#oh and obviously BG3 but kind of same thing there

[moonwreathe]

is fandom culture dying or am I just in dead fandoms

[vigilskeep]

i have never thought of the bg3 paths as railroaded before but oh my god... i see your vision. i think that, for all that can be picked apart in the writing of dragon age, the worldbuilding in that series is so so interested in complicating all factions that you can envision a character who /makes sense/ while bouncing through various ideologies. and the sort of fantasy writing in (most of) the forgotten realms doesn't really allow for that.

dao is particularly the light of my life because the origins mechanic is specifically intended to let you create a character who has a distinctive perspective on the world that’s grounded in the worldbuilding. one of my favourite aspects of this is several origins having completely different codex entries on their own culture as opposed to those an outsider would get. it’s really good! it’s also a reasonably grounded world (while obviously silly) because, like, the basic fundamental premise of thedas, from which they ikea flatpack built almost every feature, is “how would people react to magical and fantastical diversity? the same way they react to human diversity.” you’re meant to feel like, aside from i guess the darkspawn, people are normal and have real motivations. sure it has to fulfil certain roles in a story, and dragon age was manufactured too quickly and purposefully for everything to land feeling authentic, but evil in dragon age should feel recognisable. and in most of the origins they give you a chance to do something that is bad, but also totally makes sense, because of the context of your character belonging to this world where these things happen

in dnd/the forgotten realms it’s a bit different because capital e Evil exists, so there are people and deities and devils (and, to open another can of worms, races) whose entire goal is to Do Evil. it’s also harder to produce grounded evil because in a world where i’m being given basically no context and just told to make whatever i want, i don’t have an inch of the kind of social information i get from for example a dao origin: what my character has been taught to believe they should do to survive, who they are willing to sacrifice, whatever. bg3 also happens to have a main plot goal that is, at least for the first part of the game, broadly selfish (“i am sick, and i need a cure”) which works really well for getting a bunch of people with vastly differing moral standards to band together for the same goal, and not so good for any kind of “greater good” type blurred morality, so that’s out too

however much the worldbuilding factors into this, bg3 specifically went for quite a clear distinction between the good path and the capital e Evil Path, and i find it pretty hard to vary up the good path. when i say railroaded i mean you either do the specific thing that gets you a quest down the line or not. i was really disappointed actually in my playthrough where i totally fucked up in the druids’ grove and caused a fight to break out, because it immediately instakilled tons of characters i knew i would need down the line. the few it spared needed some of the dead ones to stay alive in later quests, so it’s like... oh. that’s just... over. for both factions. bg3 arguably lets you do basically anything you want but they are able to do that because if you fuck around it just breaks the entire quest line from coming up again, which means playing a character who fucks up is not even really going to get me consequences it’s just going to cut content from the game. does that make sense? and then the Evil Path is just straight up evil, like... there’s no way for me to complicate and empathise, here, especially playing a blank canvas character whose motivations i would have to make up from nothing, and who faces basically no consequences for not doing this. the only neutral/cowardly/self-interested option in act 1 is to do neither path, which gets me the least content because i literally don’t get to play the fucking game

i don’t know, i’m not saying it’s necessarily bad just that it’s hard for me, personally, and how i like to create characters. especially when you have my constant restart disease and you have to do this all over again a dozen times just for a handful of different dialogue. does any of that make sense

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Of the many things that I could complain about regarding Bg3, this one being less important but still annoying to me, the fact that Wyll and Karlach leave your party no matter what if you attack the grove (or, hell, that any character leaves your party permanently when the threat of being instantly mind-flayer'd still exists) frustrates me.

Let's not look at it from a D&D standpoint, even, because this is ultimately a video game, not a ttrpg - though I'd argue that in real D&D, the fact that no single player would be in charge of everything and that there's way more room for personalised routes would add nuance to this. But from a video game standpoint, removing vital characters due to decisions rather than death as a means of consequence for a player's actions drastically lowers the quality of the playthrough. You're not just missing out on lovely characters like Karlach and Wyll (who are also my favourite characters but that's beside the point), you're losing entire segments of the story, you're losing a great amount of depth from the story, just to pursue different choices.

Larian fails in the "evil" routes because they very obviously just punish the player for being excessively "evil" (not even discussing the dark urge here, just a regular playthrough), and scrape away chunks of the story rather than creatively working the narrative around different decisions the player could make. Like, I can roll deception or persuasion to keep Gale in the party after raiding the grove, but I can't do the same for Wyll or Karlach? The game teaches us that as soon as we leave the radius of the prism, the protection of the Guardian who is actively holding back the Absolute's commands to have us turned into mind flayers, we are instantly turned into mind flayers. And yet they don't account for that when having other characters leave the party. They tried making a branching narrative where the characters feel like D&D players but without the actual autonomy and personhood behind the characters that makes D&D so complex and enjoyable.

Not to mention it's EASILY a cop out to stop having to write for these characters in an evil playthrough. Like, oh, rather than spend more time considering how Wyll and Karlach would respond to these decisions down the line, rather than fleshing out their own struggles with their morals not aligning with their actions, Larian just wrote them out of the story entirely. But, despite having the same kind of moral crisis, Gale can stay... Hm...

And again, you could tell me all you want about how it "makes sense" for Karlach and Wyll to leave as a result of this, and I'd agree with you, but my point is not that it doesn't make sense, it's that they've established there's SO much more at stake here than our morals. By removing two entire characters from the storyline without any consideration for nuance, they are only punishing us for pursuing "bad" routes. I'm tired of it.

[meanbossart]

Asks about VaM, art advice, and miscellaneous stuffs

HI! Real quick please refrain from referring to Sad Sack as S/S for the uh... Obviously reasons LOL We call it "sads" for short!

If what you're asking for are recommendations for a website to host that kind of thing, Neocities, Twitter, Itchio and as you mentioned AO3 are all perfectly good options! Patreon too (depending on how gnarly you're planning on getting) but I'd suggest keeping that as a secondary host option because I don't think it lends itself super well for getting your work circulating. I believe Bluesky allows that kind of thing too, but I'm not too sure since I don't use it.

Now, If you're asking about public reaction rather than guidelines, anywhere you go you might find people that don't jive with the work you do 🤷 just be upfront about the type of content you're making right off the bat to avoid having anyone stumble upon it by accident to the best of your abilities, otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much. I know we're constantly exposed to examples of overwhelming harassment and "dogpilling" happening to others but... Truth be told, most of us won't ever get to the size/internet level of fame where we experience that. I think the threat is a little bit... Overstated, nowadays. Not to mention that most of the time people are getting harassment for things that have nothing to do with their work, and rather relating to their behavior and attitudes. Play smart, be responsible, and be honest! Whatever comes next is in god's hands LOL

Thank you for the ask! Not sure I was of much help 😅 but frankly when you're just starting out it's best to focus on getting the work done first and just throwing it out there, wherever it may be. You can worry about technicalities like that later!

I GOT YOU MAN the full sketch is now up on my patreon!

YES AND YES WHETHER IT BE STORIES OR ART OF DU DROW AND YOUR CHARACTERS SLAMMING PINTS TOGETHER BE MY GUEST PLEASE

I love seeing everyone's take on my weirdo so much, anything is honestly welcomed!

