yknow i didn't necessarily start my wyll origin run with the intent of romancing astarion in mind but the more i play the more i find their similarities amusing when it comes to like, the surface level personality they present to strangers in act 1.
wyll is a compulsive flirt. you see it in dialogue with shadowheart and lae'zel - he just tosses out a couple lines that clearly aren't supposed to go anywhere (asking lae'zel if she believes in love at first sight, blatantly reusing the same flirtation attempts with shadowheart) and i see this as part of his Blade of Frontiers persona. obviously a traveling vigilante would have no time for romance or relationships, but he's socially aware enough to have learned that people respond well to a certain level of rogueish charm. especially if his reputation precedes him. he can safely and positively engage in surface level flirtations with the people he interacts with because the person doing the flirting isn't real - at least not to him. he often says the Blade is his best self, but to him its an ideal he strives to achieve, not the person he really is. and i imagine that includes the ability to give discouraged people positive attention in a nonthreatening way. its safe. its superficial. he doesn't have to follow through.
this is overshadowed somewhat by astarion's tendency to flirt with anything that has a pulse, but the perspective they both have on it is pretty similar. theyre both coming from a place of not actually being interested in the recipient of their attention - whether that be through astarion's ulterior motives or wyll's lack of capacity for a relationship - but they both still put on this front because it's habitual. it's worked for them and it's gotten them through the varying degrees of social contracts they find themselves in. so they wind up trading lines easily because they've studied from the same script.
anyway what im getting at is bumping these two personalities against each other can definitely result in wyll and astarion committing to the bit so hard they accidentally wind up in a relationship. like, you're safe, you know the rules, you're speaking in a language i'm familiar with but we both understand that neither of us expect anything back on an emotional level. wait when did we start confiding our deepest secrets with one another. what do you mean you trust me.
if i had a nickel for every time a guy watched his alien robot boyfriend die in front of him saving his life, and was then able to pilot said boyfriend's body to defeat the big bad and save the world from certain decimation because the bond they share is so strong, i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weIRD THAT IT'S HAPPENED TWICE
me(free reader): "wow! i bet the next ep will be abt everyone being saved and happily ever afters and all my favorite ships will be canon (pluto and duke, morella and ada, berenice and eulalie, prospero and cleaning supplies, the entire cast and therapy, etc)!"
fastpass reader: "actually, almost the opposite happens, so-"
((Read from bottom to top, sorry it's fuzzy I'm playing on ps5))
I just started the gauntlet of shar in act 2, and some of the walking around dialog has cemented Karlach x Gale as a ship I'd like to explore.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks they'd be really cute together???
They both crave stable, caring love; they're both incredibly tender and loving. Karlach loves with all of her heart and soul and Gale matches that energy. They both have ticking time bombs that cause chronic pain. If they can't physically touch, Gale can always just Astral project them into some raunchy fun. They both understand what it's like to be used and betrayed by someone in a position of power they deeply respect.
God!gale can also fix her engine.
Why haven't I seen more art of them together??? Am I just not looking for it hard enough????
ummmmm haha i am not immune. i think i was gonna make this a sexy thing but it's so cute as-is. i think i prefer the ambiguity. this was sort of comic panel/storyboard practice, they should be consistent if you click through them
eddie and steve r my favorites bc they have the great dynamic of somebody who throws a peace sign when rthey see somebody recording them and somebody who flips off a camera when they see it's recording them no matter the circumstances