#and has had since the days of dos2

[galedekarios]

people dismissing mystra's ab*se of gale and chalking the reaction others have to it up to misog*ny because larian can't be arsed to get their lore right will be my villain origin story

[mybg3notebook]

I know you have not uploaded in several years and might not even see this, but I wanted to say thank you SO much for your amazing explorations of Gale. He is a very complex and often misunderstood character and I think your meta posts on him hit the mark perfectly. If the spark arises I hope you will return after the full release :) Thank you again for all your wonderful posts! Have a nice day!

Hello!

Thank you very much. I am still around, it's simply work and other games have got my attention, and after playing EA so many times, I am already burnt out to the bones. I am also deeply disappointed with Larian's latest changes.

Hopefully, after release, I will continue with more analysis if the game is worthy of that. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well these analysis of Gale will hold with the apparent rewrite of his character. If the new description of him ends up being true and it's not a terrible lie to the player, since nothing of that was shown or hinted in EA, these analysis will fall apart. In fact, if he ends up being another boring, overused, cliche wizard who wants power because he wants to be the biggest wizard of Toril :rolling eyes:.... I may lose any interest in him. All what made him interesting and a bit "original" within the context of Forgotten Realms has been erased completely with that new description.

I'm also disappointed with Larian in general, because it's obvious their two fave chars are forced through the player's throat like Liara was in Bioware's case. You don't care about them? It doesn't matter, they will always take priority in conversation and scenes, they will be key in showing another side of the main plot (as it was Fane in DOS2) and the rest of the companions become secondary or forgettable.

And Karlach's final face is a horror. It's a variation of Shadowheart's face, a barby-Karlach, because clearly Larian feeds bro gamers who want yet another doll-faced woman. I find annoying that nobody complained for this change: her first potential face (not the placeholder), with half face burnt and scarred, hard eyes, and a longer and pronounced nose, was the face of a warrior who went to hell and back... now you have the baby-doll face, Red!Shadowheart, almost, lol. It's a bit unsettling. It reminds me when Larian made their big-boobs lizard women in DOS1.

At least they did what I thought it was a must: to truly write Wyll, because that char was inconsistent, lacked of depth in comparison with the rest of the other companions, and was, basically, a future Beast (dos2) in BG3. That's why I didn't even bother to write a general overall analysis of his character. I suspected he had to be written at some point because it's was a cardboard character in there, just there to be your black char token. You know, the black char we add to a game so we look "progressive" but still has bad development as a char or it's simply shallow when compared with the depth of the other chars. Pretty much like Larian does with their lgbt representation too.

Larian's lgbt representation also bothers me. It is mostly hidden in books and lines of text in this world (yes, yes, Astarion is the only char shown and written lgbt openly, but the rest of the world has no lgbt integrated chars, or the few two couples we saw in EA are unhealthy and horrible-the gnome lesbian-or absolutely hidden in one single line that, if you miss it, you can confuse them as brothers -the husband gnomes-). We can have a long discussion about how Larian does playersexual characters that are not any representation of lgbt, because they are not written like bi but hetero, and their "bisexuality" only appears when you romance them (and this was done in DOS2 too, with barely a line or two hidden in Lohse's origin to show some potential, little bi inclination). It's so strong how they write their characters as hetero, that even in several parts of the romances of DOS2 you have descriptions where it shows that the default was clearly "man tall and woman smaller", even when in DOS2 world that may not apply to some hetero couples (elves and lizards). But all this discussion about playersexuality is a long one I'm not even sure the fandom can have at this point. I wish to be wrong and see more lgbt characters naturally integrated to the world, and not reduced to short stories in books or to whom you romance with your Tav. But I doubt it. Larian follows the masses. And Masses care nothing about this. Thank you for the ask, and have a nice day too!

[motheatenscarf]

I'm a notoriously slow RPG player and have had kind of a busy day besides, but I have made it as far as the Grove and doing most of the side quests there, and man, they've changed a LOT from early access!

I like Gale a LOT more this time around, they really toned down his superiority complex, he seems more excited to explain things because he's special interest infodumping, rather than like, lecturing you because you're stupid and you need someone to explain these very simple things to you.

I also like that they shortened up the Nautoloid section in the tutorial, they messed up the ship a lot more and cut out the thralls running the cannons. Really added to the stakes that you had to RUN to the bridge.

The camp clothes are adorable and apparently because I was an Early Access player, I got the digital deluxe version for free! So I got lots of fun DOS2 themed clothes and gear and whatnot. Look how cute Rose looks in it!

Things I'm less sure on are Wyll's recast and retooled story. I think it's very compelling to make his goal a conflicting one with one of the other origin characters/companions, but it makes him less personally endearing for him not to care as much about the tieflings in the Grove. The new VA is great, he does sound like nobility this time around, less cocky and self aggrandizing, but I also liked how forced and put-on his bluster felt. You really got the impression before that nobody bought his hype, least of all himself as the man selling it. Idk. I guess I have to put that version of Wyll out of my mind because he seems like a VERY different character now.

I googled why the VA was recast, wondering if he'd gotten canceled for something or other, but apparently they completely reworked Wyll because he just "wasn't connecting with players." Which... is disappointing for a number of reasons.

I'm not very far in, but I'm already wishing they'd just stuck to their guns because we all

KNOW

WHY

players were having a "hard time" """"connecting"""" to Wyll over any of the other characters, and it had nothing to do with his story or his VA. He worked fine as a character, he was internally consistent with plenty of plot hooks into the main narrative with an overarching mystery that would be solved by progressing his story. I'm sure this new version will work too, and he's far from the only character they've retooled personality-wise.

Shadowheart was kinda snide and hostile at first, now she's almost playful if still secretive. Gale was arrogant and condescending, now he's eccentric and excitable. Even Astarian who started out much more overtly salacious and cruel has been toned down to just, general hedonism and selfishness. Lae'zel has always been Lae'zel tho lol.

So like. Idk, I want to take it in good faith that Wyll's actual story has been the most noticeably retooled since his was the most complete narrative we got out of Act 1 from early access, but also, I can't NOT be suspicious when I've seen it happen so many times where devs will "rework" a black character who isn't "connecting" with fans.