AW DUDE thank you so much! Especially for suffering through the mammoth of a story that ANE turned into - writing has never been my strongest point so I'm always shocked to hear from people that enjoy it 🥲

About the booze question, honestly I'm not picky at all, I usually go by price and by that I mean whatever is cheapest LOL but I prefer a dry white as far as types go.

You only have to pay for it once! You get a code that unlocks the software and all of it's features and you're free to cancel your subscription after that. At some point the code might change or there might be an update that requires subscribing again - but that seems like a very rare occurrence so I wouldn't worry about it.

OH NO I HAVE DEFINITELY TRACED MY OWN REFERENCE BEFORE, but not entire poses! When something is challenging I'll make a point of drawing it out the usual way.

I can remember a couple of instances from Nick and mine's comic where I traced pictures I took of myself, just as a time saving measure. Again like I said in the post, there are several ways to employ tracing your own material that is perfectly acceptable. I have also traced bare-bones 3D backgrounds that I made for the same reasons.

I know you specifically asked about tracing when something's complicated, but I still wanted to be upfront to demystify the practice under different circumstances. The rule of thumb is to never use it when you know it would be inhibiting your skill development!

Happy to hear you wanted to pick up the skill! I definitely understand the urge too LOL since playing BG3 and becoming so invested in the stories and characters my art has improved a ton, simply from forcing me out of my usual style and making me want to capture different moods and scenarios - finding something you're passionate to draw is, frankly a great damn start.

I replied to a bunch of asks asking for pointers and advice a while back, one of the questions was very similar to yours and I still stand behind the advice I gave then. Hopefully you can find something helpful here! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/740543514692173824/some-art-advice-asks-ive-been-meaning-to-reply

HMMM I don't usually think of myself as the best teacher/tutorial guy, but funnily enough I can think of a few things about this topic that I could elaborate on lol. If I do that in the near future, I'll put it up on my patreon (for free as with everything else.)

If there are any specific things about it that you (and anyone else who would be interested in it, for that matter) find challenging and would like for me to focus on, let me know!

---

That's all for now folks, and as usual thank you so much to everyone who's left a nice compliment, word of encouragement or funny tidbit in my inbox as well! I can't reply to you all individually, but I see and read all the messages I get c:

HAVE A LOVELY REST OF YOUR WEEK

[bitethedevil]

Your character analysis’s are such a fun read! How do you go about analysing a character and what are your favourite posts?

How do I analyze characters (with Raphael as an example)

Cool question! I think my brain is automatically wired to analyze media and finding patterns at this point from studying English too long, and especially when I get really interested in a particular piece of media or character. It just sort of happens, though there is some process to it and stuff I look for when I’ve found an ‘angle’.

A starting point

Those are nice, aren’t they? For me, it’s mostly just finding some small thing and going ‘huh…that’s sort of interesting’ and then go from there. Other times it’s finding some kind of broad thing and see how that fits that character. I’ve made a whole analysis about why Raphael is a cat. I just took that small thing, looked for patterns that supported my claim, and put those together. It could also be some defining characteristic of the character or literally whatever you want as long as you can find proof and support it.

With Raphael it could be his ambition as an example.

When do we see it? When do we see it most? How does he express it? Do we see ambition elsewhere in the story? Oh yes. How is his expression of ambition different or similar from, let’s say Gale’s ambition for godhood or Astarion’s ambition for ascending? Gale and Astarion, to an extent, both think it would be for the better for the greater good if they reached their goal. Does Raphael think the same? Well, yes, it seems so. It might not be a correct statement, but he thinks so. Though we know from Gale and Astarion that such power corrupts (which is a huuuge theme in the work in general). Do we see the same flaw in Raphael? We don’t entirely know all that much about it (except for what he tells us in the ending) but what could we guess would happen after he has gotten the crown, from what we know happens to those other characters?

Patterns, comparisons, similarities, differences, proof, conclusion. That’s the gist of it.

Think about the writer’s intent but maybe not for too long.

It seems super stupid but stay with me. The way the writers have set up the narrative and the character’s place in it are obviously useful and crucial things to consider when analyzing things. I definitely won’t discredit it. However, when doing character analysis, I do sometimes throw it slightly out the window. I can make my own conclusions.

Did you have that experience in school where your English teacher points out that the ‘choice of the color green in that particular section of the book symbolizes hope’ and some kid went: “the author probably just thought green was a neat color” but your teacher keeps claiming that it doesn’t matter and that it’s still important? I’m going to be that English teacher right now. The confines of what we can analyze are not dependent on what the writer wants us to look at. God, all media would be terribly boring if that was the case.

I want to say that all the writers of BG3 have done an absolutely phenomenal job. There is no doubt about it. However, when it comes to a character like Raphael, there are stuff where I completely disregard the writer’s intent (in the final analysis. I still consider it). It has been said before by many others that he is for some reason written to be absolutely pathetic in the third act. That is the writer’s intent, and there is no doubt about it. It’s reverting expectations, I get it. I get the point loud and clear. I just wish it was more subtle and not so much handholding from the writer to tell me “he’s not all that. He is not what he says he is and btw he is also really evil”.

From the infamous shit-bucket, to his house being a mess, to it being hinted that he’s a bottom (nothing wrong with that by the way and shitty that it’s portrayed as being embarrassing for him), submissive (same point), shit in bed (once again) and only likes to sleep with himself. He keeps an innocent cleric in his basement that he tortures (in case we hadn’t gotten the point that he is bad). Sooo much handholding. I’m sure what happened was that he was supposed to play a different role in the narrative and when that got cut the writers were like “shit, what now?”.

That doesn’t mean I will discredit it or won’t analyze it though. I just won’t mindlessly eat up the intent served to me because I like to think myself. I can still take those things and make my own conclusions about it, such as the idea that Haarlep might be (and probably is) an unreliable source.

Character and Discourse Analysis

When doing character analyses, I look at the character as a whole person that exists both in and out of the narrative. We can only conclude things from what happens in the narrative though. What they do, how they do it, why they do it the way that they do, and what their motivations are. It’s important to consider all of it. They might act or react in a specific way to one thing, but does that mean that they would always do so? Are they perhaps under pressure or act differently because they want something?

An example with Raphael would be how he shows us who he is right from the get-go and presents himself as the devil you know. Seems a bit counterintuitive to reveal that you are a devil immediately if you are trying to lure someone into trusting you, right? If you know about Gortash, you also know that he seemed to be a lot more subtle when usually dealing with other people (a warlock came to his parents that might or might not have been Raphael himself). So perhaps this isn’t usual for his character, but why does he do it then?

Another thing I use occasionally is discourse analysis. Not discourse in the way that people might write or talk about a character, but the discourse of the character. How they speak, the specific words they use, and the way the character communicates with others. Discourse analysis is complicated as fuck, so I won’t go super into depth.

It’s particularly useful characters like Raphael who uses such colorful language. I’ve talked about before that he keeps using words and phrases that all boil down to us being small and him being bigger and better. It’s essentially not what he says, it’s how he says it and the way that he says it with the words he chooses. It can tell a lot about a character.

In conclusion

Here I go yapping again. For me, it’s pretty much just making claims and finding a way to support it. It doesn’t make that claim necessarily correct, but it’s about presenting an interpretation in a compelling way. It’s all about proof. With BG3 there is the wonderful thing that it’s a whole world outside the game as well so there is endless knowledge to gain from outside sources to support the things you have found in the game as well. It’s all about how nerdy one wants to be about it.

