hello! choosing violence: 1 and 25 pls? :)
Thank you for the ask, freya frida! Under the cut: Gale and complaints.
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1. the character everyone gets wrong
Mischaracterization is not in short supply across fandom. I think that fandom emphasizes character and characterization to a really unusual, disproportionate degree, neglecting other parts of writing, but it is also hard to do these things. I think sometimes people act like writing characters OOC is a moral (or ethical!?) failure or indicative of a whole-person whole-life lack of critical thinking, but it's just hard to do.
But yes, my answer: Gale. A lot of bg3 fic, and in particular Bloodweave -- certainly not all of it, but a lot -- mischaracterizes Gale by reducing him to a passive depressed nerd. Now, he is a depressed nerd, and sometimes passive, because depressed people are passive. But his hubris, grandiosity/self-loathing coin-flippiness, latent moral ambiguity, and general tendency to Strive are what make this depressed nerd Gale instead of a random guy.
I also don't vibe with most Professor Well Actually Gale characterizations, which I think inflate his pomposity a tad too much. I don't think he's an MRA (?) or a Nice Guy who doesn't understand consent (glitches != canon, even if it was your experience in your playthrough). Generally I don't enjoy, "oh, this character would actually be an incel / a fascist irl, you have to admit it," unless it's like... Gortash with his AI therapist in his cyber truck. Like, put a little creativity into it, don't just make it a haha dumbass you like the wrong guy thing. Begin your thought with that assertion, don't expect it to end discussion -- if you dare.
There are mischaracterizations of Gale for porn that I'm not into, like the Blackstaff Bicycle AUs and their spinoffs, but I would not classify them as "getting the character wrong" because they're basically paper doll comics, if that makes sense. Like comics you do with paper dolls. Like that Livejournal account from forever ago that made photo comics with action figures from the 2004 Hellboy film -- I am probably the only person who remembers this. Anyway.
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25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing
I went ahead and wrote about several.
"No one writes this ship / friendship / character the way I see them."
Perhaps you should write it then, o complainant? You have access to a computer, you can make words appear on that computer, clearly you have thoughts to get out. There's no magic permission slip to be signed before you can start writing. It's hard, it takes a frustratingly long time to get any better at it, and there's no guarantee that what you produce will be close to how you conceived it; but if you can get to a flow state with it, that's a new source of slow-release euphoria in your life that doesn't fuck up your relationships or put you in the hospital or cost anything but time and effort. And maybe you do make your lovely perfect thing showcasing your correct opinion. 1way2findout.
If you really can't write, then another strategy is to find someone who shares your views and can write, and shower them with sincere praise and engagement until they are tempted to manifest your desires. That is a wonderful symbiosis, a beautiful and valid relationship. It is out there waiting for many people, I know it.
"The BNFs are not welcoming enough to me."
They are hobby writers/artists and likely gain very little from their social status in this subculture other than attention, which can be nice or very bad. It's best to seek out friends on your own and try to be the welcoming one.
"They over-sexualized Astarion."
Take it up with the game!
