#of the romanceable characters only Astarion and Wyll haven't made a move

[danikatze]

[ID in alt text]

Guys he's so pretty..

[bg3fandomcritical-active]

Astarion sexuality discourse my beloved 🥀🥀 it’s giving harmful gender stereotypes. It’s giving people speculating about other’s sexuality based on superficial behaviours. It’s giving people stating as a fact that certain actors are gay based on nothing. It’s giving biphobia and panphobia. It’s giving “please grow up”

Thank you.

As someone who was bullied in school for "being a lesbian" just because of how I look and behave (yeah I'm a tomboy, I'm not feminine and yet, I've yet to meet another woman I'd be attracted to), this whole "Astarion can only be gay" discourse is so annoying.

It was already not funny 25 years ago, it's still not funny today, and we should really have moved past that mentality by now... How someone behaves and present themselves doesn't mean they have to be a certain sexuality.

Also, as another anon pointed out, it's pretty visible Astarion and his romance were made with women in mind (not just for women to be clear, but yes with women in mind) : he's the kind of character with the kind of romance and character arc a lot of women like, the whole theme of his story is something a lot of (if not most) women can relate to, and as said, there's a devnote using female pronouns for the player character in one of Astarion's scene, which I haven't seen for any other character.

Besides, Stephen Rooney has stated that him being pansexual is something that came naturally during the writing process and felt right for his character, so why are some people so pressed to erase that he is canonically attracted to any gender and not just men (which is also visible in game btw) ?

This also apply to people claiming Gale and Wyll are straight or the female companions are strictly straight or lesbian. They're all pan, it was confirmed by the lead writer and they all show signs of being attracted to more than one gender in game.

.

[thedevilinherself]

So I finished the BG3 after doing every side mission I could find. And.... I have feelings

So I played with the poly mod, so I romanced everyone but Lae'zel and Shadowheart who I couldn't get the romance to start for. I also had the mod that lets me have all the companions with me, so I don't know how or if that changes the ending cut scenes.

But first off, the endings were way too short. I heavily dislike endings that have you fight the final battle, give you a cut scene, then end. Give us a little something after to come down from the high of the victory and see the happiness of the ending we fought so hard for.

Speaking of happiness; I can't say I'm happy with anyone's endings. I told Lae'zel she should go back to her people cause I know that's what she's wanted this whole time, so she left to free her people. This was in my opinion the happiest companion ending I got, even though it's still bitter sweet and doesn't feel like theirs closure cause she still has to fight to free her people with no time to rest.

Astarion just started to burn in the sun and ran off, then Shadowheart was like "poor guy, no more sun for him" then I never saw him again. Kinda shitty considering everything he fought for and the fact I was in a relationship with him. And it's not like the ending just picked one of my love interests to give the ending for, since all my other partners acknowledged me as their partner in their cut scenes (more on that in a moment).

Gale just stood at the edge of the doc and was like "the crown fell into the water. Guess I gotta find it" and then talked about his ex some more before saying we'll do it together. Didn't like that his arch was left open ended as well with him still afflicted with the orb AND wanting to return to Mystra who is terrible for so many reasons.

I got nothing for Shadowheart, and I don't know if Wyll can have his own scene, but his was lumped in with Karlach's for mine. Karlach is dying, her engine burning up, and she says she loves me and is glad we could be together. Wyll was really upset and yells "my love, we have to get her back to avernus! It's the only way to save her". Karlach didn't want to go back, but we convinced her and tell her we will be there with her and will protect her till we find a way to cure her. The three of us go to avernus and it ends with us about to fight imps and I guess I'm in a poly with the two of them, which I didn't know was an option, but them both referring to me as their love in that cut scene was a scripted thing so I don't think it was cause of the mod. Either way, I hated that at the end of the game, we haven't cured Karlach and now she's back in avernus. All her endings seem to suck as, spoiler, she either dies, returns to avernus, or becomes a mind flayer and has to live in hiding. So all of her endings suck.

I hated how none of the characters felt like they got a good resolution or much closure. There wasn't a sense of happiness or real victory. That kinda thing can work in DND cause the campaign can keep going, but in a video game, where there is no way to move forward, it seriously sucks. I put 300+ hours into this game, made so many choices to ensure my companions were safe and happy, tried to get them each the best ending I could without looking up too many spoilers, and in the end, they each get 3-5 minute cut scenes where their main character quest is unfinished and left in limbo? That just feels really crushing and disheartening as a gamer. In my next playthrough, why bother trying to help Karlach? She'll still be uncured by the end. Gale's just going to go back to his abusive god or maybe still blow up. Who knows. Astarion will still be hiding in the shadows, stuck as a spawn forever.

Over all, it just kinda sucked that not one of them felt like their arch got wrapped up/resolved.

[beecreeper]

Since I'm completely out of the loop; what's the deal with all your Tavs and Durges? Who are they? What are they like? Do any of them belong in the same timeline?