I’m not really sure if you mean analyses done by me or others when you say favorites. I think I might have linked a few that has inspired some of my own in their respective posts. I also recently read this one about Raphael and sex by @firlionemoontav that I really liked. When it comes to my own analyses, I like to write some of the more far-fetched almost conspiratorial ones like my theory on why Raphael could definitely rule the Hells and the sillier ones like the Cambion Cum Post

(Thank you for the ask <3)

[local-cryptxd]

okay i have some things to say. and i know all of my followers are here for bg3 content but i have to talk about the most recent episode of 9-1-1 on abc

Spoilers obviously if you have not seen s7xep4 of 9-1-1

Okay. I will start this by saying, I have loved Buddie for years now. Super cute, I love you Eddie, I love you Buck, im smushing your faces together like barbies. But i truly cannot get behind everyone saying that since Buck has been confirmed to be bisexual that they are going to make Buddie canon.

Firstly, lets not treat this new relationship with Tommy as a stepping stone to Buddie. This is Buck's moment right now, and thats all it needs to be. We rarely get this kind of rep, a straight "ladies man" esque character, in his 30s, learning that hes queer and what that is going to mean for him. Let Buck have this without rushing to get to Buddie

Second, I personally just do not think that it would write well for Eddie to also come out. With Buck, we have been seeing since the beginning that this man has been queer. There has never been a doubt in my mind that Buck would come out as bisexual, they have made so many quips about it in the show. It feels right for his character. I don't believe the same can be said for Eddie. If he were to come out now after all of this, if they made Buddie canon, to me it would simply feel like fanservice. Like they are catering to there audience, it wouldn't feel at all genuine to me. And I don't think its the most interesting or well written plot they could go for here.

Do I believe that Buck has/had feelings for Eddie? Absolutely. I think Buck should have a moment of realization of "oh, all of these big confusing feelings I've been having for my bestfriend might be explained now". But I don't think Eddie will reciprocate. And that's okay. They have a very beautiful friendship, and I think the best thing the writers could do is show a healthy male friendship that is heartfelt and vulnerable between a straightman and a queer man and have that just be okay.

As sweet as Buddie is as a ship, I'd very much like to see this relationship with Tommy fleshed out first and foremost. Flesh him out as a character, we've seen very little of him and I'd like to know more. I think if they really want to make Buddie canon, it needs to take its time, and they need to do it right. Well written queer characters are sometimes hard to come by, and i would hate for that to happen here with rushing into things. Personally, Ive been loving this theory brought up to me by a friend that Eddie actually helped set up things between Tommy and Buck. But who knows we will simply have to wait for the next episode.

[bg3sinbin]

Alright so I told myself I wouldn't post anything about it... but I still can't stop thinking about the A!Astarion kisses, Tav/Durge's face during it, and the stupid blow up around it. So here we go

Warnings: This is long and rambly and contains all kinds of spoilers. I am an A!Astarion lover. I will not be responding to discourse on this post. I do not care if you disagree. Make your own vent post.

OKAY so the brunt of the arguments I keep trying to ignore seeing surrounding this are how the expressions are "immersion breaking" for A!A fans, and everyone else clowning on them (sometimes rightfully so tho, ngl) because "the game gives the player expressions all the time! why are u mad now? do u just want ur Tav/Durge to be a blank slate?? lmao idiot" which ??? okay it feels like ur purposefully missing the point.

Yeah, actually sometimes this game gives my Durge some really ooc reactions. And it does, in fact, bother me. That being said, that is to be expected when u take an oc u had for like ten years and try to stick them in a pre-programmed video game. Things are gonna get ooc sometimes.

It also though, is usually smaller moments. Or things that happen Once and then u move on. Conversations where I go "hmmm. he wouldn't say any of these. oh well." or moments where he reacts negatively to terrible things that this evil bastard would normally laugh at. OH. WELL.

Now here's where my frustration actually come in. This game does a really good job, probably a better job than anything else I've played, at letting u play an interesting evil char. Something more than just "I am Rude, Aggressive, and A Dick To Everyone" and thus being punished for it gameplay wise.

I can play The Dark Urge, literal child of the god of murder, a canon necrophiliac, cannibalistic, gore freak that was going to flatten the entire world. There is a whole ass plot line and ending (multiple achievements included!) surrounding doing just that. There's all kinds of nasty interactions/plot options programmed in.

Yet, to the best of my memory, my Durge doesn't look horrified when we choose to slaughter the grove. He doesn't look horrified when we choose to kill the Dame Aylin, or Isobel. He isn't Obviously Distraught when we choose to help Astarion complete the ritual, or when we kill Shadowheart's parents, or become an Unholy Assassin of Bhaal.

To my knowledge, the player character isn't made to look afraid when kissing Dark Justiciar!Shadowheart, nor when they are literally poisoned by kissing Minthara. Sure, u CAN be offended about it in the convo with her after, but its still ur choice as the player.

I mean shit, they even patched in (in that very same patch) a positive, supportive reaction from ur evil partners at the end when u take over the nether brain! (at least for A!Astarion, and Minthara) so now when u do the evil thing that u and ur evil partner have been talking about all game, they don't suddenly change their opinion the second u actually do it.

And I really appreciate that about bg3. I can make evil choices and get interesting outcomes rather than the game just locking me out of all content actually made for that quest. Like ffs u can only get Minthara's romance scene if u slaughter dozens of innocents.

THIS GAME REWARDS U FOR DOING THE BAD THING. And like the evil options do usually have drawbacks and/or are less fleshed out than the good ones, but there are whole ass plots arcs u will never see if u only play good chars. This game makes playing an evil character interesting.

So why is it that I can do all that, and make/have my Durge react (mostly) accordingly, yet the moment the partner I chose acts controlling, now is when my characters feelings are being decided for me?

I can spend the whole game hearing Astarion talk about how spawn are controlled, how all vampires want is power, and I can say to his face "yes! this character wants that! turn me!" and yet somehow... what? the creators think I didn't know?

It just genuinely doesn't make sense to me. Like I can choose, through dialogue, that my Durge is power hungry, and very into the idea of being Astarion's pretty little lap dog. He knew what he was signing up for! And yet he looks terrified when his vampire bf (who has been feeding on him all game) bites his lip?? really?

Idk I just have some really weird feelings on some of the ways they try to Really Emphasize that u made the wrong choice for Astarion specifically, and this just exemplifies that.

Either do the rest of ur characters this service, make all of them (make every choice in the game) a moral lesson for the player to learn, where u hold their hand and say "u didn't listen to what they actually needed :c u could have done the good thing but u didn't :c"

Or let me play my evil bastard. And let me revel in it.

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

🍗 BG3 Modern AU: Harvest Feast [Thanksgiving] Dinner Edition 🥔

A/N: Obviously, Thanksgiving doesn't exist in this universe. I mean a version could exist. There have been so many wars and fights within realms, a big ironic, disarming feast technically could have happened before some bloodshed and genocide. I’m not a DND expert. But I think with a little creative licensing, you could twist this concept more into a Harvest Festival feast sort of thing. Just go with it, I wrote it on my phone while hiding from my family members. 

