#im begging larian

[nocturnal-nyx]

can larian please just fix some of the romancing things that obviously need some tlc? give me more wyll content. let me romance raphael. let me romance rolan. let me romance zevlor. let me fuck sovereign spaw. it’s as simple as that larian, get with the game here.

[saddleseatollie]

I've seen a lot of people point out that while Astarion's whole "thing" in act 1 is that he's this sexy sweet talking savant, he only has 10 charisma and actually isn't all that good at it.

He practices cheesy pickup lines within earshot of the person he's going to say them to, and every single time he flirts with tav it's extremely heavy-handed and almost cringeworthy. It's pretty obvious that he's trying to manipulate tav, even if the reason doesn't become clear until his act 2 confession.

But here's the thing: Astarion never actually needed to be all that good at flirting.

He says himself that the vast majority of his "targets" were drunks and brothel-goers. People who never actually saw him as anything other than an object for their pleasure. They were going to go home with him no matter what he said. A few pretty words and his physical beauty would do the rest.

But Tav is the first person to actually view him as a real person, which is why it becomes so glaringly obvious that he's not nearly as charming as he thinks he is. Astarion tells them at the tiefling party that "every part of their body screams temptation" and their response is that he's "sweet" and "silly". They're not buying it for second, because they don't need to be told pretty lies to like him. They like him because of who he really is as a person. They fall in love with him not because he's good in bed or has pretty eyes or a sexy body. They fall in love with him because he's sweet and secretly very kind. Because there is so much pain and sadness and fear in him, and he truly cannot see how amazing he really is. That his goodness never really went away, it just got hidden for a while.

[btanselanoican]

been playing baldur's gate 3 and i wanna smooch all these fine gentlemen 😩😩😩

[bleulone]

HARRY RICHARDSON as LARRY RUSSELL in THE GILDED AGE (2022—)

[heartsagloww]

real character development is going from an astarion girlie to a rolan/raphael/abdirak girlie

[tapetum-lucidumb]

Question for writers/artists...

...which I guess is most of you since this is Tumblr: Has anyone else encountered a piece of media that just...completely, utterly, and permanently transformed your relationship to creativity?

I QUIT writing. It was EASY to quit writing. I felt such a sense of release at being able to redefine who I am and who I want to be in life. The only thing approaching a negative emotion–to say nothing of actual regret–was faint surprise at how easy it was to abandon a 20+ year identity marker. I EVEN FOUND A SECOND CALLING THAT I LOVED–AND STILL LOVE!!!!–EVEN MORE THAN I EVER LOVED WRITING.

But then. But then! There's this fun horny video game everyone's talking about. Me being me, I can't hear about a hot vampire twink without googling him. Eh, he's doesn't seem that hot, not really my type. But I am curious about the hype, so maybe I'll watch one more YouTube video...okay maybe another...

Well shit, this is actually extremely well-written.

Well shit, this game is pushing the boundaries of narrative in a way no other medium can.

WELL SHIT, TURNS OUT HYPERFIXATIONS CAN LAST FOR MORE THAN THREE WEEKS

WELL SHIT, I AM LYING NEXT TO MY HUSBAND TRYING TO HIDE THE TEARS I AM SHEDDING OVER A GAME I HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED YET

WELL SHIT, THIS LITERALLY, ACTUALLY MADE ME HAVE AN EPIPHANY AND REALIZE THE MEANING OF ART

ALSO THERE IS A CAT-OWNING NERDY BOY IN ADDITION TO THE EMO BOY, WHICH IS AGAINST THE RULES BECAUSE NOTHING SHOULD EVER BE THIS POWERFUL

Like. Just.

Friends, I was so convinced I'd quit. I got deep into it too! Former professional editor here. Because of my privilege, I had more knowledge and experience of the publishing world than 99% of people my age, and I still turned my back. And even though I'm never going back to tradpub because obviously, even though I still think I'm an athlete instead of an artist at my core, even though I'm not even trying to be *good* at it...

Jesus fuck, I'm writing again.

There's plenty of media I've loved. I was a writer–how could there not be? The Last of Us, Midnight Burger, and Our Flag Means Death brought me so much comfort and joy. And that is more than enough. But never before has a piece of fiction made a concrete, tangible impact in what I do every day and how I live my life. That's never been what I wanted or expected art to do. Art is meaningless. It can comfort you, but it doesn't have to "make a difference" to have value.

And yet.

Larian Studios, how dare you create something so impossibly beautiful. You will never know I exist. But for this one internet stranger, you've changed everything.

[pinacoladamatata]

"if you fancy Astarion, you might want to consider therapy. He's so damaged I must have him! Enjoy the fantasy and then call a therapist. It's a two step thing and it's very important you do both." - Amelia Tyler what do your narrator eyes see? 😂😂😂

[sandwichhut]

So far on my Honour Mode playthru of BG3... (psst spoilers for Act 1)

I romanced Shadowheart for the first time and it's adorable

and then accidentally triggered Karlach's romance and got this line completely unprompted, thanks Mama K

managed to kill (or sneak around) some of the lower level battles so far and then got Gale's first Death By Frog via Cloud of Daggers, which led to Jennifer English's fave line:

If you have the time for it this mode is rewarding, forced me to slow down and appreciate all the little features that can change how a interaction/battle goes and there really are endless unexpected outcomes in this game. So of course I'm going to the Goblin Camp next because I have too much luck that I need to spend.

