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merrinla · 2 months

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Halsin and Minthara weren't always mutually exclusive

Even though you can recruit both of them, in the game it looks like a funny bug. I guess this is what's left of the original idea. It was previously planned not only letting you have them at the same time, but also that they would interact in the party like other companions.

In the audio files, you can find lines of their reactions to each other's deaths. I don't know if these are triggered or not. They are both so bugged that sometimes I can hardly tell which is the cut content and which is the bug.

It's kind of funny that Halsin would be so sad.

I recently completed Halsin's quest with Mintara in my party. In the scene by the lake, when Halsin entered the portal, Minthara said "He made it. Now let's just hope he survives what's on the other side"

Actually this is exactly the same line as Tav's.

Halsin also share many lines with Tav and other origins. Most of them are unused. But in this case the line is not only voiced by Emma Gregory (Minthara's VA), it's triggered.

There is another interesting line. In Moonrise Towers, when Ketheric punishes Mintara for a failure in the grove and sends her to the dungeon, the player can choose not to interfere and leave the location without helping her. In this case one of the characters in your party will remind you that she can be saved as a potential companion. I was wondering if Halsin would say anything. And he did. "Minthara may prove useful to us, should we wish to save her…"

This isn't cut content. This isn't new content added with patches. It's in the game since the release. And this line works. Moreover, this is his personal line.

If they implement the dialogue with an ultimatum it will be nonsense. I mean, first he suggests to save her from the Absolute as a useful ally, and then in the camp he will say that it's the right choice to kick her back under the Absolute control. It's even hard to blame the character for such contradiction. Rather, it's just a stupid limit set by the script.

Next. In Act 3 if you make one of them to go up on the clown stage, the other one will approve.

There is also an unused flag for Act 3 in the game files with the description "Orin pretended to kill Halsin during the Minthara abduction campnight." Which means in Act 3 they were both in the party.

You can see what the abduction of Mintara looks like in this video. Only instead of Halsin, Jaheira is mentioned here.

youtube

Maybe there are other confirmations that I do not know about, that they were not mutually exclusive before. But that's enough for me.

They were both not originally planned as companions. Their roles were expanded much later. Most likely, Larian didn't have time to polish their content, so scissors were used. This is why their content seems so unfinished compared to others. Except for Wyll, probably. That's why they are so buggy.

I suppose the reason they are both mutually exclusive is because it is the easiest solution when you have a deadline on the horizon. Just easiest as "it's fine for a companion to just hang out at the camp". Otherwise, you need dialogs, animations, scripts, etc. And you also need to make sure that it will work with everything else. This is time and resources. But this doesn't mean that it's impossible to fix anything later.

I faintly hope that the defenetive edition will have the option to recruit them both.

And I really hope that in the future Larian will look at the games of their colleagues from BioWare (who made the original BG). I mean games from better times than now. The companions below will show you how much they "loved" each other. Not all of them became friends in the end. But nevertheless, we saved the world. Together.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #bg3 spoilers #bg3 datamine #halsin #minthara

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linka-from-captain-planet · 2 months

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Florrickology, Part 4: Florrick, Wyll, Ulder, and Character Assassination

We all know it, we all hate it. They did my beloved dirty, used her to shit all over Wyll's quest at what should be a climactic moment, and I will never forgive never forget it.

In Act 3, if Wyll rejects Mizora's offer to rescue his father from the Iron Throne in favor of keeping his pact broken, Florrick will ambush the party, inform them that "Lady Mizora" told her what he did, and seek retribution unless talked down.

This is stupid, makes no sense, assassinates Florrick's character for no good reason, and represents some of Larian's laziest NPC writing--unsurprisingly, in the midst of Wyll's personal quest, and smack dab in what's supposed to be the climax of one of the longest quests in the game.

As I said in previous posts, Florrick being willing to go to the mat for Ulder any day or time of the week is consistent with her other characterization.

Up to the point of this confrontation, the player has observed that she'll follow Ulder to literal hell and back, chase him across half a continent, and become so disappointed in her perceived failure to save him and, by extension, the entire city, that she completely gives up and quietly awaits execution, without even trying to escape (which she probably could do, as a level 11, probably Enchantment School wizard).

All her voice lines and all the things others say about her paint the picture of a loyal and true-blue friend, and a public servant of the highest caliber, "as steady as Tyr's heartbeat" and "as upstanding as the Sword Mountains." She may be sharp and shrewd, and perhaps a bit domineering and curt, but she's not cruel. She may be a bit cavalier, but she's never rash.

She's not stupid. She may be more emotional than she seems.

She has killed someone before, on the spot, for coming after Ulder. It's consistent that she would do it again, even if she had to hunt them down this time and risk being caught by the Steel Watch. In her mind, she has nothing left to lose.

What is not consistent is her being willing to kill Wyll on a flimsy accusation (that she doesn't even really believe if you read her thoughts).

Now as I've mentioned, Florrick doesn't seem to feel any particular way about Wyll; she seems to regard him simply as her friend and boss' son, just a good kid she patted on the head at parades, and when they meet again in Waukeen's Rest, as a valuable asset in rescuing Ulder and saving the city.

And I like this! It highlights that Ulder was Wyll's entire world, and it was Ulder, alone, who failed him and cast him aside. I think this is also part of why there's never any indication that Florrick and Ulder are/were romantically involved, because this would change the expectations for how she treats/feels about Wyll. But as it stands, simply being a woman in the vicinity of a child, even one in need, didn't obligate her to be a mother.

And this the feeling is mutual. In-game, there's also no indication that Wyll had or desired had any sort of personal relationship with her, as he talks about her accomplishments but not, say, seeking her out for advice or spending time with her. He mentions crushing on Stellmayne, but when asked about Florrick, he goes right to "yeah she fucks, she sniped a guy right in front of me once." He only regards her in relation to his father and the city, never himself. She's his dad's confidant and advisor, and an exemplary public servant, but nothing in particular to him.

So, it's not how Florrick feels about Wyll that makes it out of character for her to attack him, but because of how she knows Ulder feels about Wyll.

She says herself, when talked down in that confrontation, that Ulder wanted her to find Wyll and pass his birthright on if he fell, because as many mistakes as Ulder made, and as wrong as he was, and as unacceptable as his behavior was, in the end, he trusted his boy with the fate of his beloved city.

So, Florrick would never betray Ulder by attacking his son, without irrefutable evidence, especially when she'd been told explicitly to trust and help Wyll by the person she respects and reveres the most in the entire world.

As one of the most prominent NPCs in the game, appearing with a fairly significant role in all three acts, and who's been demonstrated to be an unquestionable heroic figure all along, Florrick deserved better than what she got in this blatantly lazy, formulaic scene.

And that's the answer to the question of 'why is this scene so bad?' - lazy, formulaic writing.

That's also probably the answer to any 'why is this Act 3 moment and/or NPC interaction so clunky?' question. This confrontation is Like That because it's how every every NPC Confrontation is: someone is willing to kill you for variably logical reasons, unless you talk your way out of it, and the end result is only nominally different, so it was pointless from the jump. It's the illusion of drama and conflict and a plot twist, not real drama and conflict and plot twist. Of course she (andWyllcoughcough) isn't safe from the "uh oh this game isn't done but we're shipping it anyway so we better make this story beat messy, both under-and over-whelming, and confusing to match the overall tone of Act 3" curse.

So you might then move on to, "okay, well, what's the in-universe explanation for this? How can we make it make sense, considering what we know about Florrick?"

