Greet your Audience, Deimos. (Alternate title: The Truth Hurts)
In this drawing I wanted to tackle the contrast in how the dark elf warlock Deimos is viewed.
On the Material Plane ( = the 'normal world') Deimos is respected and celebrated, him being one of the famous heroes of the Grey Wardens. (He's also just having so much fun travelling the world with these heroic friends! :D)
However, in the Nine Hells when he's with his warlock patron Vannatir it's a completely different situation.
Being loved by an archdevil has thankfully also been fruitful: giving Deimos the magic powers he always wanted.
Extra:
I found this drawing difficult to finish.
I would've usually turned this drawing around. Have the foreground be the usually confident Deimos, while in the background the other side of his warlock pact is secretly shown.
But now I've done it the other way around. The warlock pact side IS the foreground here. And I'm not sure yet if I like the finished result that way.
But I'm proud I finished it anyway! And I hope this drawing at least does communicate the contrast that I wanted to show.
How do you feel about Mary Sues? Personally, when it comes to Baldur's Gate 3 OCs in particular. The game is very much wish fulfillment and the characters while extremely well written do have Sue-ish traits. Karlach was a fighter for an archdevil, Lae'zel is an outsider of an all powerful "alien" race, Shadowheart can literally become a chosen of Shar and or Selune and is regarded as such, Gale has an ex relationship with that of a goddess and knows one of the most powerful wizards in Faerun and is held in high regard, Astarion has an incredibly tragic backstory, somehow has NEVER been caught in two centuries, etc. Minthara is a member of a noble drow house, the Dark Urge is the literal equivalent of an almost edgy for edgy sake character of being a literal Bhaalspawn but not just any Bhaalspawn, Bhaal's own signature creation! Halsin doesn't really have much flaws either. Minsc is purely comic relief, and Jaheira is probably the most developed. Either way, I think it's safe to say that when it comes to writing, people can have fun with it, and still make something relatable and flawed.
This is an interesting take and good food for thought. I'm going to disagree with this on two levels: my own personal definition of Mary Sue and the application to the writing in BG3.
To me, a Mary Sue is more defined by the way the world/other characters react to them than by objective traits they may have. It's hard to define what exactly constitutes a "quality" or a "flaw", so the way I see it it's got more to do with how these traits fit into their lives and the world around them and how much sense they make - and also how others see it in the same world.
In a well-written story (in my opinion), the same traits that some may seen as good and that give a character advantages are looked down upon by others and can hinder them in different ways. A character being smart and calculating, for example, can give them a leg up in the story while still getting in the way of their emotional life, interpersonal relationships, trust in others, etc. So just saying "they're smart and successful" wouldn't paint them as a Mary Sue UNLESS the writing ignores the downsides or different interpretations of that.
In the case of BG3 specifically, firstly I disagree that anyone falls into the definition above. You can argue they have a lot of "good" traits and successes, each in their own way, but the game is extremely self-aware and allows you to call each and every one of them out for their behaviours. You can criticise Shadowheart for being too blindly attached to her goddess, you can tell Astarion to stop being a power thirsty asshole, you can confront Wyll about his choices and responsibilities, etc. Even during the game they have plenty of opportunities to stumble and be caught by their own shortcomings, which shows you the flawed sides. I agree that there are details that could be seen as very convenient (like Astarion not being caught for 200 years) but I'd argue that's more of a plot hole than a quality attributed to the character
Whether they're relatable to the average Joe, probably not, but then you also need to consider something about games like this and D&D parties in general: they're MEANT to be heroes. The story will paint them to be just random picks but you need to keep in mind they're the picks that survived and already had the traits to save the world - which means they ALREADY had to stand out. It's a case of survivorship bias: you're only seeing the success case of the group of people who were good enough to band together and defeat the big bad, and not everyone else who may have tried but didn't have it in them. imo it's just the DNA of this type of story
so many people ive known have pushed themselves to burnout trying to deny their disabled reality, skipping accommodations, skipping rests etc. and the world convinces them that the solution to their burnout is to push even harder. it’s a huge tragedy. i know social pressures make it tough but i want more disabled people to make things easier for themselves where possible, to opt out of things that harm them when possible, to quit while they’re ahead. be that person today! protect yourself where you can! take micro breaks while doing your hobby. get that shower chair. sit to brush your teeth. lie down in the middle of the day, even if only for 5 mins. these things add up and it’s so worth it.
People don't care as much about being called Lazy. But calling them Rude? That gets to more folks. It's rude that they didn't bother to put effort into whatever it was they used chatgpt for. It's rude that they thought they could advertise to you with cheap slop, thinking that would get your attention. It's rude that they didn't care enough to actually write that email.
Honestly it depends on the person and what they use it for tbh. I have a lot of people around me justifying it as a progressive advanced way of doing things, so pointing out that chatGPT actually just makes them dumber and less qualified as a person tends to be more effective - also because it's objectively true lmao
"But how am I supposed to be able to finish my PhD in 3 years without chatGPT premium?" Maybe if you can't do it without a chatbot you were never qualified for it to begin with, Karen
The Last Unicorn really said “There will be times when you can’t find other people like you and there will be times where you'll wonder if you're really the only person experiencing the world as you are and others will even try to take advantage of you through commodification and exploitation to the point where it starts to dilute your own sense of self and will make you question if you were ever you to begin with but it’s important for to resist the urge to assimilate and find community because there will always be people like you who will understand and have experienced these same things and the only way to combat a dark world who wants to smother your light is to FIGHT FIGHT RAGE AGAINST THE RED BULL DO NOT GO GENTLY INTO THAT OCEAN.”
And I just think there’s something beautifully and inextricably queer about that
Another Artfight attack, featuring Nobellun's Mjoll, a tiefling/half orc! I tried to work from a sketchier lineart here and also try some more muted colors than my usual, it was fun!!
