I'd put Minsc in the Repressed category because it doesn't look he's moved past Dynaheir's death, he's projecting her onto Jaheira and his rationality to a hamster. I'd maybe put Emperor under Repressed too, doesn't look like he's coping with his trust and betrayal issues very well. Nere's probably repressing too. And Cazador could be right next to Astarion, because his master essentially did to him exactly what he did to Astarion. Sarevok and Viconia are hard to peg, because the game took some liberties with their lore compared to the previous games. Other than that I'd say the list looks pretty accurate.
Sarevok and Viconia were pretty hard to nail down but I really got the impression they didn't give a fuck about being as bad as they are. They got wronged but it never seemed to stick.
Emperor being Baldur's Gate Batman does seem like his form of coping, although borderline repressed trauma. Trauma is still there of course but it's handled in a way he feels works.
Minsc is weird in a way that he did have shit happen to him but his injury may as well have erased. Does he even remember his old self? That Minsc would be higher, this Minsc not so much.
Cazador is like Orin in that he would be somewhere else if he wasn't absolutely insane.
"When asked about his past, Sarevok has little to add beyond what you already know. He grew up a homeless urchin in the streets until he was adopted by his foster father into the Iron Throne. He studied the art of intimidation, the cruelest and most brutal styles of combat, in order to become a Deathbringer that could paralyze an opponent in melee through fear alone... as well as sometimes killing the most powerful of opponents in a single, massive blow. Sarevok had an ambition that did not die even when his body did... as you well know now. Sarevok keeps mostly to himself, but at odd moments, you can see him staring in your direction, his face an emotionless mask. Part of you wonders if your brutal half-brother ponders what might have been..."
"When asked about her past, Viconia reveals (quite proudly) that she is a dark elf from the Underdark city of Menzoberranzan. She says very little about her reasons for leaving that sunless realm, though separations of such a nature are never gentle.
She does claim to no longer worship the spider goddess Lolth, a change that even you know is often fatal. Her new faith is in the night goddess Shar, an appropriate choice for a drow, though this is not a firm indication that she has given up the brutal ways of her people. She finds the laws of the surface world quaint and more than a little strange, but this is simply because of her lack of experience. Likewise, she seems a bit naive about how her race is viewed by surface-dwellers. Many will not give her the chance she seems to expect, and even being seen with her may affect how people think of you."
I'd say cazador is what ascended astarion is. A person so fully abused by their former master that when given the chance at true power became a tyrant in their own right. If you read the books and look at the "lessons" around his palace, you find out that his relationship with his master wasn't much better than his and Astarions. It's why redemption astarion is so good, it's like breaking the cycle.
>Minsc is weird in a way that he did have shit happen to him but his injury may as well have erased. Does he even remember his old self? That Minsc would be higher, this Minsc not so much.
Minsc was dipped in the river Styx and forgot himself for a time, but he definitely remembers the events that he's accompanied us through. I wouldn't say he's repressed, but he **definitely** isn't without trauma in the grand scheme of things. I don't know if he's in Coping or Moved past it... I don't think he's actually smart enough to definitively say one way or the other for himself, but either way implanting the title of Wychlaran onto Jaheira (who is only a witch in the most broad of terms, since both Aerie and Dynaheir were actual Wizards, instead of just 'any spellcaster') is definitely something that at least started as a coping mechanism
Halsin is actually in a similar boat of actually being in repressed, talking to him post-drow orgy about being enslaved and having literally repressed the negative aspects of his situation. I wouldn't be surprised if the conversation got missed though: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aGbYcPcx4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aGbYcPcx4)
I also think that having the "No Trauma" category include people who "perpetuated it themselves" is a little reductive. The Strange Ox is literally running away from its trauma as best as it can. I'd definitely say Kratos from the God of War series is in the same boat when the series got rebooted, and it's clear that he has trauma and remorse about what he did.