I won't give them credit for implying anything they didn't bother to imply, even though they could have gone several other routes with about 2 lines of better dialogue and a simple animation. So, I think the only true, canonical reason Florrick does this is exactly what's presented in the text. She was approached by "Lady" Mizora, a stranger, told a lie, only half-believed it, slapped a fuckass hood on over her very distinctive freakum dress, went on the hunt, and ambushed the party in front of like 50 human, 5 cat, and 3 Steel Watch witnesses even though she's a fugitive marked for execution.

That's it. There's no further context. Again, nothing implied. As you can tell by this entire series, I will read into anything, and there's simply nothing to read into here.

No indication that Mizora charmed or is controlling Florrick, a simple explanation that could have been easily been introduced with about 1 line, a special effect, and a mocap of her "snapping out of it."

No revelation that "Lady" Mizora has been posing as a patriar and pulling strings in Baldur's Gate for the last seven years, working closely with and maybe kissin haha jk... unless Florrick, making it perfectly reasonable why she'd believe Mizora over Wyll, who's been not only missing BUT cavorting with devils for those same seven years, which is ironic because Florrick had unknowingly been doing the same thing (juicy!). (more thoughts on this)

There's not even really a feeling that Florrick, who again did all that mentioned above for Ulder and her city, is simply just so heartbroken and grieving and demoralized that she's experiencing a mental breakdown and a critical lapse in judgement, grasping at anything to make it make sense or to make her feel in control again, even if she has her doubts deep down. Again, this could have easily been written in with a few lines and some body language. I feel like this is what they thought they did, but the fact is they didn't even though it would have been easy and cost basically 0 extra resources or time.

Clearly, this scene got rubber-stamped because they (painfully correctly) assumed that nobody would care about Wyll's storyline at this point, and his supporting character Florrick with it. They probably just figured that we'd all forget how wack it was when we continued the quest and got gagged by the Emporer being a gay dragon-fucker and also Balduran.

So, what would have made this scene/part of the quest better?

To be clear, better is a pretty low bar as the canonical version full-on sucks. The above suggestions are only what could have made this specific scene (Florrick Confronts Wyll About Killing His Father) better. But really, Wyll's quest, as we all know, needs an overhaul. So, below is what's overall needed to make Wyll's entire quest in Act 3 better.

maintain Florrick's characterization (this post is about Florrick after all)

give Wyll a chance to be a hero in his own story

actually utilize Mizora, who's truly been pretty pointless all this time

provide a sense of stakes--it has to matter what happens

get everything the fuck away from that fucking magic show

I had a whole alternative Act 3 storyline written to suggest, Boss Fight Mizora Avernus and all, but realized just before posting that it doesn't work because it ends with Wyll destroying his pact, and he does sort of need that to remain a warlock for the endgame (being forced to re-class at the 11th hour would be a bit of a bold move). But trust me it was cool and better than what we got.

#bg3 spoilers #bg3 #florrickology #counsellor florrick #wyll ravengard #ulder ravengard #mizora #this one gets real tags bc it's an actual critique and not a simp post about her hips this time

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fangsandfeels · 6 months

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Alright, so I've just paid attention to one little detail. I'm pretty sure that it was not intentional, but...I've only just cared to look up how Strahd (the most notorious vampire lord, The Vamp, the Real Deal) looks like:

And then it hit me.

Yeah, it probably wasn't intentional and Larian just went for a classy and corny vampiric look, but you can't tell me he doesn't look like the "We have Strahd at home" version. And you can't tell me he wouldn't try to emulate Strahd. We're talking about the fucker who spent hours in his seething corner writing whiny diary entries and sending "I gonna be better than you!" letters to all vampire coven leaders he knows.

Of course the bitch wished he was Strahd. Despite all the power he had, all the times he made himself look big by torturing and humiliating his spawns, all the beautiful faces he surrounded himself with, Cazador still remained the most loathsome, envious, and pathetic piece of shit who never amounted to anything and compensated in the ugliest and most despicable ways.

I wouldn't put it behind him to copy the look of the First Vampire and revel in his own little domain of dread in his palace.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #shit-hunter the diva #not that any other vampire lords are any better #strahd is just as horrible and monstrous he just has more rizz #but cazabitch is a cautionary tale on steroids

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bleach-blood-and-magnolias · 6 months

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i’m losing my shit over how Larian catfished us into expecting Gortash to be this fucking rogue prince charming with a quick smile or whatever

and then we meet him and it’s literally Billie Joe Armstrong going through a midlife crisis so bad he’s like fuck it, i may or may have not been scheming my whole life to be the sole ruler of the entire world so this is kinda unorthodox but i will literally share my throne with you, a person who’s barely got a clue who i am, if you help me out a little, fuck it i’m so stressed out

and of fucking course his archduke portrait needs to be embellished. he will never admit this because it’s so important to him to be perceived as charismatic, powerful, competent and generally really fucking cool, but this man is TIRED. dude was born with bags under his eyes the size of a fist, lived in literall hell, then hustled and schemed his way into the most vicious level of politics, oh and planning the Absolute heist with Princess Stabs and Sad Grandpa certainly didn’t help. i mean we all know how that guy loves to suffer but let’s also all agree that he’s a MESS

like, he probably hasn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in years and lives off of coffee and cigarettes and vodka for breakfast and very likely cocaine because not even a triple espresso will do it for him anymore. he doesn’t want you to know but that man is EXHAUSTED and getting offed is actually surprisingly good for his mental health because maybe he’s damned for eternity, but at least he can finally REST for a minute

anyway i love him and the moment he looks up while kneeling during his coronation has altered my brain chemistry and made me switch from rat blood drinker to lord raccoon eyes so fast you couldn’t even say nearest and dearest. being a gortash simp is my personality now and i will hyperfixate on this bullshit till the day i die

#enver gortash #bg3 gortash #lord gortash #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #fuck it #gortash x durge #dark urge x gortash #goretash #durgetash #finland breakfast is his favourite kind of breakfast #*exes hot coffee with a double shot* let’s do this coronation #bg3 spoilers #it actually just occured to me to tag this as spoilers #as my own dumb ass hysterically scrolled through the tags until i spoiled the entire act 3 for myself lol

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meanbossart · 2 months

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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.

#ask #du drow lore #enver gortash #bg3 spoilers

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bearhugsandshrugs · 8 months

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I think you all know how much I love Halsin, but replaying the grove missions I can't help but think what kind of a bad leader he was. And I'm being dead serious.

First off, Kagha. He put someone as second-in-command who easily got desperate and trusted the wrong crowd. If you play out the Shadow Druid line, you hear how there suddenly appeared a letter to her and it didn't take much convincing for her to join them. But also, you can rather easily persuade her to turn on the Shadow Druids, too! So you're left with a deputy who can't hold her own ground, is easily swayed, and basically let her power fantasies get the better off her at the first chance. Now, you might ask: why is this Halsin's fault?

Aside from the obvious bad pick as his stand-in, he apparently had not developed her to perfom better as a leader at all. He set her up to fail: He left her, on short notice, in the middle of a crisis (already a bad call – he should have asked someone else to go with Aradin). But even before that, he apparently never taught her what kind of measures would be appropriate during duress, or she wouldn't have jumped at the first best chance to betray him.