[macgyvertape]

BG3 Act 3 thoughts and liveblog part 1

I couldn't stop comparing DOS2 act 3 and BG3 act 3, since act 3 is a bit underbaked in both games compared to the other acts, but wow BG3 just has so much more polish and content.

The prologue reveals my character is a Bhaalspawn, I feel like it's just so widely known at this point

Defining character moment for Astarion “the problem with what Cazador has done is he did it to me”. Since Asatarion really wants this she’d help him sacrifice his “siblings” what matters to her is that Astarion is safe, but she’s worried about the unknown details but is still planning as if its possible. The dialogue options of “a killer isn’t worthy of respect” is fucking laughable my character would never say that lmao. 

When the narrator was saying you have a bunch of options what will you do, for my character it felt best to say “when the moment comes I’ll do what feels right”, since she's more of an opportunist

Ooof that fight with the gith was rough even on easy mode.

My character wanted The Emperor to prove he was the protector, but then tried to read his thoughts anyway. She’s also very grateful Lae’zeal wasn’t around when this happened considering Orpheus is real and a renegade mindflayer has him prisoner

Learning that the protection against the Absolute comes from Orpheus being trapped really puts a damper on my character’s plans to not get rid of the tadpole and associated powers. It's too dangerous to count on Orphues being imprisoned. Also the Emperor was a successful power player in Baldur’s Gate, so she’s more wary of his plans and agenda than the fact he is a mindflayer. 

My character did turn down the Emperor’s offer to evolve her, sorry she just is too attached to how her body looks. She also thinks this is a line in the sand she’s not going to persuade her companions on, unlike the tadpole powers. (personally it's the fact that it messes up your teeth, huge personal squick). I guess had my character take on so many parasite powers it gave me a fucking 21 score roll to not evolve. 

EDIT: the next day I got spoiled on the Emperor’s seduction scene and it’s friendly manners being all a front; real fucking surprise pikachu face moment for me. That my character who manipulates, lies, and seduces people might encounter someone who emotionally manipulates, lies and will seduce people. I didn’t fully trust it and thought it might have its own agenda, but still I was a little too trusting that there might have been some genuine emotion. Like DAMMIT I was rewatching Felix rvb scenes before I started the game and he has a line “Funny how an act of sacrifice like that [getting hurt] buys you so much trust”. Which is exactly what the Emperor did, where it knelt down and made a big show of how it trusts me not to hurt it and when it calls on us for that dramatic rescue that while genuine was an excellent opportunity for it to be revealed. Apparently the 21 roll is because I used so many tadpoles which the game treats as buying into The Emperor’s promises. Its repeated lines of “just like you” and “i’m on your side” to establish common ground and then presenting itself as a criminal with “a heart of gold” in its backstory. I/my character was skeptical on some details considering it also presented itself as a major power player, but bought into it’s use of “allies” when what he meant was “pawns”.  

Gale had the comment “you’ve not taken this power for yourself… why offer it to me” and I wish I could respond like what Astarion said, that don’t want to sacrifice my body. Astarion had a whole lot to say on the subject but Karlach only had 1 line about being surprised I hadn’t taken the power/transformation. Funny to see how other companions had lines about how they hadn’t done any tadpole powers and they weren’t about to start now. 

My character’s made an enemy out of the undead lich Gith queen, whom only Orpheus can oppose, and there’s an entire Gith resistance working to free him as well. So that really kills any plan of using the Absolute for herself because she’d be better off with Orphues fighting the Gith queen

Really Astarion and my character have come so far from act 1 where he was warning me about how easily Cazador could kill me to now where he’s saying if Cazador comes for him he’ll strike back and he’ll have my character along with him 

The one group my character has been consistently nice to with no promise of reward is kids, so at this point she’s just resigned to them showing up at camp as long as there’s someone like Withers, Halsin, or Wyll to keep them from getting hurt. 

My character is helping the strange ox yet again. It won’t reveal what it is but she’s really curious, and it hasn’t seemed to kill people, so she’ll help it because it might be a useful ally in the future

I love Biscotti what a GOOD DOG (love the animal writing in this and DOS2)

I think its funny that for a while I was thinking that Astarion wasn’t that pale, but in the bright light of Baldur’s Gate he really is. I think it's due to my monitor that has super high contrast

Surprised Halsin has the most dialogue in the refugee area mostly about how he’s rapidly becoming disillusioned with the city, and I tried a earlier save without him and the other companions like Astarion or Karlach don’t speak up if he’s not there.

Community meme about Gortash: I can excuse him being the chosen of an evil god and using his power to found a murderous evil cult but I draw the line at him and his PMC making surveliance cop robots. Bane is just the god of cops and Gortash works for Boston Dynamics

I like to think a bunch of the companions have been a positive force on my character so she’s helping the refugees in her own manner (lots of intimidation), and wants to see the Tiefling refugees make it after all the struggles. That there were explosives in toys justifies her being nosy and helping

Karlach really wants to go to the circus, unfortunately my character is a vicious murderer lmao. Thankfully she’s great at [persuading] and charming. Astarion, Halsin, and Karlach seem to be the best “go to the circus” group

Incredibly cool to hear my bard character perform along with the other bard in the circus

The dinosaur and the magic cat in the circus are being mistreated, Halsin is right to be mad about it. I used Astarion to pickpocket the key, then mage hand to open both cage doors

My character doesn’t like clowns and after she felt that murderous urge there’s no way she’s getting on stage. I watched the different versions of sending Halsin or Karlach up on stage but sending Astarion up on stage really is the best version. Role playing it as after he made that comment about clowns being a horror and with how both Karlach and Halsin approve of picking Astarion while he doesn’t approve if you pick someone else; its some light hearted group teasing of a guy who usually has a joke at others expense “You love the spotlight, don’t you… here’s your big chance”. Yeah he says he’s going to kill me but he’s not seriously upset.

Astarion and my character both enjoy killing clowns, see we’re great together

My bard character was pissed about the Djinn scamming with the spin the wheel game so of course she went back to rig things to get the jackpot. 