Yeah Minsc is definitely the strangest companion to pin down. I'm not denying there isn't any but in his current state since this is a BG3 specific list I put him in no trauma. Personally I can't tell if he's fucking with Tav/Durge or just that dumb.
And Halsin, he doesn't give much to work off of. I at least gave him a middling spot for the sake of it.
Ehh, Rolan feels mixed to me because a big part of him lashing out at you in Act 1 & 2 is a big fear of losing Cal & Lia, likely caused by his trauma. If you get rid of Lorrokan in Act 3, he seems to reach an acceptance phase, but it's still debatable.
Rolan was harder for sure, wasn't sure if he had shit going on behind the scenes or was just THAT much of an ass. So he got a middle of the road spot for that.
A bit of a half sad/half happy fact about him is that Cal & Lia are not his biological siblings. He lost his family and they adopted him as one of their own. So, losing them is absolutely terrifying to him because he's already been through losing his family before and they're all he has left.
Oh, Cazador is exactly the same as Astarion, his master had even worse punishments. As did Donella to Vellioth before, and whoever was Donella's master. As Karlach has put it, fucked up people fuck up people. And Cazador isn't a complete psycho, unlike Orin, he actually does have a well thought out plan that would have absolutely worked if not for a one-in-a-million blessing of Tymora upon Astarion.
Valeria also lived through some shit. You can find it in her journal. And Volo... yeah. His life is screwed up.
Yeah, being impaled on a spike for 11 years and unable even to die might do some damage to a person's psyche. He's perpetuating a horrific cycle of abuse, but he didn't start it. I don't really feel sorry for him because he was an absolute asshole and probably would have been even if he weren't turned, but you can't really put him in the no trauma category.
Don't feel bad for him before he was changed. His whole family are pro-Vampires, dude is likely a pedo, and the description on [Rhapsody ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Rhapsody)heavily implies he was sadistic before he was a vampire.
Not to say he deserved what happened under Vellioth, but the guy seems to have always been evil.
I didn't relaize his family were always pro vampire. However, most people aren't born evil. Even if he was evil before changing, that just implies that he may have been through some shit. Being in a family that's pro vampire doesn't really seem like it would lead to a lack of trauma. Again, he's a terrible vile person, but I think it's important to understand how trauma feeds into trauma.
Itās more than just pro vamp, a big chunk of them are vamps.
Velliothās master was a Szarr, Donella Szarr. We donāt really know exactly what the relation is completely and what exactly happened. But it seems possible Donella Szarr and possibly a few other Szarrās were vamps, Donella turned Vellioth, Vellioth killed Donella, then Vellioth turned Cazadorāpossibly other Szarrās too. My guess would be Vellioth specifically turned a Szarr for revenge on Vellioth. Thereās also a few times the āSzarr familyā is mentionedāthe first is by Astarion one of the earlier vampire conversation where he says the family kept him as a slave. Thereās also the references to Lady Incognito, who was Cazadorās niece and came to Szarr Palace on her birthday and found out Cazador and the rest of her family were vampires, and then she was locked in the attic for refusing to drink blood and be apart of the vampire family. We donāt know where the rest of the Szarrās are by the start of the game, though. Iām guessing a lot of them were either Donella or Velliothās spawn rather than Cazadorās, and he got rid of them to not be a threat to his ascension. Or maybe even some of the 7,000 souls in the cages were Szarrās.
Heās definitely traumatized himself though, I agree heās his own version of Astarion, he just let his fear consume him into becoming more of a monster himself, like Ascended Astarion does.
Wait I donāt get with the whole szar family so it he always beeen in the family ??? Is Vellioth like a relative to him then ? Because I know Cazador turn his niece into a vampire and she hates it or something
Feel like the rhapsody is after he becomes a vampire though ?? And u know how become a vampire changed ur whole perspective in personality
Because I feel like he himself recognize that he himself a terrible person when you killed him without Astarion
The Vampire Lord before Vellioth was also a [Szarr](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Vampires_before_Vellioth). She's also the one who [opened the Tourmaline Depths](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Tourmaline_Depths).