But more. Many of the druids comment on how Halsin is "weak", not only Kagha. You can hear the idle conversations when you walk the grove. And they're not only about taking in the refugees. So there seems to be general discontent amongst his own community about his leadership, even portrayed by the fact that Halsin felt the need to hide his thoughts in a diary only carried by himself. You can also find a note which says that he asked the Emerald Enclave for help and they won't send any. Plus, last but not least, you seriously have not put any effort in developing a worthy successor (Kagha aside)? Really? Sure, you can get someone from the outside, but why, if you're leaving anyway? That play would make the most sense if Halsin intended to return and then step down, which seems telling in itself.

Even more. Because right outside the grove there are several harpies with literal bodies and skeletons piling up on the beach. You have a whole ass community of druids yet no one thought to actually walk, what, 15 minutes down to the beach to see what's going on down there? You couldn't be bothered to do something about it?

And it pains me to write this, because he's supposed to be our guidance-giver, a retired leader so to speak, but what he leaves behind in the grove is little to show for. He remarks himself several times that he wasn't truly happy there, and later you find out that he had to step up as arch druid when his previous leader was killed. And then he took the community to the grove and established a community there. A community that was made up entirely of refugees, and then is all too eager to turn on tiefling refugees the second those strangers come into the same scenario Halsin once led them out of.

Of course he can't be responsible for everything, but he is (or was) responsible for the culture there. And what we see of it? No thank you, actually.

It's probably because for a hundred years he was restless, seeking to figure out the shadow curse, weighed down by guilt and desperation of not finding any answers. Add to that his whole trauma-response of his whole laissez faire lifestyle – do as you wish, basically, as long as it won't harm anyone – and you get the Emerald Grove. At the same time Larian is trying to sell us Halsin as this wise man who has seen everything and can't be shaken easily, but man. Yeah maybe that's true. But maybe he should be shaken up more easily. Actual lives are at stake. This is not the time to be so chill.

Last but not least: I think Halsin knows this. But he can't get past the doubting himself stage. He can't just admit it to himself, admit that his avoidance of deeper bonds caused this. He voices doubts, sure, and says that not solving the shadow curse sooner was his biggest failing. YET. How could he have done that without allies? And that's the thing: In a century of not properly settling down to develop stronger bonds – to his own community of druids, to others, hell even to Jaheira, who he knew of was there! – he had no allies to cure the shadow curse. No allies meant there was no one to seriously grieve over if they should die, like he did with Thaniel and his former arch druid. At the same time no allies meant also that he was destined to fail. But instead of seeking said allies, he stayed in the grove, sought refuge in books and tests, and shied away from befriending others.

It's why he needs Tav so much and why he stays back in camp for most of Act 2. He can't get too close. He is literally unable to form stronger relationships to people he can rely on. I think it's past trauma preventing him from it. Does he know this, deep down? Probably. Will he ever admit it? Not in the game. Unfortunately.

#bg3 spoilers #halsin #wake up i'm ranting about halsin again

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lusciouswhiteflame · 5 months

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This is not for you darling!

I started honour mode with Nyv and friends.

Their "How I met him" story starting over for the 3rd time. Astarion seduced Nyv (Durge) in middle of the Goblin camp. Always picking the most romantic spots to chat. The tiefling party is over and now they're heading to the next location.

** potencial durge Spoilers everywhere from here **

Let's see how long this journey lasts. I really want to see them getting the trophy, but I also regret this mode. I want to try so many things. So many dialogue options. This time I got the performance feat from Alfira (oh Alfira...) . I'm actually enjoying to see Nyv play different instruments, also seeing him whistle lmao (I didn't know he could make money out of it as Assassin too). I'll probably give Astarion the performance feat only to see them duet. But I must be careful. It's honour mode after all. I'm already afraid of House of Grief.

Also it gave me an idea for the next durgestarion run. Duo Rogue Assassins luring their victims with their performance. Walking around looting corpses is tedious, so let's just gather them in one place and boom, said Astarion. And Durge smiled. They'll sneak for more formidable opponents.

I also want to mention I digged a grave in the emerald grove and found out more about Durge's...uh... preferences... and it only made Durgestarion make more sense I'm smirking. A match made in heaven hell or wherever indeed.

Also this time I picked a different dialogue option and found interesting how Astarion encourage Durge to embrace his nature and let his kller instinct unleash. But I know, when the urge actually takes over Nyv, he wants him to resist. To be himself. He approves and loves Nyv's violent nature but only if Nyv is Nyv. And that's interesting and lovely. He wants the safety Nyv provides but... not at any cost. Also he doesn't want to get klled by the urge. Obviously. But still.

It's baffling (in a good way) how much commitment he shows with Durge. He stays to make sure Nyv is ok through the urge. He KNOWS Nyv would do it for him, and he wants to do the same. That's beautiful. To think he was struggling and feeling stupid to fall for durge makes it all the better. Astarion and his machinations. I'm glad durge is there to be the actual mastermind from now on.

I really want to play as Astarion origin and find Durge (Nyv) and recruit him. Please Larian. PLEASE.

By the way, I bought Divinity OS2, Baldur's gate 1&2 on ps5. Take my money. Thank you.

Ok I think it's all for now. Sorry for the looooong ranting. If you made it this far thanks for reading, and wish me luck with this mode 😉

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #astarion x dark urge

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delulu-dekarios · 2 months

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My thoughts on Gales proposal:

So I'm honestly not a very big fan of Gales proposal. It seems really weird for him to just spring the question on you with none of his usual romantic and magic flare. Just casually asking if you'll be a part of the Dekarios clan. And he basically doesn't even ask you. You have to ask him if that's what he's asking, and then he goes "yeah I suppose so". Which makes me believe:

A. He wasn't planning on proposing to you then. When he was asking if you'd join the Dekarios clan, it was a casual question. He was like will you come live with me and be integrated into my family. But not like in the married way yet. Just by being committed, significant others who live together. But because you (the player) asks him if that's what he's asking he's like, "Oh my god wait, you will marry me? Then yeah we can get married"

It wasn't his plan to propose then and there. That was sprung on him as much as it was on you. But he loves you and does want to get married to you and therefore says yes he is proposing and THEN gets down on one knee to like make it a real proposal, at least in some way.

B. You guys just survived defeating the netherbrain. No less then 24 hours ago he thought he was going to die. Or perhaps you were going to die. Or everyone on the sword coast was going to die. But you didn't, you somehow all survived and you have "a thousand more days ahead of you". And that has made him realize that he doesn't want to wait for even a moment. He loves you and he gets a chance at life and he wants to spend the rest of it with you. And so I don't really think he was thinking about making the proposal elaborate and romantic and magical. He was just thinking about you and how much he loves you and how he wants to spend the rest of his life with you.

This makes even more sense to me because I remember watching the news one time after a shooting had happened in my town, and the survivors were being interviewed and they said that they had agreed to marry each other while hiding from the shooter. Because that situation made them realize how short and precious life is and how you shouldn't waste a moment. So Gale coming from the most harrowing and life threatening experience of his life, to wake up next to the person who he loves more than anyone or anything he has ever loved in his life, I think it makes sense that he would just blurt it out that he wants to marry you. Even if it is a little out of character for him and his usual over the top romantic gestures.

So while I'm not super happy with the proposal that we got, as I would have loved to see whatever elaborate, magical thing Gale could come up with to both woo and wow us, I understand why it wasn't like that. And I know that probably what happened was the writers at larian weren't super thinking about it when they wrote that, and they just kind of got lazy, but that's personally how I justify Gales proposal.

