What it is about kind male video game companions that male gamers absolutely HATE?
I've seen it happen with Dragon Age's Alistair, Mass Effect's Kaidan, and even lowkey KOTOR's Carth Onasi (emphasis on kind, not necessarily nice, cause dude had a bit of an attitude in the beginnning). Now I'm seeing it with Gale of Waterdeep from Baldur's Gate 3.
Men hate him! Admittedly, many women seem to also hate Gale (Though from what I'm observing, it seems to be because his romance is bugged in a way that doesn't recognize when you've rejected him, so to many it comes off as not taking no for an answer -- but that's the fault of the game, not the character). The other reason I'm seeing from women is that he supposedly doesn't respect boundaries, citing his relationship with Mystra, but... were yall listening to him at all?
1. This goddess took interest in him as a *child* prodigy, became his mentor, and then his lover??? That's sus as hell.
2. It's not like he and Mystra had personal boundaries set specifically for their relationship, and he decided to cross them, it was that Mystra has general magical limitations for magic users in general, and Gale thought he would be an exception because she treated him as special, and because his reasons for pushing his magical limitations were to restore a part of her she'd lost. I've also seen people say he downplays that as a simple mistake made in his youth, but from the actual conversation with him, it's very clear he regrets that so?? I don't get it. (maybe I'm misremembering or missing more of the story, I'm only at the beginning of Act 2)
But this post is a reaction-rant to seeing too many male creators on tiktok hate on Gale so badly it's becoming obnoxious. And their reasons are so weak, yet fuel hatred so strong. They just find him so annoying, and I guess to each their own, but I don't get why, and I don't get why men always seem to find those kinds of emotionally available, kind for the sake of being kind, male characters annoying.
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The year was 1997 when everything changed. Wayne got the call a few minutes before 5am. It had been years since he regularly worked night shifts - thanks to Scott’s financial stability, he had managed to move on from his job at the plant and instead worked as a handyman now, with his own van and a logo designed by Eddie - but getting up at irregular hours had become part of his DNA so when Scott was still groggily mumbling in bed, attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes, Wayne was already at the phone. They had been anticipating this call and Wayne basically pulled Scott out of bed and into the car.
They arrived at the hospital around 5:40. Wayne would never forget that first sight when he opened the door of the hospital room: Steve and Eddie both cradling a tiny bundle of blankets in their arms, their limbs practically merged together, their heads resting against each other and matching overjoyed smiles on their faces. And right in their corner, as always, the true hero who made it all happen: Robin Buckley.
Eddie looked up at him with a look of complete awe on his face. The look of a father. Wayne felt a lump in his throat and he grabbed Scott’s hand as they walked over to the boys and the tiny little humans in their arms.
“Meet your granddaughters,” Eddie said, his voice hoarse but unmistakably proud. Up-close, Wayne saw the salty traces of tears on his face.
“You wanna hold them?”
Wayne started stuttering something unintelligible, but before he knew it, one of the babies was placed in his arms. The girl felt too small, too breakable, for hands as big and boorish as Wayne’s. But Scott was resting his hands on Wayne’s shoulders from behind him, always the calming presence he needed, and the baby made a tiny, but clearly contented, sound.
“This is Maya,” Steve said in a low voice.
“Hey, Maya,” Wayne whispered to the girl. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful, completely different from how Wayne remembered Eddie as a baby. That boy had been a loud, audacious troublemaker from day one.
“And this is Kate.” Steve turned to Scott. “You wanna hold her?”
An unsure look crossed Scott’s face. “I don’t - I -”
“Go ahead,” Eddie interrupted his adorable stuttering. “You’re just as much their grandpa as Wayne.”
The smile that started shining from underneath Scott’s mustache was almost more beautiful than the newborn baby in Wayne’s arms. Scott cautiously took the little bundle from Steve’s arms, cradling the little girl against his chest.
Wayne cautiously handed Maya back to Eddie and sat down at Robin’s bedside. The girl looked pale and exhausted, but the grin on her face was brighter than ever.
“Congratulations, grandpa.”
