#also u can talk to me about bg3 i played

[imaginefe]

my good friend rio posting on imaginesforfe again and I missed it (becuse I was playing baldurs gate). Hi hi!! How are you!!! I have covid right now :p

ARE YOU WINNING SYD

[stinkrascal]

sometimes you post about sucking at a video game on tumblr and you get the most encouraging msgs imaginable from complete strangers who are just really into whatever game u talked about and wanna see u thrive and its so wholesome. and sometimes you post about sucking at a video game on tumblr and randos who you have never talked to in your entire life will write comments on your text post from august of last year about how you're dumb as shit for struggling on this level, not realizing that i posted that text post in august of last frickin year. pardon ive actually beaten this game 3 times since then but thank you for being mean to me and calling me naive for no reason??? 😭

[pythoria]

started playing dragon age origins (only played for like 15 minutes aside from character creation cause my laptop died) and just. wow. i cannot believe just how robbed i was not knowing this existed until the bg3 community told me about it. someone told be to beware bc it's an old game and the graphics are bad but like what are you talking about the graphics are better than dos2 (no shade! great game). hell, i am just gobsmacked at how pretty and HD the character models are, that there's cinematic angles, for a game released in 2008 it's nuts. i mean to be fair i'm not playing the original release of the game so it's undoubtedly better than what it was in 2008 but you can't build greatness on a bad foundation. this game is Great. the control scheme might be an all time favourite. the fact that you can hold both left and right click and move seamlessly like with wasd blew me away. i started as a mage elf so the starting area is that withered place and GOD it looks cool as hell. i feel ROBBED how has this existed for FIFTEEN YEARS without me giving it a go. the character creation was also a delight, better than something like skyrim that came out years later. and after bg1's mess of a combat system i was wary for a second when i saw this was real time with pause but it works incredibly well. it's simplified compared to bg1&2 a Lot so i got the hang of it rlly fast and i love that i can just pause so i don't get overwhelmed. it's rlly late so i can't play more rn but the first 15 minutes of this game already exceeded every expectation (and i went in with high expectations considering the praise i saw for it online). thank u to everyone who recommended i play this it was love at first sight!

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating on what you meant by "tiefling politics" on that wotr vs bg3 post? Just curious, ignore if you want

its about the fact that bg3 has a lot of tiefling characters, somehow more than wotr, and huge theme of like hells and connections to demons\devils and somehow manages to say absolutely nothing interesting about it.

in wotr we have examination of tieflings fitting into human society, ostracization and (literal) demonization of them, where even if some of them would want to help in war against hell, they are scared (frex, group of tieflings thieves you save which you can ask to help u and they are like are u kidding me, crusaders will torch us). woljif in particular is a deconstruction of selfish chaotic neutral tielfling rogue archetype, his story both exploring how both he was pushed into being a criminal bc he had no other options, but also interplay with how he then himself tends to dismiss his own agency in being able to decide for himself and choose better, forever excusing himself with "well this is a crappy hand dealt to me", his survivalist attitude of everyone for themselves vs desire for community, how when given a smidge of stability and access to decision making in council, he tries to awkwardly, but eagerly advocate for societal improvement for all tieflings, and this is one of his most sincere moments - and gets laughed at immediately, etc etc. and speaking of community, v interesting intersection between "good" and "bad" marginalized groups of mongrels vs tieflings, with Lann being self-righteous about both his moral superiority and how mongrels "have it worse", while ignoring that mongrels - and he himself specifically - are mistreated literally bc they are mistaken for tieflings.

btw if anyone wants me to talk more about mongrels vs tieflings thing, hit me up, i think there was a interesting stuff, even if not properly dramatized

meanwhile in bg3 being tiefling largely means nothing? like the refugees would sometimes like drop a line out loud about how tieflings should stick together bc humans won't help them, but like that's it. the refugees could literally be humans running from war or blue cat ppl from avatar running from capitalism and nothing in the plot or characters would need to be changed. tieflings is just cosmetics for them, like idk its cool to have colorful NPCs with fire eyes and sexy horns. And even companions wise, you know I love Karlach and tried to romance her, but being tiefling is just looks for her, its not meaningful. It doesn't matter for her backstory, she could have been a strong human from poor background who was sold out to idk, underdark. like it sucked bc she was forced to do violence and everyne was an asshole and she couldn't see sun, but otherwise it being Blood War specifically doesn't come into play. and like. Blood War has famously huge effects on ppl with hell heritage! I'm not saying she should have been Valen Shadowbreath with entire plotline about struggling with blood war calling, but like. idk, something?

my point is that tieflings and hell has a lot of lore and like, FLAVOUR in this setting, which were not explored at all. these are just ppl with horns and generic Bad Place.

and then like. devil essentialism. bg3 has central motive of how evil races are not ontologically evil, but like, devils are. sdfghjk. apparentely mind flayers can fight actual mind control if they are V Special, but all devils/demons are evil with no exceptions. karlach was in hell for 10 years and never met a single sympathetic devil. the closest one he had mocks IS Evil when we meet her in game. and I actually liked Raphael (transition could've saved her), but there is nothing particularily interesting about him, he's also straighforwardly evil. this severely limits how interesting interactions with hell are. in wotr there is a wide range from reformed succubus to most evil sadists, with every shade in between, which allows for complex stories, like that that fucked up love between that betrayer dwarf and demoness who seduced him. she's legit evil, but she also has actual twisted affection for him, and he knows she uses him, but he was pushed too far by humans and chooses her anyway. this background story is honestly has more depth than wyll's and mizora relationship, where shes just evil and he's straighforwardly martyr. when mizora offered to have fun wink wink, i immediately knew she's gonna Evil It. and she did. and she didn't even get anything out of it! it was just staining your soul to be evil:3 like ok, but boring tbh.

and like yeah war with hell is central plot of wotr, obviously it has a lot more to say and explore about it, but like. bg3 didn't HAVE to have to include so many tieflings and have us follow their stories through all acts. it didn't have to include hell in "no race essentialism" game if it didn't want to talk about it. it chose to, and when game has big chuncks of content about smth connected by a theme, i expect it to say smth about it? anything interesting? eh.