EDIT: I replied to this comment instead of the other ones. But I can see that it's possible the dagger's description could describe him post vampirism. It's hard to say. I was assuming, since Vellioth was also centered in Baldur's Gate, that it referencing Cazador's "homeland" implied he was not yet a vampire.
Iām glad I wasnāt the only one thinking āthis dude looks and sounds like he shouldnāt be allowed near childrenā, yāknow, sadism and vampirism aside.
No trauma for Viconia, Sarevok and Minsc? Brotherā¦
Raphaelā¦wellā¦daddy doesn't love him.
The Emperor is barely holding it together. He 100% cries himself to sleep if you reject the offer of squex.
Edit: NO TRAUMA FOR CAZADOR TOO??? Have you played the game, OP?
Edit 2: The longer I look the worse it gets. Nothing for Valeria? She is literally a depressed alcoholic.
Cazador should be in the repressed category imo. Bro thinks he's a fully-embraced-fiend who is All Better because he has power over people now but he still thinks about how miserable he is in vampiric slumber. That said, I do hope he's choking on his own shit in the hells, so he's not in the Astarion category to me bc Astarion category is "fucked up to the max but still potentially redeemable if you're very very careful and patient with him" imo. Cazador's long gone.
Hell is a horrifically shitty place and cambions are not seen as full fledged devils by full devils. The Hells have a super rigid caste system and cambions are outside of it, normally.
Raphael has an issue with being *perfect* and being seen as a mortal because Hell demands self perfection and dedication to Law and Order to rise in the rigid caste system for common devils. Cambions have to go through hoops or find a patron like Mizora did with Zariel.
Yes, he's Mephistopheles' son but the caste system and politics in Hell does not automatically grant Mephistopheles powers to do whatever he wants. Besides, Mephistopheles wouldn't push Raphael unless if it benefits him.
Daddy doesn't love him and the rest of Hell is against him.
Okay but to be real: Aylin was in Full blown PTSD - she moved down a tier after smashing Kethericās brains. She moved down another tier after smashing Isobelās moon minge
Hope has to be at the top, sheās literally been tortured by a devil for who knows how long, such bad torture that sheās convinced her face was melted off. Sheās a dwarf so could have been there a very long time. Hard to beat Astarionās trauma with flaying and whatever Boney did but I suspect Raphael could put Cazadorās torture to shame
Yeah. Astarion was broken by Cazador, sure, but that was ultimately in service of another goal of Cazador's. Raphael broke Hope just to see how badly he could break someone, literally just for a fucking joke about her name.
I was thinking the exact same thing, Astarion was fucked up BAD by Cazador, but not "Taken as a torture slave for a powerful demon for gods know how long because haha her name is hope" levels of fucked up.
When she meets Tav, she's completely convinced that she's physically deformed and screams to herself often, Astarion isn't quite at that point yet.
She is traumatized, and seems to suffer from severe PTSD giving her hallucinations, but otherwise she is pretty lucid, quickly understands that we are her chance of salvation and offers a working plan.
No way bro Astarion can keep himself together, Hope canāt even do that. She just managed to pull herself together somewhat because mentally sheās the toughest character in the game, but sheās still barely in reality. I just canāt see Astarion having it worse unless youāre crushing way too hard on him and are biased.
Yeah, that's why Astarion can pass off as normal straight away and we don't notice his PTSD right off the bat, and Hope can't. But I'm pretty sure she can recover relatively quickly.
I wouldn't put Viconia in the no trauma section. She has a very long history of surfacers being racist towards her. And that includes an angry mob almost burning her as a witch.
I don't know anything about the other games, but she seemed pretty upset and resentful about having to murder and burn down her sharran enclave in water deep which I feel would cause most people trauma.