Ok so my character gets her meteorites back, that she’s a Bhaalspawn, she’s not surrendering to the D!urge or worried about atoning, but that she’s being encouraged to slaughter her line and that its the woman who hurt her before is a opportunity for power and revenge coinciding nicely

For now the only person my character is telling is Astarion, this is a big thing to confess and she wants to play this close to the vest for as long as possible. While she did have earnest suspicions since the oubliette, she’s more afraid about standing up to a god and the loss of control. I personally like how Astarion comforts you after that dialogue a lot more, especially the way he says you must try to beat Bhaal and not become a slave.

[bearsgrove]

✨ oc tag game wahoooo! ✨

aight so here's the tag game i wasn't tagged in but wanted to do and @gwynbleidd and @graveyaird convinced me that i should 😔 along with u two i tag @werecanidae and @sylkana and anyone else who feels like doing this 🐏

favourite oc - ok thats a very difficult and unfair question, i love all of them so so much, they all mean a lot to me for different reas– ravell. its a toss between ravell and kaz tbh but. ravell. ravell means Everything to me.

newest oc - probably avery? whom i dont talk about a whole lot because they are from the [redacted] Duology 🙃. if we consider an oc from 2 and a half years ago new lmao. listen, i havent been making new ocs much, i just had a period of time when i made a bunch. so avery is a very rare exception of a new oc. im honestly surprised she sort of.. stuck around and i genuinely love her a lot. she was made out of the need to play as a new h*wke because ive been playing as the same one since the dawn of time. she gave my game experience a much needed fresh air and some nuance too.

oldest oc - ravell. or the version of. ravell in sk/rim was very much based on an already existing original character and those two characters still somehow intertwine to this day. there are subtle differences but they are more or less the same person. but when it comes to ocs i talked about on here, which are usually just ocs for this or that game, excluding any original story ones then yeah its ravell.

meanest oc - lyrhis? i know i still present her on here as a dos2 oc but she is an original story oc and i only put her in dos2 because 1) it felt like it would fit her 2) she is important to me and i wanted to be able to still talk about her on here without feeling like she doesnt fit in because she isnt from a game lol. i think her being "mean" is more about her being generally very otherwordly, inhuman and therefore aloof - which can get interpreted as mean i guess - because her perception of things is very different. calling her "mean" even feels weird because that word implies this sort of.. human meanness, spitefulness, generally being malicious for some reason. if anything calling her "mean" is maybe an understatement. she is just kinda cold-blooded, cruel, ruthless. ok you know who is actually a mean oc. evan. he is the opposite of what i just said about lyrhis. he isnt cruel or cold-blooded, but he is spiteful, malicious and can cause a lot of harm with only his words and need for revenge or simple spite. i think that to be mean one still has to be human, its a human trait. and he is human, there is a reason for why he is like that. lyrhis isnt human in the first place.

softest - hera 😔 literally my only normal oc. and she spends a lot of time in the sewers, talks to her rats and overall is a bit Odd but. she is the least evil out of my ocs and carries the least amount of baggage lmao. sure she has been through shit but she is the only oc that turned out "fine" after her personal trauma. but other than that she is very compassionate, considerate and has a strong moral code

most aloof/standoffish - well idk. its a toss between lyrhis i guess for reasons i already mentioned and then wren. which is quite a difference lmao. those two come to mind first but then also ravell, ives and avery. eh, most of my ocs probably seem standoffish, its one of their most common traits. but in conclusion i would say wren? if only because wren is actually a lot like hera, my other more or less only normal oc with an actual moral code and someone who has other people's interests and feelings in mind. but unlike hera wren outwardly appears very cold and most people would describe them as aloof. they are simply distant and keep to themselves but definitely are not internally aloof, they feel a lot, they simply don't show it. but the aloofness of others (ravell, ives, avery…) definitely comes from a lack of emotional intelligence as well as simply being a reserved bunch in general

dumbest oc - probably ravell :( if we compare their general Knowledge about things with my other ocs they are definitely the dumbest. but they are not Stupid. i think them being dumb can just be summed up into them not Knowing many Things and acting/speaking without thinking. they dont do much thinking. which can lead to them making mistakes because they most often act on impulse. they are rational, they can be very smart and cunning, but also they do strike me as the dumbest of my ocs sometimes

smartest oc - hmmm. cant decide between lyrhis, evan, nate and kaz. leaning towards kaz fsr, even though outwardly he would appear as the dumbest out of this group. but i think the other 3 while being smart are also just generally very learned and academically smart. but kaz has that natural smartness about him. idk how to explain my brain power ran out half way into this tag game ngl

horniest - evan.

oc you'd bang - hmmmmm i cant decide between "all of them" and "none of them". like. i know most of them are very hot and right up my alley (i mean I made them) but at the same time. they have way too many similarities with me for me to be able to comfortably say that i would fuck them lmao. i know who i wouldnt tho 100%- ravell. i think over the years they became too much of their own person. like ravell is real to me ok. and i respect them too much as a person to say something like that lol. ok well. i just realized something. i change my statement to "all of my ocs that are women". i figured out why i didnt feel comfortable saying "all of them" lmao. because not all of them identify as women!

oc you'd be best friends with irl - kaz. kaz has unironically been my best friend for as long as i can remember. i think that even when i was making him at the back of my mind i would think "ok who do i need? thats who this character is" and back then i needed a friend! as cringe as it is. one good friend. who would be just my person. and no one else's. ok my abandonment issues are showing again and recently i'm noticing way too many past signs and patterns

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities in Baldur's Gate #1

Man it's been a while since I've had some stuff to say. I never left Tumblr, by the way. Just browsed and lurked my dashboard. Per my work schedule these days I spend my time at home actually playing my games rather than blogging about them. My previous spurt of all those "current activities" archives was mostly back when I was sharing a computer and playing games on Xbox. So my brother and I, depending on some variables, would be essentially trading depending on what we were doing.

But going from a 4-hour shift part time K-mart cashier to a just almost full time produce clerk leaves me less time to just post about my gaming ventures all willy-nilly.

