#listen to Wither's lines about the companions if they died. especially Karlach. do you get it? they made the GOD OF DEATH | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene · 2 months ago

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I do think Withers has a really subtle background character arc in bg3. Because at the start it is really clear he doesn't want to be here and he's being forced to clean up his mess by Helm and probably Ao. He doesn't really care either. Everything ends so nothing really matters, he'd like to go back to his paperwork now please.

Except he's stuck babysitting a bunch of traumatized dumbasses as they stumble into dealing with the most recent bad idea of his three fuck-up disappointments. So he brings them back when they die for a pittance, lets them pay for some vengeful ghosts to come back as flesh and blood to wreak bloody vengeance on the Absolute, and starts to... comment, on what's going on, as he follows them on their adventure.

Next thing you know Withers is like, doing things unprompted. He refuses to bring back Alfira (or Quil) but that's an act of compassion, keeping the poor girl from the Urge and letting her rest, his actual duty as a god of death. He tells Arabella to follow her destiny and does that thing to make her grief go away which honestly freaks me out but seems to be him trying to help her. He shows up at Moonrise and prompts us to consider why the Dead Three would want a bunch of soulless illithids that would give them no power, getting us to think of the big picture.

And by the end (especially if you do a resist!Durge playthrough) Withers is actively interfering and seems genuinely invested! He brings Durge back from the dead, free of their father! He encourages us before the final fight with the Netherbrain! He's real fucking smug that the Dead Three lost when he never seemed to care about the destruction they caused before! He throws a reunion party and many of his lines are genuinely touching or kind! Especially if a companion died permanently! He has tea with Gale's mom and Tara! He's like, socializing and shit! Yes, everything is temporary and we all die, but there's great beauty in fighting for that precious time and living it to the fullest!

Basically Wither's character arc is this meme, all because Helm made him go outside and touch grass.

#bg3 #like... thematically the characters are bg3 are all struggling with mortal frailty and meaninglessness in the grand scheme of gods #several of them are on a ticking clock to immediate death. the tadpoles themselves are a death sentence. others are being actively #hunted by their abusers or will be drawn back into a life that's no real life at all or told to kill themselves or seen as nothing but #disposable pawns in the game of the gods to be used and discard as if nothing #or are destined for objectively shitty afterlives #and what do they do? they fight it! tooth and nail! and try to live their best life here and now! they form bonds and fall in love #and help strangers or each other and have fun even for only the moment and cling to life by their fingernails #while also accepting death could be tomorrow or next week or decades from now because we all die but that's no reason to lie #and meekly accept it because some god said so #they care! they all care SO SO MUCH ABOUT LIVING! even if its tempting to give in to the nihilism they all try so goddamn hard #even on evil routes there's something so deeply human and vulnerable to how it all comes from caring so deeply #about wanting to live and survive and be loved and safe #listen to Wither's lines about the companions if they died. especially Karlach. do you get it? they made the GOD OF DEATH #JERGEL HIMSELF! feel something about the beauty of the mortal life in all its fleeting incandescent glory!#but also I think it's just that Jergel needed to leave his sad little crypt more and talk to people other than kelemvor #and Helm accidentally made Jergel less terrible by forcing him to socialize with the mortals #it's like never leaving your room as a teenager. it makes you depressed and sad and full of despair like an understimulated parrot #and like is Wither's being more invested in the affairs in mortals necessarily a good thing? maybe. maybe not. but he clearly is #so good on him. I think more gods should hang out with mortals in non-worship contexts. might give them some perspective #just pretend to be some random helper NPC #and this is all especially poignant when we remember Jergel’s past as Neutral Evil and the genuinely horrible things he’s done

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