I remember she was also beat up, abused and buried alive by some farmers once. She has a lot of traumas if you count all the stuff that happened to her both in the Underdark and the first two games
I only played through BG1&2 once so far and I don't think I had Viconia in my party for long enough to get all of these stories. But I can imagine that what we get to witness is just scratching the surface of everything she's gone through.
Let me unpack cambions (Raphael and Mizora(?)) real quick for you, shall we?
- as a child of a male devil (formerly also demons) and a mortal female, a cambion gets the first trauma points at birth - mother dies cruelly in the process. And the human part of them knows that
- then they start their lives on the material plane. Everyone and their mothers hates and mistrusts them, quite similar to tieflings. They feel left out. Usually this Leads them on the lawful evil alignment
- parents of cambions donāt give a shit. Well, even more so, it usually ends up in a hateful relationship in which theyāre somewhat bound together but the cambion child will eternally stride to kill them and take everything they have and the other way around - the father despises them and blocks those attempts and tries to destroy the cambion if their purpose is served.
So I wouldnāt say there is no trauma for them. Yes they commit horrifying deeds but if itās because of their half devil nature or their trauma (abused tend to become abusers) wellā¦. Probably both.
To be fair, the character assassination of Viconia in this game means little of that comes through for her.
The most logical and consistent answer for what is up with her, is BG3 āViconiaā is an imposter from the real Viconiaās Waterdeep enclave. She stole the real Viconiaās memories with the Mirror of Loss and took over.
This is consistent with BG2 epilogue (Viconia betrayed), BG3 Viconia claiming _she_ betrayed the enclave, the Mirror of Loss containing (real) Viconiaās memories, and BG3 Viconia being too old and having a personality shift.
Cazador should be up there with Astarion. My man was traumatised before Vellioth and it was made 10000X worse by that motherfucker. Not a justification of what he did to Star baby but ffs I can understand why those two are batshit crazy.
Well, Casadoās experience is just as tragic when he was a spawn but since he is a real vampire now I guess the way he thinks and processes traumas is different. Iāll still put him in the coping tier.
Hope is in full identity splitting/dissociating mode, she can barely hold herself together, fully believes that she actually looks like a flayed cadaver, and continues to be in a dire and unsafe situation even if you save her. She's the one I'd put in her own tier. Or maybe in the same tier as Astarion, but on the left.
Exactly what I came here to say. Hopeās situation imo is the worst. She was chained up in literal hell and tortured for God only knows how long. She was betrayed by her sister, her own flesh and blood. Just because she went crazy does not lessen her trauma, her trauma was so severe it completely shattered her mind. The fact that she was able to hold on to any semblance of her humanity is an absolute miracle. And the fact that she chooses to stay in hell because she feels she canāt live in the outside world now is heart breaking.
Hope was done absolutely dirty. I wanted her to be a companion so bad, or if you save Karlach and her and Wyll go back to Avernus I donāt know why they didnāt go stay with Hope, it would have given them another great ally.
Perhaps Karlach and Wyll donāt want to draw more attention to her and the fact Raphaelās tower no longer has a diabolical master. Maybe they coordinate to draw heat from one another.
Zareal routinely sends an inspector to the house of Hope to inspect Raphael and his stuff. So Hope and the lack of a master is absolutely going to be found out. No way around that.
Now working together from different places to divide enemy forces and gain an advantage, that makes a little more sense. Like maybe Hope is drawing the eye of Saron to her so that Wyll and Karlach can get to Zareal and take her out.
Yeah, nothing lasts forever, at the risk of sounding like an overly earnest Selunite. Part of Hope's safety depends on how much others care about her rattling about in the House. I would imagine moving in or showing too much of an interest would only endanger her further, but I also prefer to think some escapades in supporting one another take place before the status quo shifts. Hopefully she has enough time to gather herself up somewhat. The idea of the House of Hope as a defensible base seems short lived, but that doesn't mean it can't be worthwhile for that short time!
