#bg3 rant

[pepto-bismolfan]

My favorite crack theory for bg3 is that Durge really did just plan all of the plot as the worlds longest escape plan to get away from Bhaal

Orin stabbing Durge in the head and she’s like heh all according to plan before blacking out from blood loss

[100jewels-between-teeth]

So many saying:

"Oh! Why do all the other romances in the epilogue get kisses while Astarion gets just hugs! Where is our kiss?!?!"

I think you're missing the point...

For non-ascended Astarion, nothing is more fitting or more perfect than that hug. Why?

This is a man that had been abused for over 200 years. A man who was forced to use his body to lure people against his will. A man who tells you that he has used his body sexually and otherwise that just the act of sexual intimacy has been tainted for him.

In Act 2, as he tells you all this, allowing an extremely vulnerable side of himself to be shown to you. Asking for reassurance that he was more than a cheap tool. What does Tav/Durge do?

They hug him. Hold him tightly. And the Vampire has no clue what to do because he, in 200 years, has never been touched like that unless it had sexual implications. For the first time, he is being touched for pure, vulnerable intimacy and love. And in that moment, he accepts the safety of your arms, and holds you. Craving not a touch of lust, but love.

So yes, a hug is far better than a kiss in my regard. At the end of the day, no matter what, he wants to feel that safe feeling of your arms. No expectations, just pure love.

[loremmaradeur]

Quick hot take: people not only forget that Astarion is actually an undead vampire, but also the fact he is an elf. Not human. Elf. Not your regular human neighbour. High elf. Without human psychology and world-view - he is an elf. He doesn't sleep like a human - elves meditate. He has long pointy ears for a reason, damn it, and you can clearly see in community how little people pay any mind to it. And large portion of fandom discourse could be avoided if ppl just saw him as an elf.

[lemonsuponlemons]

Astarion Ancunin is pissing me off but it says more about me than him

(warning: talks about depression, abuse, homophobia, self-harm and suicide)

When Baldur's Gate 3 launched, the Internet was suddenly flooded by people yearning for Astarion. He became a Joe Jonas, Harry Styles or Troy Bolton overnight. So when I played BG3 for the very first time, I was curious. What's up with that guy? Lo and behold - from the very first meeting, I was ready to knock his teeth out. However, I'm an introspective person, and so I did some self-reflection on why that is. It turns out, Astarion reminds me of something (someone) I haven't gotten over yet:

I was born and raised in a Catholic, "pray the gay away" kind of family. My parents have talked about atheists many times, always negatively. To them, life without God is pointless, rid of morality and happiness. How could a person be truly happy without sacraments? I've never felt the presence of God in my life but I knew I can't talk about it openly. So I just remained silent, listening to how awful "godless" people are.

My parents didn't shy away from corporal punishment, saying how raising my brother wasn't as troublesome, how I'm not even trying to do well at school and suggesting that maybe God doesn't want me to go to university and I should become a nun instead. In different ways, mostly indirectly, I was told that there is something fundamentally wrong with me.

My brother is a Catholic priest. Ever since he left for the seminar, I have become invisible to a degree. The whole family was interested in him, expressing their pride. I could be standing right next to him and don't get a simple "how are you?". Family dinners for me were silent - I stayed silent because no one cared about my opinion. All they talked about was church, priests and horrible, horrible "gays"/leftists/atheists. My parents would chat with my brother over the dinner table and never look at me. I mean, why would they? I didn't care about priest friends, I didn't know them.

My family situation contributed to my becoming severely depressed. I engaged in self-harm and was low-key addicted to it. The thought of hurting myself was the only thing getting me through the day. It took me several tries to quit (currently clean for 4.5 years). When I told my parents (only because I was meant to go swimsuit shopping and wanted the truth to come out on my own terms), my mother didn't speak to me for a few days. Completely ignored me. My brother made jokes about "cutting one way for attention, other way for effectiveness". You know how you should disclose such things to a "trusted adult"? Yeah, I chose the wrong adults.

I was actively suicidal. I fantasised about awful things happening to my family just so they suffer like I did. I thought it was fair. If I had to beg God every day to kill me, why shouldn't they? Do they not deserve punishment for their wrongdoings? For making me feel like they would be happier without me? Like I'm a burden?