Astarion: 

You remember that one vine that’s like, “Everyone has a gay cousin. Bitch, I don’t have a gay cousin… Oh, oh I am the gay cousin.” That’s him- he's the gay cousin. Always crushes it at charades. Like, he’s the unbeaten champion, for four years running. 

Gale: 

The host with the most. Always cooking new variations of the same meals. Some are good. Others, like his minimalist, organic tofu vegan recipe for turkey, are better left off as concepts, not executions. 

Wyll: 

Always brings the best dessert. And is the one to kick off the conversation at dinnertime. Either about his time as the Blade of Frontiers or about what’s currently happening in the capitol. The one cousin you’re most likely to learn is actually a secret gossip. 

Karlach: 

That one grown-up who prefers the kids to table to the grown-ups' tables. Always down to start a game outside before dinner is ready. Gets teasingly scolded by Astarion for making a bigger mess rolling around outside in the dirt than the actual children. 

La’zel:

Looks super badass when she arrives on her motorcycle. Shows up, eats, and then dips out back to hang out with Minthara for a smoke. That one intimidating, quiet cousin who everybody lowkey fears, and tries really hard not to provoke. 

Shadowheart: 

Did someone say WINE AUNT? No, seriously, she always brings the booze for the grown-ups. (Also in charge of bringing the pot, which is why La’zel and Minthara let her join them behind the garage.) She also always manages to look so put together. Not having children looks really good on her lol. 

Halsin: 

The kind of guy who goes out and hunts his own damn turkey, plucks in, and cooks it- all outdoors, without any sort of fancy oven or cookware technology. He’s got like a dirt hole firepit and a cover but always ends up making the most delicious turkey you’ve ever had in your life?? Says all he uses is salt and pepper but you know damn well, he’s lying. 

Minthara: 

The cool goth cousin you were always too intimidated to talk to as a child but who you grew up to really admire as an adult. She only comes to avoid the annoying guilt-tripping she’d have to endure should she skip. Is surprisingly personable once you get her high- almost like a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. 

Bonus! Jaheira:

Your one Aunt who’s always exhausted, probably from having to rope her grown-ass children into doing normal things together as a family. Constantly can be heard whispering threats under her breath to them at the dinner table. Is always super nice and supportive to you though. 

Bonus! Minsc: 

Your outlier, kind of nuts Uncle who occasionally talks in the third person. Possibly from a head injury or maybe he was born like this. You can never get a straight answer. But he’s abstractly wise once you stop judging him by his initial appearance, and listen to what he has to say. Just don’t ask him about anything tangible like the moon landing, or if birds are real. Otherwise, you’re in for a long night. 

[silver-horse]

On the topic of people thinking that responses from bg3 characters always reflect a canon truth... I want to point out that sometimes companion responses are written with the assumption that if you picked "X line" then you are roleplaying a character who has that personality/you often pick similar options.

Example: you pick a jokester dialogue and companion responds "not your jokes again" Even if this is the first time you've ever picked a funny line. Or we can say "oh you know me, I was having adventures etc" and companions respond "yes, life has always been exciting around you. you are a wild person etc." Obviously this response is written for a character who would say this about themselves and therefore companion also confirms it. It's there so that the player can show their character's personality in a game where the main character is an empty vessel.

If you pick a flirty line sometimes characters respond "hmmm.. yes there has been something growing between us" even if this is your first time asking them out. But the game assumes that you have imagined these characters enjoying each others company off-screen before you asked them out. So the dialogue reflects that. But it's only meant for a player who wanted that romance.

I think this is smart from the writers because as long as you lean into the roleplay and you pick responses accordingly it becomes natural and realistic. However these responses DO NOT reflect a canon truth about companions&main character's relationship or main character's personality/feelings. The option for you to say you think/feel X simply exists for you to roleplay. Even companion's statements about how they feel can be not always canon. Because their response dialogues are written with the assumption that this what your character is always like. If you pick one insane/evil line or rude line then your companion's feelings toward you reflect that. They might respond like they have always felt you are a little nasty. That doesn't mean it's canon they feel that way.

It would be more realistic if characters could memorise everything you've ever picked and their responses would reflect the main character's overall personality however that's a little too much to expect even from this game. So instead we have these responses which are always the same if you just picked "X dialogue option" 2 seconds ago but regardless it's not meant to reflect what's always the truth.

(Yes there are also dialogues where companions tell you things, background info or Shadowheart eats the mushroom etc. Events characters tell you about are ofc always canon even if we don't play a version where we discovered that info. In the canon story it still happened. I just made this post to point out there are also times when a simple dialogue existing doesn't make that canon. Hopefully I provided sufficient examples and nobody will misinterpret what kind of dialogues I talk about.)

[tearlessrain]

what about the companion questions from the tav ask game, for mallory!!

eey thanks! (ask meme here for everyone else lost in the bg3 sauce)

for reference here's Mallory, looking very offended that the obviously hazardous rune had the audacity to zap him when he poked it

he's a half-drow gold draconic sorcerer and as extra as that lineage would suggest. he's also got the urchin background, but he doesn't tell people that.

I also feel it's important to mention that he was the first character I created for my initial blind playthrough and by the time I realized that his backstory and personality had a similar vibe to Astarion it was too late. as a pc it works because he romanced Astarion and the two of them have a wonderful time being insufferable and flamboyant together and bonding over their similar trauma, but as a companion he'd feel a bit "why do we have this guy, there's already one of these but better". but for the moment we'll ignore that lol.

1. What would your Tav’s greetings be (at different levels of approval)

Negative:

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" (intensely sarcastic)

"Oh. It's you."

"I was just wishing someone would come over and bother me." (also sarcastic)

Neutral+:

"Can I help you?"

"A pleasure."

"Hello, darling."

High+:

"Everything all right?"

"You know, I actually enjoy these talks."

"I hope you're well, aside from... you know."

Flirting:

"Well, hello."

"My dear, you have my full attention."

"Oh, just here to talk? Pity."

Partnered:

"I'm here."

"Gods, what would I do without you?"

"Do you need something, love?"

Broken up:

"Darling! Whatever can I do for you?" (intensely sarcastic)

"Keep wandering over here and people will talk, you know."

"Straight to business, I suppose?"

"Hm, I liked you better when you were fawning over me."

2. Describe their tent setup! What’s on the outside? The inside? The inside would be cluttered but in a deliberate organized chaos kind of way, Mallory decidedly lives up to his dragon blood in that he collects shiny things and trinkets and has maximalist decorating tastes when he's able to. the outside would be comfortable but fairly unassuming and barren. The reason for this is not personal taste, it's so that anyone who might come along to burgle the camp will go for the externally fancy-looking tents first and leave his alone.

3. What would their character quest be titled? Why? oh god I'm so bad at titles, probably something gold-related or dragon-related. idk the writers are talented they'd come up with something snappy.