#sorry for my rant i was just thinking about this #im not even sure if all of this makes sense but its whatever #bg3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 gale

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animentality · 4 months

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I love Baldur's Gate and the Dark Urge and all -

And the idea of the Dark Urge redeeming themselves after a lifetime of horror by literally choosing to die and go to purgatory forever is really amazing. In fact, it's why I'm so dedicated to the Dark Urge as a character.

The idea of a villain losing their memory, becoming a hero, and then realizing that they need to die not just once, but twice to truly DESERVE their redemption is honestly brilliant.

But.

Withers revives you way too fucking fast.

You literally die...and then Withers instantly brings you back.

In fact, it takes him fucking longer to revive your COMPANIONS than you, and your companions dying and being revived at camp aren't even part of the story, it's just you fucking something up and not wanting to waste a revive scroll.

Withers bringing you back instantly comes across as like, oh, so dying for your morals, being a true hero in the end, a martyr, defeating the villain, which is you...it's totally negated.

You died for about twenty seconds.

I've known people who died for longer on the operating table.

Where is my lover crying and clutching my body?

Where are my friends, all looking devastated, because they're all gotten to know me and root for me and truly care about me after I've done ALL THIS for them???

So that they could be safe from me?

Where is the emotion?

He brings you back and then your companions have a single line that's essentially just, "good job buddy."

Karlach says something like, I'm proud of you and Wyll says I'll drink in your name or whatever.

And Astarion has a really obnoxious line about how this means you aren't going to attack him anymore...and it's like... okay.

Cool.

So you guys are totally unphased by the fact that you just watched me die...but I suppose death doesn't mean shit in this game, since you have Withers to constantly bring you back.

Cool.

So then what? Nothing matters?

It's just frustrating because I know it's the cut content curse. They had more planned for Orin and the Dark Urge and Bhaal...but it just feels so underwhelming.

I think BG3's primary flaw comes in the fact that they wanted to build this richly crafted narrative, while also accounting for player choice. And they did a magnificent job of adding SO MANY extra scenes and alternate interactions, to the point where I'm still finding new shit, after like 800 hours of playing...

But the tradeoff is that the character stories...fall really flat, because they want so desperately for a Tav to be the main character, and no one else.

The Dark Urge especially suffers from this, because they made them a murder hobo in one ending, and basically just a Tav in the other ending.

As soon as you are brought back by Withers, you might as well just be a Tav. It has no bearing on anything anymore.

And that's such a shame.

I just wish it had some weight. The Dark Urge has spent their entire life ending lives... it should be beautiful, that they would end their own life to atone...their last victim, would be themselves, as they always knew...but for different reasons-

oh wait, withers is here.

cool, i'm back, guys, let's go to arby's and celebrate.

i just think the game should legitimately make you think you died, at least until a long rest or two.

force the squad to go on without you, make someone else your fourth member.

THEN withers can come to you, maybe in some kind of new Jerrgal-form, so you know he's Jergal for sure, and then reveal he was secretly a retired god.

And honestly, that makes Withers a far more interesting character too. To give him this huge hero moment, and have him say, no, this will not stand. I know he HAS that moment, but it's so rushed.

Let the player breathe on it. Let them FREAK OUT. Can you imagine how much stir it would've created, if Dark Urge players LEGIT thought they were dead permanently?

That would've given their sacrifice real weight.

But Larian was scared, probably, of players being upset that their characters are dead, even though that kind of sacrifice is literally the most heroic thing you could do in the game, besides become a damn mindflayer.

So some sacrifice! You sacrificed ten seconds of your life, and your companions barely care.

Alright. Fine.

I'll just be over here writing your story for you!

#dark urge #baldurs gate 3 #bg3

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retromimic · 7 months

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re: Astarion's age (and others)

I made a random post last week about Astarion's age and I have been thinking about it since.

I also realized that we do have other characters we can use to have a better idea of timelines and stuff.

And by other characters I mean Jaheira and Halsin.

More under the cut, tl;dr at the end

Jaheira

Jaheira is from the first two Baldur's Gate games, which both take place over 100 years before BG3 (1368 and 1369, so 123 before BG3, which is in 1492).

She's a half-elf, who age pretty much the same as human, but live longer, so she probably was in her 20's or early 30's in the first games, which would make her about 150 years old in BG3. This makes sense with her appearance, as half-elves live for about 180 years.

Note: Based on appearance only, it's possible Jaheira was older in the first games, but considering they were released in 1998 and 2000, I highly doubt they made the hot half elf lady an actual middle-age woman lmao

Side note: Minsc

Minsc is a human and also from the first two games, but there is a canon reason why he's still alive and doesn't look like he got older like Jaheira did. iykyk

Halsin

He just straight up says he's 350 years old. He's an elf.

He also does look old, but not that old.

Shadowheart

We know she is at least 40 years old (but not much older), and she doesn't look too old. It's subjective but to me she looks like a human late 20's, early 30's (I do think she looks older than Jaheira did in the first two games, but graphic quality and time does affect that). She's a half-elf, so that also checks out.

Recap so far:

Half-elves:

Live for about 180 years

40's: young and soft

150's: Mommy™

Elves:

Live for a long time (in game: at least 350 years, in DnD lore: about 700 years)

350's: Daddy™

Now onto the baby

Astarion

The information can be conflicting, so I'll try to break it down.

The tombstone

This is where it gets complicated because not only is it hard to read, but also is kind of contradictory.

It's written in the Thorass alphabet.

The initial dates are the easiest to read:

229 - 268 DR

Which would mean he was 39 years old when he died. Which a lot of people find it a bit hard to believe considering he looks much older, especially if you compare him to Shadowheart, who's not only older, but also only a half-elf.

I'll come back to it later.

What makes the tombstone complicated is the date Astarion adds. They are hard to read, the first one is barely readable and the numbers 5, 6, 7 and 9 can be easily mistaken for one another when it's someone who just had the most emotional moment of his life carving it in stone with a dagger.

The general consensus from what I've seen has been that it's 498 and that the dates on the tombstone are omitting the 1 (so the dates would actually be 1229, 1268 and 1498 DR), or that Larian made a mistake and should have made the dates in NR, not DR (which would bring the dates to 1261 and 1300 for his birth/death)

Both options have flaws because of the date Astarion writes should either read 492 (omitting the 1) or 460 (NR instead of DR). Neither are really plausible because the last number really doesn't look neither like a 2 or a 0.

The first option would also mean that Astarion died 230 years ago, which we know is not true. A lot of things in-game (not just Astarion) confirms it.

The second option would place his death 192 years ago, which is the most plausible.

But then how to explain the error in the date he adds?

Either he fucked up and doesn't know what year it is.

Or the first number is actually a 2, and he wrote 268, which is the year he died. We'll go with this one.

So, conclusion? Astarion was 39 years old when he died, 192 years ago, making him now 231 years old.

Physical appearance

Now, onto his look.

As mentioned earlier, Astarion doesn't look like he's younger than 40-something half-elf, so some people think the tombstone might be reading 129, giving him an extra 100 years at death, which would make more sense, but there is clearly more than just one dot on that first number, and there is a more plausible reason for him looking so old:

Vampire spawn appeared as they did in life, though their features were hardened and appeared predatory.

Source: Forgotten Realms Wiki

Add to that nearly 200 years of torture? That would make a man look a couple decades older.

And it's not really hard to imagine he was 39 years old at death when you see him, mostly post-Cazador, with softer expressions. (There is posts about it on here, sorry I can't link)

There is one last argument against this, which is the fact that elves reach "adulthood" at around 100 yeas old, and that Astarion already had a job and everything when he died.

