#yeah his plan is clearly to make more bhaalspawn

[tethys-the-aquatic-sea-godness]

BG 3, pretending they know how to write Sarevok: SPREAD the essence of Bhaal! Make MORE Bhaalspawns!

Sarevok's first words ever: I will be the LAST... and you will go first.

[meanbossart]

So, not sure if you've covered this. But I thought I'd ask. How do you feel about the durgetash subtext? Are you pro or against? How do you treat the "relationship" / "partnership" between them? I'm curious to know how their interactions would play out hahah. (Im very pro Durgetash, cause... well. Yeah.)

First of all, obviously I'm all for people interpreting subtext however they wish to interpret it, and I think there's more than enough in the game to imply a canonical romance between The Dark Urge and Gortash; some of my favorite artists on here delve into that and I think both their art and theories are brilliant. Especially as the canon stands now, I think it's more likely that they DID have something going on rather than not, though I doubt Larian will ever confirm it one way or another to allow the player freedom with their avatar's background.

That said, in the lore I decided for DU drow they did NOT have a romantic relationship, although they did have a complicated one. My first impression upon meeting Gortash at his coronation (this was long before all the dialogue Larian added) was of someone who wanted desperately to butter me up to get his plans back on track. Yes, I do think he was happy to see the drow, but that's because he knew DU drow would honor their initial agreement (had his memories not been erased, at least) and was indeed more reliable than Orin - who clearly wanted to achieve things on her own instead of entertaining their alliance even before betraying her brother.

I did a write-up a while back on what DU Drow's perception and plans for Enver were here, but I would like to make some additions!

First of all I didn't clarify this, but when I talk about "love" in that post I did not mean the romantic kind. What DU drow had for Gortash was a tenderness that he could not bring himself to entertain in earnest because of his profoundly skewed sense of empathy and emotions. He did relate to Gortash, He did admire how he had lifted himself up from nothing and how he easily brushed off DU drow's attempts to get under his skin. DU could simply never admit such a thing or even recognize it in himself - had he been a more sane man they would have been dear friends, and there would be glimpses of that could-be friendship in how they interacted before. Gortash was probably equal parts annoyed and charmed by the Bhaalspawn's high eccentricity, his gaudy style and extreme bluntness and shamelessness- he thought he was fascinating enough to put up with his attitude, not to mention that he was reliable and got things done when he set his mind to it.

(More under cut)

Alas, DU Drow wasn't raised to entertain friendship or tenderness whatsoever prior to getting a clean reset to his brain - this doesn't change the fact that he is, by nature, a very intense man, and those emotions had to come out in one way or another. Hence his weird preocuppation with Gortash and how he made him feel. He is primed to become extremely conflicted in his feelings towards anyone who sticks around in his life as anything but a pawn or a victim, and Enver constantly tried to pose himself as a friend - arguably a even more baffling concept to DU drow than if he wanted to be a lover - because then he would at least be seeking out sex from their interpersonal exchanges. This is also why a lot of DU drow's focus when insulting/trying to torment him would have been sexually charged, besides a simple desire to shock and objectify himself and others as sacks of meat to be fucked and killed.

But Gortash grew up in literal hell, I think his capacity to withstand abuse from others (and swiftly brush it off) would have been extremely well honed, especially if it will ultimately get him what he wants. He never flinched at the guy's constant allusions to perversion and cruelty, likely rolled his eyes at it even lol. This would have been very disarming to DU drow and kept him coming back for more, and fostered (along everything else I mentioned) the admiration brought up in-game in that one letter durge writes to Bhaal. That letter would have been a very rare moment of clarity and introspection between DU drow and his father - perhaps the only entity he could ever disclose this kind of conflict to, much like a man having a crisis of faith is still likely to turn to the very god he's doubting for comfort.

I haven't yet decided how Gortash felt towards him, though, besides the aforementioned fascination mixed with irritation. I do think that after being tad-poled, when DU drow shows up in his coronation room looking so dramatically different from the man he knew (hair unkempt, clothes reduced to their practicality, shell shocked stare, the absence of his usual, lecherous grin) he would have thought what a shame that was, that this relentless beast he knew would never allign himself with someone beneath his caliber, often to the point of being unreasonable, had squandered his own ambition and was now in such meager company lol like he's got this half-elf girl just short of hanging onto his arm, this squishy wizard that he would have chewed up like hide in his teeth once, and the smug little elf? That's just his type, but the man Gortash knew had eyes for no one but his sister - regardless of how often he tried to warn him of her duplicitous nature. Ohhh what a mess she made of him, he wishes he remembered anything so he could at least say I told you so.