4. What would your Tav’s romance scenes look like? How many would they have? He would definitely be on the "bone first ask questions later" end of the companion spectrum and would probably come onto the player fairly early on. Mallory flirts with Everyone whether he's invested in following through or not and prior to The Tadpolening he'd been clawing his way up the ranks of the upper class mages in his home city via a carefully balanced combination of fucking and blackmail and it was a marked improvement on the situation he was in before that, so his perspective on both sex and relationships is not what you'd call rose-tinted. He'd be doing the same thing here, looking for leverage and a way to establish himself with the person who's taking charge of things. It would definitely be a fun romance in act one, very weighted toward the sex scenes and light banter, but he'd be deflecting any attempts to take things further emotionally or get him to open up (and might show a bit of a vicious streak if he's pushed too hard) until the latter two acts of the game, when you'd probably see more in the way of heart to heart conversations with him as he starts trusting the player. And that trust would mean a lot to him, considering all his prior "relationships" have been transactional at best and abusive at worst.

He'd also be among the companions who's fully down with you hooking up with Halsin, and would only complain if he never gets invited. He's not well suited to monogamy.

5. Describe their idle animations! Doing little tricks with conjured fire to entertain himself, straightening his clothes/hair a bit surreptitiously and/or being preoccupied with some dirt that's not coming out, maybe doing some stretches. Pacing because he's not very good at waiting around. admiring some bauble he found while out adventuring with you and trying to figure out where to put it. if companions autonomously interacted with each other he and Gale would be arguing about magic frequently.

6. How would the player go about meeting them in Act 1? What is their introduction? I feel like the player would probably find him standing in a ring of char not far from the crash, surrounded by several smoldering intellect devourers and looking like he was not at all planning to do any adventuring the day he got abducted. He'd be wary initially but would warm up very quickly once he realizes you're not also here to attack him and suggest sticking together until the whole situation gets resolved.

The first impression he tends to give off is "mildly snobby ivory tower mage who's never had to boil water before" but it's a very curated image that he designed to navigate a very specific environment and it starts to break down once you realize he can pick locks and has a lot of random mundane survival skills and will immediately adopt any orphan that stands still long enough if he's allowed to. he is very good at being a mage though, that part is accurate.

7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one? Mallory definitely has the potential to go to the dark side, one of the ways he's most similar to Astarion is that he fears/resents others having power over him and is willing to take dubious measures to make himself as untouchable as possible. He's also manipulative at times and the kind of person who fully believes he could outwit the devil (not without reason, but he's much less impervious to consequences than he thinks he is), and he's got a lot of pent up resentment and grief and anger he's never really dealt with, so it's entirely possible that he could end up in a very bad place (both for him and for everyone around him). I've thought about one unfortunate timeline that eventually ends with him becoming a devil himself, which ultimately just traps him in a worse version of everything he was trying to escape from as a mortal but gives him the illusion of power and control (so at least he can tell himself it was worth it, even knowing it wasn't).

If influenced away from that though, he's just as capable of turning all that toward improving things instead of tearing them down, and he does have a good heart when it comes down to it.

He's got a huge soft spot for kids and a strong drive to make sure as few as possible ever have the kind of childhood he did, so I could see his arc tying in with the tiefling babies and/or Yenna in some way.

It would also likely involve Darius, his abusive ex who "took him in" in his late teens when he was in a particularly bad spot, and who he didn't get away from until he was essentially bought by someone else (which is how he ended up in the social groups he did) for more gold than Darius felt keeping him was worth. There was never any real closure there prior to the events of the game but that guy honestly needs to die. whether things end well depends on what's motivating him by the end and how he gets there; this will either be a turning point where he'll realize he's better off helping people who need it than hurting people who deserve it, or he'll go full tumblr revolutionary and decide that killing Darius wasn't enough and the only way to fix anything is to burn it all down and start from the ground up so he can do things properly, collateral damage be damned.

8. After Act 3, what does their life look like? What are they talking about at the reunion party? Regardless of his ending he will have been continuing to develop his magic, guy was like two levels away from sprouting wings by max level and he's not gonna pass that up, plus he just enjoys it.

If he had a good ending he will 100% have adopted Yenna and/or a tiefling orphan or two, and has definitely been making a huge nuisance of himself to the city's patriars in an effort to help improve things in the lower city, to great success all things considered. Mallory is extremely good at making a nuisance of himself effectively. It will be pretty clear that he's doing a lot better mental health wise and takes a lot of pride in what he's doing.

If he had a bad ending... he will insist that all his power plays and growing spiderweb of faustian bargains and revenge plots are going fantastically, and he's doing great.

He is definitely not doing great.

[blackjackkent]

If you're still doing the character meme could I hear your thoughts on wyll, friend?

(“Send me a character” meme)

You certainly can. :D Love my boy Wyll!

First impression

As with most of the BG3 characters my FIRST first impression was definitely someone's random gifset, so when I first encountered him in game my first thought was "oh hey it's that dude!" I also loved his dramatic entrance complete with one-liner. :P

I got very confused briefly by the early dialogue in the Grove and thought that, when Zevlor and Aradin mentioned "the druid", they were talking about Wyll, so I was very thrown off to realize he was a warlock. :P

Impression now

Wyll Ravengard, the man that you are! I love Wyll; definitely feel like he got short shrift in his writing compared to some of the other characters but what is there is excellent. He's a supremely good dude while still managing to struggle with a lot of challenges as a character, such as his self-sacrificing nature and Mizora's tight hold over him. And of course I love his relationship with Rakha, which has turned out to be complex and difficult; he wants (and deserves) his storybook romance, but what he has instead is someone desperately struggling to stay on her feet and dependent on his guidance.

Favorite moment

Hmmmm. Disclaimer that I haven't seen his Act 3 romance or romanced epilogue yet so that might take the cake. But I love his interactions with the tiefling kids, particularly with Umi - "don't tell anyone, but I was scared too." He's very sweet with them and it does a great job of setting up the range of his character right from the get-go. <3

Idea for a story

One of the items on my never-ending to-do list is Rakha getting Gale to help her channel the Weave with Wyll this time so that she can show him the beauty of raw magic (leading to a strong bonding moment for Wyll and Rakha and an incredibly awkward third-wheel experience for Gale :P ).

Unpopular opinion

So many of the attributes that the fandom likes to put on Astarion are already RIGHT THERE on Wyll. :/ Obviously people can headcanon and write however they want but it can be frustrating to see.

Favorite relationship

Rakha! XD But in terms of actual canon interactions, definitely Karlach - both romantically and platonically. I love how ride-or-die they are for each other especially given how they initially met, and how they're both the good and kind heart of the party together and all the terrible things they go through doesn't change that.

Favorite headcanon

This is complete crack, but when I was streaming BG3 a couple months back, someone commented that it looks impossible for Wyll to get his camp shirt on and off with his horns and that it doesn't fit him, so we started speculating that it's the same shirt he was wearing when he was pacted at 17 and the pact forbids him from buying new clothes. So he's happy to travel with Tav/Durge since it gives him a loophole to get a new shirt if they buy it for him. :P (I don't actually believe this but it still makes me laugh.)

On a more serious note, I headcanon that once the pact is broken, Wyll is able to use a different stone eye instead of the sending stone and he gets one custom made that he likes more and is his and not Mizora's.

[gaysindistress]

Do you do scenarios or headcanons? If so, how many characters can we request for scenarios or headcanons? Would you do the same prompt with different characters? Can we request for gender neutral reader? Can we request Halsin, Gale, Wyll, Dammon, Rolan, and Zevlor? Are there any topics you won't do like rape, suicide, etc? Do you do poly ships x reader? Would you mind if we request for Alternate Universes or Aus like AU where the character lives happily? Would you mind if the request is suggestive, implied sex, or mentioned sex but no explicit sex? Would you do NSFW requests? Can anons request smut? Can we check with you if you received our requests? Thank you in advance!