“I’m proud of ya, kid,” he replied. “What you did for my boys is...” He paused, trying to find the right words to describe what that was, but coming up empty. He had never been good with words - but Robin seemed to understand what he meant anyway, tearing up a little bit as Wayne gently squeezed her shoulder.
“It’s what they deserve,” said Robin. “I mean, just look at them!” She nodded towards the scene at the end of her bed: Steve gently rocking one of the twins - Wayne already lost track of who was who - in his arms, with Eddie and Scott right beside him fussing over the other girl together. The baby was tucked safely in Eddie’s arms, with Scott’s hand on Eddie’s shoulder, and with the matching overwhelmed smiles that had completely taken over both their faces, a stranger would never guess that they weren’t actually related to each other.
Scott looked up, into Wayne’s eyes, and his gaze was even softer than usual. It made Wayne’s breath catch, as if they hadn’t been together for ten whole years by now, as if Scott’s smile was still something new. And maybe right now, it actually was. Everything was new. Everything was different. Everything had changed, in the best possible way.
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so Dust really doesn't have a head?? what happened to him??
(first the handplates, then this...)
Past Dust: aw… missing something?
Past Ink: you're gonna be missing teeth if you don't give that back
Past Dust: heh… if you want me to give this back so bad, why don't you MAKE ME.
Past Ink: …
(meanwhile)
Past Nightmare: Don't you understand? Everything you're doing is fruitless. There is no aim to your actions. What's the point in sparing me when you know I'm not really your brother anymore? I don't care for you.
Past Dream: There is aim to my actions. There is a reason. I- Nightmare. Please understand when I say-
Past Dust, in the distance: (SCREAMING)
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elliot s maggin (one of the main pre-crisis superman writers, and if you’re not familiar with him i beg you to track down some of his work) has a quora account where he answers questions about his opinions on comics and superheroes and god, i love hearing him talk about lex luthor.
a few highlights:
the idea that “no one is truly irredeemable, even the worst of villains” is frankly incredibly radical even by current day standards — grown adults couldn’t handle that shit in steven universe, a literal show for children — but it should be a core tenet of the superman mythos and that is a hill i will die on.
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dj saying izzy was like a father figure to ed & then trying to connect that to ed killing his actual father is insane but specially, specially, when you remember that last episode stede & izzy had a pretty obvious moment where they came to an understanding about what it's like to be in love with the same man
that's not the kind of conversation and look you share with your ex's father figure. It's the one you share with your ex's ex while you're both still in love with him
Then the episode before that they kept cutting from stede&ed having sex to izzy singing a love song?
And the episode before that izzy stuttered and hesitantly asked stede what ed's been saying about him??
I know found families can have parental figures whom you may still feel a sexual and/or romantic attraction to, but at no point did either season ever show such a relationship between the two. I guess if you want to reach for it you could say that in early S1 there are times when izzy tries to look out for ed & guide him but even stede (fucking stede) clocks them as 'old married couple nearing the final stages of their divorce'
You could on a technicality apply the 'mentor dies at the end' trope to izzy but that's only if you assume that izzy's somewhat significantly older than ed and so probably looked out for ed at some point when they were working under hornigold together, which again is never shown in their dynamic (the only mention we get of it is through stede but I'm almost certain that most of what stede said was just him buttering up izzy to get him to train stede)
I feel like rather than 'father-figure/mentor dies at the end' it gives more 'even as we try to move on our existences are inseparably linked to each other and you're the last part of my old life that needs to die before I can finally be free to change and we both know that, even as it hurts' Yeah yeah izzy deserved to live a happy life away from blackbeard's influence the same way ed deserves to live a happy life away from izzy's (and I really wish he could have) but they've been unhealthily connected from the beginning (much more obvious in S2 seeing how neither of them could bare to get rid of the other's body) and it makes sense that eventually that's the trope & ending izzy fell into
point being:
david jenkins, sir, i respect your writing and love your show but that was absolutely NOT what was going on there
Izzy wanted to get fucked nasty but Ed's a bottom so it never worked out
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