In The Spirit Of The "two Cakes Are Better Than One" Sentiment, In Regards To Fanfic, I Would Happily

Sometimes I see people say that using persusion on Astarion to talk him out of ascension is a bad thing. Like it's mind control, but honestly, 15 is not a hard DC, that is a task of moderate difficulty. It is harder to get Wyll to smooch you at the party, or to get Shadowheart not to mercy kill her parents then to convince Astarion that mass slaughter is a bad idea and he doesn't need to do this.

Also, it's literally just talking. It's just being convincing, all the skill is is assigning a number value to how well Tav can articulate a point.

If Larian wanted it to be a difficult they would have given it a Dc 20, and if Larian wanted it to be mind control it would have been illithid wisdom.

I'm pretty sure that if I heard Alkaline sung in a cave it would heal me

Often I wish I could do drawing or animation as fanart. All I can do is write and make silly little guys out of felt. Behold, the silly little guys!

Gods I just love that Astarion is pansexual. I love seeing images of him kissing both men and women. I love that he is flamboyant and that so many women find him sexy. I love that his queerness wasn’t sidelined to make homophobic gamers comfortable.

And I will fight any of those dumbasses who insists that he’s actually gay, because miss me with that stereotyping bullshit. He makes my little bi heart so happy.

To me, this game is about collecting rocks and minerals, actually

larian writers, with hands placed on astarions shoulders like a proud parent: this is a thoughtful and touching narrative about male victims of abuse

fans: hey, thats fuckin sweet! do you have any more of these stories in your game?

larian writers, grimacing as they turn their heads towards wyll and gale: okay so, in our defense, it gets kinda murky when its a hot white woman doing it

gale stans: wasnt he groomed?

larian writers: but he liked it? his ultimate goal is to get back with her :)

wyll stans: isnt it kinda gross that the devil who owns his soul keeps blatantly sexually harassing him in front of everyone as a form of humiliation-based punishment?

larian writers and also whoever the fuck wrote that christmas animation (you motherfucker, when i fucking get you i stg): i know canon says otherwise, but he secretly wants her. dont you want her? you can fuck her if youd like

halsin stans: hey, so, uh-

larian writers, sprinting out of the room:

Current mood:

Yes, that's poor Gale who fell into the lava and is melting.

What does it say about me that I feel like having a brain that works the way Harry Du Bois' does would be cool and efficient?

Post-game rambles

So I finally finished my first playthrough of BG3. Here are some of my brief, post-game-emotion-addled thoughts on it. (Alternate title: The existence of Astarion has forever altered my brain chemistry I will never be able to adequately express my feelings about him)

I had spent a year dying to get this game before I ever played it, because I had heard such good things, and honestly it surpassed my expectations in every way. I can tell this is one of those pieces of art that will remain firmly implanted in my heart probably forever. I could go on for days about everything I love about this game, but I think there are also some things I could never put into words if I tried.

In particular, Astarion and his storyline really just completely and profoundly captivated me in a way I don't know how to express. It's very rare that a character consumes my heart and mind this much, but his story and character is beyond beautiful and will always be incredibly special to me. Not to say I don't absolutely adore the other characters, because I do, but Astarion just stole both the show and my heart. I will never shut up about him. All the characters in this story feel so alive, and it's palpable just how much heart went into creating them, along with everything else in the world of this game.

It's been a while since a story's had me bawling my eyes out multiple times like this game had me, and it was so well-earned. I cared so much about this world and characters that everything just affected me so deeply. All the feelings are still raw and I'm a mess, so someday I think I'll be better able to put into words what this game meant to me, but right now I'm just dizzy with how amazing this experience was. I think I'll be losing my mind about it forever.

And I'm looking forward to playing it about 100,000 more times.