I had all of this info written in my main masterlist and navigation post but literally took it out last week😂😅 present me is now mad at past me but oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think this is mostly about BG3 so that’s what im basing my answers on. AND THANK YOU FOR SENDING SUCH A THOROUGH AND THOUGHTFUL ASK 🩷🩷 kisses to you my beautiful anon

Do you do scenarios or headcanons? If so, how many characters can we request for scenarios or headcanons?

Im down to do either. Lately I’ve been writing more headcanon type stuff but I’ve done both in the past.

As for how many, you could ask for as many as you’d like. Obviously the more the longer it’ll take me but also the more fun for me.

Would you do the same prompt with different characters?

absolutely!

My only thing is that I’ve had issues with people requesting the same prompt with other writers. I saw the same request (literally word for word) on at least three other fic blogs after I had gotten it and wrote something for it.

Can we request for gender neutral reader?

Of course! Ive been trying to make my stuff gender neutral and please tell me if I tagged it gn and it’s not. Im also open to writing male readers too!

Can we request Halsin, Gale, Wyll, Dammon, Rolan, and Zevlor?

Yes and please do. I need to share my thoughts on all of these lovely men with people.

Are there any topics you won't do like rape, suicide, etc?

TRIGGER WARNING

Rape, suicide, and abuse between reader and main character are no gos for me. Other than that you can always send me a message and if it’s something that I’m not comfortable with, I’ll tell you and we can figure out something that works for both of us.

Do you do poly ships x reader?

I’ve never written a poly ship so idk if I would even do a good job but I can try

Would you mind if we request for Alternate Universes or Aus like AU where the character lives happily?

Have you seen my Bucky masterlist? That shit is alllllll au’s. I collect au’s faster than Tav collected camp companions.

Would you mind if the request is suggestive, implied sex, or mentioned sex but no explicit sex? Would you do NSFW requests? Can anons request smut?

All of the above is a yes. Send me all of the things about how big of a sub Halsin can be or how Wyll would be the sweetest first time ever.

May I suggest reading ‘limits of a fae heart - five’ as an introduction to my nsfw work or running from the daylight if you’re looking for something with a darker tone.

Can we check with you if you received our requests?

I have a full time job as well as a husband and dogs that are very much my children so things might take me some time. I don’t mind the occasional “hey how’s it going? How’s the request coming along? Here is more inspiration for it.” but please be kind about it!

[iamthunderhearmehowl]

BG3 Headcannon: Halsin's Daughter

Okay - like I said I was going to continue to work on this because it brings me joy. It maaaaay not be completely accurate to DND lore - but shit I'm trying my hardest (it's all new to me - also this is just for funsies.)

original head cannon post for this can be found here: https://iamthunderhearmehowl.tumblr.com/tagged/bg3-headcannons

Some things that came to mind: (NOTE: she is an adult in these darker themed cannons)

Per previous post; she is a druid, kind of. There's a twist. She believes that nature is choas, it's unrelenting, brutal/harsh. Nature is about survival - survive first and always; thriving is a luxary that few can afford. This more than likely comes from her being half drow and wood elf: she had to survive. Being an illigetimate bastard child of drow nobility and their slave; she was treated like dirt and frowned upon. Her mother used her has a house servant and a bartering peice. Had she been born a boy she would have probably sacrificed the babe (apparently male drow are on the bottom of the totem pole) - but since she is the daughter Halsin, the man whom was beautiful enough to be held captive and used - her mother saw her as a novelty and bartering peice. Guests needed entertainment for the night? Send in the bastard child. Oh noooo a guest spilt their drink? Send the bastard child. Oh you're feeling angry and want to fight something?? SEND THE BASTARD CHILD.

I don't think they would tell her exactly who her father is other than the large wood elf who could change into a bear and was pretty handsome.

I also want to add that - again - she is just as beautiful as her father IF NOT MORE. She has these beautiful doe eyes (the same color as Halsin's) and a kindness in her face.

When her mother married off her half sister to unite houses - she sent her off with her by force to be used as her brother in law's play thing. She was part of the deal. She knew she would be beaten everyday, tortured, etc. She had to leave, even if she died trying.

When she finally escaped the underdark she ran as far as she could - straight to baulder's gate where she ends up meeting Mol and working for The Guild. There, she honed her skill: mercenary work. Her specialty. It was easy for her as she could change into different beasts - they couldn't pinpoint a person.

EX: Oh Larry?? Yeah he went camping and got fucked up by a bear. He died of course.

She's not proud of all she's done, but again - Survive first; thrive later.

At some point she does begin to question who her father is. She begins digging around and getting info; leading her back to the land that was once shadows.

The first place she heads to is Last Light Inn; she honestly just wanted a bath and a warm bed after all the traveling. She is sitting at the bar having a drink when she notices a wood elf who is. . .quite large.

She obviously does not run up and say "Hi pops" oh no no no she would be concened that he would hate her just as much as her mother. Not to mention - there aren't many people who are fond of drows.

Halsin notices her as well - he can't quite put his finger on it but there's something familar about her

Okay so that's all I have right now. :) I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and again - This is for funsies so it's not going to be completely accurate to DND lore or whatever.

NOTE: Also if there is anyone who is willing to have some fun RPing this, I am so down. I will make a discord and everything.

[acealistair]

Cosette dynamics with the rest of the BG3 party members, under the cut bc it got long of course heheh

For those that read this I'd also love to hear about other people's Tavs and their dynamics!

Astarion:

FORBIDDEN MAGIC BUDDIES LET'S GO! (they enable each other horribly lol)

But in all seriousness Cosette honestly probably confuses Astarion quite a lot, I imagine he hasn't dealt with her brand of "purity" for a long time.

She keeps accidentally flirting with him, from her perspective in the effort to be kind and friendly towards him, but obviously that's not totally clear to Astarion.

I headcanon that at the party when he's talking about wanting to have "fun" and Cosette straight-up doesn't get it he's hit with a realization akin to "holy shit I can't do this." So nothing romantic is gonna happen between them, unless he makes some move I'm not expecting.

That being said, her kindness, particularly in taking the news he's a vampire spawn in stride (and letting him drink her blood of course), has earned her a soft spot in his heart, as loathe as he would be to admit it.

Cosette thinks Astarion is funny and exciting (in both his personality and circumstances) but also feels bad for him since he's clearly shown he's traumatized by his years as a spawn. However she's also fascinated by the logistics of vampires, of course.

Gale:

Oh you know they're on the exact same wavelength (weavelength?) when it comes to love of magic and knowledge. They hit it off instantly.

I like to think Gale was enamored with Cosette pretty early on, admiring her optimism, kindness, and passion. I imagine he was really surprised to have the first person he met after the nautiloid be just as enthusiastic about magic as he is.

I have a headcanon about him marveling at her when they find the secret lab of the "healer" in the blighted village, like he's never seen a person get so starry-eyed at a dusty, kinda gross basement filled with alchemy implements and he finds it incredibly endearing. I might write about it when I have a better grasp of his personality heheh

For Cosette, she thought of Gale as a friend right away, but her moment of truly falling for him was during the experiencing-the-Weave scene. It was magical in all senses of the word for her and it kinda hit her that "oh, he gets me" which cannot be said for the majority of people.

