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mywitchcultblr · 5 months

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Odd question for you:

So, the humor of Batstarion aside, do some people just elect to read their own biases into things involving Ascended Astarion. I recall being early in the fandom and assuming based on general commentary he just locked you in his basement and then molests you.

Then: when I actually ascended him and am looking forward to this whole fantasy I just get a goofy, camp vampire Lord who literally lets you live your life. Where do I get a refund? Where is my vampire daddy? lol

Am I alone in this???

No, you are not alone. I found a lot of people who have a strong negative opinion about endings for bg3 companion... How I should explain it in English? Playing the telephone game? Where they are only receiving bits of information and never really experienced the ending themselves or at least never really thought about it deeply because they already developed a bias from these fragmented information and encouragement from like-minded people who share the same bias. Thus, the truth and nuance became diluted amidst the buzz and discourse. For example, Gale endings

GALE HAS NO EVIL ENDING. YES, THE GOD ENDING IS NOT EVIL

People mistook his ambition and huge ego as evil? I think this rooted from "God Gale doesn't propose Tav/Durge unlike human gale, so God ending must have been bad"

"Gale become power hungry, so it must be the evil ending and a bad ending" and "Larian said power is bad"

Gale is a neutral guy, as a human he is neutral good and as a God he became a neutral aligned God. His ascension to Godhood doesn't turn him into Bane or Bhaal, developing an ego big enough to the point he became a god doesn't make him evil or this ending evil. You might dislike it, but objectively, this ending is not evil or bad...

Gale bad ending is him dying and never resurrected, never recruited or sacrificed to BOAAL because they led to his untimely death before he can destroy the brain, reach the crown, or determine what he wanted, how he will approach Mystra...

"But Mystra will kill God Gale because he challenged her!" That is a possibility in his origin ending, before the epilogue is even released, now we got to see new and improved epilogue Gale can take his lover to his realm where they will enjoy their life as Gods, and he has a lot of plan, and although he kinda insinuates that he wanted to challenge Mystra, maybe Tav or Durge can persuade him to not do it

"What if he has no romantic partner?" Maybe he will challenge her, or maybe he will not. I found the ending where Gale immediately going after Mystra to be frustrating, it feels like Larian insisting on the 'power bad' thing in such an on the nose and irritating manner

Gale might have a big ego but HE IS NOT AN IDIOT, he is not a barbarian with 8 intellect, even when he's drunk on power he is still a highly intellectual person/being, and surely he should know that it will take a lot of time and resource for him to be able to challenge Mystra, is it even a good idea to fight her? What would AO say?

He should just focus on his own domain and followers

Same thing with Wyll, this guy HAS NO EVIL ENDING. WYLL CANNOT BE CORRUPTED. Yet there are people out there who say that him becoming a Duke is an evil ending, HOW?!

Now, Astarion... God help us all with this guy. The moment I saw his picture for the first time, I know his fandom will be a disaster

White, sassy, morally gray, handsome, twink, vampire with a sad backstory... The perfect tumblr sexyman, I love him, but I knew the conversation about him will be a mess and headache inducing

Ascendant Astarion is NOT a bad ending, is it evil? Yes, is it bad? No.

It is bad for the city to have yet another vampire lord, an even MORE powerful vampire lord who has no vampirism weakness, but this is NOT bad for him. He enjoyed the power, he enjoyed the freedom, and he finally reclaimed everything that Cazador took from him and even more. I found the notion that ascended astarion 'is not truly free' to be baffling because Cazador is gone, no one can compel him and enslave him anymore, and he is freed from all vampirism weakness.

So long Cazador is dead, both spawn and ascended astarion will be free and have the choice to lead the life they wanted. An outsider moral interpretation of his choice is not his own opinion

"Ascended Astarion regret his choice." No, he never did. I didn't find a single conversation or scene that say he regrets his ascension

"Ascended Astarion is meaner and more evil, so this fate is bad." Your feeling about him doesn't translate to what he feels and how he sees his life and choice...

Or like you said about people claimed. "Astarion will lock Tav/Durge in his basement and molest them" Now, is ascendant romance more toxic and darker than spawn romance? Yes (although it is pretty tame by vampire/yandere standard) but how he treat his lover also depends on Tav/Durge attitude towards him, their personality, their goal and YOUR OWN ideas/ interpretation...