But that's really easy to explain;

Elves physically reach adulthood at the same rate as humans, but their concept of adulthood is different, which is why "socially" they are considered adults only much later.

But also, this is socially, and socially, Astarion grew up in Baldur's Gate, a multi-cultural city, so he didn't grow up with elven mentality. Him having a job at 39 years old is very much plausible.

SO.

TL;DR:

Astarion was still pretty much a child when he died at 39 years old, 192 years ago.

#bg3 #astarion #baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 talk #bg3 astarion #character analysis #astarion ancunin #idk about you but i find this even more tragic #someone else probably did this before but whatever #jaheira #halsin #shadowheart #sorry if there is errors I didn't proof read

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y-rhywbeth2 · 4 months

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Gods & Clergy: Selûne

Link: Disclaimer regarding D&D "canon" & Index [tldr: D&D lore is a giant conflicting mess. Larian's lore is also a conflicting mess. You learn to take what you want and leave the rest]

I should probably compile some lore on gods who aren't evil messes for a change... Then right back into the evil nonsense with Shar.

Worshippers & Clergy: All are equal and personal freedom and tolerance of other ways of life is very important. Also something-something motherhood. Now if you'll excuse me: "o, White Night Lady, guideth mine eye to wherever the hells mine keys that I had literally five seconds ago art?"

Silverstars: You can make an amazing amount of things out of moonlight, really.

Selûne: The Anti-Shar. She's kind of a spoonie.

"Let all on whom Selûne's light falls be welcome if they desire. As the silver moon waxes and wanes, so too does life. Trust in Selûne's radiance, and know that all love alive under her light shall know her blessing. Turn to the moon, and she will be your true guide. Promote acceptance and tolerance. See all other beings as equals. Aid fellow Selûnites as if they were your dearest friends." - Selûne's Dogma.

Selûne's worshippers come from all sorts: people who work the night shift, and other people seeking protection from Shar; travellers and navigators who will be navigating using the night sky; sailors; female mages; diviners and people hoping for a glimpse of the future; and lycanthropes who want to resist the influence of their curse. Selûne is also considered associated with femineity and is something of a mother goddess, and is worshipped by women, particularly mothers and couples trying to conceive.

In every day life one might call on her if they're lost, or to find misplaced objects and such - for example, where the hells have the house keys gone?

Female mages born under a full moon are considered to carry her blessing.

The moon waxes and wanes and may show itself in a vast array of colours and shapes; so is the moon goddess as inherently mercurial. Her faces are many and never the same, and so her follows are many and no two are the same.

There are only a few concrete rules of the faith. All people are equal and should be made welcome and treated with dignity. Shar's predations must be combated wherever you uncover them. One should always give healing freely to those who need it. The lonely and ostracised should be offered friendship and care.

The faith is extremely, proudly diverse, and Selûne places very few demands upon her followers in exchange for her blessings. There is no "right" way to worship the Moonmaiden, individuality and customisation in religious practices in encouraged.

Her clergy promotes acceptance of different ways of life and follows a lose hierarchy with emphasis on personal freedom.

The clergy have no uniform, save their holy symbol (a pair of eyes surrounded by seven stars, in silver), and they dress how they see fit. Moonstones are popular. When dressed for battle they can often be recognised by the iconic weapon known as the moon's hand - a footman's mace with a smooth head.

Even her temples follow no set structure, one may find a temple of the Night White Lady is a massive cathedral, a small roadside shrine, or a circle of standing stones on top of the village hill where her followers go to dance under the moonlight. "Anywhere the full moon shines is a place for [worshipping] Selûne."

Clergy are known collectively as Mooncloaks (informally) and Ladyservants (formally). A variety of titles exist within the church. The loose ranks of experience are as follows: those who are interested in joining but have not yet entered training are Postulants, Novices are referred to as the Called. Runrae (singular: Runra) are fully trained priests.

One of the Called becomes a Runra when they are assigned a simple task in the form of a low-level quest where they're expected to show that they have learnt the lessons of their faith. When successful, Selûne contacts them in their dreams via a vision, and they are a priest.

Ranks ascend into Alrunrae, Tenembrae, Sartembrae, Trintelrae, Aumrae, and finally the Calunalae.

A Calunala is an independent agent who maintains close personal ties with the goddess, essentially serving as her secret agents in the war against Shar.

Priests tend to wander Faerûn, making a living by offering their services as navigators (especially if you're traveling by night) and fortune tellers (there are no diviners more accurate than a Selûnite). There are no restrictions about whatever work they want to do to support themselves, and travelling mooncloaks can be found in part time jobs blacksmithing, weaving, farming, serving tables... They're also prepared to fight against Sharrans and lycanthropes, whenever and wherever they cause harm.

Not infrequently, a mooncloak will receive missions and holy duties - sometimes from higher ranking priests, and often from Selûne herself. Whenever she sets them a task, the Moonmaiden usually grants them temporary spells and abilities to aid them. With their siblings in the faith alway ready to aid them, and their goddess personally lending her aid, Selûne's clergy often give the optimistic opinion that "The Moon waxes and wanes, and fortunes of the holy folk of the Moon rise and fall - but the Moon is ever with us, sailing on no matter how dark the sky."

Selûnites traditionally charge very little for their services, save for a place to sleep for the night and a warm meal, and maybe any few coins you can afford to spare. They have a reputation for kindness, open-mindedness and generosity that makes their faith very popular.

Selûne personally encourages her clergy to be self-reliant, kind and humble, but also wants to see them live lives they're happy in.

As stated, Selûnite rituals are highly customised and tend to be unique to the priest in question. Generally they are performed in the open under the moonlight and involve dancing and meditating. Offerings of milk or wine are poured on Selûnite altars during the full and new moons. If the priest is in the godess' good graces then she will cause the libation to transform into moonfire - an "opalescent, glowing fluid with the consistency of custard." It's described as feeling silk-soft to the touch. The touch of the moonfire as it flows down the altar may enchant objects or bestow powers upon the things and beings it touches, as per the will of Selûne (it can also destroy undead). On ritual nights, her priests cast commune in order to socialise with their goddess and reaffirm their personal connection with her.

There are two holy days: the Mystery of the Night and the Conjuring of the Second Moon.

The Mystery of the Night is performed once a year by every priest (it has no set day, it occurs whenever the priest in question holds it). The priest lies before an altar of the Moonmaiden and slips into a trance. They fly upwards and spiral the moon, communing with Selûne via an exchange of visions. This ritual is extremely taxing, but the priest will quickly recover with rest.

The Conjuring of the Second Moon occurs once every four years during Shieldmeet, and is generally a day when the church goes to war with the church of Shar. To aid them, priests summon Shards to do their beings - celestials who take the form of blue-haired, winged warrior women who serve Selûne (equivalent to planetars in power). At the end of the day, one mortal priestess will leave with them to join their ranks.

Religious orders in service of the Moonmaiden include the Swords of the Lady (also known as "Lunatics" behind their back). They're a fanatical order of warriors dedicated to combating Shar and her worshippers.

The Oracles of the Moon are an organisation of female mages, specialising in divination, who dedicate themselves to Selûne's service.

The Order of the Sun Soul is a monastic order that worships Selûne and Lathander.

Specialty priests are known as Silverstars.

They can see in the dark perfectly for up to 30ft.

They can create blades made of moonlight, wieldable only by the silverstar that made it. The blade causes no visible damage to living beings, but it does sap their life force and disrupt magic, preventing mages from casting. The flesh of undead visibly melts away under its touch.

