#SHUT THE FUCK UP GALE

[shrekshugebadussy]

finally got to the celebration night after saving emerald grove, but i’ve been figuring out what all i can do and how to make astarions approval go up and i’ve been failing quite a bit at the start bcuz i kept wanting to play hero 😭 but then it became a standstill and recently i’ve gotten it to go up some, and i went back to before the celebration so technically speaking that hadn’t happened yet, but when i started before i reloaded, astarion turned me down 🥲

but what i’m getting at is that several hours of play before now gale one night wanted me to try magic with him. i didn’t know this would turn romantic like and even tho i let it go on for a bit bcuz ya know, magic! but then i called it a night when he asked me how i felt. since then his approval of me shot straight up and he has the most approval of anyone else in my party. now i’m afraid that bcuz i let it go on too long that i’ve lost my chance with astarion 🥲 i’ve spent almost 24hrs of play so far i don’t wanna have to redo a bunch of fights and shit 😭😩🥲

[metal-junk]

i like ur funny words, magic man

the idea that probably one of the most dangerous people in faerûn can become good after falling for a pathetic wizard is fucking hilarious to me. also i am an avid defender of gale and i want to make VERY CLEAR he isn’t supposed to be mansplaining bhaal to a bhaalspawn here, that’s just the only info i could actually write a significant amount of. i’m the one mansplaining here not gale i love gale

[forcedhesitation]

astarion origin playthrough worth it just for all the extra moments where he does the "sad wet cat" face

[atticollateral]

sighs wistfully

forever done in by pretty boys... how ever will our hero cope.

[corviiids]

before i started playing bg3 astarion was like a kinda ratty grinchy little creature who i was nebulously aware everyone wanted to fuck but i didnt get the appeal personally and then i started playing bg3 and he became a ratty grinchy little creature with a terrible attitude i did not get along with. and then i went through an evil magic portal or something and now he's a ratty grinchy little creature with a terrible attitude i do not get along with but fucking care about suddenly, i guess, and also i can dress him up in as many stupid little figurative clown suits as i want to make posts about him on website dot com and he can't complain because he can't see himself in them anyway

[fallen-goldfishcracker]

"The Wyll haters are inescapable," an essay by me, ft this side conversation in Devora Wilde's bg3 stream:

What if you shut your mouth. What if.

[romulusfuckingroy]

breaking bad passes the gay man’s version of the bechdel test because

1. it has two gay male characters (gale boetticher, gustavo fring)

2. who talk to each other (flashback of gale setting up the superlab)

3. about a man (heisenberg)

[vaxyl]

Sometimes a family is…

a half human/half elf aasimar ranger who dabbles in rogue and druid (Vex'ahlia) and her adopted grizzly bear (Trinket)

a half human/half elf vampire aasimar rogue who dabbles in ranger and druid (Vax'ildan) and his adopted raven (Simon)

a half human/half elf aasimar druid princess (Keyleth)

a demon-touched human fighter with a reluctant warlock pact (Percy) and his smoke demon warlock patron (Orthax)

a sickly middle-aged human wizard (Gale)

a half human/half elf vampire rogue (Astarion)

a baby githyanki fighter (Lae'zel)

an amnesiac half human/half elf cleric of Shar (Shadowheart)

a demon-touched human paladin of Bahamut with a reluctant warlock pact (Wyll) and his cambion warlock patron (Mizora)

and a cyborg tiefling barbarian paladin of Ilmater (Karlach)

Bonus - A look at my takes on Vax, Vex, Keyleth & Percy from the dnd show Critical Role:

Vex'ahlia (26, she/her) -

Vax'ildan (26, he/him) -

Keyleth (24, she/her) -

Percy (23, he/him) -

[nebulousfishgills]

As much as I love playing embrace Dark Urge runs (discussion in therapy pending), there's something so narratively satisfying about how a Resist Durge playthrough can go once you get to the Bhaal Temple. Your character steps into the ring with Orin, it's intended to be a duel, but odds are you're getting eviscerated pretty quickly. You then switch to one of your other characters in your party and throw an attack, effectively breaking the duel and setting the whole temple upon you.

(Adding a cut because this ended up being longer than I thought)

But, I think it's a very satisfying way to play. Your party members have grown fond of your Durge, seeing them as a friend, a family member, even a lover. They've watched you and your pain over your Urge and what it makes you do or want to do. Maybe you've slipped up once or twice, but you've been trying so hard to be the hero they know you can be, that Faerûn needs. So, when it comes time to finally face your demons and you're getting so horribly hurt in the process, they can't help but rush to your defense. It'll put all of them in danger, but it doesn't matter because they want and need to help you, their ally and companion.