Anyway, Baldur's Gate 3. It's good, it's great. I've spent the post-Early Access hours mostly in character creation and getting various ladies off the beginning nautiloid. There's so many classes and race combinations I want to try so another 30 hours post-EA and I still haven't seen the second act yet. This is typical for a Larian Studios game, same thing happened to me on DoS2.

Just this morning I discovered the hag's bog area which I never actually found in EA but it was probably there. There's just so many goddamn things to do.

I plan on posting some screenshots but this is a bit of a rush-post before a workshift. I need to look up what Tumblr's guidelines are on titties these days because one of my two main characters is rather skimpy. My asshole warlock tiefling who basically has ideations of nudism, but she is still a warlock so she has a skirt and belts to carry her stuff. And a hood because it's spooky and she likes spooking people. But in camp it's all nude and she doesn't give a shit. Weighs her down.

I do at least have a headshot of her that's SFW.

She's cool. Wish the runic tattoos were all over her body.

Because I've spent so much time in character creation, my next post will be more in-depth with my various characters and my general plans with them. This includes both Dibbe and Kiur Kenneth, two of my long-time characters I typically play on a variety of games. If there's a lizard available, I'm absolutely going to be playing Dibbe again.

Odd that I never thought to do so on DoS2.

Not everyone has a screenshot available because some of them are still on the crashing tutorial ship. I get this "mood" to play certain types and right now I'm all rogue and all warlock, but I really want to play a monk because I keep finding monk-adjacent gear... which is exactly the kind of thing that I did on DoS2. I kept finding off-class gear so I'd go roll a new character with that build in mind.

Anyway the absolute scale of the game is immense. Some people have been turned off by the DnD-nature of it, the fact you can only attack once and do one utility thing and that character's turn is over. Honestly it really is not different from the action points of Fallout/DoS2, and it bears decent similarity to Xcom. Same thing on Xcom, you only had two actions or so on that as well (with some buffs with gear, tech, levelups, etc). I'd hazard to say if you liked the old Fallouts, Wasteland, Xcom... this game is still adjacent.

I'll have more to say later. Perhaps after work.

[lavellane]

omg tay ... is there anything u can tell us abt ur godwoken ... i wanna know all abt them

ok well first of all i love u forever for asking ophelia !!! 🥺🥺 and secondly she's actually one of ....... 4 godwokens so far 🤡 since im so lost in the dos2 sauce rn i apparently cant help myself. i usually dont like making multiple ocs but dos2 is just SO good for multi chara worldstates, and i like to think they all hang out ykno..... <3 tho as much as i'd love to go crazy go stupid about all of them i would literally be infodumping all night so i'll spare u that and refrain from inflicting the rest of the squad upon ye....for now...

(also disclaimer even tho i have like 200 hours in this game i still have so little understanding of the lore lol....so a lot of this might be subject to change. anyways)

NADAIA "DAIA" [LAST NAME PENDING LOL]

aka my baby my darling my angel

she/her, elven, lawful neutral, around 50ish years old so still super young considering elves r literally immortal lol

pyromancer + priestess (priest class is a mod i'm pretty sure, but it makes more sense for her than a hydrosophist build imo) with the scholar and noble personality tags ! so she's a stuffy nerd who will either heal u or burn u to a crisp <3

begrudgingly romances fane — her main party is fane/lohse/ifan!

out of all four of my dos2 godwokens she is the only one who (reluctantly) ascends, making her my canon divine

she was orphaned at a young age, has absolutely no idea what happened to her family or who they were

born and raised in arx, she was taken in by priests of the divine order at a young age. while this gave her the safety/order/education she needed as a child, her being an elf meant she was p much immediately put to work as a servant and not given too much extra thought. she grew up shadowing healers and priests who tended to the magisters, and — through dedication, experience, and SO much bs —eventually became a formidable healer herself. one of the best in arx.

despite growing up within the heart of the divine order, she's never really had much true loyalty towards them, since she cares more for the PEOPLE she would see and help every day, over some abstract and shadowy institution. in fact i'd say she was always a bit wary/resentful of the magister ideals, because SHE was the one who would have to take care of the people who were harmed in it's name. so she saw first hand what zealotry was capable of and wasn't super surprised when the order went nuts and turned on sourcerers.

instead of fleeing she remained to try and help deradicalize magisters on the inside, as well as work with sympathisers to help sourcers and their families hide or get out of the city. obviously she was eventually caught and sent to fort joy, but i like to think she was the reason a lot of former magisters deserted the order and went on to join the seekers 😔✊

personality wise she is..... very GOOD and mostly kind, but she can be short and impatient with people who try to test the limits of her politeness lol. being a healer to MAGISTERS of all people means shes been exposed to SO much stupidity and really doesnt have ANY tolerance to absorb more. so sometimes her "kindness" involves ...... chewing someone out until they get their shit together and stop wasting her time. she's very "im not angry, just disappointed. just kidding i'm also fucking angry lol". other than that she's gentle, introspective and quite serious, but has a lot of passion for people in general and couldn't stand on the sidelines even if she wanted to

i'm still working on some of the big building blocks of her lore, like a more solid motivation for wanting divinity other than just restoring the divine order, as well as figuring out more about her family (thinking she could be a lost scion t b h 👀) and what her relationships are with the gods. but i like to think she has always held an inexplicable *feeling* of divinity that she could never understand, and her finding herself more or less within arms reach of the former divine as a child might have smth to do with fate putting her where she needed to be. idk. mostly i just think she's neat !

[lairofsentinel]

I love your BG3 analysis posts and wanted to get your insight into one of Gale's lines. On point 21 you discuss his 'doubt' lines. There's another line that I find similar / fitting: if the main char tells Gale they think their night together was a mistake then he says something like "Let me clear your mind of doubts: it absolutely wasn't." He doesn't discuss the 'why' of it - or express he's disappointed but accepts their choice. He tries to discourage that line of thinking outright. Thoughts?