Baldur's Gate give you 'hard canon' and things that you can interpret on your own because it is dungeon & dragons! Hard canon or fixed canon is something like "Orin will die either way" and "If you don't spare nightsong then Last Light will be destroyed." and then there are things that you can decide and interpret on your own such as how your Tav/Durge fare after the last battle, their background, their family, and how their romance with companions play out

There are dialogues or scenes that hinted the future but at the same time there are several options and each dialogue option will lead to a different universe such as whatever you encourage Wyll to be the blade of avernus or becoming a Duke

What irritated me is that there's people who doesn't like his ascension romance, and they be like "Well I don't like this romance and i don't like him now, so I see your Tav/Durge WILL NEVER BE HAPPY WITH HIM AND IT IS A FACT!" NO, THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS WORK!

You cannot enforce your own narrative perspective into other people's. "What about the 'freedom' dialogue in patch 5?! If you clash with Astarion he will-" like I said each dialogue choice lead to a branching multiverse, just because one person have a conflict with ascended astarion doesn't mean my Tav who is very devoted to him have the same problem or will not be happy

Also, patch 5 confirmed the theory that Astarion turned his lover into a bride/groom instead of regular spawn. If you chose a dialogue option that hinted Tav/Durge feel trapped and doubted if they are truly flourishing, then Astarion will say something like (I'm paraphrasing here) "Well, I give you everything! And I will make sure that you live your best life, even if you don't appreciate it!"

A bride/groom has an emotional and mental link with their creator, if Tav/Durge is not happy then Ascended Astarion will feel unhappy as well. Mind you my Tav (Astaroth) doesn't say he feels trapped, he said that he is happy with Astarion and grateful to share everything with him and then Astarion said that he is blessed to be with Astaroth as well then he also said:

"I may have power, but it would be nothing without you. You complete me."

I don't do Karlach romance, and although I have my own thoughts that if Astaroth romanced her (tbh the guy is gay so he has to be bi/pan in alternate universe) in the end he will feel a bit disappointed with being trapped in hell, doesn't mean I have the rights to ENFORCE that Karlach/Tav romance in general will be unhappy and tragic just because of MY OWN interpretation...

People also shouldn't enforce their own choice for Astarion as

"THE TRUE AND CORRECT CHOICE FOR ASTARION AND IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ME YOU ARE DELUSIONAL AND DUMB"

#bg3 #ask #bg 3 analysis #baldur gate 3 #baldur's gate romance #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #astarion #tav #ascendant astarion #astarion x durge #astarion x tav #dnd #ascended astarion #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #wyll #god gale

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grape-eating-vampire · 2 months

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alright, it's done. i finished it.

this is the third and final part of things that happened in my first bg3 playthrough ever that I found so funny that I put them in my notes (spoilers below)

let me start this by saying I have only cried twice in the 155 hours it took me to complete this shit. however, I have almost-screamed at the characters more times than I'd like to admit. but first here's stuff that happened since the last one of these posts I made:

after killing Orin I went around Baldur's Gate for a while and did odd sidequests, including

clearing out a haunted house and sidelining to kill a stinky man in a wardrobe (and drag his body to a guy two streets over)

entirely ignored Gale's quest to look at a book because I kept getting arrested there after having killed the boss mage guy

I also foolishly though this wouldn't have any consequences. oh boy was I wrong

went to see a underwater prison, got told off by Gortash, decided to explore it after killing him, and promptly forgot to do so

killed Gortash! fuck that guy the only good thing about him is his fancy robe

tried to recruit a dragon called Ansur, found out the emperor is Balduran (????????? honestly I was shocked)

killed said dragon and felt like I was playing skyrim all over again

found a letter ("Dear Ansur") by Balduran/the Emperor. this was the first time I cried. I could still cry.

patch 6 came out! that was yesterday and I spent about 10 minutes trying out new kisses and sitting on Shadowhearts stool in camp (she now says "I'm glad you decided to join me" or something like that when you do)

went pretty much straight to the underground pool thing where the brain was supposed to be

failed abysmally to Dominate The Brain™

got pulled out by the emperor and had to start beef with Lae'zel because I had also forgotten to care about Orpheus and the hammer from the House of Hope

admittedly, I didn't really forget, I just didn't want to spend any more time with Raphael than I absolutely had to

my +14 persuasion saved the day once more and Lae'zel was fine with the one hope in her life getting his brains sucked out

went off to fight the brain once more. my game crashed twice trying to load that cutscene.

met all my allies! I forgot how many there were actually, and I only called on two of the groups later on

fought a lot. like a LOT lot.