I think what pissed me off in Astarion was the similarity. On a visceral level, I know what it means to suffer and demand revenge. I know what it's like to build a spiky, sky-high wall of snarky comments and insults in hopes that no one will hurt me again.

I know what it's like when your pain and anger fester inside you, eating you alive. How anything humane and kind rots away.

But today I'm a completely different person. I love it when random old people strike up a conversation with me in public. I smile whenever I see a dog or a baby enjoying the weather. I laugh when I drop something and like to feel soft, light rain on my face. I don't hold back my seagull laugh or weird sense of humour. I dance to the radio playing at the store. I simply enjoy life and each mundane day I get to live because I know it's borrowed - I got a second chance when the painkillers didn't put me in a morgue.

Seeing Astarion's snark and negativity reminds me of the person I used to be. It brings back something I buried deep inside in hopes that it would simply disappear once I got my stuff together. I hear his words and immediately get upset. Because it doesn't have to be this way. The world doesn't have to be all gloomy and "masters or slaves". There's a lot more to this, to us. I want to grab him by the collar and yell, "You don't have to live this way! You can free yourself from this suffering!". But would I be doing it for him? Or for the teenage me? Maybe both. Maybe I know where his path leads and I know that it won't get better unless he stops this spiral.

His ascension made me think of my own violent fantasies. My own desire for revenge. Now I know that fulfilling them wouldn't change a thing. Just like with Astarion, becoming the perpetrator wouldn't erase what had already happened. No matter what, my pain would still exist. I don't fantasise about that stuff anymore and you know what? It's like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I have the energy and space to think about better things. To look towards better days awaiting me.

In short: Astarion Ancunin pisses me off because he reminds me that I haven't fully grieved what had happened to me. I want to "save" him from himself against his own wishes because I know that spiralling into violence, anger and misery will only kill him. If not literally, then figuratively and I can't tell with one is worse. Maybe I just wish someone had saved me.

[tapetum-lucidumb]

just 7.5 hours into my solo evil run and most of the companions are fucking DEAD

Wyll dies trying to protect the grove. In this playthrough Minthara dealt the final blow. i lost my shit

Knocked out Shadowheart to steal the prism, came back later and she was dead dead. Speak with dead says the artifact attacked her somehow

Lae'zel's corpse is with the Githyanki that were with Voss near the mountain pass. Didn't use speak with dead on her but I suspect she told them she'd been infected and they killed her

Halsin's dead body is outside the grove post-raid–implying he escaped the goblins somehow and went back to try to save them, only to die watching his home being destroyed

(if i'm being honest my durge 100% would've cut off Gale's hand, but i, the player, simply couldn't bear to leave my sweet wizard husband in the portal, so i pulled him out and left lol. no sign of him yet either way, but he's a lvl 1 wizard alone in the woods...)

And you know what this means? Sticking together and trusting each other literally saves their lives. oh my lord this game

[rebel-at-heart713]

Baldur’s Gate 3 Honor Mode Broke me.

I was doing so good. Flying by so easily. (Very easy with a Sorcerer to talk my way out of stuff)

The first thing to go “wrong” was one of Aradin’s friends died at the Grove gate, but I don’t care about that.

I saved Arabella, Mirkon, stopped the Shadow Druids.

Got both Scratch and Baby Owlbear

I easily defeated Auntie Ethel and got her boon while saving Marina.

The Goblin bosses were defeated swiftly (95% sure I spared Minthara)

Fake Paladins of Tyr dealt with.

I saved the Iron hand gnomes in Grymforge, beat Grym easily (turns out OH Monk topple makes it impossible to lose.)

The Spectator and Bulette fell and so did the Githyanki creche with Lae’zel on the path to defy Vlaakith.

The only other thing to go wrong was my character died to the stupid magic allergy cats so I lost Lovitar’s Love.

Enter Act 2. Where everything goes to shit.

First I find I accidentally sold an internal iron or something, (can Dammon use it to build the Heldusk armor by mistake?) no matter there’s a couple in Act 2 for Karlach’s second upgrade.