Hey, hello! Thanks for reading those big posts. :D

[Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access Spoilers]

For those who don't know what those numbers mean: [Gale in 27 points or more]

Yeah, in (21) I found curious that he just says "doubt is a spoilsport" in another desperate attempt to make the MC stop thinking about it, and go for him already. Yes, you are right. The other line afterwards, when the MC shows doubts again about the whole night, he desperately tries to cast them aside. Again! They are like attempts of "no, no, dear, stop thinking right there. We are not a mistake, we are just we. Stop thinking. I don't care if I encourage questioning in general. On this matter, question not" XD

Which I found hilarious in comparison with his personality which is ALL the time in his mode "we need to doubt about everything", because well, that's a scholar. Scholars tend to be better at questioning than knowing things most of the time. This shows once more that he is desperate to stay with the MC, so far. I want to believe that there are not more hidden secrets, or ill-intended motives coming from him.

His mental state by the time he meets the MC is quite a mess. If you think that since too young he was abandoned by Mystra with that orb of Netherese devastation stuck in his chest... we can assume that there is a high chance for him to have been alone ever since. The quest in saving himself from that bomb probably prevented him to use time and energy in relationships (like I say in (15)), and by (12) we know he feels deadly alone. Especially if we take his description of how the bomb makes him feel, which is an increasing terror the longer he stays without consuming artefacts.

If you fail in that conversation of the Loss scene, when you insist about what he lost, he will push the MC away and will say something like "I'm strong enough to keep on". But we know that by the end of that night (or after the party in case MC did not romance him), he will say it anyway. He will talk about Mystra abandonment.  He can't hold it anymore. He needs to share the burden and find someone to trust. Which will be the MC, as a friend or a lover.

I still think about the mind-shocking impact that the Weave scene caused him. It's not only what he states, his mindset has been focused on solving his bomb condition for too long. Relationships have been out of question for a while (15).  And then, he has this Weave moment with the MC showing him their romantic interest; it not only took him by surprise, it caught him quite vulnerable too (too much feeling of loneliness and fear and despair plus the tadpoles looming danger), so the event had a stronger effect than he lets show in that moment. We know he thinks about that event the following days in between the Weave scene and the party, and apparently, that makes a click in him.

As I said, he is desperate for the MC who shared that magic moment of the Weave. Magic is his life, as he said, and sharing it with someone who has supported him and giving him their trust, it moves the ground he is walking on.

He is a char that, when a chance appears, he doesn't want to let is waste. And that romantic scene in the weave was a completely unexpected chance happening in front of him. Serendipity, as he said. (I don't know if by choosing the last option, the one in which you imagine nothing, Gale will want something anyway. I have to explore that.) (** I already explored this [here] **)

In sum, the concept here is that, as a scholar, he is into doubts and questioning all what you want. He will encourage such attitude in the MC. Except when it comes to question his emotions for the MC and their night together. Because questioning them, may cause abandon him. We also need to remember he was abandoned. Abandonment issues must to be added to his psychological profile. It was probably this issue the one that made him wait to the last moment before saying the truth. Because he is all about consent and let people know the truth, but he freaked out at the thought that maybe that truth could mean a second abandonment. That fear is there even if the MC did not romance him. He reached to a point in his life where loneliness, the bomb, and the tadpole became too heavy to deal with alone anymore. He needs the MC. And needs to be sure that they won't abandon him. That's why Gale ends up doing that rotten move of saying the truth only after sleeping with the romanced MC and after all that speech of the book of Anm: through intimacy he wanted to have a deeper link with the MC in order to prevent the abandonment. This is why he says “after all what we passed through, after the night we spent together”. He wants the MC baaaadly. And he  wants not to be abandoned again. You see him bending and breaking his usual philosophy just to avoid abandonment. That's... a bit dangerous.

Once more it gives me the feeling that Gale is a nice mature character, who knows where he walks as long as we are not in the emotional ground. Emotional-wise... seems that Gale has pretty bad experiences, filled with over-idealised situations (Mystra) or over-darkened by misery (his bomb condition and now the tadpole) and in the back of all that there is a constant abandonment issue that may make some situations quite... complicated.

Asking for middle reactions to Gale on these matters seems to be a bit too much for his char. XD This is why I like to joke that he is basically proposing the MC right there... I mean, the book of Anm speech? If you choose “hey Gale, we are not newlywed (stressing that fact), but newly acquainted”, he gives a shit to the definitions of the words (the scholar, uh), he says “let's write the prequel”. One can interpret it like... he is assuming he and the MC are walking that path through and through. He is riiight heading into marriage. Lol. I personally would not like this kind of chars, but I make my exception here because, at least, Gale has a solid reason to be this way: he may die at any moment.

This kind of soft emotional instability char may be a dangerous compound in Larian's hands. You see, Larian in DOS2 offered romances that clearly were not going to last after the ending of the game; and you had hints of that pretty early in the game: one companion was married looking for their spouse, and another was betrothed, and had a fling with the MC meanwhile, if you want to. Another companion you can romance, simply disappears later by the end of the game. So... Larian... is not Bioware. Having a man like Gale that can break or bend his usual philosophy and his morals to a certain degree when it comes to matters of the heart.... well... it's dangerous, to say the least.

I fear Mystra appearing, and telling him that she abandoned him not because she wanted to, but because the netherese orb put her in danger (a logical reason that Gale could accept without problems no matter how much he suffered because of it, check (4),(14) and (20) ). And if Gale gets rid of that orb, and Mystra asks him to be his Chosen One “with benefits” once more (lol)... I'm not so sure if he will not abandon the MC. Unless the MC accepts a polyamory relationship (with a goddess? XD), because I totally see Gale has no issues with Mystra or MC having lovers besides him. 

Magic is his life, and he longs a lot the powers granted by the title of the Chosen One. And Mystra's affections are where the true magical power lays (Gale's own words). So.... yes. Dangerous.

Ah, damn... I derailed again. Sorry.

More content of bg3 in general [here]

[darth-salem-emperor-of-earth]

Video Game Questionnaire

Thank you for the tag, @briarfox13!

I tag: @commander-krios, @highexarchs, @bewitched-elf, @chenria, @jessicamarianadraws, @a1thusa, @flytehwire, @eddicus-lord-of-berries, @skybound2, @plushchimera

Rules: Fill in your answers below and tag some buddies!