btw, this is not to say i think wotr's writing is perfect, far from it, i can talk for ages of my problems with that game's writing, but this initial phrase was from shitposts specifically comparng things in wotr to bg3, so

[reineyday]

Ten people I'd like to know better!

tagged by: @robinticism which, hello!! i love ur fanfiction sm and i hope u know this 😭🙏💖

last song: i am currently listening to patd's cover of the greatest show haha my playlist is on shuffle. when i hit post on this, the song playing is america's suitehearts by fall out boy. everyone please check out manofbeskar's mishanks band au fic, bc it got me listening to fob's folie à deux album for literally three months straight. tho i've loved america's suitehearts since it came out in 2009ish, i've only come to appreciate the rest of the album this year 'cuz of manofbeskar so thank you. 🙏

(i lied, i typed that but then spent so long triple-checking my answers the playlist's moved onto asymptotic by louie zong. what's this, rei? u have a fic rec for this song too? here's a haikyuu!! matsuhana math team au i love dearly. the fic reminds me of the song, except ofc it's a happy ending, unlike in the song aha.)

favorite color: red & golden yellow :) i'm a warm colour palette typea gal. i even prefer my cool colours warm-toned lol. they feel richer to me when they're warmer.

last book: i'm somewhat ashamed to say it's been a VERY long time since i read a real book. i tackled a short french YA one like, last year? 'cuz i borrowed it from my friend and i'd wanted to to return it. i can rec u an ongoing 300+k bloodweave fic i just finished that i can't stop thinkin' about tho.

last movie: i watched the wild robot w my dad recently. super cute! another movie in the list of movies that tell me to my face that i will always fall in love with sly and charming rogue types that deep down only want to be loved. 🥺💕

last tv show: been watching the ravening war dimension 20 dnd campaign! if that doesn't count, i've also been watching dandadan every week (last week's episode tho!!! SO good omg).

sweet/spicy/savory: savoury most of the time, but also sometimes sweet. very rarely spicy, but not unheard of.

relationship status: single ✌️ i'm a mess and probably demi lmao.

last thing I googled: SPOILERS FOR NYT CONNECTIONS but i was googling crab types. comb crab? not a thing. ❌️ fiddler crabs, however! ✅️

current obsession: oh god, uh. astarion. it's astarion ancunín from bg3. my camera roll is filling up and it used to be so i could draw mihawk in his outfits but now it's just 'cuz astarion's hair is stupid pretty. please see also: my previous answer about rogue types who only want to be loved.

ah, also been getting more into dnd in general--(re)started bc of watching neil newbon (astarion's voice actor; i know, i know, but HE'S SO GOOD AT HIS JOB) doing an actual play one shot as astarion with sam béart who voices karlach (yes, okay, i am like every other bisexual and fell for the pretty rogue vampire and the big red barbarian with biceps for days okay), but also brennan lee mulligan and aabria iyengar, both of whom i love. and then i graduated to watching the bg3 cast's other APs and also mismag s2 and now the ravening war. it's a slippery slope. and my cousin wants to run a one-shot campaign so now i've got a guy too! his name is lysander and he's a dragonborn fighter. 🐲⚔️🔥

(here's the one-shot i'm talking about btw! aabria is the gm, and the table is neil and sam playing astarion and karlach, and then brennan lee mulligan and anjali bhimani who play some really great pc's! neil & sam refer to the story in the halloween one-shot they do with the va's of wyll and lae'zel later on, too. it's cute!)

looking forward to: mmh the aforementioned campaign, i suppose. here's hoping lysander makes some friends!

no pressure ofc but tagging @ofkingsandlionhearts @16th-of-a-twigg @andaniellight @albifrons @eyesonstars-feetonground @giurochedadomani @starlightbelle @incalamity @conartisthaiji @spikyiwaizumi

[ian-galagher]

✨Weekly Tag Wednesday ✨

Thank you for tagging me you lovely people! 🥰🧡 Jess @jrooc Michelle @michellemisfit Gigi @sgtmickeyslaughter Pie @gallapiech

Alice @spookygingerr Rory @roryonic Comet @spacerockwriting

Name and A03 handle: Willow & IanGalagher

Current Location: the couch, very comfy.

Favorite picrew (don't have one? you can skip this or do this one)?

I went through my folder of picrews past and I love the ones with a feather and Nemo for Africa reasons.

the last two are funny because I made those before playing bg3 and people in the know may be in on a joke, there 😂

What's one thing you want in a picrew? I love it when there's an option to hold any kind of animal 😂 also trans / masculine options!

Favourite thing you’ve created (or seen created) for the fandom? Darkness comes before the Dawn with the most amazing art by Nosho @creepkinginc and magical words by Sky @transmurderbug and help from Julia @blue-disco-lights

Why is it your favourite? I love everything about it! Mute Mickey speaks to me (pun intended) and I love the raven & fox metaphor for Mickey & Ian. Also, that art, I'm STILL blown away by it, really.

Did it come easily or was it hard to create? the deadline was something I'd rather not repeat 😂 the story itself just came to us, that was amazing 🥰

Last ao3 fic you commented on? The Circus, Hysterical Light, Angel Of Music, Guide And Guardian (Grant To Me Your Glory) - all wonderful and amazing fics! 🧡

Biggest WIP heartache you’ve ever experienced? Reckoner but I have NO doubt at all that it will be concluded one day! 🥰

Favorite trope or head cannon you like included in a fanfic? when they have pets! also any kind of mystical and magical world will draw me in any time.

Least favourite? not a fan of anyone dying.

Secret or surprising kink or trope? is it a surprise that I like them being softies? no? then I don't have an answer for this one 😂

Describe how you feel after you’ve created something new? right after I'm glad to be finished but when I post it online and all stays quiet I convince myself everyone HATES it and I'm a terrible terrible writer who should never write again 😂 anyway, support WIPs and leave comments everyone! 😁

Top hype man you have that always helps you get across the finish line: my besties, Nosho & Sky, Julia always, the discord crew, Alice, Comet, Pie, Nora, Jess, you all help so much!! I'm very lucky to have you all 🧡

It's been a bad day, you turn to the fandom and you _____? talk to friends. you guys are my rock, what would I do without you 🧡

Tags and the questions below the cut!

