Baldur's Gate 3 Spoilers - Tumblr Posts
Conflicted
Turns out funny, handsome wizards with magical bombs in their chests always get the girls.
Please enjoy Gale and my Tav - Theo, with the idea of Mystras jealousy flaring as he moves on. CHOOSE THE HOT ELF GALE, LET MYSTRA GO I'm fine
Ok but… we all think Gale is a little neurodivergent right? I’m not making stuff up? I don’t want to be problematic or anything but them infodumps speak to me on a very personal and spiritual level
what i love about bard!tav/gale is what beauty means to them. for gale, magic is art. for bard!tav, art is magic. if you push a more evil route, one of the many things gale laments are his hands - that something that used to create beauty was transformed into tools for heinous acts. there's this intersection of how bard!tav and gale want to see the loveliness and good of the world, and how they continue believing in it is thru the act of creation. bard!tav thru song, poetry, and all forms of art, gale thru the wonders and dreams magic can make real
Call Lightning favorite spell in game, Ildàn and the Harpers had to solo the shadow beasties bc the rest of the party was Bad At Following Directions. Also Gale after that fight had be YELLING like...been trying to get with you for a month now and THIS is what it took to get you??? Reckless unhinged sorcery?? Okay, king. Can we be boyfriends now.
I know people are put off by Gale's romance because of Mystra, but even when you don't romance him I think you can quickly realise that Mystra only saw Gale as a play thing to be discarded
It was not a healthy relationship by any means
Then in act 2, Mystra then uses Gale AGAIN and makes him believe the only way he has any worth is to DIE. And he believes he deserves it.
Trust me, you will not have to worry about Gale seeing you as second to Mystra at all. He loves you more than anything.
First Meeting
Gale Dekarios, former Chosen of Mystra, wizard of Waterdeep, smartass with a silver tongue and a ticking contra-magic timebomb in his heart, brought to his knees by the fact that one person, the ONLY person that matters, wants him for himself, not some possible future where he ascends to godhood, hearing he's good enough for the first time, and worst of all: believeing it
I was drawing characters during enemy turns in the final battles of my 2nd run of the game, and one thing led to another. I've fallen in love with the whole cast. 🫶 Ft. my paladin Dark Urge and bard Tav.
Playing as a sorcerer tav is great as a gale romancer, because of the very different perspective and approach to magic your character would have as an innate spellcaster.
You’re not necessarily better at magic, and unless you multiclass as wizard (lol why?) it’s unlikely that you’d have a better understanding of the mechanics of magic. Sorcerers cast magic innately, yeah? You don’t have to understand how muscles move to be able to move your body, but you can still train. Same kinda deal. Sorcerers can practice and learn to mold their magic in different ways. Wizards study magic, and learn a spell inside and out to be able to cast it.
It’s a different perspective, and one I think is so juicy to explore.
My tav Cordelia thinks Gale is very impressive. He understands magic in a way she doesn’t. He can cast all kinds of spells that she can’t.And on the flip side of that, Gale is fascinated by her innate grasp of magic. Fascinated by what it must feel like to feel connected to the weave constantly, it’s in your veins, a very tangible and real presence always.
They bond instantly over their love of magic
Their dynamic is very much: yes, I’m good at what I do, but what you do is also very impressive, tell me more, please
Baldur's Gate III | ▶ dev. Larian Studios
Gale: Go, indulge in the frivolities - they're good for the heart. And mine will be all the lighter, to see you enjoying yourself.
Yep. It's settled. I'm definitely romancing Gale next. His affection for Tav is so clear and so constant, he cares about them and their wellbeing so damn much and he makes no effort to hide that! I also really like that he has feelings for Tav even if you're trying not to flirt with him; I mean, most of the party will proposition you at one point or another, but with Gale it feels much more like an actual crush than just attraction. With most of them it feels like "I like and respect you, want to fuck about it" (also I suspect from posts I've seen that Astarion is manipulating me with sex and declarations of affection, it's fine though) with the actual feelings coming later but Gale seems to genuinely be head over heels for Tav even at this point, even with me trying very hard not to flirt with him; I really want to see what it looks like when I actually am trying to romance him from the start.
There's one convo with Astarion that's one of my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned or discussed yet happens (I assume) if you have high approval with him but play a good-aligned character. (This is at 60+ approval, start of Act 2.) It's probably because it's not a romantic cutscene so it doesn't get mentioned as much as the others (or because he's racist in it and some of y'all don't like to acknowledge that he has character flaws), but I think it's vital to his character and to explain his early relationship with a good-aligned Tav.
I would like to break it down a little, step by step. Because we are all cringe here.
First, he claims to feel a connection between Tav and himself, and the reason for this is because he believes he's identified "ambition" in Tav (and I'll explain why he's wrong later, but that's mostly headcanon territory, so we'll ignore it for now).
But, there's also clearly something holding Tav back from realizing their full potential, which is their naivete.
"Just that you ... have a big heart. You like doing what's right."