-Games-

First game you ever played: Pokemon Red or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Favorite game: I have too many favorites. But right now, recent games I really love are FFXIV: Shadowbringers and FE: Three Houses. 

Game you hated at first but now love: Hmm...I don’t remember an example like that where I end up liking a game I use to hate. :/

Game you used to love but now hate: Can’t really think of any games like that right now. 

Game with the best group/companion(s): This can be said with most Bioware games, from DAO, DA2, KOTOR and the ME trilogy. And put the Fire Emblem series in here to because they create so many fun and interesting characters!

A game with your favorite ending: Dragon Age Origins, The Witcher 2, and KOTOR. 

A game with the WORST most disappointing ending: *narrows eyes at ME3* If it weren’t for those DLCs, you’d be up here. I too am doing with disappointing endings rather than worst because that’s an easier example to find. For this, I’m going with KOTOR 2. I never got the patches for the ending so I had the original version: where a bunch of scenes happen that make no sense, has no conclusion with your characters, and suddenly, your ship launches into the sky and the game ends. 

Best character customization?: Cyberpunk 2077, FFXIV, and Black Desert. The Elder Scrolls comes next in line after them. 

-Hero and Companions-

Your favorite playable character: That’s probably Garrus or Fenris.

The funniest playable character: Varric, hands down. :D

Your favorite companion(s): *stares at my long list of favorites* Err...there’s a lot, I’m afraid. 

Companions you could live without: Cora and Liara. They annoy me. Greatly. Throw Solas and Aveline in there while we’re at it. 

-Relationships-

Favorite game friendship(s): The friendships between Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn. And the relationship between Dimtri and Dedue.  

Favorite companion banter: Off the top of my head, the one banter dialogue with Zevran and Wynne where he asks her to cradled his face in her bosom nearly killed me with laughter. XD

A relationship you loved but went bad: I’m having flashbacks to how bad the Damien Ramsey route went when I thought that romance was all sweet and dandy and noooope! Once I saw the sign of “things are not what the seem”, I had to brace myself for the pain and follow the romance path through since I was almost done with the game. XP 

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: When I first started the support conversations between Harken and Vaida from Fire Emblem, I wasn’t sure how it’d play out because Harken/Isadora seemed cute together and I loved the concept of Lucius/Vaida (even though their supports don’t exist save in my head). But after reading their dialogue and their angsty epilogue of what happens to them after the war keeps gutting me over and over again but I keep going back for more... T_T

A character you wish you COULD romance: VARRIC! LET ME ROMANCE A DWARF BIOWARE, YOU COWARDS!

A minor character you wish could be a companion: Slane from DOS2. 

-Fun-

Shoutout to a random NPC: He’s not a random one, but I wanna give a shout-out to Emet-Selch for being one of the most complex, understandable, and beautifully written antagonists and I don’t believe he’s 100% dead based on some parts of the final battle that stood out to me as odd or didn’t match out on how some other Ascians died previously. 

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play:  Detroit Become Human. I’ve played the beginning when I was staying at my friends’ place for a few days but I don’t own the game. T_T

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: Any horror games. 

Online gaming or solo?: Mainly solo but I do like some online gaming. 

Why do you play video games?: I love the characters and stories the video games tells. I like how games allow me to escape and immerse myself into their world and see how everything unfolds by the choices I make. Of course, my creativity then comes into play when I imagine how to create fanfiction out of it with my characters and the canon ones. XD

[arideya]

Tagged!

OMG this is looooong. tagged by the one and only @djfatchip​ <3 thanks so much love <3<3<3

Tagging: @guidethisonekalahira, @shaiandra, @arielofautumn, @meonlyred, @shosholatte, @avandra, @maxrev, @forevervobla, @sabascaelus, @phoenixfg and anyone who wants to do ittttt!

favorite game from the last 5 years?  ‒ Divinity Original Sin 2 

most nostalgic game? ‒ Baldur’s Gate (all of them)

game that deserves a sequel?  ‒ Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

game that deserves a remaster?  ‒ 1. Baldur’s Gate = and no not that crap that Beamdog came up with, more like Pillars of Eternity Deadfire quality), 2. Morrowind = come on Todd, you gave us Skyrim in 1,000X forms, give us Morrowind). 

favorite game series?  ‒ Elder Scrolls

favorite genre?  ‒ Isometric RPGs

least favorite genre?  ‒ any PvP content.

favorite song from a game?  ‒ There are tons, but as of now Power of Innocence 2017 from Divinity Original Sin 2.

favorite character from a game?  ‒ that’s hard, but if I had to choose I’d pick Sarevok

favorite ship from a game? ‒ Sarevok/Charname, sue me

favorite voice actor from a game? ‒ I don’t really care for them, but I’d pick Sarevok’s voice actor over anyone any day. Its incredibly deep and distinct.

favorite cutscene?  ‒ Everything in Mass Effect games. But overall I don’t really care for them, I prefer to play a game not watch a movie.

favorite boss?  ‒ Dagoth Ur (Morrowind) because of how he is presented in the game and how he haunts your dreams; Bishop Alexandar in DOS2 because its your first epic fight, the music is crazy and that worm thing shows up; Irenicus BGII - he is just epic, Transcendent One from PS:T - you don’t even have to fight him you can just merge with him if you made certain decisions throughout the game and maxed certain stats.

first console?  ‒ Sega

current console or consoles?  ‒ Can’t do much with them besides playing. PC master race ftw

console you want?  ‒ see above

place from a game that you’d like to visit?  ‒ Sword Coast and Candlekeep, Sigil, Vvardenfell.

place from a game that you’d like to live in?  ‒ Sigil the City of Doors.

ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun?  ‒ uh im really bad at this. 

book that would make a good game?  ‒ Anything from Culture series by Iain M. Banks. He has crazy AI ships running rampant. Anything from Neil Gaiman - American Gods, Sandman, Neverwhere!

show/movie that would make a good game? ‒  I’d say Bladerunner? But we also kinda sorta have it in Cyberpunk, so I guess coolest ones are already taken? I would have wanted Cyberpunk to be grittier though, if only for aesthetic sake.

games you want to play?  ‒ I am waiting for ES6 and Fallout 5. Other than that not much.

have you gotten 100% completion in a game?  ‒ nope, i do kinda have a life :/

have you cried over a game?  ‒ Yep

what power-up or ability would you want in real life?  ‒ Regeneration. Nothing could kill you then since you just grow everything back.