got to the Netherbrain and kicked it's ass*

*had to reload about 3 times and try again because Minsc at level 12 was stuck on 100 hp for some reason and kept fucking dying

finally managed to kill the fucker! had Lae'zel deal the killing blow which seemed very fitting

more cutscenes, but this one actually didn't crash the game, I got to look at some beautiful unloaded walls and stuff instead

Lae'zel left right after we got to the haven. understandably so

remember how I ignored Gale's quest? well he didn't blow himself up like he inteded earlier, but he left to becOME A GOD????? I cannot fucking deal with this man

Karlach on the pier. this was the second time I cried, but unproportionally much so

Wyll left with her for Avernus, the little cutscene of them arriving there made me feel a bit better

Astarion had to leg it because of the sun (sorry)

Shadowheart didn't do much of anything during all of this, neither did Minsc, Halsin or Jaheira

decided to go help kids with Halsin, seems to fit my character (eventhough I really didn't roleplay so much)

we got an epilogue! yippie!

caught up there with everyone, except Lae'zel (who was there via the fantasy version of zoom) and Gale (who was there via the fantasy equivalent of a voicemail)

tried to hug Gale, couldn't, almost cried again but managed

also met a tressym who I recognized from fanart as Tara. I don't know why she was there, we never met her before and Gale hadn't mentioned her either

read a LOT of letters the party had received. barely kept my composure at the Gur's letter to Astarion

Withers did a cool speech and the game ended

after all of this and so much more that I didn't take notes about, I can confidentially say that Baldur's Gate 3 is the best video game I have ever played, and within it's genre my favourite ever!

I'm also emotionally devestated, especially after these final parts (but in a good way)

that's all, thanks for reading!

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #orin the red #enver gortash #astarion #gale #wyll #karlach #lae'zel #shadowheart #jaheira #minsc #withers #bg3 spoilers #the emperor #ansur

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designing-frantically · 5 months

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Okay but you don't understand, this BG3 epilogue party is KILLING me. Can't sleep, can only continue thinking about this party. Namely in regards to Astarion and Gale.

MAJOR EPILOGUE SPOILERS AHEAD

Thought 1: I've been to the party having romanced Astarion and got the little bit from living in the underdark with the other spawn and the bit of the narrator telling you how the night before he says the past six months of happiness have weighed equally against his 200 years of torment (ugh my heart). But that's not what wrecked me. What DESTROYED me was the party from a different run where I did not romance him..... This man talks about how when he ran from the sun he felt so ashamed that his lowest day of running back to the dark was our biggest day of victory. He then recounts how he has learned to not see the dark as a curse but a part of himself and has found a way to be happy and a bit of a hero (in his own twisted way). Seeing him find happiness for himself almost feels like a better ending for him than loving him and that is wrecking my soul and tormenting my mind because I only want the best for him (he deserves it and more).

Thought 2: Fucking Gale (I say with all the love and sweetness I'm the world). I have three different runs with three different endings for him and I romanced him in N0NE of them, but he is what is keeping me awake the most right now.

Option 1: Blow up Gale... He has an astral projecting that shows up to give you a letter and when I tell you the look on Tav's face was devastating. When they tried to hug the projection only to pass thru him, their face had me in tears, you could SEE the hurt of them realizing AGAIN that Gale is truly gone. And the letter!? It's an unfinished last will and testament

Option 2: Gale becomes a god... And he is the worst version of himself. Ascended Astarion may be cruel and possessive, but there is still a sadness and insecurity underneath that drives his wicked nature. Gale is just.... So consumed by his new power that he truly feels like this is the best version of himself and feels so hollow. Not to mention, Raphael tells of the chaos he will bring and you just know that it would crush our Gale's heart to know he caused that when he thought he was inspiring people to follow their biggest ambitions.

Option 3: He's a teacher...... He teaches magic and it is perfect for him and he loves it and he loves the kids (even though he complains about them) and he wants to catch up over wine and have you as a guest lecturer and meet his mom. Just seeing him so perfectly happy after seeing those other options makes all of it hit that much harder.

I love Astarion, he will always be my favorite. But Gale is a close second, which is crazy to think about because when I first played I thought he was so annoying.

Astarion's story is so compelling and complicated and full of deep emotions... But Gale's is too. The perfect foils to each other and the best written characters (in my personal opinion).

Of all the endings I've seen so far (which I'm sure is not all of them) Gale has the most options for world shattering, devastating endings and his best ending is teaching magic... The two radical ends of this spectrum are killing me slowly by way of insomnia.