(Basically go ham and tell me everything, I wanna knooow)

I have the basic rundown of my main three OCs in my pinned post but I'll also give you the lowdown on everyone under the cut because I looooooooove yapping

SO I got five Tavs/Durges, but I do way more with the first three than the other two. Briar and Ferox are durges and Molli, Myrala, and Poppy are tavs.

Briar is a spore druid and full evil. She finds her urges to be the only thing that gives her a purpose and identity, ESPECIALLY after the lobotomy memory wipe leaves her with practically nothing but the urges left in her head. She loves manipulating and messing with people and is just the wooooooorst I love her so much. Loves mold so so much. She also loooooooved being a toxic messy bitch with Gortash >:3

Ferox is my redeem durge. He's an oathbreaker paladin (broke his oath pre-tadpole when he durge murdered his wife). He's fuuuuuuull of guilt and considers himself a monster and is constantly yearning to be someone different but feels like he can't (spoiler: he can!). I still haven't actually uuuuh played him past the prologue yet but I'm probably gonna have him romance Lae'zel

Molli is my most self indulgent oc and a blatant self insert. She's a silly little guy! A bard who made a warlock pact while panicking and trapped in the nautiloid. Also she used to be held captive by Gortash because uuuuuhh don't worry about it. Normal reasons. She's got two alternate romance paths -- either Karlach or Astarion depending on whether she leans towards her good ending or her bad ending.

Myrala is actually Ferox's dead wife! I loved her so much I decided to make an AU where she never meets him and thus doesn't get durge murdered. She's a cleric/rogue. She grew up as a street rat thief in Menzoberranzan (lost her hand as punishment for stealing) until she hit rock bottom and converted to Eilistraee and fled to the surface. In her tav AU she moves to Baldur's Gate to try and establish a branch of Eilistraee worship there and help out drow refugees and stuff but she has a haaaaaaard time of it because of discrimination from the citizens and apprehension from the refugees who low-key believe that Lolth is gonna strike them down if they openly switch religions. She swore off stealing when she converted, but things are getting so difficult that she's getting a little tempted to take Nine Fingers up on her recruitment offers... And that's roughly where she's at when she gets tadpoled. She's gonna romance Wyll!

Poppy is my last tav and the least specific to BG3 because she's actually an old D&D character of mine but I am DETERMINED to play in BG3 eventually because this is exactly the type of BS she'd get pulled into. She's mostly a rogue with like one or two levels of ranger (in D&D proper she was the scout rogue subclass but we don't have that here). She was raised by a group of misfit outcast mercenaries that all treated her like their adopted daughter (her mom was the group's resident weaponsmith). At round about 17 she left the group to go "find herself" and is essentially traveling as far and wide as she can. She has the vibes of someone taking a gap year to backpack around Europe but she's been doing that for like 7 years. She also collects surrogate parents like playing cards and is going to LOVE Jaheira and Minsc so so so much.

Officially their "canon" universes are all separate, but I love to throw around aus in my head all the time. Particularly with Molli crossing over with either of my durges, because her past with Gortash means that she would recognize them and that changes A LOT of things.

Also thank youuuuuuu for asking. If you wanna DM me about OCs I would LOVE to hear more about Aurora and Jay 👉👈

[mosses-gate-3]

What drew your Tavs to their love interests? Was there an instant connection between them, or was it more of a gradual build-up? What's their favorite things about their respective LIs?

Thank you so much for the ask!! (I swear I'm working on the tents one I just need to actually draw them 😭)

Andis got smacked directly in the face by Cupid watching Wyll's introduction, and Karlach with her golden retriever energy had him at hello. He was immediately drawn to both of their genuineness and sense of fun. Also watching Wyll with the tiefling kids made him swoon. However he does kind of have a crush on everyone new he meets and assumed it would just go away with time so he didn't really make a move beyond his normal platonic affection. His favorite thing about Wyll is his love of a dramatic flair and his unfailingly good heart. His favorite thing about Karlach is her sunny disposition and her love of trying new things. They also all really like dancing and music and that's something they bond over (no I don't have a ballroom dancing thing whatever do you mean,,,) He just loves them so much you guys <- projecting

Salix. Okay salixstarion is really interesting to me because for the majority of their relationship (act 1-mid act 2 at which point they break up) they go through varying degrees of hatred, contempt, and disgust for each other and for their situation. The thing that drew her to him is the fact that he's an elf, meaning she can't use her siren song on him and therefore he poses a serious threat to her safety within the group. The best way I'd describe their arrangement is, they're both playing the exact same game of 5d manipulation chess but they both hate it too much to realize the other person also hates it. Their relationship improves a lot after they break up in act 2 and by the end of the game she's started to develop a genuine crush on him, and him on her, which they then proceed to never address even though they're adventuring together post-game.