[macgyvertape]

BG3 Act 3 thoughts and liveblog part 2

There were a lot of parts of act 3 where I wished I could have atleast 1 more companion, I would see something that a character in camp would obviously react to, so I would have to pause and go swap my party around

Am I getting a Halsin radicalization arc? That civilization bad because Baldur's Gate is hurting the vulnerable (wish I could say like dude what about your druids grove in your absence). (edit: shame he actually has no act 3 quests at all, definitely felt added later in development)

Gale is such a pushover for his cat its hilarious. Also he’s inviting my character to his house for an intimate dinner which she is thrilled about because it means Gale is thinking about living beyond killing The Absolute but she’s getting some mixed signals here because she’s clearly involved with Astarion but thought Gale was monogamous considering his “a pity you already found someone else to make merry with” back in act 1 and how he never followed up on that. So here she just said “you must really like me” and when Gale replied “more than you could possibly believe” she started screaming internally inside at this confusing dude. 

This is the moment where my character remembered, yeah she does care for Gale and Karlach so she should tell them the Bhaalspawn secret and work more at that “being vulnerable” thing for those she does care about.

Surveillance state woohoo! My character gave a fake name but it scanned her face. I’m not sure how this connects with what crimes the scrying eyes have see  or how you’ve interacted with them, or if I had been bothered to run around and teleport past the checkpoints if things would change. (edit: I wonder when the first time is that Gortash can see D!urge is alive)

Ok Amira made a good guess at my characters tastes, I wonder what factors is coded for calculating that

My character caught up with the dude putting in explosives in toys, and if it were not for him being in a crowded public place she would have killed him. I then threatened him so he would turn himself in, I figure my character wants to see the guy suffer more than she needs money right now

Found Raphael in the brothel and he is pushing for Orpheus to be freed, yes Lae’zel wants this, but its a bad idea to have him become archedevil supreme. My character trusts no one in this scenario, not Raphael nor the Emperor nor Orpheus who she thinks would kill her if not for slaughtering his guard then for having a tadpole in her head. 

The best option is to walk away for now, and pretend to be clueless about the Emperor’s connection being blocked. She agrees with Lae’zel better to break into the House of Hope and steal the hammer. The Raphael voice acting and mocap is so fucking good, he’s a major power player and a cunning deal making devil and he feels like it

My character missed the nymph's perception check, I redid it on another character but I think it's funny my character has her blindspots

Astarion shoving his “brother” into the sunlight to torture him for info while reveling in the fact that he wasn’t burning was such a fun fucked up scene. This is deeply personal to Astarion so I chose the dialogue options to only speak up to back up Astarion’s threats, and in context of helping Astarion with the ritual the only response of “they’ll warn him we’re coming” makes sense because we can’t kill them and we aren’t planning on sparing them. She did say “for ourselves? For yourself you mean” and she really wants to believe in Astarion’s “if I become all powerful then we become all-powerful, we are a team” My character wants Astarion to be happy, and has had this arc of opening up and learning to trust some people, and she’s never cared for anyone like Astarion before or had someone help her with the D!Urge like he did so while she’s hesitant of trusting someone aside from her with a lot of power she wants to trust him. If he betrays her I think she’ll break and go full Bhaalspawn. 

(edit: it wasn't intentional but on reread it comes together nicely how she has this lack of perception and how she helps Astarion with the ritual because she thinks he does want that, and she's gone after power so how could she deny that to Astarion who she loves)

I’ve failed several perception checks in dialogue and I think it's good way for the game to indicate me there’s more to this I'm not getting. I savescummed the one with Wyll but I found it frustrating that a critical detail about there being more to Stelmane’s stroke was hidden behind 2 different checks

My character just let Shadowheart handle how she wants to respond to Ferg about Shar. Like if it isn’t super important don’t kill the Nightsong, she’s decided to just be hands off with the whole Shar/Selune thing

Dammit, there was a bug where the game thinks I signed Rapheal’s contract so I have to reload a save from over an hour ago

So while I was spoiler-ed about The Emperor’s interpersonal manipulations I don’t think my character would have responded much differently to the conversation where he talks about Stelmane if I the player hadn't known. I went with a lot of noncommittal responses, not being friendly but not calling out the obvious sympathy gathering attempt either

Halsin asking my character if she would be interested in sex, my character’s been flirting with him since the act 1 party and she is thrilled Halsin is open to casual relationships but respects what she has with Astarion and is interested in Astarion too. Talking to Astarion about it and that’s the most genuine laughter I’ve ever heard from him when you bring it up and ask how he could tell, its great. My favorite option for reassuring Astarion was “what I have with you is wholly different and very special to me”, since that’s really true for my character. Astarion’s final line “far be it for me to hold your hunger against you” and really I love the way hunger/urges play into both character's stories.

