the showrunners felt it best to have that reunion be the one and only hug to be interrupted and they even framed it nice and pretty to make sure that we the audience got that that hug moment was interrupted. And that bit hurt me a lot too.

I don’t think my poor fragile shipping heart could take another disappointment with RG. Outside of his conflicting feelings regarding not being ready for the merge with Ozpin, the only other thing to look out for with Oscar is him possibly unlocking his semblance for the finale. If Oscar doesn’t unlock his semblance because of Ruby …even though she’s been the character pushed to be of importance to him for several seasons and was the one he even discussed unlocking his semblance with back in V7…

If THAT is not done then…I don’t know what else to say anon. I want so much to remain optimistic for the continued growth of my favourite pair; whatever it may be---friendship, romance, something else or between---I dunno. I want to remain hopeful like I always have but these showrunners are playing games with my beans for this seasons and this squiggly Rosegardening Pinehead just…isn’t having fun anymore =( I’m sorry.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)