@stocious @look-i-love-u @energievie @deathclassic

@sweetbee78 @vintagelacerosette @depressedstressedlemonzest

@suzy-queued @lee-ow @francesrose3

@transmickey

Name and A03 handle:

Current Location:

Favorite picrew (don't have one? you can skip this or do this one)?

What's one thing you want in a picrew?

Favourite thing you’ve created (or seen created) for the fandom?

Why is it your favourite?

Did it come easily or was it hard to create?

Last ao3 fic you commented on?

Biggest WIP heartache you’ve ever experienced?

Favorite trope or head cannon you like included in a fanfic?

Least favourite?

Secret or surprising kink or trope?

Describe how you feel after you’ve created something new?

Top hype man you have that always helps you get across the finish line:

It's been a bad day, you turn to the fandom and you _____?

[divorcedwife]

What rpgs have u liked/played and how did u like them? :) i saw that your fave is pillars 1 and i love the setting n story so much (i just loooooathe real time with pause combat unfortunately. This also has soured da origins to me a lot. Do action pls or even better turn based but not that) also u have a lot of amazing anders art <3

pillars 1 my beloved!! maybe you already know but i must mention it just in case - did you see that pillars 2 deadfire has turn by turn combat? i don't think it's as good as the first in terms of writing, but when they introduced turn by turn, it became one of my favorites just for that. it made me so violent because combat went from a necessary evil to my favorite part of the game, so i was just going around the world looking for people to fight. and it really has its moments, i loved serafen and the first quest with the pirates, and it is a game where you can actually roleplay and cause real harm without intending to if you just listen to your companions all the time. they're not all good people.......

and bg3 also has combat that i really loved :-) i played it as a bard and as a rogue and i really loved both. i loved playing a support character and not feeling like the main character so much, and as dark urge, i thought rogue combat played with the idea of the urge very beautifully because i was so good at killing that i tended to skip dialogues and just kill.... i just wish i could reverse the clock and talk the devs out of constantly rewriting it ship of theseus style. the companions to me already had an issue of being too friendly and too innocent in their sufferings in a way i didn't find compelling, so making them even more into fandom versions of themselves is just evil

but i think that's all for RPGs where i really like the combat, all my other favorite games have real-time strategy and i just do my best. kotor 1 & 2 have it, although i enjoy it more when i unlock fucked up evil force powers. i still do love dragon age origins & 2, and have some fondness for dai because i really like the characters. and dao was largely improved for me by playing a mage instead of an archer ; if i can say anything nice about datv, it's that they've made archery good for the first time ever in dragon age. being an archer in dai is especially sad, you have a range of like two meters

i also tried the first baldur's gate game but i got too scared and confused with the companions management and the way the story progresses - like i strayed from the main quest and that locked me out of meeting jaheira, so i had to restart and redo all of that and it was painful. i think i could play it if i had some guide to follow or something, i just don't have the 1990s gamer disposition. but i really liked xan, i made him leader of the party so i could hear him complain all the time

& i think that's kind of it...! im not a huge gamer in that i don't try tons of different games, i just mostly obsess and replay the same ones over and over again. there's some others i could mention - like i played outer worlds and i liked it ok, i played fallout new vegas but it wasn't really my style and i didn't finish, and oh wait i just remembered i played all three mass effect games! well, i liked the first game and hated 2 and 3, which may be my most controversial hill to die on but i must be true

[bg3sinbin]

Alright so I told myself I wouldn't post anything about it... but I still can't stop thinking about the A!Astarion kisses, Tav/Durge's face during it, and the stupid blow up around it. So here we go

Warnings: This is long and rambly and contains all kinds of spoilers. I am an A!Astarion lover. I will not be responding to discourse on this post. I do not care if you disagree. Make your own vent post.

OKAY so the brunt of the arguments I keep trying to ignore seeing surrounding this are how the expressions are "immersion breaking" for A!A fans, and everyone else clowning on them (sometimes rightfully so tho, ngl) because "the game gives the player expressions all the time! why are u mad now? do u just want ur Tav/Durge to be a blank slate?? lmao idiot" which ??? okay it feels like ur purposefully missing the point.

Yeah, actually sometimes this game gives my Durge some really ooc reactions. And it does, in fact, bother me. That being said, that is to be expected when u take an oc u had for like ten years and try to stick them in a pre-programmed video game. Things are gonna get ooc sometimes.

It also though, is usually smaller moments. Or things that happen Once and then u move on. Conversations where I go "hmmm. he wouldn't say any of these. oh well." or moments where he reacts negatively to terrible things that this evil bastard would normally laugh at. OH. WELL.

Now here's where my frustration actually come in. This game does a really good job, probably a better job than anything else I've played, at letting u play an interesting evil char. Something more than just "I am Rude, Aggressive, and A Dick To Everyone" and thus being punished for it gameplay wise.

I can play The Dark Urge, literal child of the god of murder, a canon necrophiliac, cannibalistic, gore freak that was going to flatten the entire world. There is a whole ass plot line and ending (multiple achievements included!) surrounding doing just that. There's all kinds of nasty interactions/plot options programmed in.

Yet, to the best of my memory, my Durge doesn't look horrified when we choose to slaughter the grove. He doesn't look horrified when we choose to kill the Dame Aylin, or Isobel. He isn't Obviously Distraught when we choose to help Astarion complete the ritual, or when we kill Shadowheart's parents, or become an Unholy Assassin of Bhaal.

To my knowledge, the player character isn't made to look afraid when kissing Dark Justiciar!Shadowheart, nor when they are literally poisoned by kissing Minthara. Sure, u CAN be offended about it in the convo with her after, but its still ur choice as the player.

I mean shit, they even patched in (in that very same patch) a positive, supportive reaction from ur evil partners at the end when u take over the nether brain! (at least for A!Astarion, and Minthara) so now when u do the evil thing that u and ur evil partner have been talking about all game, they don't suddenly change their opinion the second u actually do it.

And I really appreciate that about bg3. I can make evil choices and get interesting outcomes rather than the game just locking me out of all content actually made for that quest. Like ffs u can only get Minthara's romance scene if u slaughter dozens of innocents.