They can raise or lower the levels of bodies of water, akin to the effects of the tide.

They can fire small meteors (shooting stars) from their hands, in an effect much like fireballs. They explode on impact.

A Silverstar infected with lycanthropy has control over their transformations, and Selûne protects them from being damaged by silver.

They can also shape moonlight into a wall - the wall is intangible, but it illuminates its surroundings, dispelling magical darkness. It will cause harm to any with evil intent, and followers of Shar (or Umberlee), as well as any undead being that passes through it. Magical items on the person of an individual who passes through will glow red, drawing attention to them, and magical potions will explode.

Stairs and bridges can also be crafted from moonlight, which can reach up to 15ft in length. While standing on the bridge, individuals are protected from enchantments, life-draining effects and missiles. It's impossible to knock them off of the bridge.

Finally they can shape the light into a net that protects a specific area. The strands are visible only to the priests, the goddess and those under the spell's protection. Everything else - intruders, weapons and magic - that enters the area is forced back to its point of origin. Attacks will be rebounded.

Selûne is a Chaotic Good deity. Her realm is in the Gates of the Moon, on the plane of Ysgard.

She doesn't care about ritual and dogma or how observant of these practices her followers are, as long as they are able to support themselves, fulfilled in life and will offer kindness to others. The spirit of faith is more important to Our Lady of Silver than the scriptures of religion.

Sometimes she is taken by a joyful, energetic mood. Sometimes she is a quiet, caring and maternal figure, prone to poetic moods. Whichever mood she's in, she carries herself with an underlying sense of grief that seems millennia old. Selûne is slow to anger and prefers to avoid fights, but that changes rapidly when she comes into conflict with her sister, and there she displays a side to herself that is much more warlike. She also opposes Umberlee on behalf of sailors and others who live by the sea. When in conflict with her enemies Selûne is merciless.

Selûne was (apparently) born of the primordial essence of the universe, one half of the Two-Faced Goddess with her twin, Shar. Together they created the planetary bodies of the solar system, including the Earthmother, Chauntea.

When Chauntea begged for warmth to nurture life upon her, the Two-Faced goddess experienced conflicting desire for the first time. Selûne was willing to grant the Earthmother her wish, but for Shar, the very concept was a horrifying antithesis to her very being.

The argument between the two spawned the concepts (and gods) of destruction; such as war, disease and death/murder. Eventually, Selûne reached into the Elemental Plane of Fire and drew a portion of it into Realmspace, and fashioned it into the sun - a process that burned her.

Shar's rage doubled, and she began to snuff out every light she could find in the universe, causing Selûne to tear out a part of her own essence and fashion it into a weapon that she threw at Shar in defence of the newborn life of Realmspace. This portion of Selûne passed through Shar and formed itself into the Weave - the goddess Mystryl (who would one day be called Mystra). Mystryl sided with Selûne, and Shar was forced to concede defeat now that she was utterly outnumbered.

This battle has left Selûne permanently weakened, and her strength waxes and wanes much like the phases of the moon. The two sisters continue their argument - and Shar is boldest when her sister is at her weakest.

The Moonmaiden's avatar takes the form of a human woman, with various appearances, her age generally conforming to one of the maiden, mother, crone concepts. In one of her more matronly, middle-aged forms she enjoys walking the realms, and curiously has decided to open an inn in Waterdeep using this form, unbeknownst to many. Her apparent health depends on the state of the moon, while it wanes she appears sicker and closer to death. Regardless of its phase, she glows faintly with moonlight in the darkness.

Her lesser manifestations include dancing trails of little lights known as "moondust" or "moon motes." She manifests these to people who are lost at night, or traveling over dangerous ground that they can't perceive. She will also provide them for her faithful, when they require a light source to perform an important task but have no way to see.

Her messengers and servants include owls, weredragons and other lycanthropes and shapeshifters, and her Shards.

For a while, prior to the Time of Troubles, she worked under the goddess of love, Sune. She later went her own way and resumed operating as an independent deity, but maintains a close relationship with Sune and Lliira.

#for shadowheart and moon lesbian writing needs #shadowheart #selunite shadowheart #bg3 isobel #bg3 aylin #cleric tav

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moxpunk · 5 months

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Moxie's Big-Ass Retrospective on Games She Played This Year

There's going to be a lot of games under the break, and I'm going full-hog on spoilers. Honestly, I'm going stream-of-consciousness with these, so there's not going to be a clear point made for some of them. Just how I remember them and how I feel now looking back.

Final Fantasy XIV This is my current MMO of choice, and it's been this massive part of how I spent my time this year. The patches and content continue to be great, even if I breeze through it all in a few days after the patch when plugins/mods are back up. I've definitely noticed a dip in my interest lately. I think it's because we've hit a good stopping-point for the plot and junk, so most of us are just waiting until the pre-patch of the new expansion next year. RP continues to get fucking worse and worse for someone that plays a lalafell, since the community at-large (especially the modding community) is actively hostile towards lalafells and their players. Having to check every single venue to see if my middle-aged potato is going to be treated like a child by the hosts gets exhausting after the umpteenth time. Still love the game and I poke at it on a regular basis.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom One of my favorite games I've played this year, but also one of the most frustrating in hindsight. There was a ton of lost opportunity in multiple aspects in this game, and it's sorta the thing I keep coming back to in my head. I loved the exploration and fucking around with physics and just getting to play around in Hyrule. It's a magical experience that I think transcends the fact that 2/3rds of the map is essentially re-used. The Underground was a missed opportunity to shove lore of ancient civilizations in there, Ganondorf was a missed opportunity to finally depict him as a tragic hero with Hyrule being the villains for once, and no plans for DLC or even a Hero Mode is a massive miss for me wanting to return to the world.

Baldur's Gate 3 Hands-down my favorite game of the year by a massive margin, but like TOTK, an immensely frustrating experience. The game is half-cooked in so many areas, and the bugs are plentiful to the extent that they can't really be ignored. The pathing system continues to be the Larian Special of being jank as all hell, with my characters running in the opposite direction of the path it lays out for them. I played this one on stream, and I cannot remember a single stream where I didn't have at least a handful of frustrations with the combat system. Hell, I had to completely restart my file in the middle of Act 2 because Karlach's romance bugged out. I continue to be very upset and frustrated at how goblins are treated, doubly so since in order to pursue the Good Route with Halsin, you have to attack fucking children. I don't care if they're goblins, they're kids. Also very disappointing we don't get a single short-race origin character, meanwhile half of the cast is some form of elf. At least it's nice letting me be full-on cock-out trans. Despite that, the writing and characterizations in this game are unparalleled. It's immensely refreshing to finally have a RPG where you fucking roleplay, after years of it being dialogue that doesn't matter in the slightest other than "points towards the good/evil ending". I love the Brain Slug Squad immensely. This game is probably going to become part of my "play this every year" list because there's just so many different ways to play through this game.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Been waiting for this game (or a game like it) for fuckin' years, and it's everything I wanted and expected. I know a lot of people went into the game expecting some massive thing that lasted hours and hours, but my memories of JSR/JSRF was a game that I could reasonably beat in an afternoon or two because I just get into the flow and know what I'm doing. Cyberfunk is the purest successor to JSF that I can thing of where it just adds to the fun formula of the past. Incredible game, love seeing the mods coming out for it, hope we get another game in the universe since Team Reptile said they aren't doing DLC.