Send help

#bg3 spoilers #bg3 #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #astarion bg3 #gale bg3 #baldurs gate gale #astarion baldurs gate #astarion brainrot #gale baldurs gate 3 #fuck if i know #ficitonal men have be dying inside and it wont stop #how do i stop thinking about BG3 #i dont know how to live a normal life anymore

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sewermageboy · 8 months

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Finished BG3 for the second time and I still hate the ending so much I gotta rant about it.

The romance conversations at the end didn't glitch out for me, so it was better than last time, but still.

The added scene of Karlach and Wyll in Avernus felt so very strangely out of place tbh? I wasn't playing as either of them, and I didn't go with them, so the game just randomly ended on them instead of my durge? (Not counting the post credits scene obviously.)

Another thing about the karlach and wyll scene, I feel like it makes it so much more obvious that we get almost nothing about the other companions. Shadowheart didn't say a word throughout the entire dock scene this time around, neither did Jaheira. Minsc said like, a single sentence. Gale had a bit more, but even that kinda sucked (mostly bc I could either tell him 1. Become a God 2. Become a God or 3. Become Mystras chosen again, yikes).

The only companions for which you get any kind of follow up are ur romance partners. That kinda carries the implication that those are the only relationships you've forged in the game that matter, why would you care how the rest of your companions end up?

But honestly, I feel like my biggest issue is still with Astarions spawn ending. How him stumbling away and running from the sun is framed as almost comedic? How no one goes to check on him, how no one shows him empathy? How your character can't run after him, romance or not? And if you didn't romance him, that is the LAST time you see him. That's how his story ends, without romance.

Karlachs ending is bad, don't get me wrong, I wish there was a way to fix her engine, but i feel like the epilogue at least treats her with dignity as her tragedy unfolds. Astarion though? He goes "Ah, it was fun while it lasted" as he's burning up, and then he comedically runs away, like the emotion ur supposed to feel at him being confined to the shadows again is funny rather than really fucking sad.

Idk, the ending this time around wasn't as bad (due to less glitches) but I still really hated most of it

#bg3 spoilers #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #wyll ravengard #gale of waterdeep #baldurs gate 3 #karlach

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bromeoanddudeliet · 1 month

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8 and 12!

Thank you for responding!! 😭💖 I love your art btw!! You’re such a big inspiration!!

#8: After Act 3, what does their life look like? What are they talking about at the reunion party?

(This might come as a surprise but I haven’t actually played the epilogue yet 😭)

I’d like to think Tesni would go on a pilgrimage of sorts trying to reconnect with nature and her mentor’s Druidic teachings. After her personal quest, she becomes the chosen of Selûne, I think she’d try and reconnect with her Godess as well, after so many years apart. She also works with the council? Whoever’s in charge of Baldur’s Gate, after the whole mess with The Absolute, to help reconstruction efforts throughout the city.

And when that’s said and done she settles down, gets married to Astarion, and they live comfortably off of the significant amount of gold they found throughout their adventures. She researches cures for Astarion’s vampirism too (and for Karlach cuz I’m delusional and I refuse to accept that she dies or goes back to Avernus forever), I mean who better than a Druid to fix and otherwise permanent affliction lol 😌💅✨ Tesni and Astarion also have a daughter named Moon who is a sorcerer being trained in magic by Gale. 😜

Here’s a lil doodle of what her end game outfit looks like (it’s supposed to look like her mentor’s outfit but a little bit different) 🌝:

#12: Does your Tav have any tattoos or scars? Why?

// TRIGGER WARNING: I’m gonna talk a little bit about self-harm so if you struggle with self-harm I just want to warn you now before you read!! It’s not too serious but I want to make sure everyone stays comfortable!! //

Tesni has a variety of scars, a lot of them stem from her background as a Druid. Scars from animals, from when she was a kid running around in the woods, and one time she got shot in the shoulder by a magic arrow (I’m not gonna name names but we can all guess who missed mid battle 😒🦇) She also has panther spots, because I thought it would be cool, but also because her main wildshape animal is a panther.

Her other scars come from periods in her life where she felt hopeless or otherwise in bad straights. A little tidbit into her lore, when Tesni was young she had quite a few of her close family and friends pass away (in unfortunate ways). She’s always blamed herself for not being smart enough, brave enough, or strong enough to stop the circumstances leading up to their deaths (a part of why Tesni had a difficult relationship with her patron, Selûne. Tesni partly blames the gods, mainly Selûne, for not stepping in. Tesni’s mother was also a Selûnite, and when she died, Tesni’s inner conflict as well as her conflict with the Gods spiraled downwards from there).