THIS GAME REWARDS U FOR DOING THE BAD THING. And like the evil options do usually have drawbacks and/or are less fleshed out than the good ones, but there are whole ass plots arcs u will never see if u only play good chars. This game makes playing an evil character interesting.

So why is it that I can do all that, and make/have my Durge react (mostly) accordingly, yet the moment the partner I chose acts controlling, now is when my characters feelings are being decided for me?

I can spend the whole game hearing Astarion talk about how spawn are controlled, how all vampires want is power, and I can say to his face "yes! this character wants that! turn me!" and yet somehow... what? the creators think I didn't know?

It just genuinely doesn't make sense to me. Like I can choose, through dialogue, that my Durge is power hungry, and very into the idea of being Astarion's pretty little lap dog. He knew what he was signing up for! And yet he looks terrified when his vampire bf (who has been feeding on him all game) bites his lip?? really?

Idk I just have some really weird feelings on some of the ways they try to Really Emphasize that u made the wrong choice for Astarion specifically, and this just exemplifies that.

Either do the rest of ur characters this service, make all of them (make every choice in the game) a moral lesson for the player to learn, where u hold their hand and say "u didn't listen to what they actually needed :c u could have done the good thing but u didn't :c"

Or let me play my evil bastard. And let me revel in it.

[thelikesoffinn]

been thinking about it lately and Ascended Astarion = Dead Dove content and I'm not sure that's really understood, even by the writers. when I finally got around to the character I decided to ascend him with, I was SUPREMELY disappointed by the conversations options following it. it seemed like the dialogue choices were trying to push the narrative on my character that they made this choice w/o considering the consequences and they are bound to regret it. the closest I could get to answering his question of "why did u let me go thru w it?" was "I wanted u to be powerful".

but with that character? my accept Bhaal durge? that isn't the reasoning. at all. (related: "what do u want as a reward?" "ur body" was the closest answer my character could give. otherwise I'd've answered "murder :))")

for context, this run was born of a conversation w my friend discussing supposed content no one had seen bc "no one's that evil". we thought, what's more evil than killing literally every npc? I failed the conceit of the challenge immediately bc I can't handle senseless animal cruelty in my games. killing children? fine (u need a mod to do this in BG3, but I am thankfully plenty delighted to use mods), killing a neutral animal npc? no can do.

so I started this durge (they are the only character that can come close to "killing" Gale with that first interaction) run with the intention of killing everyone except Shadowheart (only a cleric of Shar can truly kill Aylin) and Astarion (bc I need to smooch him). (and there is a mod for playing an origin character as durge, which would have meant playing as Shadowheart, but I MUST smooch Astarion and I don't tend to do het or female romances, unless I'm forced to (*sighs dreamily* oh, Garrus Vakarian). I'm just not interested in that set of equipment in that way, so may as well just make a durge dude.) somehow something went wonky and Halsin ended up joining us and I was so perplexed I just allowed him to stay. (he's meant to attack if u destroy the grove but free him anyway, but instead he just showed up that night and went straight into his Moonrise spiel. is it bc the wolf Silver never aggro'd me and thus survived???) so I fixed the Shadow Curse all while killing every single humanoid and hostile animal in acts 1 & 2. including Thaniel, which makes Halsin's talks later in act 3 of getting news from Thaniel and the Grove hysterical. idk what I did but I sure as hell broke this poor man.

(on a related note, Halsin will give out to u when u accept Bhaal, but will still give u the "u have exceeding my expectations, also we should bang" in the same conversation. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID BUT IT'S DARKLY FUNNY.)

in the conversation when Astarion is expressing surprise that u let him go thru w it, my durge is just like, yes my motivation is that I like to kill ppl :))). it's not a sex thing for him (that is separate from the murder!), but he's still fine w the outcome. yes, Astarion looks down on him, but that's fine! he's allowed to be wrong about that, durge doesn't care. so long as Astarion lets him kill ppl he genuinely just does not give a shit.

(I actually had the idea that if Halsin were to ever rediscover his morals and tried to leave he'd ask Astarion to turn him so Halsin would not have a choice. as I said, this durge *does not fucking care*.)

this is probably the only character I will play that would let Astarion ascend bc I enjoy dead dove SOMETIMES, but not always or in large doses, but I get so few dialogue options that convey that in an rp sense! I don't think the writers/devs REALLY took that into consideration, sometimes. like, yeah, there are going to be ppl making fucked up choices but surely no one would go THIS far! for THIS reason! honey, u need to look up the Dead Dove tag on AO3, there are absolutely ppl making choices for those fucked up reasons.

(and I understand the whole "this confirms to Astarion about sex yadda yadda". even if that's not Tav/Durge motivation, that's how ASTARION would *interpret* it.)

(oh yes, and also, don't let Orin abduct Yenna. it doesn't matter whether u find out in camp or the sewers, Grub will not survive. I was devastated. if I'd known, I would have made sure Halsin was available for her, but she won't abduct a party member or someone ur romancing.)

long story short, I want to play a durge that even ascended Astarion finds unsettling. that's the dream.

Hello there, duck!

Your run sounds delightfully evil! I wish I could play one of those, haha, but I'm too soft hearted. My one evil run with my durge Salira was ended before even entering the grove because I felt horrible after getting rid of Gales hand! Seriously, I can barely take killing the squirrel as durge, and I always save Alfira because I feel horrendous otherwise!

(Fun fact, on all five runs I've done Yenna just vanished at some point and grubs was left standing in my camp, which was like...eh?)

And yes, Halsin is always somewhat of an issue, isn't he? He's just running around, causing mayhem in peoples games because he seems slightly bugged out, haha. I had one run, where he wouldn't go to the spot where we save Thaniel because he joined the fight against Marcus at Last Light and somehow got stuck, for some reason. Same run, none of his vocals would play, which was also very interesting. Everybody would make noise when they climbed or got hurt but Halsin was always silent and just there! And in another run the dude really straight up hated me - he was so mean and snappy, I swear to god he wanted my Durge dead - and then he suddenly went: "Hey you're super cool and strong and I just want to gently fuck you beneath the moonlight if you'll let me" and I was like: Say what.

