#now just let me imagine tav and astarion going on another adventure together to try and help him walk in the sun again okay bye | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sanguineserrations · 6 months ago

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Are we just going to ignore they pretended to be someone dead to manipulate one of our party members to do what they wanted?

Perhaps you haven't had that conversation with Minsc. Definitely one worth having if the topic at hand is manipulating people by pretending to be someone else- though in that case it didn't just take a form it thought would be favorable- it impersonated Dynaheir. From what he tells me, a Rashemaar is the constant companion to their Wychlaran- someone Minsc cared for deeply enough to devote his life to and would die for. The Emperor hiding their identity is one thing, but making someone think their long lost loved one had returned from the dead? Of course he's not going to trust once he realizes he was lied to, a much bigger lie than when the rest of us casts an illusion of Disguise Self. It must have crushed him to realize she was, in fact, still dead in the dungeons beneath the city of Athkatla. If I'm to believe what I've read here about alternate universes, if you disagree with The Emperor enough they'll even have the conjured image of Dynaheir try to kill Minsc and his companions or watch her die at their hands, but who am I to judge? It's not as if I'm a literal magistrate or anything. Ahaahaha! Though, I imagine that Jaheira's own husband also being killed by the same wizard is one of the reasons she's so loyal to Minsc. Misery loves company and all that- though, only if it's the same sort of misery. That and legitimately bonding through their adventures together- rather than stealing someone else's identity and established rapport.

How hilarious it is the person everyone thought the idiot is the one who most quickly realized The Emperor's deception- he knew it wasn't her. Can you really blame Minsc for not wanting to trust after that?

Surely you're aware of the number of Tavs whom their dream guardian appeared to as a loved one as well. I've seen many from other AU's- as well as my own. From his wandering mind she emerged, looking just like someone he loved dearly- though that's a question better answered by him if you really want to know. Quite a few Tavs I've seen here were lured into the comfort of letting their Dream Guardians emerge in a familiar, attractive, often loved form as well. It's a stretch to think it an accident- yet another lie of omission if you really think about how it came about, mmm?

The difference between The Emperor and myself is The Emperor is sloppy. It thinks it's so clever and then does the most idiotic things. One of the most important things about lieing is to not lie more than you have to- otherwise you get caught from being tangled in your own needlessly convoluted web.

I'm not going to pretend I'm the cute fluffy innocent Astarion everyone seems to want me to be- though my eyes are not blind to your criticism of me in the defense of someone else's actions. I am not without my mistakes or less savory acts. Many things are easier to criticize with the full image of hindsight, or from someone else's outside perspective- I won't deny there are some things I'd do differently knowing what I do now. That doesn't mean I regret the actions I made with what I knew at the time. Yes, I've done what others may consider terrible things because it was the easier path, or times I turned a blind eye not wanting to get involved in someone else's issues or carry their burdens. Very few living their lives do, honestly. Versions of myself in alternate universes have done unspeakable acts- though so has everyone else's. Wyll would murder Karlach and lie to himself she deserves it- he's victim blaming. It's easier for him to get a justice boner than accept the consequences for "doing the right thing" unless you twist his arm. Even ones who walk the path most would consider good demand a genocide of the goblins to remain by your side. The atrocities Shadowheart is capable of doing to a grieving mother to get her lover off and please her goddess are no better. Even goody two shoes Gale is capable of becoming corrupt if you undermine his self worth- he hates himself for it, but still complies doing what most would consider vile acts. We're all capable of making choices. Choices of selflessness. Choices where we leave ourselves vulnerable- and may be taken advantage of. Choices where we can do what's best for ourselves because the one suffering for that choice is someone else. And choices where we just do what's best or what's best for us with what we know at the time.

And isn't it incredible to have that choice? To make mistakes? To fuck up everything, or to see exactly what you hoped for fall into place? I'm far from perfect, even though I have hair that is. I've made choices that are selfish, I've made choices that are selfless, and a whole lot more that fell somewhere within silver.

Rarely are choices ever black or white.

I love myself for my flaws. My mistakes, my choices- good or bad, make up who I've become. If you love me, love the dynamic, flawed, corrupted, noble, and free version of me- they're all facets to the same person. Or don't, that's your choice too, I suppose. I'm not a flawless hero that self sacrifices at every turn. I don't have to be.

And neither does The Dream Guardian.

Yes, The Emperor can be an absolute monster. And they too have gone about some things in... ambitious ways that might be frowned upon. They, like me, are complex. And free to make their own choices too. Through it all they've proven to be a loyal ally... even if for some of it they haven't been the most upfront about things.

