#anyway. larian sweep

[wizardsix]

*taps sign aggressively* all of the bg3 companions have to learn how to reclaim their identity and autonomy after living under absolute authority for so long.

[copdog1234]

You know what else I didn't like about The Game Awards other than the fact that they rushed winners in favor of unimportant things???

Most of the trailers were flashbanging me. Whoever was in charging of editing those trailers made it hard for people with light sensitivity to even watch the fucking game trailers.

[animentality]

Do you think Gortash would still love Durge even after their bad ending (you know when they betray Bhaal and choose to surrender themselves to prison at the end) and they’ve gone mad?

For example, let’s say in an alternate scenario where Gortash survives at the end of the game. All the other companions have abandoned Durge, do you think Gortash would step in and try to help them? Do anything?

I've wracked my brain at night thinking about it.

On the one hand, the part of me that looks exclusively at in game Gortash says that Gortash wouldn't love them without power and without reason.

Because the more canon aligned Gortash is more pragmatic than emotional and although I do think his feelings verged into the impractical, he still fundamentally needs balance.

He's a domineering kind of guy, he gets along with Durge because they refused to be cowed in any way by him, and he dared not pity them or treat them with anything less than the utmost respect.

He can't sweep them under his tidal wave of personality, he crashes upon their shore, and they chip away at each other, grain by grain, in a tumultuous but steady balance.

they had a tango, you know. two partners working together. sex and love stemmed from something other than practicality, but it was practicality that brought them together initially.

He loves the Dark Urge for their power and reason, and without those two things... maybe he wouldn't seek them out.

especially not after they betrayed him.

and I don't know. the more assholish Gortash would see their alliance as having reached its inevitable conclusion. the more... emotional but distant Gortash would say, goodbye, old friend.

I wish you could've escaped your master, as I escaped mine.

and he wouldn't see them again.

but canon aligned Gortash is underwritten anyway.

so I'll do Larian's job for them and say...

well.

it could go either way.

I can see Gortash abandoning them because he is literally unable to look upon his former love, completely without freewill, and not feel soul crushing, life ending despair.

I could see it being too painful to see them when he knows he can't help them and they can't be helped by anyone, and they're gone, and he has to accept that.

again.

but I can also see...

a determined Gortash.

who has nothing now, except perhaps a desire for revenge against Durge. but as they are, mad and alone and insatiable, why even bother, right?

Bhaal has tortured them more than Gortash ever could.

maybe he keeps them locked in a basement somewhere, and at first it's just to lord it over them. mock their failure, their inability to prevent themselves from becoming like this.

in the beginning, he's still bitter about his plan failing and he blames them. to him, maybe it's a cosmic justice...

he says you could've ruled the world with me at your side and Bhaal and Bane at our backs.

but you chose this instead.

but as time goes on, his heart softens and he starts wondering if they're in there somewhere.

the only person who could understand him.

whom he could understand truly.

and maybe they're down there somewhere, trying to be understood again.

so he shows them things he hopes they remember about the life they shared together for a brief but important time. maybe books they talked about. blueprints he showed them of his future inventions. their notebooks, left behind. their old clothing, left over after long nights spend fucking and arguing.

maybe he tries to find a cure. he has some medical expertise, right? from dissecting people. maybe he tries to find a solution, some way to bring them back. maybe he pours himself into studies of bhaalspawn and deeper magic, trying to find some way to bring back a person whose mind has been ravaged into nothing.

but worst case scenario ...

he has to give up on all that... and give them the death he knows they would've asked for, had they been conscious.

so.

yeah.

anon. I've thought of it.

[fritterbat]

prev anon can’t imagine a happy ending for an illithid? Sounds like a skill issue. Your art made me so happy to see I got butterflies because it’s such a sweet concept and so well executed. Also, (I haven’t played the full game myself) but doesn’t bg3 make it a point to say how illithids are capable of being their own unique people if given the chance? Sounds like anon would rather make sweeping shallow statements on a race without thinking much deeper on that. A huge talking point of dnd nowadays is looking past the borderline racist original depictions of evil-aligned races and finding something good and fun and compelling about them. This is why we have orcs that defy their “evil dumb” archetype and vampires and drow capable of good and tieflings in so many different colours!! 😂 Im so sorry for the tangent in your inbox but free your mind anon!! kiss an illithid! You have nothing to lose but your chains!!! 🦑💞

awww thank you anon, what a sweet message!! I was nervous to post that art of my character because it was my first time showing her off and I thought people will be weirded out by it (I had meant to post some kind of character design reference sheet explaining her Deal, first, but... I got bit by a galemance fixation......) but I won't let one single rude anon spoil my fun, I was actually blown away by how many notes that art got and how enthusiastic people have been in the tags about illithid tavs!! 🥰

