#The Druid rambles

[thechaoticdruid]

I know we love to dress Astarion up in red and black cause it's so vampire core and he looks damn good in it, but have any of you thought about purple? I mean his default armor is purple. Purple is the color of nobility, it's expensive, it's vibrant, it's fancy.

Dress this man up in purple!

[thedomesticanthropologist]

Man, in Halsins confession he is SO "I follow my heart wherever it goes, I go wherever nature wills me. Before we start anything you must know I don't want to take you away from anyone else, I don't want to stop you from being with other people or going wherever you go and you cannot stop me from being what I am"

So the very good communication, clear statement: I want a non exclusive connection with you where we share our bodies together but don't try to control each other's paths/decisions/relationships

And its like oh! That's cool. You're straight up, and this sounds like just a physical addition to our friendship, no strings attached, alright. He WAS clear that he sees love and sex as different (I've had many lovers but my heart does not stir easily, it stirs now) so he IS clear he has real feelings but it's presented fairly casually? And very like 'no big deal if you don't feel the same!"

But then you sleep with him.

And oh my GOSH I can't be the only one who saw that man fall HEAD OVER HEELS IMMEDIATELY. And be like, super insecure about it as well as super upfront? The dichotomy is intense!

He NEVER assumes you're going to choose him or want to be around him any more than usual, and seems genuinely grateful and surprised every time you do. It's like he was setting himself up to be a side piece whether you were in a relationship with someone else or not when this started BUT

He ALSO is very very open about his feelings. "My heart. My love. I was lost until you pulled back the veil." And many many more deeply, deeply felt words. He's in love, AND he kind of assumes this whole thing is temporary.

I say that because of his ending. He says he's leaving, and he's clear the way he was in the beginning - no matter his feelings, he goes where nature wills. So there's consistency there. But he is GENUINELY surprised and DELIGHTED if you say you want to come with him.

My analysis is that he never once let himself believe that he COULD have something more with the PC. He never changes who he is, he's always upfront- if he wants to take another lover at Sharess Caress or bang a friend he has that right and he genuinely wants the PC to do the same if that's what they want too, he doesn't want to get in the way and he doesn't want anyone getting in his way. But. But

His heart does not stir lightly. And it does now

I don't think he's fallen in LOVE in a long time, and he can't believe he's going to commitment from a partner, he thinks he's just going to get a taste of you before you move on.

Being Polyamorous doesn't mean not having dedicated partners, it means not trying to stop your partner from doing what they want. It means being free to sleep with others, and to not stop your partner from leaving if they choose to go elsewhere. The way he words it in the beginning sounds like he means " if passions fade you move on, you follow your heart where it leads"

He just never expects YOUR heart to lead to him

And when it does, he is so, so surprised and grateful and lucky and honored.

He's such a complex character and so different from how I've seen romances shown in video games, movies, books so far I really like him.

[volatilemask]

so much to see

bonus doodle that didnt fit with the rest but i still thought was cute

[bardic-perdita]

Decided to sculpt something for my work's secret santa this year. Still need to paint it, but I do like how the sculpting turned out

[nugatorysheep]

dryad...... dryad save me......

[foxish-draws]

Found the spore druid specific armor & I'm distressed, Velli looks really good in it but it's gonna be a way more involved thing to draw;;;

[hylianengineer]

This is how DnD went tonight, and I think it really encapsulates the spirit of the game as a whole.

Me: "We as a party have made SO MANY bad decisions!"

DM: "And I love you for every one of them! It's like a trophy on my shelf, Bad Decision #24."

[transkingcobra]

My current Tav may not be one for PDA but I’ll be damned if I ain’t gonna watch him kiss that vampire 82949394 times

[stylosha]

i love mael :( i miss mael :(( plz home come mael :((( mael :((((

[bloodfueledmachine]

day 28

[thechaoticdruid]

Ah I swear every time I go to twitter I see people talking about how AA will find another spawn and replace Tav because he doesn't love them.

Look I prefer the spawn ending. I think it's better for Astarion to grow and move on, choosing a future that he wants instead of obsessing over being better than Cazador.

That being said I still enjoy the dark twisted toxic romance of Ascended Astarion. I get it some of y'all just want to live in a palace with a vampire sugar daddy. But I still 100% believe AA still harbors love for Tav. He's still Astarion despite making the absolute worst decisions and being his worst self.

No I really don't buy the he lost his soul idea because......He can literally die and be resurrected by Withers....You kinda need a soul to be brought back in that way. Withers literally describes the process of it when you ask him what he can do for you.

But I'm getting off topic my point is that Astarion's love for Tav is still there, albeit buried deep down under Astarion's bullshit.

He's desperate to keep Tav so much that he wants to bind them to him for eternity and there is literally banter dialogue with Minthara asking to be Astarion's spawn to which he rejects her saying it's for him and Tav alone. Minthara also mentions Astarion's hands and fangs haven't strayed from Tav in another banter. I'm not saying AA and his consort have a happy healthy relationship. He's clearly overly possessive and toxic given what happens if Tav tries to leave him, but he's not going to just toss Tav aside. He's obsessed with them.

From what I've heard dnd vampires have the tendency to be like that. :p

Anyway I just had to get this out because people on Twitter annoy me. Let's just enjoy both good and evil endings and get along. Please? 🥺

[fondofcowboys]

here's my very all over the place feelings on certain aspects of baldur's gate 3 as a romani immigrant. warnings for spoilers of course. mind you i have not finished the game yet!