Truly accepting someone for all of who they are, especially if it goes against our own core beliefs, is what forges the bonds between allies and friends. It may not be easy, but few things worth having are. Our imperfections make us unique, much like our scars, a part of us that is traced onto the hearts of those we love. We all have secrets, only a fool would divulge them to complete strangers in unknown waters- but we've all swum them at this point. I won't deny subterfuge is useful, especially when showing someone things from your own point of view. What fun would the story we wrote together be, if it were all straightforward without a bit of mystery? Speaking of stories... don't you think you've spent enough time rotting your brain on that book of T'um Bu Lar for today, Astarion?

Fiiiine. Not like there's horribly much else to do at camp. As if I don't know Victor's always sending me back here so I don't see him being taken advantage of or doing other people's dirty work. On a completely unrelated note, if Wulbren Bongle ends up shanked you can't prove it was me.

The Astral Prism Isn't Grindr!- Why the Emperor didn't catfish you.🦑

Very long, rambling post I wrote while manic at 4 am. Enjoy!

I feel like the worst thing you can actually say about Emp in regards to his actions towards the player is that he lies by omission. But even then, to consider it lying you basically have to work from the perspective that you as a player, person, character or whatever, are entitled to know everything about someone you just met, who might have some very good reasons for not wanting to reveal certain things

He didn't "catfish" you the prism isn't grindr lmao?! And the game/companions/etc repeat to you over and over that the Dream Visitor is some kind of manufactured vision. You all have one and it's specific to your individual minds. He wasn't exactly doing some deepcover shit with a fake backstory to get your cryptowallet information or whatever real-life equivalence you keep trying to make. As if you run into alien squid monsters every day or something!

It's doubly bizarre because there is an extremely popular companion character whose entire arc is ACTUALLY lying to you about who they are, only admitting it when you catch them attacking you in your sleep, and then goes on to try to ACTUALLY manipulate you with sex and intimacy while at that point, not actually feeling it. This is the most popular character in the fandom btw- Astarion.

Emperor's morality is held up to a ridiculous standard. Not even the companions are held to that level- not even close!

A better equivalence to his situation than "catfishing" (a term completely exclusive to our world) would be if a sentient, alien creature was stranded on our planet and had to use a disguise to y'know....not be shot at and killed by confused humans? Why the heck would your brain first jump to catfishing? Girl if you approached your DG as a tindr date that's on you! Lliterally the only prompt the game gives you before creating them is "you need a guardian" (At least currently that's how it works, after official release.)

if you met a kind of weird guy and fell for him and he then revealed he's actually a sentient squid monster, I don't think your first response would be "OMG YOU CATFISHED ME?" I'm pretty sure it would be "HOLY FUCK A SQUID MONSTER!" because it would be very obvious and apparent (by virtue of them being a squid monster) that the intent was not to "catfish" you, but to survive a world that would be actively hostile towards him, on sight.

We accept this type of "ambiguous morality for the sake of survival" from characters like Astarion who are traditionally attractive, but we don't accept it from a being whose very appearance, forces them into that position of moral ambiguity. Emperor is not afforded the same privilege of even being able to consider full honesty, because just one look at him could make someone hysterical. Hiding himself from you is not an active choice he's able to make, anymore than a turtle can choose to break open it's shell- it will die.

Even if YOU wouldn't kill him, what about companions like Lae'zal, who are already suspicious of him and will definitely cut him down at that point? Even if you think that would be a good thing, you would then lose your protection from the tadpole/the Absolute. The game basically wouldn't exist without the Prism.

Let's also not use "well Astarion is traumatized" as an excuse here. Emperor is pretty obviously traumatized as well, in addition to being a brain-eating squid monster and having to manage that part of his nature, the way Astarion has to handle his. Yet he's still more up front than Astarion was. Astarion can accidentally kill you while drinking from you and he still doesn't reveal who he is to the others, AND pretends he doesn't know what happened to you lol.

Note my point here isn't "Astarion bad" but simply that if you have room in your heart to sympathize with characters like Astarion, then there's no reason you can't squeeze my man Emp in there too. He doesn't do anything significantly worse than any of the other main characters but is the most hated, and it's literally because of this ridiculous perception of him "catifshing" the player. The most media illiterate take I have ever seen in my life, honestly

Like first off, he's a squid, and secondly! ☝️ Read all that again.

tl;dr if you feel "cafished" by the Emperor you simply weren't paying attention for more than half the game. Fantasy might not be for you if you can't remove the plot from real life circumstances and turn complex fantasy monsters into human romance scammers, as if they're actually alike in any meaningful way.