Except she’ll never get it,

Because ISOBEL FUCKING DIES!

OH Monk Gale was my only character who had a chance to attack, dealing massive damage to Marcus, stunning him and pushing him back, but then three Winged Horrors bee line it and instantly knock out Isobel. Even with a Warding Flare from Light Domain Shadowheart.

FUCKING EVERYONE IS DEAD!

Dammon is dead with no second upgrade for Karach.

Barcus is dead.

Art is dead so I’m unsure if I can save Thaniel.

Florrick is dead.

Rolan. Dead.

Even the fucking cat is dead.

Alfira! Fucking Alfira is dead despite my careful calculations to spare her from my Durge. You know how hard that is to do in Honor Mode? You have to know the trigger for her to show up in camp, (crossing the creek next to the owlbear cave) go back to the grove, enter the base mode and hope that 4 character can non lethal knock her out (switching between them so she doesn’t get so pissed at a single one to get them arrested)

But now it doesn’t matter because she is dead before I can get the amazing rewards from saving Lakrisa.

I’m so upset now. I don’t even know if I can finish this.

Jaheira managed to survive and joined my camp. (Honestly if I do continue I have half a mind to respec her into an oath of vengeance paladin cause that seems very fitting after what happened.)

[northlandcleric]

I’m going to finally go on a long ass rant that’s been building up for a while now:

I really fucking love how yall go and say “angry about Astarion kisses for whatever reason,” like yall don’t know.

And to add, these pics are literal datamined dialogue that has been floating around for a while.

And then idk if you’re being deliberately obtuse, but wtf kind of response is this? Yall are just feeding that delusions at this point.

Because yes! We do think Larian is only going to give something to one companion and not the others because that’s all they’ve been doing since release!!

For god’s sake, the company love child and thirst trap of the game has not only gotten extra content(that was confirmed by writer) to fit in perfectly with the Dark Urge origin, but they keep adding more shit for him! He already has a grand total of 9 scenes where 6 of them can be romance. The SENIOR NARRATIVE DESIGNER said they prioritized Astarion over the others.

Meanwhile, we have, on release:

Gale, who is so damned buggy that everybody knows him as the desperate, horny, still caught up on his ex, magical item consumer: 6 scenes with 3 that can be romance.

Wyll, whose romance and story is so fucking short it might as well not exist: 5 scenes with 2 that can be romance.

Karlach, whose story is not even damn finished properly: 4 scenes with 3 that can be romance.

Minthara romance has been bugged since the beginning.

All of these other companions that do in fact exist keep getting neglected, but yall have the audacity to freak out when his kisses are bugged? Heaven forbid.

And aside from the companion neglect, Act 3 is still bugged out. Content was cut in full release to the point there are too many loose ends and quests that go nowhere. And no epilogue.

I’m just tired at this point. Love the game, love most of the characters and even more of the side characters. And I really wish this was talked about further than Tumblr, but any other platform will get you mass attacked.

Anyway, doubt that this will get far, but hope I can at least help start some conversations.

[artistic-anime-trash]

Can I just say, I don’t like the way people will over-sexualize Astarion.

Like yes okay- he’s feminine, flamboyant, and plays into a lot of gay stereotypes, and in media those types of characters are typically portrayed to be hyper sexual.

And yes, you do have sex in his first romance cutscene. However, he later tells you that he did that for manipulation purposes and that he doesn’t really want to be sexual anymore.

He talks about how a large part of his trauma was how he was forced to use his body to attract victims back to Cazador. For like 200 years he wasn’t given a choice of when to be sexual or not, and that in turn has made him realize that sex isn’t really something he wants, especially when he is trying to connect with and get to know someone he views as a possible partner.

After killing Cazador is when he finally feels ready to be intimate again, on his terms with someone he is sure he loves and wants to be with. Even then, if you want to visit the drow twins at the brothel he’ll join you but then doesn’t really enjoy the experience and just dissociates through it.

That all being said, Astarion reads as a demisexual character to me. Some say Asexual, but eh I don’t really see that. Gale and Halsin fit way better into the hypersexual category than Astarion does imo.

Anyway, this is all fiction and believe and interpret the characters however you want I guess.