[toodotnil]

Tagged by @ellelalee​ ! :D

1. Are you named after someone? My mum wanted to call me Jana after her favourite children’s book “Jan & Jana” (my brother’s name is Jan) but she has a cousin who was really icky and she was called Jana :’D so she still suck with the J at least.

2. When was the last time you cried? Like, actually cried? One of these last times I played DOS2, actually. LOHSE.

3. Do you have kids? Do OCs count? Other than that, nope.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Do I?

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people? I usually check how they treat people below their “rank” (especially in work related situations) because that tells you what kind of person they are.

6. What’s your eye colour? Brown-ish with tiny dashes of green. A friend once told me I had wolf’s eyes :’D dunno what she saw.

7. Scary movies or happy endings? Oh, happy endings, any day.

8. Any special talents? I can be especially patient when it comes to perfectioning something I’m truly enthusiastic about. I’m generally pretty patient, I think.

9. Where were you born? The same town I still live in :’) I actually moved back to the exact district the hospital is localised, haha

10. What are your hobbies? Mostly gaming, these days.

11. Do you have any pets? I wish! But I really don’t have the time to take care of one, since I live alone.

12. How tall are you? I shall use metric!!!! 164/165cm it depends on the day really

13. What sports do you play/have you played? I am still sporadically playing volleyball. I used to be a middle distance runner in my teens, though. So anything between 800m and 5km was my thing, really. I once came in 7th in German championships :P

14. Favourite subject at school? English! Also, German for a while, but mostly when we did creative writing.

15. Dream job? Ah, to be honest, I am kind of enjoying what I do right now? I always wanted to do video editing/graphic design etc. and recently I’ve been given a lot of these kind of jobs on my regular job (which is mostly office stuff) so I get to do creative stuff a couple times the week and it’s pretty cool, actually!

I’m not gonna tag anyone, but feel free to do this if you want to :)

[mybg3notebook]

Loving your analyses of Astarion's behaviour and character so far! It has really reaffirmed in my eyes just how much of a bastard he really is. (I say that fondly, of course.) Do you have any thoughts on why the general reaction on tumblr has leaned so much towards woobifying him? After looking at his actual (explicit and implicit) morals in game it seems quite odd that some people are reading him as an edgy soft boi who just needs a hug from the right person to fix him.

Hello!

Thank you very much! I really enjoy seeing chars in a deep way. It makes me change my opinion on them, sometimes. That's why I like to do these analysis, even though it's a lot of work for a person who doesn't speak English as a native.

Lol, please, I won't be offended. Astarion is a bastard in the whole sense of the word, lol.

However, I find Astarion an interesting evil (evil neutral imo) char to explore the narration of “abuser who found a greater abuser”, with all the topics I talked about in those posts. I would feel a bit disappointed if Larian suddenly changes him into a man who always had a gold heart (because for that, you need to give hints, even in EA, and none of that has been seen so far).

An example of how this is done is with Shadowheart, she is evil and she supports a lot of cruelty that Astarion does too, but we got meta-knowledge (and not so much meta when we see her heavily drunk after killing the tieflings) that gives us enough reasons to believe she has some heart in her, despite Shar and her teachings. I do not support the idea of “she is a softie”, because she is not, but she doesn't have the same level of cruelty nor revels in murder so much as Astarion does. They represent different degrees of evilness. What plays in her favour is her face, which gives the idea of more softness than she truly has; the same happens with Astarion. Lae'Zel is less cruel than Astarion in general, with more logical reasons to be so because her brainwashed culture made her to be more pragmatic than a taster of cruelty, and yet, she receives a lot of more hate in the fandom... and it is clear to me why: she is not “beautiful” in the traditional white euro-centric standard sense.

And this is my point to answer your question (remember all this is personal opinion): I think there are many reasons why people woobify Astarion (not only in tumblr, but also in Reddit or in Larian Forums, it's a big part of the EA fandom).

First and foremost, I believe it's his appearance. If he were a bugbear or a goblin, few in this fandom would give a thought about his abuse, his pain, Cazador, etc. They would focus on his “bastard” side and leave it at that (again, Lae'Zel has this treatment). I want to make clear that I'm not questioning people's taste, everyone can like whatever they want to. I'm saying that, for me, there it proof enough to sustain this idea that Astarion is woobified because he is beautiful: when you read that a lot of people in this fandom never had an interest in Larian's previous games, or isometric rpgs, or even turn-based combat games (there are some people who are giving feedback against the game being a turned-based combat one! It's the nonsense because it's basically Larian's style), but they bought bg3 because they saw Astarion, even though they knew nothing about him.... All this, clearly, shows to me that a lot of people approached this game for only one char, for only his design (a big amount of them say it explicitly), and it is not far-fetched to know that people justify more easily beautiful villains than ugly ones. We can explore a lot of examples of this in many fandoms. People can love villains because they have real complex reasons to be so (like Loghain in DAO), but they also can like whimsical villains just because they are “hot”. I feel this is Astarion's case, he is a “beautiful villain” who apparently has always been evil. His reasons for his whimsical evilness is more like “it's always been in his nature”. Unless the family part has a different role in his backstory (mirror option) and it's not a mere line for a player to play a “good aligned” Astarion when picked as Origin. I don't like to read much about it in that scene because the game still doesn't have companion Tags; those options in the mirror can be there just for the player to pick, flavoured with each origin, but not necessarily the three of them are canon. This will be seen once we have the companion tags activated as it happened in DOS2.

What we can say for sure is that Larian knew what they were doing when they picked Astarion's design; they choose a dangerous white guy with white hair and evil alignment: an archetype that catches a lot of people in many fandoms.