Pizza Tower Love this game, adore the movement and the music, absolutely fell off at about the halfway mark. I think it's because a lot of stuff was coming out at the time, and I just kinda played those instead. One of these days, I'll beat it and be very satisfied, but for now my gremlin-brain that demands collecting every single collectable and getting at least an A-rank on every stage gets exhausted just thinking about it.

Elden Ring Opened the game up after upgrading to a new PC, marveled that I could run it on Ultra with the game keeping a smooth framerate, killed a few enemies, remembered about the fucking giant ants in this game and how there are zero mods to remove/change them, and then turned the game off and uninstalled. Begging someone to make a mod that gets rid of the fucking ants. Please. I've already gotten every trophy in the game last year, so any incentive I have to return is predicated on that.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty So, I'm going to give my thoughts about the base game and the DLC, since I played both. The base game continues to be this utter fascination to me where my brain adores just existing in the cyberhell future of nonstop advertising (if I have to hear YO YO YO MY CHEWERS SHROOMERS AND FUMERS! one more time I'm going to fucking strangle someone to death) and ultraviolence. The game continues to ride that weird line of "might as well do every side-quest because they're quick enough to get to and there's hardly any compared to Witcher 3" and "oh my god I do not care about these fucking sidequests other than I have gremlin-brain". Doing anything with sniper rifles or heavy machine guns is an exercise in frustration thanks to there being zero silenced sniper rifle until late-game and there being no unique HMGs.The DLC is... fine. It's fun antagonizing Idris Alba, it's not fun that the DLC is based around a stealth build, it's extremely not fun that the changed ending is deeply unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint.

Pseudoregalia An adorable little game that I enjoyed quite a bit for the very short time I got to fool around with it. Love the movement, love the style of the graphics, love the little pieces of story. Game doesn't get enough love, so here's me giving it some more.

Potionomics I fucking adore this game. I think what helped endear me was getting to do all the voices on-stream, but who cares this is my retrospective and I get to be biased. Loved the romances and characters in there. I absolutely headcanon Xid as being trans, Roxanne turns me into a babbling idiot, and I relate to Luna so hard it almost hurts. I enjoy that characters remain your friend if you already picked a partner, and you have to have a conversation about "hey, you were kinda flirty for a while and I feel a little weird about that now" for each of them. Breaking the economy by the third competition was immensely satisfying.

Paradise Killer I slammed through this game over the course of a single sleepless night thanks to Super Depression. Love the character designs and how bold they are, love the lore behind the world, got kinda sick of it taking so long to travel from place to place, gremlin-brain refused to let me part with the game until I collected everything. Hope to see a prequel/sequel of some sort, because Lady Love Dies is such an interesting character and I liked the bugfuck-weird world.

Peglin It's Peggle, you're a goblin, you get funky ball powerups, adore playing this game on my phone in short bursts. Not much more to say, it's my potato-chip game.

Rimworld Friend gifted this to me and I got horribly obsessed for like a week. It's a lot easier to grok than Dwarf Fortress thanks to the UI and information being easier to comprehend. I never know how to do the crazy shit in these games, I usually peak at having a little self-sustaining settlement with like 4 characters that live their little lives until a plague or bandit raid sweep through and kill everyone.

Halo: Master Chief Collection Another series of games I got obsessed with and pounded out before dropping it. Halo 1 is like twice as long as I remember, Halo 2's remastered cutscenes are fucking gorgeous and it continues to be my favorite out of the series, Halo 3 I'm lukewarm on it's whatever, Halo Reach is... eh I don't care, ODST I petered out of thanks to playing it with an ex that does not understand videogames, Halo 4 is a slog. Didn't do any multiplayer.

Helltaker Finally played it, beat it in like 2 hours, thought the puzzles were fun and the art continues to rattle around in my noggin.

A Hat In Time Another game that I finally beat after owning it for like the better part of a decade. Cute little game, I don't have a clue what any of the updates and junk do these days. The big mountain level is a fucking nightmare to navigate and explore and that's why I fell off last time.

Puzzle Agent Played this one on-stream because I'm Minnesotan as all fuck and I enjoy Professor Layton puzzles. It's just as good as I remember, even if it's incredibly short.

Kingsway Love the premise, adore that it takes me back to the Windows XP era of using my parents' computer. I had like one good run that died in the middle of things, and I never really went back. I should do this game again at some point.

Loop Hero Another procedural game where progress is usually bottlenecked by gathering base resources in each run so you have a fighting chance. All my runs sorta ended up the same by a certain point and I wasn't really having much fun anymore.

Lethal Company Game scares the absolute shit out of me, I cannot play this game for extended periods because I get heartburn from fear. Excellent experience with friends.

Super Mario RPG I didn't have a SNES growing up, so I never got a chance to play the original. So far, I've been greatly enjoying the remake! I don't have much to say because I've only played like four hours of it on stream.

Katamari Reroll Just beat this game again on stream last week. Extremely fun, extremely short, Lonely Rolling Star continues to make me get emotional and cry, my memories get mixed-up with We ♥️ Katamari when it comes to the final sequence of levels.

World of Warcraft I made the return, and holy shit have things changed in-game. The UI actually looks like it's part of a cohesive artstyle, catching up with the story and questlines after bouncing in the middle of Shadowlands is honestly kind of exhausting, and the RP community is still splintered and fractured between Retail and Epsilon. Controller-support has been my biggest gripe since XIV's is fucking stellar and I do not have the wrists/hands for putting my abilities on the keyboard anymore, I either have to use my janked-out mouse buttons or a controller using ConsolePort which is... serviceable but nowhere near good. Uh, I don't particularly care for the dragon-stuff in WoW's lore, and I still haven't done a single dungeon since I play Brewmaster and I'm so out of whack with WoW tanking that I just don't bother. I'm usually doing RP on my endless ranks of characters if I'm not playing with my girlfriend. Season of Discovery has been a fun thing to do with my friend and our guild, it's sorta what I wanted out of Classic when they announced it. The "No Changes" thing was stupid because we'll never get back the lack of information and endless time we had back then, so I'm very happy to have World Of Warcraft Chopped And Screwed Edition. As much as I still have massive, major gripes with Blizzard and ABK in general... Azeroth is still home for me. It's been important to me as a person. Wouldn't have realized I was trans or poly without it.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT My thinks and feelings on all the games I played this year in 2023. I guess to sum up the year in general? It's been a real shit year for me. Went through like three big breakups, my art output's been dogshit in quantity thanks to mental-health issues, and for the first half of the year people just sorta generally treated me poorly which exaserbated a lot of problems. I'm recovering, but I've noticed it's been a lot slower than it has been in the past. Games are a huge hobby of mine, so I'm glad I've gotten to play some bangers this year. Being more active on Tumblr's been good for my mental health, since I finally feel like I've got a community again after not really feeling like I've had one in forever. Love you guys, stay weird. 💖💖💖

Sorry not sorry for this being so long.

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flymmsy · 1 month

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on the scale of 1-10 delulu, how likely do you think some new evil gortash ending being made is?

I think it's 50-50, so I guess that converts to a level 5 Delulu.

Why I think it might be happening

1. The Dialogue Bug - I think it’s suspicious that a relatively simple bug (that has been confirmed as a bug) has gone unfixed through so many hotfixes.

EDIT: It’s a common misconception that Hotfix 18 removed all Gortash dialogue changes but that's not quite the case. Here is a rundown of what's missing.

Now, it really is possible that it is really just extremely low priority for Larian. I just think that this, paired with other things, is suspicious.

