#baldur’s gate 3 ending

[asikaia]

I’ve finally finished baldur’s gate 3!! This is absolutely one of my all time favorite games now, and the replay ability is insane, I already have 4 more ongoing characters and plans for many more) but I do honestly have some gripes about the endings. (Spoilers ahead)

Like, I get that it’s unrealistic that everything turns out well and everyone is completely fine, but at the same time, it’s a video game, let me be a delusional people pleaser and give everyone their best endings. I’m actually also really annoyed that if you free Orpheus, like I did, you have no choice and have to become a mind flayer (which, in retrospect is in line for Dahlia’s character, as she’s so self sacrificing to make up for her past mistakes that of course she would do this to save her friends and the world) but then if you don’t free Orpheus, you lose Lae’zel and Karlach?? Which again, I get losing Lae’zel, though I just wanna have every companion be fine and do what they want to do.

Thankfully I was mostly happy with the rest of the character endings I got, though I don’t think I should’ve encouraged Lae’zel to follow Orpheus at the end because she looked like she regretted it and wanted to stay, which absolutely broke my heart. And I’m also a little upset at the complete lack of closure my character, Dahlia got with Astarion after romancing him. I chose to follow Karlach and Wyll to Avernus, which otherwise, I would be happy with, and I don’t know if I would’ve gotten more closure if I didn’t follow them, and let them go ahead.

But other than these little gripes I have, it was of course such a wonderful experience playing this game, and I cannot wait to explore all the possibilities. I’m already super excited to fully start playing my full Durge Evil run, though at the same time, I know it’s gonna hurt.

[teamdilf]

Gonna talk a bit about the end of Baldur’s Gate 3 and the journey I took Petra on (and why I love it). Ending spoilers after the cut!

So, I had Petra rescue Orpheus and instead of sacrificing herself or Karlach (her girlfriend), she asked Orpheus to. When I told my partner, he teased me; his own character made the sacrifice (“because he’s a good person”), and I laughed and told him I was happy with the call I made.

Petra’s journey as a stage performer turned adventurer is about learning that not all stories have happy endings and that it’s really fucking hard to be a hero. In the beginning I think she might have made the sacrifice, but by the end she sees a convenient way out (after all, few know the prince remains alive, so it hardly changes much, and Lae’zel can lead the rebellion!), so she takes it.

It’s a selfish decision undeniably, and I think she realizes it’s a selfish one when Astarion expresses his approval to her. But it’s the moment she learns that she’s not the hero she imagined herself to be. She’s a person - a real damned flawed one, and putting herself and her immediate companions above Orpheus is something she thinks she’s willing to live with at that moment.

She does fulfill her promise and kills him in the end; she wouldn’t force the man to live that way.

I’ve seen a lot of anger about Karlach’s fate (and was, in fact spoiled that her ending options were bleak when I was midway through the game), but I kind of love it? It was so heavily foreshadowed, and Karlach said repeatedly that she wanted to die on her own terms in the world she loves; not survive and be stuck in Avernus. So, when Wyll offered to go to Avernus with her and begged Karlach not to die, it was Petra who angrily shot him down. Her girlfriend made her choice long ago and she would make sure she got to die how she wishes.

(She’d also be furious with Wyll, who says he can’t watch it. Not that she’d say so at that very moment but all he had to do was walk away and let Petra sit with Karlach on her own as she dies.)

It’s a devastating moment and I bawled my eyes out, but I’m also happy Karlach got to live the last months of her life on her own terms and that she and Petra were able to find happiness together, however brief it was.

And, as someone who is both a Karlach and Astarion simp, it does make for an interesting post-canon story. Petra turned down Astarion because she wanted something real and at the party she realized he was hiding behind a mask and seeking sex as self-preservation. But he grows a lot over the course of the game and by the end, he is someone who is a viable romantic option. Karlach sees the feelings the two of them share and tries to talk to them both; to tell them that it’s OK that they love one another and that when they’re ready, she wants them to go for it. She just wants Petra to be happy, and she’s so afraid she’ll lock herself away from the world because she cannot handle her grief.

Which, of course, is exactly what she does. My impending longfic has Petra hiding in her room at her father’s house. She’s a mess - she hasn’t dyed her hair is months, and has week-old eyeliner and mascara dried in streaks down her cheek. Astarion is the one who finds her and cleans her up - just as he took care of her in the immediate aftermath (I’m changing how his realization that he cannot be in the sun any longer happens slightly because the way they did that in-game was dumb and even in the depths of her grief Petra would make damn sure he makes it somewhere safe because she just lost one person she loves and she refuses to lose another). He’s going to enable the odd stupid decision, and the two of them are going to be idiots about their feelings for a long damn time. But, y’know, eventually they get there.

Can you tell I’m really excited about this fic?

[mlarty]

Give me more coins, soldier! Give me all of them!I feel incredible!! 🔥

[pocket-dragon]

MeetingAstarion.png

[voltaical-art]

do you guys ever think about how Wyll is introduced as an archetypal fantasy hero, but then it turns out he’s a warlock, who made a pact with a devil. Do you ever think about how Ansur is described as this fantastical dragon of myth, but then when you find him, he’s turned into an undead monstrosity. Do you think about how when Wyll does the right thing, he is punished to become more monstrous. Do you think about how as Wyll’s warlock powers grow, his spells get more horrific. Do you think about how Ansur was killed by his closest friend. Do think about how Wyll was cast out by the most important person in his life. do you guys ever think about Ansur and Wyll.

[raintides]

astarion is either sad or he was caught cuddling and is now hiding his face in embarrassment

[chanza-panza]

Fragrant time of the month...

[heph]

A Moment in Time - Dearly Missed

[morebird]

Father Astarion

[my-maehem]

Made a sequel to one of my most popular posts

Edit:

GUESS WHAT!

You can now get a matching shirt/sticker with your Elminster 🤲

[sclappin]

Man whose definition of "monster" is extremely flexible.

[theoldkyokodied]

The Allegiance of the Ascended Vampire and the New God of Magic

[ozumii-fucking-wizard]

THE blade of frontiers

[mlarty]

The Blade 🗡

"Now, you stand above your father. Above all those lesser men. Soon, the entire world will kneel at your feet. And I will always be by your side, my Blade."

[utterdrip]

‼️babe wake up new favorite astarion line just dropped‼️

[ionomycin]

Dame Aylin and Isobel...