Tesni spent a lot of her adolescence on the streets scrounging for food and money, many of those nights, she went cold or hungry. Eventually she became numb to her own comfort, and took jobs no one else would, leading into her being kidnapped by Mindflayers at the beginning of Bg3. That’s why Tesni wears sleeves on her arms, to hide her scars. Partly because she doesn’t want people to pity her, partly because she still feels their sting, and hiding them helps her move past those memories.

Eventually Tesni comes to the realization that beyond her numbness, she cares and feels deeply for the world and the people that live in it. After Act 1, she decides to start her healing journey, she becomes more honest with her companions and in turn they help her heal from her tumultuous past. Over time as Tesni heals, she mends her relationship with Selûne and eventually becomes her chosen.

Here’s a doodle of her without her sleeves:

Oof that was a lot of writing thank you for bearing with me lol 😪

And thank you again for responding!! I super appreciate it!! 🥹💖

✨✨✨✨✨

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 tav #baldurs gate 3 tav #ask meme #ask me about tesni?

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lelalyo · 6 months

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I finished my first run of BG3 yesterday!

I had an absolute blast and I will definitely play again but I think my ending bugged tf out.

I got the ending where Gale talks about taking the crown for himself and becoming a god despite the fact that I signed the deal to give it to Raphael. (I didn't break into the House of Hope to get the contract back because I accidently turned my Gale into a power hungry manic by saying I thought gods weren't shit and I really didn't want this version of Gale to have it because there's no way I'd could ever trust him with it - they really nailed that look of complete madness with him, I swear. Anyway, Ik Raphael ain't that trust worthy either but I imagine by the time he manages to conquer the hells, if he does, everyone would be long dead by then so it can be the next lot of heroes problem LMAO)

Possible bug aside, I feel like the ending was a little ... abrupt compared to the rest of the game? No party to check in with everyone, no epilogue to explain what happened to everyone after, just "here's your boo planning your future with you, bye" And speaking of boos, I romanced Astarion and when he started burning in the sun, there ain't NO WAY in hell my Tav would've just stood there, watched and then stayed to watch the sunrise after he ran off. No way. My Tav would've dimension doored him outta there ASAP or would've run after him to cover him with her cloak at the least - I mean what kind of partner would just look at their significant other burning to death and be like "this is fine"????

Then there's the whole thing with Karlach - I made her a mind flayer because I really thought it was the best option this time around and I'd really like to know what happened to her. She gave up so much for everyone and I just feel like she should stay with my Tav and Astarion while we look for a cure for his sunlight issue. We could also look into helping Karlach in some way too because she really does deserve better.

That said, whatever issues I have with the endings - it doesn't change the fact that this is the best game I've played in YEARS. I really thought the RPG genre had lost it's spark but BG3 just showed me that there's still devs out there that care about telling a good story.

#Baldur's Gate 3 #BG3 #BG3 Spoilers #Baldur's Gate 3 Spoilers #Baldur's Gate 3 Act 3 #Astarion #Gale of Waterdeep #Gale Dekarios #Karlach #BG3 Tav #BG3 Raphael #Lily plays BG3

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nightmarist · 5 months

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now that i actually have a minute let me go on a (positive) tangent about how much I Loved the epilogue party.

I love that its so sweet and silly for Grandpa Withers to throw us a reunion party. I did a version letting Karlach die, and a version where we went to Avernus. In the death version, he asks us several questions about us and how we're doing, about her absence, and how much we miss her, and even makes a Joke in order to help us feel better. It was genuinely the sweetest thing for the bag of bones.

I howled and wanted to throw something in pure joy when Halsin gave us a whittled duck. I WANT that duck. I want to paint it. It's so sweet he gets to have fun with the kids under his ward and his version of balance isn't pure nature, it's the challenge of nature and civilization working together.

My Shadowheart got her parents back and I just love that she decided to live on a little abandoned cottage with them, making apple cider. Getting a letter for her from Nocturne was lovely, I hope they could be friends again someday.

I LOVED that Wyll decided to be a ranger. I think that suits him so well. I want to do a new run with him as a ranger - I don't think I've ever played one, even in DnD so I don't know how they work, all I know is they get animal companions and "favored enemies" which I think suits his folk hero and adventuring background well. I also just think its the cutest thing he was SO excuted to share his stories and adventures with us, he gives you the Biggest, Wettest Puppy Eyes known to Faerun and asks "Please?" if he could tell you a story. I thought I was going to die.