Regarding the dead Dove: I've talked to people of Discord before, and some of them mentioned something similar a couple of times, but personally, I do think the writers actually knew what they were doing here!

Of course, I do agree that it relies heavily on the regret notion and that it somewhat shoehorns you into a certain narrative corner, I noticed that too when I was ascending him for research - I hated doing that, but all for the asks, haha - but I thought it was really fitting for what it is!

The bad ending, that is. I know we all somewhat forget that because of how people view him as a character, but ascension is the bad ending. Even on an evil run, where your character may have considered all options, it is very likely that Tav hasn't accounted for one very important part of being a true vampire.

The obsession.

It's still somewhat mild in the game, though definitely there, but it will only get stronger as time goes on, and it will probably get to the point that the only escape is death. Either his or Tav's. So, in the end, ascension will come with an armload of regret and the writers were making sure we know that.

And, on top of that, even if we let him ascend in a pursuit for power - or in in your durge's special case: murder :) - we still cast spawn Astarion aside because he doesn't fit our needs, thus making it very clear to him that who he is isn't enough and his behaviour is the price we now pay.

It's pretty much the same with all the other companions as well - justiciar Shadowheart and ascended Lae'zel, for example. However, it doesn't bother us as much, because we have different expectations towards ascended Astarion than, for example, dark justiciar Shadowheart. We don't expect a positive narrative here, a narrative where becoming shady-shar's loyal subject isn't an objectively dumb decision to make, so we don't mind the dead dove as much. It's exactly what we've been expecting - and Aylin even warned us how Shadowheart would change upon becoming a dark justiciar - so yepp. This went exactly how we thought it would and this is what we wanted.

Astarion, however, is a somewhat special case, because his bad ending is, by far, the one that gets the most romanticised. He's so heavily romanticised by so many, that the bad parts nearly start to fade, even with those who don't like the ascended ending. It becomes just 'the other ending', if you will.

And yet, it's still the bad ending.

Ascension is the bad ending for a character that we've somewhat given up on. That we misunderstood so deeply, mayhaps, that we traded his entire being for power and, quite frankly, beauty. We showed him that he isn't enough, we let the boy run and hide the only way he knew how and now we're faced with the consequences and yes, it's really dead dove but...what did we expect?

[animentality]

hey big thank u for being gender neutral about durges <3 I check the tag often and it always hits when people gender durge when it is not something specific to their own durge but just general durge stuff. I know that canon durge is a big male storm sorc dragonborn but it is still nice when people use gender neutral language. like I can only play masc characters and most people here seem to make fem durges and default to she/her

Well that's why I do it!

The canon dark urge is a male dragonborn. But most people on this site who have a fondness for BG3 make female Durges.

So I always call them they/them (with the occasional exception, like when I'm talking about the canon dark urge specifically).

I do like to call them Gortash's wife or husband every now and again, but to me, it's in a gender neutral, jocular way.

Kind of like babygirl and girlboss have become gender neutral, if not male coded entirely. Or to refer to them as murder husbands, just for the Hannibal reference, but with the understanding, it's still gender neutral to me.

I just think it's more inclusive, plus I actually love all Durges.

I read durgetash fanfics with male, female, nonbinary, and trans Durges.

But i feel you on the masc Durge though!

My own personal Durges are always male cuz I'm a he/they and I simply prefer that. I like writing gay/bisexual Durge, and also trans male Durge.

but I do not begrudge anyone their gender identity.

this is a roleplaying game!

Durge is whatever you identify them as.

all Durges are created equal.

and Gortash wants to fuck them ALL because he's whorish like that.

thanks for the ask :)

[capillaryspice]

Unpopular opinion rant incoming:

I did not enjoy Baldurs Gate 3

Before anything else I will admit I am biased, as strategy turn based games aren't something I'm usually into to begin with. I mostly ended up playing it because my partners and a friend are SUPER into the game and wanted to do a 4 player run. I do have 30 hours on a solo run I tried to get used to the game with, so I have a decent bit of experience with how it's supposed to run as a single player but I'm not judging companion stories or anything because I haven't completed them.

I do understand why people like BG3, and I don't wanna rain on anyone's parade for a very critically acclaimed game, but I do have some thoughts that I just need to get out of my head, so if you like the game and don't wanna hear me complain about it just scroll on ahead. If you do want to hear me complain, I'd love to hear if anyone else has had the same thoughts, because genuinely I've not really had anyone to talk to that hasn't been head-over-heels for it. (Actual thoughts under the cut)

-----------------

With that out of the way, for starters BG3 is a very impressive game. From a technical perspective, from a voice acting quality perspective, the sheer amount of tiny tiny details, etc... it is IMPRESSIVE. Too impressive, I'd almost have to say. Because, despite being impressed by it, I did not have FUN playing the game. For all its details it doesn't draw me in. For all the technical marvel, it's just too janky. It's all of the rules of DND and none of the immersion or fun

I would love to have had a functioning camera position that didn't give me whiplash whenever a new character in the combat of 20+ NPCs decides to do so much as shuffle to the left. It feels like pulling teeth when trying to select/interact with anything, god forbid a reaction happens while you're trying to attack and you just completely lose the action bc the interruption to movement pauses everything and screws u up. I'd love to be able to jump without going through two menu screens and a map to just hop over a gap(I'm never complaining about the Dark Souls jump being too complicated ever again). Also everything moves so slow, I would kill for a fucking Sprint button.

I would have liked anything approaching a streamlined combat system that didn't take a long ass time to set up a move that takes six seconds to play out, and then wait for ten minutes literally doing nothing while the rest of the NPCs in initiative whip the viewpoint around and get it stuck in walls and corpses so I can't even see what's happening while I can't do anything for the rest of the round

A lesser gripe, but just a bizarre choice to not do: Id like to hear the character voice I chose in character creation for cutscenes, instead of just background ambient lines. Like, if the last dragon age game (from 2014 mind you) can have a voiced main character with multiple voice options, this new game that has unique voice lines for every goddamn squirrel on the map and ALREADY PAID VOICE ACTORS TO VOICE THE MAIN CHARACTER TO BEGIN WITH can probably afford to do so. Hell, I'd like some background music that isn't just the tenth rendition of Down By The River in a different key. The bard music is all gorgeous, why couldn't they have reused some of those compositions as ambient music for different locations?