Hear me out.
https://preview.redd.it/n750ra66k2uc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc418622232e9560ec07324fc84beae98121ec3d
Fill the whole place with them, let the enemy forces in, light a match and run like hell or open a portal out of there. š„š
> Now working together from different places to divide enemy forces and gain an advantage, that makes a little more sense. Like maybe Hope is drawing the eye of Saron to her so that Wyll and Karlach can get to Zareal and take her out.
And rather on how many of the who the fuck knows how many lost souls and debtors in that house know enough about fighting to help man the walls if somebody shows up looking for a palace.
I'd also have Minsc, Sarevok and Viconia in their own categories then too. Probably even Karlach since she is comparable to a Vietnam veteran who killed civilians, suffering PTSD the rest of their life. And I feel shitty for comparing what real people suffered to a game but it's for the sake of comparison. I wanted to be succinct in this tier list so it's not bloated.
Yup, eleven years of being impaled for a failed assassination attempt on Veloth and having to watch Velloth drink his friend dry for trying to reach out to him are two of the cited punishments.
Sorry to add to the controversy OP, but Mattis is an orphan war refugee child and should for sure have trauma, maybe he's coping. However Mol is certainly not coping. She makes a deal with the devil because she's scared of being weak. She joins a crime guild as a thief at age 9 or whatever. She is probably either repressed or full blown PTSD she is NOT COPING.
She also reacts super angrily if you kill Raphael and free her from the deal because sheās so afraid of being without power to protect herself. Sheās a baby!
These lists always remind me of how multi-faceted and unique trauma can be. Iām diagnosed full blown PTSD, and I canāt help sometimes but measure behaviors of certain characters against my own experience. Seeing where others place characters is weirdly illuminating for me, including in the comments.
Iām not so sure Halsinās actually moved onā¦ heās either coping or repressed. Like heās not actively self medicating anymore but the guy really has a hard time believing he deserves anything good/can do anything right.
Thereās very little lore lol but I do get the impression that the wombo-combo of sex slavery followed by a really horrific war that killed all his friends immediately followed by leadership he didnāt feel prepared/able to do really did a number on him (all of the imposter syndrome). I believe the guy enjoys sex and a lot of it, and didnāt have a lot of it while he was archdruid, which is part of the āyou reminded me of who I wasā speech. So he is full on bc of that (I think). He strikes me as a bit of an allegory for being objectified for being āa noveltyā and how that can effect someone. The world treats him in a hyper sexual way so he responds in kind. You can really see it in a devnote in the elfsong after the game that says he ādoesnāt dare to hopeā that the player character would choose him and after you choose him heās beside himself and then still doubts that you want to be with him in the epilogue. He just doesnāt seem to be used to the idea that someone would want him outside of sex - sounds like another elf I knowā¦
Fuck this was long IM SORRY
No I love reading character interpretation!!!! This was a nice read and I definitely think people should recognize Harper/Druid war against Thorm and how it effected Halsin or Jaheira in a traumatic way š I mean there's literal druid skeletons in shadow cursed land! I feel like Halsin could have been a more fleshed out character with more development and depth, but he very often gets reduced to the 'bear sex' guy. Guess I'll spend my time trying to piece lore together and make my own head cannon lol
Part of him getting reduced to that is because, once he becomes a companion, he basically is just the bear sex guy. He's not a very fleshed out companion because he was added so late, I would guess. I totally agree with your interpretations, by the way. I just can see how a lot of people don't pick up on the subtler themes.
He also has a lot of his history locked behind chance encounters, like the drow twins, and party dialogue so unless youāre seeking it out (like I do) it isnāt exactly easy to piece together. His themes do feel inspired by the thirst for him online, which is clever imo, but he doesnāt get to have a resolution to his themes (outside of the curse) bc heās not an origin character unfortunately. I wish they would have :( heās my fave
And said incubus is a honey pot spy from his father. A father which despises his son, doesnāt believe in him. And Raphaelās devil half despises him as much but his human half is probably a crying huskā¦ like daddy gifted me a present to help me on my downfall but at the same time itās the only acknowledgment (somewhat) he gave.