In my Astarion Romance Ending, and sadly Karlach dies, I initially chose I wanted to help him find a way to walk in the sun again (and tbh I guess it depends on your DM but Wish or True Resurrection could possibly do the trick to cure vampirism, but "cure vampirism" and "stand in the sun without dying" are two different asks, Wish might be able to fix the former if some enchantment or enchanted item doesn't). Anyway, it was interesting to see him a little excited if not desperate to want to look for a potential aid. In the Avernus ending I loved that he accepted the shadows and darkness as part of himself, it was a nice juxtaposition without necessarily making it "bad" for the player and him to want to help him walk in the sun again. It was rather bittersweet to see him in an ended romance but still call you pet names.

My Gale became Dekarios the Divine, the Galerian God of Ambition. I tried to find a way to prevent it but it seems te only way (I think, anyway) is to prevent him from acquiring the Book about Karsus. Every permutation led him to becoming a God, and it was so cold. I LOVED this ending, as much as I hated what Gale became. It really turned the dial up on his hubris and ego. He hadn't bothered to even visit his mother, and Tara (rightfully) scolded us, and asked us to visit his mother to "hold on to" the old Gale. It was really sad. As a Warlock, and my Tav being Ambitious (and would have encouraged Astarion to Ascend if it were not for a bug preventing the ritual) he asked Gale if he could potentially be patron / find a better patron. Gale said it would take a few millennia for Ao to allow such direct contact. And it was Alarming to hear (and fascinating) that he has worshipers primarily located in Thay.

I have NOT seen Gale's alternate endings yet, I'll be doing more playthroughs as soon as I figure out who tf I want to play next.

My Lae'zel became the new diplomat betweeh the two Gith clans, to unite the sky. I was obsessed with I saw the opprtunity to give her that. When it came up as an option after orpheus (whom I convinced not to die after he became an Illithid), i wanted to give that woman Everything. So I encouraged her to take up the sword and Orpheus' offer and I felt SO PROUD when she called his dragon(s) and stood on one's back like she'd been admiring since Day Fucking One. SO. PROUD.

I saw two separate letters from Dammon depending n Karlach's alive-or-dead status. He sends his condolences to us if she died and blames himself for not trying harder, dedicating his life to working with Infernal Iron. If he's alive, he asks s to ask Karlach to write to him, its very simple but I think it's so sweet. She's just so fun and happy, and relays to us that there may be a way to fix her engine with blueprints she's found the location of, which sounds so hopeful without actually giving us a "canon" (similar to astarion's "maybe there's a way to walk in the sun" - i prefer the ambiguity than total fix-its). The hope feels better than the confirmation, tbh.

It was also interesting, i think, that with the a non-karlach romance there's the addition of after I help Karlach with her engine in the aforementioned fixing plot she's found, I could potentially return to Astarion's side so it's a lot less dreary feeling like we're both permanently trapped in the Hells and instead the hopeful promise of a future where Karlach can return to the surface alive and forever well, and we can return to our loved ones.

This directly connected to one of the new Raphael epilogues - I LOVED how threatening Raphael was with it. On one hand, Asmodeus would tear him to shreds if he tried to overtake the Hells even with the crown, that I feel is inevitable. But either Gale as his Ambitious Patron of sorts, or perhaps as a distraction (remember: even gods can die) tearing apart the pantheons, he could very well take advantage of that to overtake Asmodeus, I think. It seems even more on par with his style of planning, he seems very min-maxed when it comes to working towards a goal - the less he has to do himself, the better.

YOU CAN HUG THEM. I talked to Halsin first and I screamed when "you look like you need a hug" came up. My god. I went to shadowheart after and saw you could hug her, too, and I wasn't expecting it, I genuinely just thought it'd be a Halsin thing only bc he just seems like the obvious "gives good (bear) hugs" choice. Oh my god you can hug your party members. I lost my fucking mind.

Also, Milil..... very nice little lore, I loved how excited he got when we passed our check if we knew who he was. The floating instruments around him was a lovely little touch.

Getting letters and newspaper clippings from all our saved comrades was incredible. I Liked everyone's letters yes but i was MOST excited and happy to hear from our tieflings after they've been through Literal Hell and back. Rolan got an interview, Lakrissa bought Alfira a house and dedicated a plaque to us for their music school, Bex and Danis opened a bakery together. The tieflings collectively built a whole new district for themselves in Baldur's Gate. It'd be excellent for comradery - that they can share with one another as a tiefling community, weave a rich tapestry of tiefling culture, to have people to be safe around, and people who know what its like whether theyre from Elturel or not.