Bonus points if you select your character's romanced companion as the savior/duel interruptor to make it extra delicious. They've fallen in love with you, stayed with you when your Urge craved their blood the most, maybe by this point in the game you've helped put their demons down as well. They see you in pain, a final valiant effort to overcome your Urge against the power of Orin, a whole cult, a god of murder himself. They want to protect you, save you as you saved them.

I'm also fond of the extra beauty of Astarion being your Resist Durge romance since it puts the two of you in very similar situations. Fighting against the will of your masters, finally defeating your demons with your newfound companions' help and being offered the greatest power you could ever fathom... only to deny it, ignore power in favor of your party and your love.

This isn't even mentioning just how goddamn good the Withers resurrecting you cutscene is. This skeleton in your camp with unknown and unfathomable power (also apparently supposed to be Jergal himself if I've done my research properly?) is able to bring you back to life, free of your Urge. The line along the lines of "Bhaal could only destroy what of you that he knew, but because you've grown past your Urge and become your own person, he couldn't destroy that new growth" is just so weirdly powerful narratively. Tav may be a default character for you to create upon making a new save file, but Durge is the canon protagonist and I think that entire scene shows it the best. It's a beautiful secondary climax of the narrative (primary being battling the Netherbrain of course).

And, perhaps it's just an oversight on Larian's part or something that'd be a bit difficult to work into the cutscenes mechanically, but I think that it could only get more impactful if your companions could comfort each other during these moments. Everyone and their mother wishes you could hug Astarion after he kills Cazador, but also imagine your romanced companion cradling your body after Bhaal kills you. It seems just a little odd that they all (meaning your party) kinda just stand around staring at your corpse, especially with how close y'all have gotten.

Idk, I have a lot of thoughts about this section of the game in this particular type of playthrough and some of them are hard to articulate into words. It's just such a damn good narrative peak and can really make you feel things.

I've completed I think two resist Durge runs and just hit this point on my third and it really stuck out to me this time (then again my new antidepressants are kinda fucking with me so that might be playing a role). I left it as my last mission before dealing with the Netherbrain and I think it helped build the anticipation of that moment. Everyone else has been helped by you, and now it's your turn to come into your own. I really felt so connected to my character walking into the temple, feeling like everything has been building to this, that regardless of what happens our suffering will finally end. And you have your party there to help you in your time of greatest need as you've done for them.

There's a reason this game was Game of the Year, the narrative is just so powerful and the replay-ability is just insane. I've beaten this game ten times, heading for my eleventh and it truly just never gets old and never fails to make me feel so many things so strongly.

[mahoushojoe]

i literally am not a gale stan or whatever but the way hunger games fans online talk about him makes me want to hit someone with a brick

[revoleotion]

The duality of being a gale fan

(I would fist fight any gale haters behind sorcerer's sundries at 3am)

(I would also fist fight gale himself behind sorcerer's sundries at 3am any time he mentions that fucking crown)

[pinacoladamatata]

Still absolutely over the moon about Astarion's romance arc because from the fucking get go I imagined my little spider of a Tav was trying to seduce him into a tactical alliance (bc she needs allies. Immoral ones) and now we've got Astarion trying to seduce Tav into a tactical alliance and I've got both of them going "wait. No. Uno Reverse! Bitch!"

So by act 2 they're both like hmm okay I actually would be upset if you died. Let's actually watch each others backs. We're a team. And you're funny so...

By act 3 they're comfortably "friends" and everyone but them realizes these two go everywhere together getting into all kinds of trouble and laughing about it. They're besties. They're in love. They refuse to acknowledge it. Two peas 🫒 (I don't have a pea emoji so just pretend w these limes pls)

[swordmaid]

why is this dialogue in astarion’s sex scene im crying

[chantryexplosion]

ppl really can’t say shit without others crying and making it into something it’s not like when ppl complain about the amount of female tav/astarion there is in comparison to. everything else theyre literally not saying astarion isn’t into women and that he can’t date women were saying that it’s tiring only seeing skinny cis white women shipped with him like not even beefy woman ???? not even a milf ???? not even a dwarf ??? god forbid its a (gasp) trans woman ???? youre all so boring

[tomurakii]

I'M BACK AFTER SEVERAL YEARS AND THIS IS NOW A GALE OF WATERDEEP FANPAGE

[owlbearwildshape]

sending gale back to camp for a cup of tea and a nice lie down after he got garotted twice and then walked into a trip wire he knew was there