I do think Gale's currently a little pained with Cosette because he told her his whole story, including sharing his memory of the trauma, and then she turned around and proceeded to open a tome full of forbidden knowledge without care for the consequences oops lol. So I'll at least headcanon that he'll be trying to stop Cosette from falling down that slippery slope in the future.

Karlach:

Karlach's the newest companion for me so I don't know much about her yet (other than I love her) and therefore this'll be shorter, BUT

If it weren't for Gale and Wyll being there I do think a romance could have been possible for her and Cosette, but now not so much unless something surprising happens in-game.

As it stands I'm predicting a more sisterly relationship, with Karlach looking out for Cosette (not that nobody else does but I feel it'll be particularly strong with Karlach).

Cosette is low-key relieved to have someone even close to as cheerful as she is in the party honestly. She's so pleased to be able to have upbeat conversations with Karlach, even if they're not about magic or scholarly topics.

She's fascinated with Karlach's infernal engine though, of course, and is trying to learn all she can about it.

Cosette WILL give Karlach that hug she mentioned wanting if it's the last thing she does ;_;

Lae'zel:*

Really weirdly, Lae'zel likes Cosette quite a bit? Mostly because Cosette is respectful of her culture and allows Lae'zel to speak whenever they interact with other githyanki.

Cosette was a bit scared of Lae'zel at first but tried to keep a positive attitude. She was about to give up on becoming true friends with Lae'zel until she let slip that she's a scholar as much as she is a warrior, and then Cosette got REAL excited because they finally had something to bond over.

Cosette really wants to learn everything she can about githyanki culture so she takes any opportunity to ask Lae'zel about it, which Lae'zel sometimes acts like she thinks is annoying but I think secretly likes it heheh.

Shadowheart:*

I imagine Shadowheart is pretty exasperated with how blatantly naive Cosette tends to be but the fact that she was so chill with her worshipping Shar is incredibly important to her.

I think Shadowheart's kind of in the gang of "I'm gonna roll my eyes at a lot of stuff you do but I will protect you with my fucking life" along with Astarion and Lae'zel lmao

Cosette is taken aback sometimes with how prickly and sassy Shadowheart can get and worries that she doesn't like her much, but then Shadowheart will turn around and say that Cosette is a friend the likes of which she's never had before. So Cosette has come to the conclusion that Shadowheart doesn't mean a lot of the things she says when she's being especially sharp with her words. Bit of a "ur a softie aren't u shadowheart" meme lol

Wyll:

They're both warlocks and both from nobility so there's an inherent connection there.

Since they're both nobles, Cosette desperately wants to see him dance, especially if it's with her!

Wyll was surprised to learn how readily trusting Cosette is with higher magical beings (hags, devils, etc) so I imagine he had to readjust his initial view of her.

He does see that her heart is ultimately in the right place and there's something alluring about her innocence and cheer, but he's worried about her (probably rightly so lol). He's trying his best to steer her in what he believes is the right direction.

On Cosette's part, Wyll kinda embodies a childhood fantasy of a romance with a dashing hero (with a dark side, even!), so she does have a little crush on him.

Gale is currently winning in the romance department for Cosette but there's a little something going on with her and Wyll; we'll see where it goes!

*Extra notes on Lae'zel and Shadowheart:

I think these three make an interesting trio because I get the sense that both Lae'zel and Shadowheart are inexperienced in a lot of areas and are desperately trying to hide it. I know less about Shadowheart's whole backstory and whatnot than Lae'zel's so take it with a grain of salt, but if I'm right Cosette makes a neat foil to both of them bc she too is inexperienced but doesn't try to necessarily hide it. She's not trying to come off as intimidating, unlike the both of them -- Lae'zel with strength and aggression, Shadowheart with wit and disdain.

And then there's Lae'zel and Shadowheart's rivalry with each other, all the while warming up to Cosette, and Cosette being their mediator.

Also something to be said about all three of them being naive in different ways; Lae'zel with her (up until a certain point) unquestioning faith in Vlaakith, I'm guessing something is gonna come to light with Shadowheart and her faith in Shar, and then Cosette is just out here trusting everyone she meets at face value.

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough - chugging through Baldur’s Gate

Mild spoilers below the cut

A million side quests in my journal, slowly chugging through them all… Act 3 is huge and the random little quests all over the place are kind of… like… look it’s a huge amount of content, it’s amazing, but I do prefer act 1, where yes we had less things, but those less things were all integrated better and flowed together. That being said, what’s neat about act 3 is that there’s so many little surprises here and there that I’m finding things I didn’t manage to spoil for myself: like the identity of the Stone Lord, and finding Ethel again.

So first of all… I seem to be having a RANDOM BLOODSTAIN CURSE???

A little while ago I found a large random bloodstain on the ground in town and I was trying to figure out what happened. I assumed maybe it tied back in with the murder trail I was following. When that didn’t seem to be it, I thought maybe I had missed an important event, so I backtracked through my save files and pinpointed when the bloodstain appeared. I still don’t know what happened here though. So I found the spot… in one of my save files in between me talking to the book seller in Sorcerous Sundries, and me going through the portal up to Rolan’s tower, a non-interacting NPC (a refugee) about a block away was standing over the bloodstain with one missing hit point. There’s nothing there in the area that should have caused that. There’s no event, no fight, no interaction, no dangerous thing, it’s so weird.

Then more recently, the very first night I went to sleep in my brand new room at the Elfsong, I woke up to a massive bloodstain all over one of the beds!! Before bed - nothing. Morning - massive bloodstain. What in the heck is going on?

Gale can now summon a deva courtesy of the amazing books in Ramezith’s vault. I like having it out the same time as Wyll’s cambian: my devil dude and his angel pal. Or maybe they hate each other. They were both summoned here while they were trying to eat their lunch and now they’re wordlessly glaring at each other, like two siblings who don’t get along. I love it.

I love all the cats in this game, someone on the dev team loves cats - but also remember to sometimes try interacting with them without using “speak with animals”. I tried petting Malta without it and got kind of a funny narration where they said the cat was pretending to act like they didn’t care, and failing. I have read online that if Baelen isn’t with Derryth in act 3 - either because you didn’t save him from the bibberbang field, or because you gave him the noblestalk mushroom and Derryth left him - you are able to get Derryth to take Malta to live with her??? Between this and finding the letter in her house about how much Derryth wished she married this other guy, I’m feeling pretty sad about saving him, wish instead I had either left him in the bibberbang field or gave Derryth a push to finally leave him. Oh well.