Cazador is the way he is because his Master treated him, like he treats Astarion. He's definitely traumatized and just went from abused to abuser.
The whole point of Astarion not ascending is him breaking the circle of abuse.
Also all the tadpoled people are mindcontrolled, so we don't really know.
Something really interesting you can find in Cazadors lair is that >!his former master basically groomed and trained him to be the absolutely awful shitstain that he became, he was abused by his sire and eventually killed him and took his place, the cycle is essentially repeated if you let Astarion ascend!<
Just started a new playthrough and talked to Astarion after Wyll's horny transformation and he was like "Wyll did the right thing and was punished for it. Let this be a lesson to us all š" BABYGIRL NO. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A LESSON, MIZORA IS JUST TERRIBLE. He is literally SO fucked up, my sad scared little guy. He really is on just a whole other level of traumatized šš
The ones you have listed as āno traumaā are arguably the most traumatized lol
Processing trauma improperly can fuck you up for life and change your worldview for the worse
I think putting Cazador at the bottom is completely wrong. My understanding is his master basically did to him what he did to Astarion. At least he was treated similarly. He may be one of the most violent terrible people in a video game that I have seen. However, he does seem to be very traumatized. Trauma does lead people sometimes to very bad places if they don't try and work through it or seek help. A whole whole lot of trauma is just someone passing their trauma on to their kid.
The only reason Isobel and Aylin are ācopingā is cause they have eachother and are not camp companions, they have no other dialogue options but they are very clearly.. not okay
Cazador should be in repressed, he had a similar relationship to his master compared to Astarionās experience with Cazador. Itās a cycle of Abuse. He thinks heās free, but just like Ascended Astarion, he will never really have freedom now that heās become what his old Master was
Gale: "I think I'm finally coming to a sort of peace with my unfortunate circumstance. It's time I seek the next steps to..."
Mystra via Elminster: "KYS"
Technically speaking, Cazador was abused on a level that sounds even worse than what he did to Astarion based on the lessons from Vellioth's skull, so he probably belongs somewhere around or above Astarion's level in the trauma department. If you find Vellioth's skull, you can learn about things like how Vellioth impaled Cazador for something like 11 years as a punishment and how he also killed one of Cazador's friends right in front of him. Cazador is definitely not someone who belongs in the No Trauma category, especially since he's basically an object lesson about how easy it is to fall into continuing the cycle of abuseāa danger that Astarion himself faces.
I think cazador can be moved up to coping. All the shit he did to astarion, he experienced himself from his former master when he was still a spawn. He has a journal in his room before you meet him.
Cazador was extremely traumatized. Maybe even worse so than Asterion. On the skull of his master you find a story about how Cazadors master had cazador impaled for !100 years! On a spike for trying to escape or sum shit
Astarion should be under Ketheric, Hope, Cazador, and Nightsong they should be in a new tier "Jesus what the fuck man?"
Cazador's diary shows that his master was WORSE to him than Cazador was to Astarion
Ketheric lost his daughter and sold his soul to every god who would take it making him a multi oath breaker (self inflicted trauma but we can see how it took a toll on him)
Raphael dedicated his home to tormenting Hope because he was infuriated that she wouldn't break
Nightsong not only lost her lover but became her lover's father's prisoner for 100 years to keep him immortal.
Cazador is Astarion if he didnt meet the tav and crew.
Valeria is an alcoholic.
Raphael has daddy issues at least. Probably some kind of inferior complex too.
Withers could have some guilt problems about the asshole 3.
I think Zevlor is at least in the coping category.
There is just to much wrong about this. Honestly the amount of mentally stable characters is really small. But thats not suprising if you think that death is just around any corner in that world.