This is a MASSIVE game, and what they've put into it is definitely admirable, but like. Not in the ways that make a game breathable or immersive? The choices in where they've decided to dedicate the anal level of detail seems misguided from a just general player standpoint; There's some gorgeous settings in the game, but I was distracted every time by getting frustrated that I couldn't even get a more-than-vague look at any of the scenery I actually enjoyed because the camera is so limited in its angles. So I can't take a good look around what should be a beautiful temple that I'd love to see closer, but I can individually inspect every moldy apple and tax form on a random dinner table instead. It's a vast open world, but the character models have very clearly defined paths they have to stay within. The amount of unique NPCs is insane, but the mechanics themselves TREAT them as NPCs(i.e., resurrection rules), and they don't react to PCs unless ur doing Violence or Crimes (even og skyrim had NPCs have comments on if u weren't like wearing clothes, for instance). Every shelf and bag and nook and cranny are searchable, but that gets overwhelming very quickly as you have to choose between taking like an hour of real time to clear a cluttered area and possibly find something important but more likely just end up with a bajillion rotten carrots, or move on but have the anxiety of knowing you've possibly missed something vital. There's a million options you can take at any moment with any object or character, but there's rarely anything indicating what will be vital later for general world stuff. But then with the main plot (the Emperor, Raphael, the crèche) it felt very railroaded in the sense that TECHNICALLY you could try and choose between outcomes, but your choices don't actually matter because you die if you choose The Wrong Option (or end up in effectively death sentence combat) and will end up where they want you to go regardless.

BG3 isn't a game I want to spend time playing; it's not a world I can wander around and appreciate the beauty of and get lost in the soundtrack or the environments. The whole combat system is incredibly frustrating to manage, and just feels like Hurry Up And Wait. I'm not gonna knock the romance parts of the game, I've heard good things and haven't gotten far enough in any of em to have an educated opinion on, so really the only thing the game has to offer in spades OTHER than romance is replayability. Which normally I would say is a good thing, but for how long of a game it is and how non immersive the gameplay and world feel, it really just ends up being a game of fucking around and seeing how many things you can get an alternate dialogue for or create new stats around. Like, this is great for completionist folks who love collecting achievements and making the most busted crunchy math-based builds possible, but Baldurs Gate 3 to me just isn't a game I can sit down and have Fun(TM) relaxing and playing.

It's a game that I feel absolutely missed the forest for the trees.

So anyways, essay complete. I've only slept like 6 hours total in the last three days so a lot of this may or may not even make sense. But on so much sleep deprivation finishing this game and realizing I was just frustrated with it instead of actually feeling accomplished for having finished it, it was the final straw and I just needed to get the thoughts down somewhere

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

[shokuheshi]

a very long bg3 rant about the poor mask victims in auntie ethel's horror basement + how frustrated i was the game wouldn't let me save them all

im so unreasonably upset that theres no way to save all the people with the masks on in auntie ethel’s basement. i killed auntie ethel before she got to her basement (thanks to sneaking around, all party members being level 5, and volo's eye) so i avoided having to fight the masked servants but only 1 of them was able to have any sense to take her mask off when we saw them and she herself said the others were as good as dead bc they were too far gone 😭 i wanted to save the cute drow + tiefling girls i tried so hard to.

LET ME SAVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

i cast friends, nothing. i cast charm person, nothing, i tried to fight them anyways to non lethal attack to take their masks and the halfling girl who already was saved and already spoke to us is forced to fight as well and dies every time despite not even being controlled anymore OR EVEN WEARING HER DANG MASK!? why was she fighting me we had a nice convo before about how she wants to go kill hags in the future! the game even gave me an inspiration for that. and i didnt want her dead because i read she appears in a later act of the game if u save her.

sneaking around and pickpocketing the others causes a fight to start with the same outcome and also there is no way to pickpocket the mask off them u can only loot it when theyre down AUGHHH

^ in a last desperate measure i had my handy bard astarion play a lil tune to see if thatd get them to leave auntie ethel's basement of horrors and funny enough they do like listening to music and threw gold at us and they liked it so much they didnt want to talk while he was playing! but directly after went back to yelling at us to go away and leave them alone/not believing auntie ethel was dead 🥲

mask of servitude girl i wanna give you your life back!!!!!! stop it!! oh well at least i gave her a nice tune to listen to before i left them all to their doomed trapped fate :( i left their gold on the ground if they ever break away from this hell they can use it. i feel terrible about all this and like i know if this was REAL dnd game i could ask the dm if i could grab the mask off their face and have to roll a dexterity or athletic or slight of hand check or something or hell have karlach grab them and carry them out i know shes strong enough to. they could use fresh air at least I KNOW I WASNT SUPPOSED TO BECOME FIXATED ON THIS i just hate that u cant save them

[prettyboykatsuki]

fang can u explain bg3 to me bc i want to know more abt the gameplay.. also when you talk abt the sex scenes is there like.. an actually scene? :o 🙊

bg3 is a DND based turned based rpg!!!

the general gist is that you get kidnapped and someone puts a lil worm into your brain. a mindflayer parasite, which if not removed fast enough, will turn u into a mindflayer (evil squid creature)

u wake up on the ship basically have to go on a quest to find a way to get rid of ur brain parasite but it's weird bc the parasite isn't doing what it normally does.

the game itself is techincally turned based but in a way that it is a little different to other turn based games. it mostly adapts stuff from DND 5e with a few things ommitted or shifted for smoother play.

you get to choose a class and race, and each class and race have unique qualities. the actual gameplay has your character roll an automatic initiative and that determines the order you get to make moves in.

when its your turn, you have an action and a bonus action. what actions and bonus actions are available to u will change based on your class!! depending on your race and class also will be your weapon proficiency, how much movement you can make, and some other more minor things!!

it is sorted mostly as a spectrum from full magic to full meleee. spell casters have a limited amount of slots they can use to cast them but infinite uses on something called cantrips. full spellcasting classes can use melee weapons but typically lack proficiency in them lol

melee classes are straight forward!! they are attack classes. they normally have more skill with weapons of all kinds and do a lot of head on attacking

many classes are also a mix of these two and have subclasses that alter or change the of from being pure melee or pure magic. subclasses can get really technical so i wouldn't worry about them until you've played through the game once

the game allows you to respec or change these classes with a little in game coin - so if you find yourself not liking something, you are always welcome to go up to withers (an npc in game who stays at ur camp) and change as many times as you like

if you'd like some more in depth information about the gameplay specifics please let me know but this is the gist!! hope this helps you

EDIT: I REAIZE MY DWEEBING OUT MISSED UR QUESTION

yes there is sex scenes but theyre not SUPER explicit at least not all of them!! it depends on the character but tbh!! some of them are just alluding to sex where as some are very Horny. but like…it’s enough to make a whore like me blush so

[okthatsgreat]

which of your ocs do you think you'd get along with irl? which do you think you absolutely would not be able to get along with, or who wouldn't like you?