[miyku]

Larian...give me my Raphael romance

[personaglitch]

Larian I am begging on my knees

LET ME ROMANCE THIS MAN

[sansaclegxne]

nearest and dearest

or the story of how i keep starting new playthroughs and keep putting my durges in gortash's clothes (or clothes inspired by his style) because i am mentally unwell

[wizardsix]

desperately need people playing bg3 to realize that just bc something awful is in the game doesn't mean the writers actually agree or support it themselves. learn how writing works and stop throwing around weird accusations.

[negentropies]

every day i lay in bed and think about what we could have had with a separate upper city region ...

putting gortash's coronation in the upper city feat. the entire party being escorted (read: forcibly taken to) an after-party where they can have a slightly more secluded chat with the rat himself. u get a proper baldurian welcome, a durge infodump (if applicable), the offer of an alliance, and a pass to go between the upper and lower cities as you like

gortash gives a wink and a nudge and mentions that a certain patriar by the name of cazador szarr has been stepping on his toes. if you just happen to leave his palace covered in blood and he disappears from the public eye forever after that, you'll get no grief from the steel watch or the flaming fist

SPEAKING OF THE STEEL WATCH. there's an npc who mentions wanting a steel watcher in every baldurian home. so how about an upper city that's an actual big brother surveillance state nightmare. putting the consequences of an alliance with gortash on full display and showing the true insidiousness of him and the cult of bane, and showing exactly what you'd be subjecting the city to if you take his deal

keeping orin as the central antagonist of the lower city, and only having her kidnap a companion after you've defeated gortash to make sure u follow through with fighting her. put saving that companion on a long rest time limit. it really seems like the game is trying to steer you towards defeating orin last since going through the murder tribunal is one of the more annoying side quests, and the morphic pool is right by the temple of bhaal. however right now she's a pretty easy fight and there's no real benefit to allying with her over gortash, and her kidnapping a companion makes you a lot more motivated to go after her first.

not to sound like one of those people who play with nightmare difficulty mods bc they think tactician is too easy, but making the iron throne and the steel watch foundry harder. in exchange for promising to blow up the foundry, make the ironhand gnomes help commandeer the iron throne submarine since clearly you shouldn't know how to do it. make that a point of no return where pissing off gortash puts the entirety of baldur's gate and the foundry on lockdown. you are public enemy #1 in a city with eyes (and swords) literally everywhere, actively hunted by steel watchers and forced to take to the (bhaalist-controlled) sewers to take out the foundry. your rooms in the elfsong are tossed by the flaming fist, and any companions not in your party get taken as hostages. a sense of urgency to it all.

the zhentarim as a more explicit extension of bane's black hand and of gortash trying to branch out his influence into the sewers. giving more presence to the bane cult would extend to the clashes between the guild and the zhents (who are a more socially acceptable subgroup of the banites in canon anyway), and if you took out orin before turning on gortash you could still have allies in the guild.

splitting orin and gortash into separate regions and making their respective fights much harder would put a lot more weight on your possible alliances. gortash could potentially help raid the bhaal temple, while orin could help break gortash's surveillance state. being wishy-washy and not making any promises wouldn't earn you their help but neither would it earn you their wrath, while making a deal and then breaking it would make that respective region a lot more difficult to add actual consequences to your decisions

an orin that's still just as deranged but has a strange, magnetic kind of charisma to her—the chaotic evil anarchist to gortash's unyielding hand of lawful evil. she promises freedom and rebellion to the underclasses of baldur's gate: the very same underclasses with gortash's tyrannical jackboot on their throat. she drips venom into the ears of the patriars. aren't you tired of playing second fiddle to your father? isn't this title meant to be yours? assassinations wreaking havoc among gortash's chief supporters, and a changeling wearing the skin of those he knows best. durge may have been the mastermind behind this plot, but what about an orin that's clever and charismatic and far, far more dangerous if only because she's a completely unknown quantity. an orin that gortash has reason to be scared of.

two regions would also free up wyrm's rock just to be used for wyll's personal quest and as a ravengard-specific set-piece, (AND fighting ansur after blowing up the steel foundry wouldn't aggro random flaming fists in the floors above and have them run around uselessly while ur fighting)

and of course. upper city karlach quest.

[ti-girl1226]

I’m starting to try and manifest the ability to romance Gortash in bg3 because i may have the most chaotic week coming up and a terrible life but if this one thing happens I will cry and be so happy and not stop playing bg3

[bellyjellyfish]

the rosymorn monastery in bg3 is literally my most favourite place when it comes to scenery

like are you kidding me

its so gorgeous

[halliserres]

when youre fighting 20 enemies and have to wait like 5 minutes for your next turn