2. New Evil Endings - we know Larian is working on new Evil endings but we have no details on what those are. However, the fact that only Gortash’s alliance dialogue has changed (edit: there's a small change in his Boss Fight scene too but its tied to the same file. See link above for a full rundown) and gone unfixed is what makes me think maybe there’s more in the works. Like I’ve said before, the dialogue file that this addition is in is the entire file for that office scene. If they wanted to beef up a Gortash alliance as an Evil Ending, they’d most likely have to edit that file again anyway. So why work on something twice when you can just roll it out all at once?

3. Getting Gortash to the end of the game is not as complicated or involved as people think - Gortash dies once the endgame has already been set in motion. You wouldn’t have to actually add that much. All you’d have to do is have the Emperor suck him into the prism too and have them duke it out, or have the Emperor leave him and come up with some narrative explanation for how he got away from the Netherbrain. Then he’d probably have to have a few lines in your little Endgame Pit Stop to speak to your allies - and that’s pretty much it. The rest, if they really had to go bare bones, can be added via mentions of him in the Epilogue. There’s already files that make some mention of calling on the Steel Watch in the final fight.

4. The Extra Delulu point- Larian has always been responsive to fans. They need to set boundaries, and clearly aren’t going to be adding a lot, but I don’t think the fact that Durgetash has risen to one of the top spots on AO3 counts for nothing. That’s something that is clearly measurable data of fan interest. At the very least, I’m certain it’s made them aware of it, we just don’t know if they’ve made the decision to act on it.

Why I think it might not be happening

1. Larian will only be adding limited content from this point forward - my hopes for any Gortash ending were immediately dashed when I first heard this news, but then revived with skepticism when they mentioned the evil endings. We don’t even know if a definitive edition is still on the table, which is where I initially thought they might add Gortash content. It’s very possible that because of this decision, no new Gortash content will be added. They may have also originally intend to add content, but ultimately chose to reprioritize with this new direction.

2. The Absolute Legend that is Jason Isaacs- It’s always been said that having such an incredible voice actor is a catch-22, because it makes calling them back in to record anything new that much harder due to both budget and scheduling constraints. Now, as I said above, not THAT much would need to be recorded, but even if it is only a little this is a very clear reason why it might have to be a no-go.

3. Gortash’s other content - it’s clear that Gortash was a victim of the cut content stick. We find out way too much about him from only letters and mentions that feel really out of nowhere, but ultimately accomplish the job. I could also understand the writers feeling like if they had to pair down his story to what it is, adding it without any additional backup would feel weird.

TLDR; it’s a total toss-up.

The only people that actually know shit are Larian themselves, and no amount of speculation can actually be definitive. Assume the worst, dream of the best, and hope that it lands somewhere in the middle.

#enver gortash #durgetash #bg3 #durge #the dark urge #Flymmsy asks

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kokichiomakin · 1 month

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so, like, in a way, I appreciate larian studios for sticking to their guns and going off to do their own thing that isn't D&D, and maybe another divinity game would be good, but baldur's gate 3 in particular has meant a lot to me since I played it. maybe it's just because as an abuse survivor the themes of overcoming and breaking a cycle of abuse really hit close to home, maybe it's just because it had a sense of humor that really struck a chord with me that reminded me a lot of guardians of the galaxy, but I love the characters and to hear definitively that there won't be DLC is kind of heartbreaking for me and i'm kind of still in denial.

i don't know if they can be trusted in wotc's hands and i'm not excited at the potential for wotc to put them in like, app games and potentially less respectable endeavors considering how money-grubbing they've been in the past. i wanted to see so much more - potentially a dlc where we took to avernus to finally get some well-needed wyll and karlach content was my hope, and i was even willing to replay my durge campaign to get the ending where they survive to make that a possibility, but everything was kind of shoved aside now and i'm not sure what to do.

i'm really not ready to let astarion, shadowheart, wyll, karlach, and gale go yet. if there had been a dlc, i would've bought it in an instant. if larian said 'we're kicking it with bg4!' i would've immediately been megahype. again, i'm still in denial and i almost wish that swen would walk back those tweets because it almost feels like everyone else is still excited about what they've done here and what they're doing - the vas in particular seem to still really adore their characters which is so so sweet. i understand the studio's desire to move on and i respect it, but they made a group of characters that really mattered to me and a story that really seemed to Get Me. i'm probably not alone in this.

just had to get the thoughts out, i guess. i love baldur's gate 3. i always will.

#baldur's gate iii #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #wyll ravengard #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #astarion ancunin #karlach #lae'zel #halsin #minthara #shadowheart #swen vincke #shut up kokichi

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crossdressingdeath · 3 months

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I genuinely do believe that Karlach is the earliest sign of Larian's "pander to the fans no matter how much damage it does to the story" mentality. Like, I love her as a character! But she wasn't designed to be an origin companion, and looking at her quest you can see they didn't actually know what to do with her when they upgraded her importance. From what I understand she was originally an escapee from Zariel's army that Wyll was tasked to track down, and that was it! That was all that was necessary! No engine for a heart, no connection to Gortash, she was a one-off quest character who didn't need a deeper story and she was a strong character for what she needed to be. And Larian could've gotten away with making her a recurring NPC or even act 2/3 companion with that characterization, but to please the fans they made her an origin companion... which meant suddenly she needed a more complex story and a personal quest and an arc tied into the main plot, and they botched that so hard because she wasn't designed with that in mind. Her personal quest is a) a fetch quest and then b) tied so tightly to the main plot that you can't even properly complete it unless you do the main story in a specific way. If you ally with Gortash and he's killed by the brain Karlach's quest never properly completes! You never get the conversation with her where she gets pissed about how it didn't change anything because she's still going to die and she wants to live! That is bullshit! Although honestly she should probably leave you entirely if you ally with Gortash, by tying her personal arc so closely to her hatred of him they've created a situation where it feels absolutely bizarre that she sticks around if you do that. Especially playing Durge; you're telling me she learns the group's leader was Gortash's best friend and then they choose to ally with him and she yells at them for two seconds and then is fine with it? That's... stupid. It's stupid. If you're not going to let her quest complete if the players ally with Gortash then at least give an actual reason for that. Also, her backstory doesn't make any sense; why would Gortash go to all that trouble to keep her in the dark about what he was doing? Why would he care? Why would Zariel care enough for Karlach to apparently be her special favourite (but apparently not enough to make more than a halfhearted effort to go after her; seriously, she gives up completely after two attempts and only really comes up again outside of backstory discussion when Karlach insists she'll be after her again if she returns to Avernus as a reason for choosing death over going back even temporarily)? Why would an archdevil care enough to make a deal with the scales weighted so heavily against her for one random teenager? It's actually significantly weakened the emotional impact of the whole thing for me, I keep going down the rabbit hole of how little fucking sense this makes and it drags me out of the story.

...This has gotten away from me slightly. Basically Karlach's story as an origin companion makes it clear that they didn't actually have a plan for making her so important. They just rehashed Gale's exploding chest bomb thing in a much less plot-relevant way and leashed the whole thing to a villain who already had strong ties to an origin companion instead of giving her her own damn villain like all the other origin companions. She barely even has a quest, and certainly not one with a satisfying arc and interesting moral questions involved in it like everyone else got. She was much stronger as a less important character, because as a less important character she didn't need a detailed backstory or personal quest so the question of whether those things made sense or were good was a moot point. And looking at it in hindsight... yeah, that fits very neatly into the running theme of Larian making the story worse to pander to the fans.

#bg3

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