GHBFSGBDFJH hiiiii whoever this is. i love u...................................................................................<3

im gonna do this list in order from MOST LIKELY to get along with to LEAST LIKELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! theyll be ranked on if i were to meet them in a relaxed environment which means NO killing game and NO dnd plot making their lives hell YAY!

sae: removed from a killing game scenario its reaaaaalllyyy hard to get her to not like you and also shes chill as fuck. she isnt my age but she'd give awesome advice and also i would definitely be texting her just to get back the most random bullshit from her brick phone. no notes here i have GOT to sit on a dock at night and talk shit with him

ryobe: so despite being the antagonist of his season outside of killing game stuff he is genuinely a very very fun person to be around!!!! also VERY easy to make laugh i think i could get along with this guy. now he is the greatest person to like idk Be Emotional to? not really but id have a great time taking him to go bowling. killing game scenario he'd be a lottttt lower

erin: you'll notice im splitting erin and pippy here because the answer is going to be very different LMFAO but erin and i would get alonggg :] she's real goofy and i need to introduce her to dnd i think she'd thrive there. also she's australian so if these people were real she'd have the best shot of being nearby. BONUS!

yoshito: he's just a nice guy :) but he's genuine about it like youre gonna notice a few of these ocs are nice but they tend to be rather surface level..... yoshito is for real a compassionate guy LMFAO. probably wouldnt share the EXACTTT same sense of humor as him and he's definitely one to pry a little into your personal business if he catches anything off about your behavior. which yknow sometimes is uncool but ultimately he's a good person so i cant imagine not liking him

naomi: heavy emphasis on this being a RELAXED scenario but i think we would be chill :) she's very awkward at first but i would think all her jokes are funny on account of being very easy to make laugh . we'd go play video games together. the dream. i do think our combined lack of ability to text people back will eventually kill us though GHFDHG

ruth: again not exactly my age and clearly busy being a mom but she's the type of woman who would have just absolutely fascinating stories to tell you at a family gathering before she slips away into oblivion again LMAO. but shes still pretty reserved and while i dont think i have any traits thats gonna make her hate my ass she also isnt gonna be super open with me so i cant see a super close relationship or anything LMAO. in my dream blunt rotation however. gotta get her on that dock with saeunn

mika: we're both average so she won't have a complex about anything, i can't imagine we'd be reaaallyyyyy close friends just because she doesnt have a very good sense of humour and she can be a bit blunt lmao. but we'd manage to get along if we were put in a group project or something

olli: MY FIRST DND OC TO MAKE IT HERE LMFAO i lovveeee making dnd/bg3 characters that would be terrible to hang out with in real life. olli is cool though id think they were funny. ill be very honest in saying that we arent gonna be lifelong pals or anything on account of how completely different our personalities are but they would be fascinating to spend a few days with. cant imagine theyd find anything about me they deem deplorable if anything they see my weak ass and vow to "shield me from thy wicked enemies" or something

billie: we'd be fine??? don't think we'd actively be making plans together on account of her being fifteen years old and really awkward

rie: we'd also get along but it's very surface level. she doesn't have much of a sense of humor unfortunately and we share very little interests!!! she's very lovely and all but there isn't much to connect over

andi: this is like. the true neutral point here because she truly is just siri

pippy: this is a character that is SUPPOSED to be really annoying to anybody that isn't an actual child and i do think i'd find that high energy difficult to keep up with lmaooo, also pippy wouldnt be making a huge effort to get to know me or anything! she's lots of fun though and definitely sweet

null: this one was hard ghfjgsdfkg. null is objectively very well-spoken, but this is often through blunt, unexpressive speech. not to mention they are very unnerving like i can not lie to you i would find them really off-putting at first. but the thing is they are up this high because i think they have longevity yknow.................. if im kind to it and give it a nice wave they will eventually mimic that wave back at me. i cant even explain it but i think we could get along. or maybe i am severely overestimating my abilities to talk to a cleric of a murder god but its whatever

sadie: okay so sadie is extremely charming. unfortunately she is extremely charming it's part of her character she is good at talking to people and i am not immune to this. i think sadie would be a lovely person to talk to a few times but hanging out with her for too long is eventually going to get me involved in some ungodly drama LMFAO. without a killing game level scenario to humble her she is going to get very annoying very quickly, and she VERYYY likely sees me as somebody easily manipulated

finnea: similar to sadie she is extremely charming, only put a knob lower due to how quick she is to disappear. would make little effort to truly get to know me and wouldn't make an effort to reveal anything about herself either, would kinda just make playful flirty comments that leave me going "oh yeah she seemed nice i guess"

nowhere: there's a bit of a jump here between finnea and nowhere i reckon because now we're getting into "i would probably dislike them initially" territory........ nowhere at the beginning of her story is like. an asshole LMFAO or at least she's just really loud and kinda abrasive and really doesn't make any effort to get to know people or help them. honestly most likely scenario is we both just say a blunt hi and then go our separate ways

elese: sigghhhhh it makes me so sad to say this it really does. but elese and i would not get along HGFKGSDJHJFKD shes dead last because i can say without a doubt we would both not like each other at first glance....... she would think she's of a much higher rank than me and i would find her very pretentious and cocky............... and if i was to be a little kind and say that this is POST character development elese we still dont have a whole ton in common unfortunately!! besides maybe music but even then she is very very classically trained... love her to death but it would not be fun meeting her in real life and that is why shes awesome <3

[eldritch-blasted-bagels]

Excuse my brain rot and the fact that I was a theatre kid BUT-

What Shakespearean Monologue I Want to See Each BG3 Companion Perform

Wyll

“O Soft, What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks” from Romeo and Juliet

Of course. There is no other option.

