#also I stand by Astarion having no rizz in her armor

[alicelufenia]

It worked for me with Zenos in FF14, and it's working again with Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3 ^_^

What hooks me in usually requires me seeing their character arc come to a satisfying conclusion that puts everything they've been about in perfect clarity, thanks to having listened to said obsessives.

With Zenos it started with fantastic character analyses and fanfiction delving into the isolation he experienced due to being unable to feel joy in any way but a life or death struggle, and came to a head when the player finally agrees to fight him (specifically by saying they feel the same way) and he exclaims "Acceptance. At long last!"

"Hear me then. Not as a hero, but as simply... you." <- this line never left me either, idk the idea that there's more to the Warrior of Light than the hero they are, and Zenos is one of the few villains to see the WoL as someone more than an enemy, or what their soul used to be, but as a person with their own motivations and failings. Usually only the heroes do that, in their most touching scenes. Anyway this is what a touching scene with Zenos looks like hope you understand.

Whereas I think I would have vibed with Minthara on my own, but minty fuckers delighting over her romance (even when it was completely broken) compelled me to see it through on my first playthrough before you could KO recruit her, and is why I'm sticking with that path post-patch 5. Likewise I have a feeling the "everything comes together" point in her arc is going to be in Act 3 when she reflects on how she was once as broken as Orin, and could have easily died to Tav in their fight against the Absolute like any other random True Soul we've killed along the way, leading her to lament with her puppy eyes "And nobody would remember me."

And I look at everyone whose only experience with Minthara is killing her for her armor (and putting it on Astarion who doesn't deserve it GET YOUR PALE BALLS OUT OF HER CLOTHES YOU-*SMACK* oof sorry about that, touchy subject, er, no hard feelings Astarion stans) and am just like

"oooh she right dun worry babygirl I will guard my war criminal wife with my life y'all see if I don't"

By the way, that scene with Zenos? You get it by just playing the game normally, literally just finish the story and it's like the last major beat, you can't miss it. Minthara's Orin's Madness speech? Easily missable unless specific circumstances occur, and even then you HAVE to pick that first line about vengeance. Like if it were an option that just stayed in her dialogue every time you talked to her after that point it'd be fine, but instead one of the best speeches in the entire game and the best Minthara speech by far, many will miss by happenstance. Anyway that's the life I've chosen now as a Minthara fan; enjoying your favorite character through datamined and youtube archived dialogues and hope I can see them in my own playthrough someday -_-

nothing will change your perspective on a character like someone who is batshit obsessed with them