Got to the infamous squiddy romance. Nope, not for me in the end. I mean obviously I TRIED it, just to SEE, of COURSE I did, and got the achievement of shame lmao, but in my actual save game I am not having that. First of all: vanilla and garlic? Uff no thanks. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how the game has described the specific smells of a few different characters (Astarion, Raphael, Mizora, now this), and how every description includes some unpleasant undertone. (well maybe not Mizora who just sounds all around unpleasant lol) But second of all…. My specific tav just is not buying any of this. I’ve been very very wary ever since the big reveal, and this whole little side event just feels to me like more Emperor manipulation bullshit. Oh let’s go to my old room because there’s some equipment there that can help you. Oh wait would you look at that… it’s my old doggy’s collar. And a recipe for my favourite soup. And a present from my mommy. See look at all these things, look at how much humanity I have, oh yeah I guess there’s a weapon and some armor there too. Phew what a great chat, now we trust each other COMPLETELY, right? Oh hey btw I’m totally sexually attracted to you - see just another way we can be intimate, right? What great sex! You trust me completely now right? Ok back to business.

No thanks, not for my tav.

You have the option to ask the Emperor to change back into the old Guardian form… it was nice to see mine one last time, he’s so pretty! If you go this route, the next morning is pretty hilarious. You wake up next to the untransformed mindflayer Emperor with an “ew gross what did I do” face, I took screenshots, I was laughing so hard.

The face of regret.

I tried going to get Minsc last night but I wasn’t expecting how big the counting house was going to be… I’m leaving it for now and I’ll take a crack at it later. Instead I went and found the hag support group. KLED. Augh Kled, what a sweetheart, why is no one talking about him and why is there no fan art??? I gave Mayrina the wand to resurrect her husband’s corpse way back in act 1 and now I’m wondering if that was a mistake as well… she’s still dragging the body around with her, and poor old Kled says Mayrina is too kind and too pretty for the likes of him. AUGH BABE. I wonder, after I fight Ethel and finish the quest, if Mayrina and Kled might have a chance? Mayrina mentioned that lately she feels like she doesn’t see that little spark of what used to be her husband there in the corpse anymore… I think eventually she’s going to move on and hopefully appreciate this lovely lovely guy who’s there for her without any expectation and things will be great and amazing. Yep, that’s what I’m going with.

I really like the personality the game has put into the “monster” races, the goblins, the bugbears, the hobgoblins. I love how they’re more than just “rarg ebbil”, they’re fun to talk to, they have their own cultures, it makes me sad to kill them quite honestly because under different circumstances I think we could have had fun hanging out.

I love Kled, big and handsome and kind, and the fact that I don’t seem to be able to find a single thing with him on AO3 is a crime and you should all be ashamed.

I've been thinking a lot about post-Cazador Astarion. He's changed so much. Like. Yes ok he's still kind of a loveable bastard, he's still grumbling at me when I give beggars money, wouldn't want it any other way, but he's so honest now, he can be sweet, he can be soft. His pre-spawn backstory is not currently fleshed out. I know there were development ideas that he used to be a corrupt magistrate, and I am honestly ok with that, in fact perhaps I even prefer it. But the actual canon is a blank slate and I find myself wondering about Astarion's softness and honesty, if this is his old personality that Cazador couldn't torture away, growing back like the first hints of green after a forest fire... or if this is something totally new for him, not just healing from Cazador, but that all of the suffering he's overcome and this adventure he's been somewhat unwillingly dragged through have made him a better person than he ever was. Either possibility is neat, I think. I like to think about it. Man I really... I mean I've had this game so thoroughly spoiled for me, and yet I still find things that surprise me - I was really unprepared for act 3 Astarion and what a beautiful personality he has. Man I am so proud of him. My Star. Makes me wanna cry. This game.

Patch 6 still hasn’t been released for Mac… *whine* come on Larian, I want all my fancy kisses before I get to the end of the game…

EDIT: omg I think it was literally JUST RELEASED??? Aaah when’s my next work break, I wanna check it out…

[areax]

for good and for bad for laika 🥰

OC ASKS: RELATIONSHIP EDITION

For Good: Is there anyone in your OC's life who had an undeniable positive impact on who they are as a person? How did knowing this person improve your OC's life?

The specific person is dependent upon the setting, but in both her source material and BG3verse it’s someone from among her companions. In her original campaign I’d say the people who had the most impact were her best friend, her son, and her love interest… her son (his name is Duke) might be the most straightforward to explain. He started out as a teenager that she saved in a kind of split second decision (it was either him or his mentor and she didn't really know either of them, I think about that moment all the time and how if she had saved his mentor instead her character arc would have been so different) who, because of this, started to look up to her and idolize her and she was like oh no I have to be responsible for this child now. That made her start to question all her past decisions because she saw a lot of herself in Duke and didn’t want him to make the same bad choices that she had, so she had to confront her own mistakes and who she had become. It was an eye opener in thinking about how she affected other people and how actually she does care about them. Eventually at the end of the campaign she formally adopted him and he is her best and only child and she loves him very much and she is very proud of him.

Her interactions with her best friend (Lunaris) and her love interest (Zatlaft) were similar in that kind of learning to care about other people way. She’s experiencing feelings for the first time since she was sixteen, you remember feelings, right? Zatlaft was the first person she’s ever been in love with beyond infatuation (and now they are MARRIEDDDD) and Lunaris is the closest friend she’s had in 20 years. That’s all very scary to her but love is beautiful!

BG3 spoilers below this point!

In BG3verse her journey is similar: she comes to know these people that she’s traveling with and through caring for them she finds herself caring for the world again and becoming less selfish. I should write up a list of all her dynamics with everyone but special mention goes to Astarion for being like “You did all that to help free me and recognized who I am with all my faults and loved me anyway and now you’re just going to stand here and let him (Cthulhu, the Emperor, etc.) control you like Cazador controlled me? You expect me to stand by and watch while that happens to you? You’re going to let a bald guy speak to you like that?” as that is the real climax / turning point for Laika’s character, the rejection of power in favor of freedom. Lae’zel is also important because she’s the one who consistently challenges Laika and forces her to reconsider her opinions at the same time as Laika does the same for her. Laika’s character growth is primarily driven by self recognition through the other tbh.

For Bad: Is there anyone who had an undeniable negative impact on your OC’s life? How did your OC deal with that change? Have they been able to move on?

I’ve written about it on here before but literally her patron lmao that’s just how it is when you’re a warlock. In general Laika is also attracted to (not necessarily in a sexual sense) / has a weakness for / is easily seduced by displays of great power, people in powerful positions whose influence she can siphon from, anyone with knowledge beyond what’s normal, but she hasn’t had too many encounters with people who take advantage of her without her knowing that and doing the same back to them. So it’s kind of like Laika is the one doing the evil things to others and not often the other way around (obviously those actions take a toll on her but they’re not the fault of her victims, it’s her problem) so honestly she’s more likely to be someone else’s “meeting you changed my life for the worst” person. But for Laika, it was Tuesday. Undeniably her patron is the person / being who has most changed her life for the worst, but unlike with people like Wyll who were given an impossible choice and gave themselves up for the greater good, it was kind of Laika’s fault in the first place that she went looking for forbidden knowledge and then got her entire village slaughtered. She knows this deep down but tries to deny it for a long time or justify their deaths by using her powers as much as possible. Once she’s finally free from her pact she’s able to kind of move on, but that’ll always hang over her. 

It’s an interesting situation to bring both to BG3verse and to her original campaign because when we pick up with Laika here, she’s already done the worst thing she will ever do and is like past the point of thinking she can ever be a good or happy person again, and so basically everything she does is like “fuck around and find out” until there’s a slow dawning revelation that she doesn’t have to be defined by her worst moment or even if she is, she can still do something good for the world after.