Ren and Gale clicked pretty quickly I think. They got talking to him at first because they recognized him as having been their classmate at wizard school, and then continued because of their shared love of their respective crafts. They adore it when he teaches them things about magic and just things in general because they love learning and he's one of the only people who's ever really treated them like they deserve to be taught, if that makes sense. They could spend hours listening to him talk. Ren also loves his artistry when working with the Weave, it reflects their own passion towards the more artistic and beautiful side of their work as an artificer. And he's such a genuinely good and kind person it's hard for them not to fall in love. He's perfect for them is what I'm saying

...I haven't decided who Monty's romancing yet-- I'm just gonna go with whoever tries to fuck him first because that's what's most in character lol. I think his endgame romance is Wyll because uh. Gwaincelot brainworms. My interpretation of it is he'd flirt with Wyll right off the bat, get rejected, drop the subject because he didn't care that much anyway, sleep around with whoever else, and then realize oh fuck I actually genuinely like him what the hell do I do!!! And then they get together sometime during act 3 and are ridiculously cute. I think he does have a brief fling with Gale during the sleep around phase but it's very much no-strings-attached. I really don't think he'd work out with Gale in the long-term. Wyll however I can see being perfect for him.

Cesair isn't romancing anyone I don't think because he's still not over his ex and also this is a playthrough with a dear friend of mine and I won't subject it to that (hi @otherworldlyjukebox ily). But I can see him with Gale, Astarion, or Minthara - he'd definitely end up ascending both of the boys but he'd be so chill with it afterwards. He's used to being subservient so he wouldn't see anything wrong with being Gale's Chosen or Astarion's Consort. There also are the narrative parallels between him and Gale and having had really imbalanced power dynamics in their past relationships. His moral code is really fucky so I could also see him raiding the Grove and recruiting + romancing Minthara if he was guided to that.

[lordbhreanna]

The adventure continues, so spoilery stuff under the cut! Just for Act 1, because I'm 25 hours in the game and haven't even gone to rescue Halsin yet.

Had the first scene with the dream visitor and boy it played well with my canon for Morgana about the visitor being a similar projection to her caretaker. When you get the answer "I know your voice", it felt very fitting for the double understanding. Still need to work on that backstory a bit more to roleplay better, but sometimes I prefer to wait until the game shows me new stuff that gives me idea. Like one of Tav's random barks is "Nobody every back home would believe this" or something of the sort, which implies your character may have something close to a home - it's up to you to decide what that home is. For Morgana, I'm still deciding whether it's something related to Abbadon, or just a town she kind of settled in close and feels like a home to her, where she has friends and such.

Finished Karlach's quest regarding the paladins and I didn't expect her to burn down the place, so my character died and Shadowheart had to resurrect her, which gained her 1 inspiration, and Karlach was very happy. All for the girlies ❤️

Wyll not only becomes a devil but HE'S RAVENGUARD'S SON? I asked him about the courtly dancing and he promised to give Morgana a taste of his worst dancing, so looking forward to that. That boy is charming as hell (ha) and full of surprises. Now I'm glad I accepted the mission to rescue Ravenguard because I was unsure at first if it made sense for Morgana to deal with that, but I accepted it in the end because it gave her a cunning edge I liked - help with the rescue and it might help them back having someone so powerful in your debt. Now, knowing he's Wyl''s father, makes it more personal.

Astarion is all I ever hoped for and better, there are some truly heart-wrenching interactions with him, even when he dismisses some topics with sarcasm or flirty banter. I love what they're doing with the character. I was open to do other romances first, but after seeing this? Nah I'm basic and I'm doing his all the way. I have never been a vampire girl, but maybe Astarion will become my Twilight-era trigger.

I'm also warming up a lot to Lae'zel ❤️ Though I did reject her advances - I'm a simple woman and while I enjoy a lot the romances, I never enjoyed fooling around not even in games. And I wanna be her bestie. Met with the githyanki patrol and the whole scene was reaaally good, gives you a different perspective on Lae'zel and it moves forward the plot, which I didn't expect. I thought the artefact was something related to Shadowheart's personal mission, not with the overall plot, but it's a welcome surprise.

Also Shadowheart IS my bestie ❤️ I love her, she's my Morrigan in this game for now. I knew about her being a follower of Shar, but tbh, I don't know if it's my ignorance on D&D lore or what... but it doesn't seem like such a big deal? I still don't know how godhood works in this universe, but I assume this is like an elf saying they worship the Dreadwolf in Dragon Age? YOU DO YOU SWEETIE. But now I know she had some memories erased and I'm curious about it.

Found out about Gale's backstory and love affair issues. He's just as charming as well, but I am glad I am not pursuing that romance HA. But I do like him as a character and his whole story is very interesting! Now I just need to keep a pouch full of magic objects for him, nice.

Overall I am enjoying learning a lot about the companion's backstories, and I haven't still arrived at the goblin camp and I'm already getting on some interesting deals, so there's a lot more coming.