(The animations and voice acting here make him look and sound so fucking condescending, 10/10.)
However, Astarion doesn't tell them this is wrong, or that he disagrees. He implies it's a flaw, but doesn't state it outright. That's dangerous territory, see, and might predispose them to get defensive and reject what he has to say next.
No, he tries (and fails in my case, but it's cute that he tries, bless him) to manipulate Tav by appealing to that big heart of theirs.
"So I was thinking, what would be the right thing to do when we get to Moonrise Towers? When we come face-to-face with whoever is controlling the parasites in our heads."
"I'm just saying there's an opportunity here. If we can control the tadpoles, we can keep ourselves safe and liberate the world from this evil."
See what he's doing? You like doing what's right, so what would be the right thing to do? We can keep ourselves safe. Liberate the world from evil.
It's very blatant, but he's trying to appeal to Tav's good nature by framing his questionable ideas as something that will benefit the greater good, something that's morally righteous that they would agree with.
And of course, it's incredibly funny when you ask how he thinks you'll do that, and he fumbles and admits he's not a "details person," but it's also revealing.
He thinks he's found in Tav ambition, when all he's actually found is ability. Tav exercises power proficiently, while Astarion does not. If he had the authority they have, he'd let ambition drive his actions, which is why he assumes that's what drives Tav when they exercise their power. A good-aligned Tav has very little ambition, I'd argue, but they have plenty of opportunity to exercise their power, which they do when their hand is forced.
So what Astarion is saying is, in effect, hey, you have power, I have ambition. Will you please use your authority/ability to do what I want? Here's how it'll totally be for the greater good, I prommy.
This is brilliant writing, and I really applaud Larian for managing to walk that fine line of making Astarion so sympathetic while he's literally trying to manipulate the player character. Because when I first got this convo, my thought was both "wow, I adore how blatant and terrible his manipulation attempts are, it's kind of endearing" and "he's so terrified, it's genuinely quite tragic."
If we control the tadpoles, we can keep ourselves safe. This works only somewhat as an appeal to good-aligned Tav, because it could also potentially sound very selfish, especially if Tav is the self-sacrificing sort. So notice how, when he says "liberate the world from evil", it sounds kinda tacked-on, an afterthought designed to bury his main goal, which is keep "ourselves" (i.e. himself) safe. Like, yes, this will keep us/me safe, but if you're not into that, then it'll totally help the world, too! It doesn't quite work, because he still sounds ironic and like he doesn't believe they'd be liberating anything from any evil (work that 10 Charisma, boy), but that's the intent, I think.
Does he want power for power's sake? Yes. Is he gleefully powerhungry? Absolutely. But he's also fucking terrified, and that slips through just a little bit, even behind the smug and confident facade.
He's trying to get Tav, whom he's seen exercise their power over others, to lend some of it to him, so that he may never fear anything ever again.
All of this from a short, smug convo where he admits he's too stupid to figure out how to fulfill his dreams of world domination.
God tier characterization, 10/10.
assorted fun lines from my screenshot folder
WYLL RAVENGARD | Baldur's Gate III (2023)
Felt like drawing Arabella and my druid Tav
Um sorry guys just accidentally fucking killed Rolan
So was doing the lorroakan (evil(?) ginger wizard guy) thingo quest and the ginger was like BRING ME THE NIGHTSONG
said no cause she’s a person and like bro was being creepy about it
Anyway got back to camp after getting the quest told Dame Aylin and her girlfriend that ANOTHER dude wanted to enslave her to gain immortality and we went to beat him up
So took Karlach, Wyll, Gale and Aylin to beat this ginger wizard but Rolan joins the fight and fights against me
I was gonna try and just knock out Rolan cause I sorta wanted to keep him alive but Aylin hit him like twice and he folded
Felt bad but not enough to reload the save
RIP Rolan
😔😔😔
Lae'zel is such an intriguing character. Born into a militaristic hyperviolent society, brainwashed into the cultish religiosity of their leadership...and forced to confront all of that, everything that molded her into who she is, every fabric of her own self-image.
It's a bit odd that I know so many currently playing BG3 who fawn over Astarion and excuse away his behaviour and actions as driven through trauma (justifiable, I really do like Astarion), but then in the same breath would turn and hate on Lae'zel for being a monster and irredeemable. They're both traumatized. They've both been made to do horrible things, one had enough of a life beforehand to understand the horrors of what was being done to them and through them, for better or worse. The other hasn't.
I care for both characters, they both deserve justice and they both deserve someone who can help them. Astarion's world has already fallen apart. Lae'zel doesn't know yet that hers has as well, and as much as I hate Vlaakith and her empire, it hurts to watch her come to that realization, fighting it tooth and nail like a wounded, terrified animal. Much like the rest of the crew, I'd like to think there's a route to redemption, happiness, and health for all the companions, her included. I don't think I can fix her. But I want to help her so she can do the fixing herself, and I'm curious as to where she might end up after everything.
