Arnell and Buttons

wyll.y.am ravengard, I love you so

everyone loves to put him in gold (rightly so) but my personal style is lots of silver jewelry + heavy eyeliner so that's what I gave him. also roses because he's so damn venusian

something happened in the mind flayer colony....

Every time I see someone admit they haven't finished Baldur's Gate yet, I think about the one 50~ yr old dude in my main co-op group who hasn't finished the game. Not because he got overwhelmed or got distracted or something else came up with life. But because the man B-lined straight for Moonrise towers, ignored all of Reithwin and Shar's Temple. Then interrupted the introductory scene with Ketheric by attacking him straight in the throneroom. When he followed Ketheric to the top of the tower and found out it was impossible to kill him, he went "Huh. This is a hard fight. Well this is probably the final boss, I'm pretty much done with the game then."

Then just fucking quit.

Hasn't picked up his solo campaign since.

New Bane of Faerun

Saw this post by @wild-magic-oops and @flymmsy and my hand slipped

(feat. Gortash wearing the crown of Karsus and Bane's official outfit)

i present to you 35 seconds of minthara smiling after you kiss her

one of the things that hits really nicely for me with Astarion's romance is that he never really encourages or wants you to be some kind of "protector." there are several instances where you can offer him that; protection, swear to him you'll kill cazador, or after his personal quest--I don't have the screencaps on hand, but you can directly say to him that he'll never have to need something like the ritual, because you'll protect him, and HE says back something along the lines of "It would be nice to not need you as my grand protector.... but I appreciate the thought." -- there's tinges here early in act 1 maybe of distrust of faulty promises yes, and considering Tav naive / not comprehending the power of cazador and therefore unhelpful, but even as you proceed, he's never interested in trading a lack of protection for a dependency on a protector.

in fact, the only time he's like "I'm doing it for US... to keep US safe <3" is when he's trying to manipulate/convince Tav into letting him do the ritual. "You want whats best for me right <3333" is the thing he actively uses to try and sway you over to his side, because he knows that's an emotional string to pull on.

there's an insistence of preferring equality in the subtext there; that protection or a skewed imbalance is not what Astarion wants, at his core. he doesn't want a nurse, or to be pitied, or be beholden to anyone. to try and pity him invites his irritation, even outrage. trying to swear to protect him at best gets a fond "I appreciate the Thought" and at worst a "don't be a fucking idiot." it would be veeeeery easy for the narrative to slip into something generic about being able to fix him, but it insists on someone to depend on as equals. give and take in true partnership. and in the post-ritual ending you can really feel the lack of equality there too--only now, he's in the position of both """"protector"""", and more so than that, obsessive beholder of Tav, and he exercises it in overt fashion; of course he'll protect you, your future, your life, is his after all. (and there's a LOT about that that's very interesting to me, and equally as complex & intricate as the no-ritual route in which two people meet on equal footing.) the game never shames this approach of wanting to protect him either, it acknowledges the good intent, and simply shows in Astarion's reactions that there's more here to it than that.

BALDUR'S GATE 3 (2023) ‣ dev. Larian Studios

100000 kisses for big idiot lizard

astarion!! full here

trans alt:

love that modders figured out how to reskin the dice. so you can have multiple types of d20's to roll. turns out my dice hoarding is not limited to the physical realm

I had a dream last night where buttons was in the dnd universe and it made me think... what class would he be if he was in dungeons and dragons? ranger? warlock?

Probably a ranger. The preppiest ranger possible :D I feel like rogue is a bit too "dark" for him. He'd be a stealth archer, perhaps dabbling in spellcasting and animal handling. Race-wise I can see him as a human or half-elf or something of the like. Humanoid but he needs to keep his height.

astarion buttons~

code JAMIELUVSU for 10% off all astarions on my sh0p till feb 19th♥

MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD.

oop cant believe i never posted this version from this post hehe... belly butonm..