My character would then definitely be like "wait so also about the things Gale has been saying". There's no way anything more than a one night stand would work for my character at this point if Gale didn't also express interest in Astarion, and it makes me wish we saw more of different companions interacting than just banter. Gale and Astarion have the potential to get along really well. A Halsin/D!urge/Astarion relationship would be more casual and off and on again than anything with Gale, but I think there's a lot of fun potential in "ambition and bad ideas" trio of Astarion/my D!Urge/Gale (edit: especially with how all 3 end the game)

Love a man who goes down, Halsin has big top energy. I tried the bearfucker scene and it was really funny but its also played for more than just laughs where he’s clearly nervous that he’ll get rejected for losing control

Halsin is now the 4th person my character has told about being a Bhaalspawn. I waited until now in case he got more dialogue, figure my character would think that if they’re in a romance together and he’s so non judgemental she should tell him, and the fact that he told her to be careful for her own safety who she tells was a reputation increase moment for him.

Met one of Orin’s impersonations on a dying thug my character chose the Dark Urge for putting him down, what a fun face to face reunion. Also lmao this is where Astarion’s “this group is full of weirdos” little breakdown is from!! I love Karlach’s response about how the group’s best asset is trust and 2nd best defense is herself. Jaheira is definitely suspicious about how familiar Orin was with my character, but my character doesn’t plan on telling Jaheira anything about being a Bhaalspawn. 

I found more mindflayer parasites and I'm still using them on Astarion, Gale, and Karlach since they have already consumed them in the past for extra powers. Even though The Emperor isn’t really trustworthy the rubicon has already been crossed might as well keep going

BG3 Act 3 thoughts and liveblog part 1

I couldn't stop comparing DOS2 act 3 and BG3 act 3, since act 3 is a bit underbaked in both games compared to the other acts, but wow BG3 just has so much more polish and content.

The prologue reveals my character is a Bhaalspawn, I feel like it's just so widely known at this point

Defining character moment for Astarion “the problem with what Cazador has done is he did it to me”. Since Asatarion really wants this she’d help him sacrifice his “siblings” what matters to her is that Astarion is safe, but she’s worried about the unknown details but is still planning as if its possible. The dialogue options of “a killer isn’t worthy of respect” is fucking laughable my character would never say that lmao. 

When the narrator was saying you have a bunch of options what will you do, for my character it felt best to say “when the moment comes I’ll do what feels right”, since she's more of an opportunist

Ooof that fight with the gith was rough even on easy mode.

My character wanted The Emperor to prove he was the protector, but then tried to read his thoughts anyway. She’s also very grateful Lae’zeal wasn’t around when this happened considering Orpheus is real and a renegade mindflayer has him prisoner

Learning that the protection against the Absolute comes from Orpheus being trapped really puts a damper on my character’s plans to not get rid of the tadpole and associated powers. It's too dangerous to count on Orphues being imprisoned. Also the Emperor was a successful power player in Baldur’s Gate, so she’s more wary of his plans and agenda than the fact he is a mindflayer. 

My character did turn down the Emperor’s offer to evolve her, sorry she just is too attached to how her body looks. She also thinks this is a line in the sand she’s not going to persuade her companions on, unlike the tadpole powers. (personally it's the fact that it messes up your teeth, huge personal squick). I guess had my character take on so many parasite powers it gave me a fucking 21 score roll to not evolve. 