I agree with you that since the very beginning of D&D it's been a grand tradition that the monster manual will say that some monster race is ALWAYS evil and there will be always be the people who look at that and go "okay, but what if there were a good one of them though" lolol. While drow and orcs and so on have been thoroughly moved into the category of "just people who have a different culture" for a while at this point, it's a lot harder to justify a non-evil alignment** for an eldritch sci-fi alien that is required to consume sentient creatures to live and is biologically hardwired to dominate and mind control... but damn if Larian didn't take a look at that and do so ANYWAYS, with ~three completely different characters no less. IMO it's a big part of the themes of this game to look at a supposed "monster" and be forced to see the nuance in them. [i mean, just look at the dark urge's character arc!!! if that person can be a hero despite their innate biological bent towards evil, why can't a mind flayer?]

**ngl vennet miiiight be neutral evil, if i rly had to put her on the alignment scale i'm btwn that and true neutral, but she was Bad before the ceremorphosis lmao. sorry if i tricked anyone with how cute her & gale are but also she's essentially a 'mad scientist' character and if anything becoming a mind flayer Fixed Her. lol

Anyways since you guys seemed to like Vennet, there is more art of her (with & without Gale) coming from me at some point but in the meantime if you want to see some pics of what she actually looks like in-game here are a fewww! obviously as her original drow self and not tavflayer which always looks the same and which i didn't even do in the actual gameplay lol

[words-and-threads]

I will say that what bg3 IS (and why it's so incredibly My Shit) is a fucking master class in character exploration. They made some fucked up little guys and then set out to get the absolute most out of them. How do our little guys handle kindness? Betrayal? Tragedy? Love? While Larian obviously couldn't include every eventuality (and I'd even say there are some dialogue possibilities that I think should have been added), you can really see a lot of different facets of the main characters and even a good chunk of a lot of supporting ones and each of those facets is presented in depth and detail. The voice acting helps of course, but the consistent and believable writing makes these characters feel like people.

It takes skill to write a character who can be psychoanalyzed without their contradictions and blank spots quickly coming into sharp focus and as obsessively as I've been prying into these little guys I've found no glaring ones so far. That's insane.

This is also something that fanfic writers tend to do very well because often wanting to explore the characters further is their whole thing.

It seems to me like that focus doesn't get much respect. Fantasy should be Epics, science fiction should be philosophy or speculation on technology, video games should be adventure or horror or politics or some other big sweeping thing. Stories about feelings and interpersonal relationships are treated as lesser and genres that specialize in those stories are trashy.

BOY I WONDER IF THE FACT THAT FEELINGS AND RELATIONSHIPS ARE CONSIDERED GIRL STUFF HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT.

But anyway.

I think my point is character study makes brain go brr more please thank you.

[fangswbenefits]

Hi Ruby, how was your weekend? I'm really happy that Neil and Larian studio won the GJA 🥳 they deserve all of the awards.

Anyway, just wanted to tell you that you're amazing and I hope you have a good day today 🩷🫂

Not so good, actually... have a leak in my water heater and I can only have it maybe fixed tomorrow, so no hot water in the meantime... Fortunately, I can shower at work.... 😭😭😭 it really set me back with this new chapter cause I was barely halfway through when I noticed my kitchen was flooding lol.... �� but I managed to pull through!

Hope your weekned was better than mine 🤗 and yes! Neil and Larian deserve all the awards in the world. What a sweep 😅

[spectator-eyes]

The sheer vitriol he gets absolutely astounds me. I've been in a lot of fandoms throughout the years, and I've never seen people being as hateful and venomous toward a character.

Why is it that every other character gets a sweeping pass for what Halsin is (wrongly) accused of?

In my first playthrough, literally every companion was hitting on my character within Act 1. I keep seeing people complaining that he comes onto them too hard - when Lae'zel literally tells your character the smell of your sweat makes her horny. When Karlach straight up comes to you in the middle of the night saying she wants to ride Tav until they see stars. Despite turning Gale down in act 1, he told my Tav how hot she looked in a fight.