Part of his woobyfication process has a deep root there, in my opinion. Again, if he were a bugbear, a goblin, a githyanki, a monster-humanoid... we would not have 90% of the EA fandom collapsed with his image, or Larian focused on him to the point that after 4 patches he had new scenes, lines, corrections, and development, while Wyll is still there, sitting in the bench of “the less developed chars” (with around 2k less lines than the rest of the chars, and his personal quest bugged since the first day). Yes, I don't like the preference on one single companion when I am seeing the “future Beast” (from DOS2) in Wyll.

Second, he is a vampire. Vampires are a great element in any fantasy narrative. You know you will have a lot of fans behind a vampire char. Not by chance Vampire The Masquerade is one, if not the most important product of White Wolf, which keeps still giving them a lot of profit despite being decades old. Vampires are always a good element of personal horror, of lack of control of your own body, and also an allegory of abuse, power, and rape. This concept of “being a monster without control” that they embody helps a bit more for the woobification.

Third, people tend to mix a lot headcanon with what a character gives us as canon. We can have a long useless discussion about which is more worthy: canon or headcanon, or about why one should or should not respect canon, but putting all that discussion aside, and considering the previous two points, I see that a small part of his woobyfication comes from the fact that people love denial and self-projection instead of analysing of what they are given (and let's be honest, we know in tumblr, reddit and others social networks, people lack of reading comprehension skills, which makes analysis all about self projection without a real effort in understanding the character's perspective. It's all about the player unilateral perspective. How can you analyse a char you didn’t play with or explored in all its paths? ).

So if their beautiful character is behaving in a way they don't want to, they start considering him “random” (I read this so much that confuses me, because Astarion has clear patterns for everyone who wants to see them, like the rest of the companions. He is not random, he follows pretty well all what I listed here, that list helps you to predict what he will disapprove or approve) so they end up filling this apparent “randomness” with headcanons and self-projections. Don't get me wrong, I don't despise headcanons, I love them, I have a lot of them and create with them. But I also like honest analysis and separate what I want from what I get from a company (to correctly give them feedback, otherwise I will be giving them my headcanons).

If you don't want an aspect of a given char, and you want to deny it, it's perfectly fine. Do it, it's your entertainment, but be honest with the fandom about it, acknowledge this is a personal denial you enjoy. And mainly, don't use headcanons and self-projections to attack the rest of the chars you don't like in their own tags. We know how aggressive some people in this fandom are, and it's a bit frustrating to see aggression without the slightest effort in understanding the character they hate.

There is also something sad to say, related to self-projection, that contributes to Astarion's woobyfication too: a lot of players are survivors of abuse who connect with him from trauma, and I can understand if denying his past is a way to help them to release any kind of pain or need for vengeance against their abusers. It's a natural and totally understandable projection. The woobyfication, then, ends up in an intense self-projection where they give to the char something that they needed because their own trauma.

This is why I would like Larian to give us other survivor chars that people can project onto, whose stories are really about survivors of abuse who were not evil in the beginning. Because I feel a lot of people approached Astarion as a narration of a “victim who will become a victimiser” or as a “bad behaved victim”, instead of what I think it's shown: an abuser who found a greater abuser (and his story is about punishment of the abuser and the concept of justice in a world which has none), so trauma survivors will end up with disappointment if they think Astarion is something similar to the representation of what they experienced. Plus, vampirism is never good to use as allegories of abusers/victims because the relationship Sire/Childe is too sick and twisted. So, again, this is a mere opinion from all what I've been reading since the game came out.

I hope Larian sticks to the narration they seem to follow with Astarion: an abuser who found a greater one, and now wants to become the next Cazador, and this woobifycation doesn't change the real potential of a dark deep story that I believe they want to give us: not every char is redeemable, and sometimes evilness is capricious. We had chars like these in bg1 and bg2 after all. 

[twfdafa]

Cosplay pondering

Come to find out, there’s a little local con that wants to be a serious con and they have a cosplay contest.  So I’m considering making something for myself ... but there’s so many good options!  And so many bad options.  Wall of text below.

My criteria: I need to like the character and the outfit.  I need to have liked the game (but not necessarily have beat it).  There can’t be any skin showing on the torso or upper thigh (shoulders are ok) or boobplate.  A lack of stripper shoes would be a bonus, though I can always just mod something I can actually walk in.

My main games atm are Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Heroes of the Storm

Divinity has the problem all “customize the pc” games with lots and lots of armor have of being hard to find an iconic look for the main character on top of the standard problems involved in me being really picky.  Malady might be an option (I’ve wanted her cloak forever) but the boobplate upsets me and I’m just generally not fond of the build of DOS2 elves.  My Godwoken might be an option, though an un-identifiable one.  Ifan is a cool character, but I don’t know if I’d want to be him.  At least he has a set look.

Heroes of the Storm characters mostly fall into one of two options: way more makeup and prosthetic than I’m comfortable tackling as a first build or way more skin than I’m comfortable wearing in public.  Greymane might be an option though.  Leoric and Yrel would be cool, but both have technical issues I’m not sure how I would tackle (Leoric’s ... spine ... and Yrel’s horns).  Xul is one I might nerve myself up to try someday, if I get the hang of silicon prosthetic creation on something simpler first.  (And yes, I know Xul’s torso is pretty bare, but I’d make an exception for him.)  I’d love to do Dehaka or Zagar, but they’re all above the skill I have atm. 

As to games I’ve played previously, I always love Dragon Age, but my options there are ... the Venatori Spellweaver from DAI and ... maybe Duncan from DAO?  I have half a WoT Zevran outfit, but I don’t know how I feel about drawing from such an obscure source.  I’ve wanted a Hunter outfit since I saw the first Bloodborne teaser.  Assassin’s Creed has had some wonderful outfits through the years.  (I am particularly fond of Ezio’s blouse.)  I could always do the pc from Sid Meier’s Pirates (the 2000 version) but I don’t exactly feel that would be challenging. 

I don’t consume a lot of non-video game media.  There aren’t any comic books I’d want to draw from, and the only movie I’d consider would be the animated Last Unicorn which doesn’t really give me a ton of options.  King Haggard maybe, but the makeup would be tough.