EDIT: the next day I got spoiled on the Emperor’s seduction scene and it’s friendly manners being all a front; real fucking surprise pikachu face moment for me. That my character who manipulates, lies, and seduces people might encounter someone who emotionally manipulates, lies and will seduce people. I didn’t fully trust it and thought it might have its own agenda, but still I was a little too trusting that there might have been some genuine emotion. Like DAMMIT I was rewatching Felix rvb scenes before I started the game and he has a line “Funny how an act of sacrifice like that [getting hurt] buys you so much trust”. Which is exactly what the Emperor did, where it knelt down and made a big show of how it trusts me not to hurt it and when it calls on us for that dramatic rescue that while genuine was an excellent opportunity for it to be revealed. Apparently the 21 roll is because I used so many tadpoles which the game treats as buying into The Emperor’s promises. Its repeated lines of “just like you” and “i’m on your side” to establish common ground and then presenting itself as a criminal with “a heart of gold” in its backstory. I/my character was skeptical on some details considering it also presented itself as a major power player, but bought into it’s use of “allies” when what he meant was “pawns”.  

Gale had the comment “you’ve not taken this power for yourself… why offer it to me” and I wish I could respond like what Astarion said, that don’t want to sacrifice my body. Astarion had a whole lot to say on the subject but Karlach only had 1 line about being surprised I hadn’t taken the power/transformation. Funny to see how other companions had lines about how they hadn’t done any tadpole powers and they weren’t about to start now. 

My character’s made an enemy out of the undead lich Gith queen, whom only Orpheus can oppose, and there’s an entire Gith resistance working to free him as well. So that really kills any plan of using the Absolute for herself because she’d be better off with Orphues fighting the Gith queen

Really Astarion and my character have come so far from act 1 where he was warning me about how easily Cazador could kill me to now where he’s saying if Cazador comes for him he’ll strike back and he’ll have my character along with him 

The one group my character has been consistently nice to with no promise of reward is kids, so at this point she’s just resigned to them showing up at camp as long as there’s someone like Withers, Halsin, or Wyll to keep them from getting hurt. 

My character is helping the strange ox yet again. It won’t reveal what it is but she’s really curious, and it hasn’t seemed to kill people, so she’ll help it because it might be a useful ally in the future

I love Biscotti what a GOOD DOG (love the animal writing in this and DOS2)

I think its funny that for a while I was thinking that Astarion wasn’t that pale, but in the bright light of Baldur’s Gate he really is. I think it's due to my monitor that has super high contrast

Surprised Halsin has the most dialogue in the refugee area mostly about how he’s rapidly becoming disillusioned with the city, and I tried a earlier save without him and the other companions like Astarion or Karlach don’t speak up if he’s not there.

Community meme about Gortash: I can excuse him being the chosen of an evil god and using his power to found a murderous evil cult but I draw the line at him and his PMC making surveliance cop robots. Bane is just the god of cops and Gortash works for Boston Dynamics

I like to think a bunch of the companions have been a positive force on my character so she’s helping the refugees in her own manner (lots of intimidation), and wants to see the Tiefling refugees make it after all the struggles. That there were explosives in toys justifies her being nosy and helping

Karlach really wants to go to the circus, unfortunately my character is a vicious murderer lmao. Thankfully she’s great at [persuading] and charming. Astarion, Halsin, and Karlach seem to be the best “go to the circus” group

Incredibly cool to hear my bard character perform along with the other bard in the circus

The dinosaur and the magic cat in the circus are being mistreated, Halsin is right to be mad about it. I used Astarion to pickpocket the key, then mage hand to open both cage doors

My character doesn’t like clowns and after she felt that murderous urge there’s no way she’s getting on stage. I watched the different versions of sending Halsin or Karlach up on stage but sending Astarion up on stage really is the best version. Role playing it as after he made that comment about clowns being a horror and with how both Karlach and Halsin approve of picking Astarion while he doesn’t approve if you pick someone else; its some light hearted group teasing of a guy who usually has a joke at others expense “You love the spotlight, don’t you… here’s your big chance”. Yeah he says he’s going to kill me but he’s not seriously upset.

Astarion and my character both enjoy killing clowns, see we’re great together

My bard character was pissed about the Djinn scamming with the spin the wheel game so of course she went back to rig things to get the jackpot. 

Ok so my character gets her meteorites back, that she’s a Bhaalspawn, she’s not surrendering to the D!urge or worried about atoning, but that she’s being encouraged to slaughter her line and that its the woman who hurt her before is a opportunity for power and revenge coinciding nicely

For now the only person my character is telling is Astarion, this is a big thing to confess and she wants to play this close to the vest for as long as possible. While she did have earnest suspicions since the oubliette, she’s more afraid about standing up to a god and the loss of control. I personally like how Astarion comforts you after that dialogue a lot more, especially the way he says you must try to beat Bhaal and not become a slave.