ZEVLOR MY BELOVED. I was so happy to hear from him. He said his hands shook the whole time he stayed at the temple "with the other veterans" - other tiefling hellriders - and it was rather bittweserrt, both inspirign an sad to read his hands only stopped shaking when the city shook, and all the Rider paladins restored their oaths by being devoted to preventing Baldur's Gate from becoming the next Elturel. He said "Come see us, when you can" OF COURSE Im going to visit, oh my god. It was just nice to hear he's doing fine and is volunteering at the temple that helped him.

I loved the epilogue so fucking much. It felt really nice.

I like to think that our heroes do it often, maybe annually or just casually see each other on adventures. maybe an occasional "Hey, I'm on a bit of a quest and need the expertise of my favorire [class]" it felt so cozy.

Did Withers put up all those decorations himself. I Love the old bag of bones so much. He just wanted to give us a little party. Let me hug Withers please he deserves it.

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers #bg3 epilogue spoilers #dont mind me im just gushing

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sobeesknees · 2 months

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wake me up when larian has tidied up the ending for real this time

spoilers

i finished the game feeling like i played it all wrong

i had to redo wyll's quest and fight ansur FUCKING TWICE because what the fuck i didnt understand anything

he could have been a duke and he could have been a great one that follows after his righteous dad's footsteps instead it was callously presented as the bad power-hungry choice. which okay, i understand that bg3's whole schtick is too much power is bad but wyll becoming a duke was absolutely not written well enough for it to appear as the "bad" choice

instead they chuck a single line that sounded like "muwahaha im gonna be a duke and the patriars cant do shit" which again is like??? where did that attitude come from??

also someone has to refresh me on his contract because what i remember is the deal was to break the contract NOW but Mizora won't help with finding Wyll's dad. Okay then don't help?? i dont recall signing anything that said you'll actually kill the old man. i already did what had to be done to break the contract in act 2, why is she adding another condition to it.

its not like his location will only be unlocked if we don't break the contract. there are books everywhere about the iron throne, theres a fucking sidequest that will lead you to the iron throne!!!!

astarion's pre-epilogue ending where he runs from the sun, screaming and saying sorry and all gale had to say was "guess we won't be seeing him anymore" LIKE HUH, I THOUGHT WE WERE ALL FRIENDS HERE

also i didnt bring gale with me to the final fight someone has to explain to me why mystra forgave him and kept his bomb in check. will it only make sense if i bring him to the final fight? that means i cant actually bring my usual team :| could have at least let me switch my companions before i start climbing up to the netherbrain the fuck

AND KARLACH

i can absolutely get behind a tragic ending for her. she's the only one who didnt mess with wanting power so that would be an intense ending, but my god at least let me try and save her?? like let me run around trying to fix her engine with the gondians and then smash all hope at the end with realistic reasons and then she can die in my arms

in fact ill even thank you for making me cry

#bg3

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tacogoats · 5 months

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I keep chewing on a certain epilogue line from God!Gale towards my redeemed Durge.

That silly offer to potentially become his Chosen; which my Durge, Veren, very quickly refused and was quite soured with Gale after over - for obvious reasons. Buuutttt.

I've been goofing around with an evil Durge that, I plan to write fic out for myself that will have a sort of dual ending that I am quite sure is impossible in the game. (But, by the power of fanfic! We make it work!)

Ilryn, my evil Durge, plans to serve Bhaal for eternity and deliver the dead world that was promised - but doesn't want to lose Gale. He's a silly selfish man, because with his new tadpoled brain he's tasted a bit of freedom, but not enough to totally steer him off Bhaal.

Sceleritas offers a line about producing new Bhaalspawn, but Ilryn is not satisfied with that. He wants the best for Gale despite everything; and while his ambitions lie with appeasing good old papa... there are some things even Bhaal shouldn't be able to touch.

Gale needs to become a God to be free of Bhaal's dead world. He will make it work to save Gale. (Maybe in another post I will detail out what I want to write but some of it is pretty whump-y. Sorry Gale.)

But now I'm chewing on Ilryn getting a 'better' ending where he defies Bhaal and asks Gale to ascend him - to free him of Bhaal's influence - and they live out their egotistical maniac days together in Elysium.

I still get my 'Ilryn made Gale WORSE' ending but in a new flavour. I love this game sm guys.