But no, Halsin playfully flirting with you in all of 2 or 3 dialogue options is the problem. And how DARE he ask you if you have feelings for him in Act 3. After flirting with him.

Also, people complain about him throwing out the line "but you treated me like a lover," if you reject him (which I've never encountered) but, as far as I know, he only does that if you've asked him about his past lovers. Which, in context, is clearly flirtatious. (It was to me, at any rate.)

I've seen people get so bent out of shape for specific scenes that every other companion has written/coded to react to - but somehow Halsin is the problem, every time. Take the scene with the drow twins. "He just inserted himself into my relationship wanting to bang!" or "Shouldn't he know that I and (usually SH) are in a relationship?? What a creep!"

Like. For one, absolutely no one is forcing you, the player, to go to the drow twins in the first place, let alone proposition them. Second, if you don't want him to participate, you have the option of telling him no. At no point does Halsin force himself into the scene like I've seen people say. Also....you know you can just reload, right? That this is a video game?? And because it's a video game, EVERY companion has dialogue during that scene, not JUST Halsin? Right??? Right??? Why do you even have him in your party if you hate him so much?

In a game where you can literally control your companions, you don't get to bitch about what you make them do. Or the choices you make for them as the player. Because it's a video game. Reload a save, start over, or stop playing the game if something happens that you don't like!

This isn't even TOUCHING the disgusting amount of homophobia, misogyny, and other queer-phobic things that people have blatantly stated about Halsin and his fans.

I've seen people want an option to flag your Tav with sexualities to disable romance options from triggering at all - when the romance system, as it is, is already bugged to hell. Larian would have to implement an entirely new framework just to appease these players. They want him to be re-written for this or that, because it makes them feel Icky, and Larian should cater to them because of it. Because god forbid other players have options that they don't like. How dare other players play their game in a way they don't approve of.

Every discussion I've seen on reddit and the Larian forums always turn into a Halsin hate-fest. I swear, I see the same usernames, over and over again, rehashing the same shitty opinion in every thread. It doesn't even matter if you refute their points with actual evidence - they ALWAYS insist that no, their interpretation is correct, and no, that really is how Halsin was written. What do the devs know, anyway? People are also accusing Halsin and SH's writer of having a cuckhold fetish. Unsurprisingly, most of these people are rabid SH simps. Gee. What a coincidence.

I could go on about this for multiple pages, no lie.

Being a Halsin fan is....a unique experience in that you're frequently prone towards running into all sorts of taunts and insults from being called "mentally ill" for liking him because people assume you're into his "deviant behavior" to hearing that there's only "7 romances" because he doesn't count, to hearing that he's a sex pest, constant reminders of how players kill him in a feedback or fan thread about him, him being seen as fit for only being left as "Orin bait" by a few Astarion fans when I'm meanwhile turning Astarion down only to run into Astarion canonically admitting that he sees Tav's denial of consent as a "dire mistake to be corrected":

Or, frequently running into complaints as to why he's there when Jaheira is around for the Druid role (he was around first so it's clear why they're not acknowledging that).

"He's just fanservice that didn't need to be there! Why can't we have Alfira?!"

"We could have had a werewolf instead of him?! Wasted opportunity!" (Fans datamined that and discovered that Helia was dropped long before they added Halsin so it wasn't a toss up between them that fans think)

"He's a cheater trying to get you to cheat!"

Ironically, another fan found a post that not only was this wrong, Shadowheart and Astarion approve of the player sexually harassing a married NPC:

His point and click lines have still not been fixed despite requests to address them for months now.

Requests for more depth from his days in Early Access has not happened.

Pleas to Larian to please fix the writing that has him making fans uncomfortable has only just now been addressed but the damage has been done.

I see all these moments that get other characters amusement and affection while seeing Halsin vilified for stuff that doesn't even happen. I see acknowledgement that Gale's Weave scene was a bug, Wyll's dance scene where you couldn't avoid him trying to kiss you as "not a big deal" (until they were corrected) and I agree, that's exactly what they were: unintended side effects of poorly thought out writing/coding/scripting.

And yet, Halsin's presence has to be justified every step of the way.

There is so little sympathy for this character. So little sympathy for fans of this character. It even feels like Larian wrote him off when their attempt to make him a companion backfired.

I'm not even sure why fans want more romances added when this one ended with such hostility. I'd rather they fix and expand on the current romances like Wyll's, Minthara's and, yes, Halsin's (he does count as a romance).