1. i really can't believe there aren't more people talking about the very blatant racism in astarion's questline. im quite sure it's because the game already touches on it, even giving you the choice to call astarion a racist, and also because everytime we roma talk about anything that makes us uncomfortable we're immediately shunned and "well actually!"'d.

the problem is that it feels Extra icky because the man who was the inspiration for the original dracula, Vlad the Impaler, kept romani slaves. this is the ONLY part of vampire history that, no matter how different the media, will always stay relevant for some reason.

castlevania has the seekers, a nomadic group of magic users who pass their history down orally. while they are *mostly* treated well, the first arc of the show literally shows them being hunted out of town for the simple act of existing.

vampire the masquerade... well.. that's an entire other can of racism worms.

curse of strahd has the "vistani", a nomadic group of people who are treated like third class citizens everywhere they go, and are of course, most known for being tarot readers and drunkards.

the vampire diaries have the "travellers", who get called "gypsies" explicitly as a derogatory word by other vampires.

i want you to take any vampire media you enjoy and ask yourself, "is there anti-roma racism in this?". i guarantee you, if you look for it, you're going to find it. for SOME reason, the only thing that stays consistent with all these different vampire IPs, is that romani people are hated and scrutinized at every moment of their lives.

i MORE than understand that astarion's racial insensitivity is part of him. it's part of what makes him malleable by the player. you can help him understand why he's wrong, or you can lead him down a worse path.

i still reserve the right to feel some sort of way about astarion sacrificing fantasy-romani children for power, willingly. don't get me wrong, he's my favourite character, right up there with halsin. which is why i obviously have so many feelings about this.

(yes, the Gur were written inspired by romani people, if you were not aware)

2. the anti-immigrant sentiment is such an inherent part of the story that i did not think was going to stick around for SO long. i dont really have much to say about this, i think i should've expected it. as a fan of dragon age (i know, tragic) i'm quite used to unnecessary fantasy racism everywhere i go, i just hoped it wouldn't be part of the main crucial story.

3. larian studios i am so so so thankful for the halsin romance. eternally. forever and ever. he's my pookie bear and i'm so grateful some extra time was made to create a romance for him.

can i ask you why the hell does halsin want to LEAVE. At The End. i've noticed how much he contradicts himself throughout his questline and i just... I don't know. i've seen some other people complaining about how non-chalantly he talks about being a sex slave and i understand too, but i think it's part of his character to not take the horrible things that happened to him seriously like he does with others. that, or someone at larian took an unknown substance that led them to make halsin Very inconsistent.

with the poly situation, some people are strictly polyamorous! some people are strictly non-monogamous and do not feel comfortable being in a monogamous relationship. i understand the frustration everyone, but that's how halsin is. i dont know if that was the writers' intention, but that's certainly what he comes across as to me; strictly non-monogamous.

what i DONT understand is why he says he only wants you, calls you "my heart", is so fondly and lovingly attached to you, and then he just.... Dips? Whatever. I'm ignoring that part forever. it's not canon to ME!

anyways. yeah. feel free to Engage in some Friendly conversation. emphasis on friendly, for the love of g-d

[nezumithewriter]

if i had a nickel for every batshit insane male protagonist in a obscure puzzle game with equally batshit insane puzzle solutions made more crazy by the game’s poor quality, I’d have two nickels

which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice

[foxish-nonsense]

Cracking open some boys with the cold ones 🍄🍄🍄🍄

[nugatorysheep]

Ş̸̻͕̺́̚Ṕ̵̛̪̃Ȩ̷̳̫̿̾Ã̶̞̺̇͐͘K̷͈̿̎̇.

This damn comic is fucking A N C I E N T but as far as like, the content of it- not necessarily the art because I always hate my older art, but the presentation, what is objectively here- still feels right to me, so I'm sharing it. again

[mysterious-headhunter]

(I could not sleep… I hope this is not too gruesome for you.)

*I stare down at the back of his head. His hair parts round the barrel I’m pressing against his skull. I feel a small pressure in my hand as he pushes the barrel deeper into his skull.*

“I thought you followed orders. Shoot.”

*the figures hands bound behind him. His shirt rips to shreds with blood staining the remnants. He’s yelling at me*

“I said shoot. Or do you not follow orders when they hurt your feelings?*

*his hatred for me is obvious in his voice.*

“I…you can still be forgiven…you don’t need to die-”

“I SAID SHOOT.”

*my eyes closes, a hollow jester as everything is still recorded with my secondary camera. I watch as my hand pulls the trigger of the gun. I listen to the sound as his head is blown in and splatters against the wall.*

*I get up and walk past the body of the children he tried stopping me from killing. Damn fool. Why couldn’t he just follow orders? Why did he have to go and get a concussion? Why?…*

*I continue to walk to my ship as I hear a scream. I do not turn, as I board my ship and activate stealth.*

*I fly off leaving behind 12 bodies. The king, his queen, their advisor, their children, those poor maids, and my apprentice.*

***

*I regain consciousness in my room*

“I didn’t know I could sleep…let alone dream”

*I look over to see @druidicrepository staring at the wall as my projector retracts back into my head.*

(Also I have had no one spell check this so it could just be grammatically shit if so I’m sorry)

@druidicrepository