(I am also playing a new save where Ilryn is a Mostly good guy and is a wild magic sorcerer - so we still get a happy ending for them eventually.)

But on the whole Chosen thing...

I just really love this situation these two Ex-Chosen are in, and I so dearly wish that Larian works with that for Durge/Gale content. We've already seen how much Astarion gets in general with romance content, but he also gets TONS with just Durge, romanced or no. I'd like to see Larian try to tackle Gale speaking to Durge as an ex-Chosen himself and relate to them once the ball is dropped instead of just that moment of blind anger he gives us. There's scraps of it with his acknowledgement of the Slayer Form and I hope they play with it more.

I personally want to play with the idea of Gale being mildly horrified at a Durge who is ready to serve Bhaal again - and perhaps offer encouragement to the contrary. Maybe he gets bitter about Mystra and doesn't want to see Durge waste an opportunity to be free now that he seems someone else in a similar position as himself. (I know it's Bhaal versus Mystra here too but still. He knows what it's like to lose the favour of your God.)

Anyway I might chew on this more when I have brain power.

For now I offer you two gays.

#bg3 rambling #bg3 epilogue spoilers #dark urge/gale #dark urge x gale #what even is the durge/gale tag #durge/gale #??? help

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showyoumyfavoriteobsession · 8 months

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WELL.

I just finished my first playthrough and like. holy shit. I'm still kind of reeling bc even though I think I got a "good ending" main story-wise (destroyed the elder brain and all the tadpoles), the companions' epilogues were not as positive!

I fucked up Gale's story at some point - I was trying to romance him, but I also didn't want him to take the crown for himself, and I think I must have picked an option that backed him up at some point thinking I could convince him later. When we got to the epilogue, we just got in an argument and he stormed off to go claim godhood for himself. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My (vague) understanding is that each companion has at least two endings? And I did quicksave during that conversation so I may go back and see what happens if I back him up - probably not the ending I was aiming for, but something different at least. I also never got his act 3 romance scene, but I'm not sure if that's because of this or because I started romancing him too late (I didn't get his act 1 scene at the party either).

*Quick edit since I just went back and loaded up that last save: there wasn't anything I could do in that conversation to change the outcome of Gale leaving. I think I must have started his stuff too late, so I couldn't get all the scenes, plus probably a few bad dialogue choices on the way. It's a shame, I really do like Gale and he has an interesting story, and that’s not the way I was hoping to end it (even if I wasn't romancing him).

I didn't actively do very much of Karlach's story (got her stabilized in act 2 and that was about it), but GOD her epilogue scene made me cry like a baby. Saying goodbye to the sun and the ocean... telling herself she did her best... 😭 I'm still feeling unwell about it.

I don't think I would have done anything different on this playthrough for Astarion (helped him kill Cazador and disrupt the ritual) but I did feel bad when he had to go scrambling away from the sunlight. I'm planning to romance him for an evil playthrough so I might just go full evil and let him complete the ritual then - we'll see.

But overall I really really loved this game! Absolutely one of the biggest, most captivating experiences I've had in a game. I understand why people are upset about the abruptness of the epilogue, but (at least for now) it really didn't bother me. I think if it were much longer, it would have felt like it was dragging, especially when you have a lot of emotional scenes one after the other - I think they erred on the correct side. The story felt so detailed and interwoven and compelling and still managed to be... manageable. Understandable and relatively easy to keep track of, despite being both sprawling and deep. The script and the acting elicited a huge amount of emotional reactions from me all the way through the game - this has taken me about a month, mostly playing a couple hours each evening, and I was still laughing at the dialogue and cringing at my bad rolls and invested in battles almost every time I booted up the game. That was a pretty cool feeling.

It's wild to me that every time I watch other people play this game, they're always finding things that I never found - there's just so. much. game. I expect any subsequent playthroughs will go a good bit faster; eventually I'll probably just watch parts that I'm curious about instead of playing through it over and over with slight changes, but I am curious to do at least one more playthrough with a very different approach to see how different the game becomes. I'm going to be thinking (and posting lol) about this for a while.

Oh! Randomly, I feel like I should mention that I played the whole game on the easiest mode and it was great. This is the first CRPG I've ever played, I have very little experience with turn-based combat or DnD, and I wanted to keep having fun! It was still plenty challenging - there were still a couple times that my whole team died, it's certainly not a story-only mode - but it ended up being perfect for my play style.

#end of bg3 spoilers ahoy :)#j rambles #in which j liveblogs #4 #5 #baldur's gate 3

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