This man is a hopeless romantic and, I adore him, would not get the point of the play but would have so much fun playing Romeo.

Everyone in the cast would also be hopelessly in love with him.

(Bonus) “Once More Upon the Breech!” from Henry V

Oh this man would KILL this monologue. The battle cry? The rousing of his men against an impossible task? It’s what he was made to do, it’s what the character was built for.

Equal and opposite to how he’d absolutely slay as Romeo, he would make an amazing Henry.

Karlach

“O, Then I See Queen Mab Hath Been With You” from Romeo and Juliet

I almost, almost gave this to Astarion because I think he could also do it justice, but he already had two monologues.

Just… love u Karlach you can say whatever nonsense and I will nod along. Also absolutely ragging on your friend and getting carried away in the bit feels very in character for her.

I feel like she doesn’t really do acting but she would come support her friend’s productions however she could.

Astarion

“To Be Or Not To Be” from Hamlet

Hear me out; I think it would either be so over dramatic or the best damn rendition you’ve ever heard.

Contemplation of mortality, pain, existence? Astarion is at his best when he’s having an existential crisis.

This man was also just built to play Hamlet. You could replace this with “‘Tis now the very witching hour of night,�� “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt” Or any of his soliloquies and what I said still goes.

(Bonus) “Dost Thou Not Suspect My Place?” from Much Ado About Nothing

This is one of the best comedic monologues Shakespeare has to offer and I won’t be told otherwise

Specifically based on the line of Dogberry describing himself as a tasty piece of flesh while also being Dogberry and flouncing about, being hysterical, because someone called him an ass.

(Bonus 2) (Sorry this man is very Shakespeare coded) He would be such a good Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Just a little shit.

Gale

“O, She Misused Me Past the Endurance of a Block!” From Much Ado About Nothing

Just as I think Astarion was built to play Hamlet, Gale was built to play Benedick.

He’s just enough of an ass but also fucking comedic enough to pull this off and make it hysterical. Like Benedick, he also just keeps talking.

(Bonus) Lear’s Storm Monologues

I think at his worst, Gale could do Lear some fuckin justice in his performance of that specific piece, and that slow descent into madness.

Lae’zel

“I Would Eat His Heart In The Marketplace” from Much Ado About Nothing

It’s a take I’m so here for and I think she’d get really into scolding Benedick for being a dishonorable coward.

Just think about the potential delivery of “Oh! If I were a man! I’d eat his heart in the marketplace!” gives me chills.

I don’t ship Lae’zel and Gale necessarily but I think if you put them in a production of Much Ado together it would be cemented as a bar-standard production.

Shadowheart

“O What a Noble Mind Been O’erthrown” from Hamlet

She kins Ophelia and you can’t tell me otherwise. Also specifically, in this, the context of being used as a pawn by everyone in her life feels appropriate.

(Bonus) Let her play Joan of Arc in Henry VI. I don’t know why she’s so Joan of Arc coded in my brain but let her do it.

Halesin

“All the World’s a Stage” from As You Like It

This one is the one I’m least confident about but the world-weary and worn nature that it can take on feels very Halesin and I think he would do a performance in such a way that it sends you spiraling into an existential crisis.

(Bonus) Minthara

“And Dash’d the Brains Out!” from Macbeth

Again, I just think Minthara would kill as Lady Macbeth.

But, I don’t think “Out damn spot” would be where she shined; I think these moments of absolute murder and ambition would.

Also inspired by the production (in DC I think?) where they had to cut Lady Macbeth literally smashing a baby doll on rocks during this monologue because the audience found it too disturbing.

[viladlind]

EVENT RERUN: MISTIFIED

going with mistified as my choice! the tldr is that there's memories (some interactive, some not) around the place in a foggy landscape that unlocked most of fiyero's powers. i'm putting a list of scenarios below the cut that you can pick from, though there's always more i can come up with to match the vibes!

this also functions as a starter call for the event. capped at 3, with newer interactions highly encouraged! if we already talked about threads for mistified, you don't need to like this.

list below the cut (i'll make a differentiation here between mallenor and fiyero for clarity):

residual data imprints (scenic memories that play out in front of you, unable to be interacted with):

mallenor's betrothal to corher ithildil and the ensuing argument. mallenor's open protest against the marriage surrounded by nobles is one of the reasons he got assassinated later on

mallenor's assassination, his first (horrifying, lonely) death. this includes his body's transformation back into a tiefling, since true polymorph dispells upon fully dying

mallenor's resurrection and the fearful reaction of his mother when he tries talking to her after waking up. we can add a past argument with his mother in here as well, because this is the moment it finally clicks for mallenor, why his mother hates him

fiyero's abduction at the beginning of bg3 and the tadpole being put into his brain! he honestly hasn't talked a lot about it and tries to ignore the gravity of it still being in there

for some spicier fiyero, any aftermath of a bigger battle will do. perhaps even with a hint of seeing fiyero in full leader mode, giving orders to his party members and flinging around magic. if you want to see fiyero covered in blood, this is the one for u

(previous one can also be paired up with a sentient data imprint of some dnd monsters that fiyero encountered in his travels)

sentient data imprints (interactive "ghosts" of the past that are entirely based on fiyero's memories, not the real deal):

these all work with or without fiyero present.

his biological father! this one is a super interesting idea to me because fiyero never knew the man. any memories he has are of his own imagination, so not necessarily accurate to the real deal

his mom :) this one is really just evil. she does not regard fiyero as a person and would say as much

if u want some drama involving an ex, davil starsong is always there to be flippant and unattached. he's a blonde elf as well, if you're looking to embarrass fiyero w/ this knowledge

for some softer vibes, i'd love a little version of child!fiyero. maybe even as a tiefling, as opposed to an elf? i think either could work depending on the plot. this would be before his mother's treatment made him bitter and angry. just a sweet, artistic kid!