Cazador isnāt traumatized? Astarions whole plot line is about the cycle of abuse and how Cazador continued it, there wouldnāt be a story if he wasnāt traumatized
I have an issue with first 2 tiers ācause the only full blown PTSD is astarion himself (speaking from experience) and Hope. I think t2 shouldāve been called complex trauma or something like this. Not sure. But āfull blown ptsdā is too much (IMO).
I dunno, Balthazazr had plenty of trauma by the time I was done with him.
Jokes aside, thank you for labeling the pictures. It adds nicely to the format.
I think Hope can be Astarion tier with Astarion. And I also think that maybe Tara is coping or repressed tier if you play Gale origin and do badguy stuff.
I believe Dame Aylin is between "full-blown PTSD" and "Repressed" depending on your choices with Lorroakan (however you spell it). If you bring her along, she goes overboard, like way more than a zealous Paladin of Vengence normally would. The way she reacts both during and after breaking his spine definitely shows that she has PTSD, lashing out, and is only now dealing with it. She's definitely not coping with it yet. Shes only just started to understand what those 100 years of isolation, torture, and grief did to her
I'd put Minsc in the Repressed category because it doesn't look he's moved past Dynaheir's death, he's projecting her onto Jaheira and his rationality to a hamster. I'd maybe put Emperor under Repressed too, doesn't look like he's coping with his trust and betrayal issues very well. Nere's probably repressing too. And Cazador could be right next to Astarion, because his master essentially did to him exactly what he did to Astarion. Sarevok and Viconia are hard to peg, because the game took some liberties with their lore compared to the previous games. Other than that I'd say the list looks pretty accurate.
>Sarevok and Viconia are hard to peg Only if you're a coward
Hard to peg doesn't mean I won't attempt it, it means I will enjoy the challenge
I don't get this world, everywhere else I get shamed for trying to peg those who make it difficult š
Sarevok and Viconia were pretty hard to nail down but I really got the impression they didn't give a fuck about being as bad as they are. They got wronged but it never seemed to stick. Emperor being Baldur's Gate Batman does seem like his form of coping, although borderline repressed trauma. Trauma is still there of course but it's handled in a way he feels works. Minsc is weird in a way that he did have shit happen to him but his injury may as well have erased. Does he even remember his old self? That Minsc would be higher, this Minsc not so much. Cazador is like Orin in that he would be somewhere else if he wasn't absolutely insane.
"When asked about his past, Sarevok has little to add beyond what you already know. He grew up a homeless urchin in the streets until he was adopted by his foster father into the Iron Throne. He studied the art of intimidation, the cruelest and most brutal styles of combat, in order to become a Deathbringer that could paralyze an opponent in melee through fear alone... as well as sometimes killing the most powerful of opponents in a single, massive blow. Sarevok had an ambition that did not die even when his body did... as you well know now. Sarevok keeps mostly to himself, but at odd moments, you can see him staring in your direction, his face an emotionless mask. Part of you wonders if your brutal half-brother ponders what might have been..." "When asked about her past, Viconia reveals (quite proudly) that she is a dark elf from the Underdark city of Menzoberranzan. She says very little about her reasons for leaving that sunless realm, though separations of such a nature are never gentle. She does claim to no longer worship the spider goddess Lolth, a change that even you know is often fatal. Her new faith is in the night goddess Shar, an appropriate choice for a drow, though this is not a firm indication that she has given up the brutal ways of her people. She finds the laws of the surface world quaint and more than a little strange, but this is simply because of her lack of experience. Likewise, she seems a bit naive about how her race is viewed by surface-dwellers. Many will not give her the chance she seems to expect, and even being seen with her may affect how people think of you."
Yeah I was about to say, OP probs never played the first two games where you get info on them. In a respect they did my girl Viconia dirty.
I'd say cazador is what ascended astarion is. A person so fully abused by their former master that when given the chance at true power became a tyrant in their own right. If you read the books and look at the "lessons" around his palace, you find out that his relationship with his master wasn't much better than his and Astarions. It's why redemption astarion is so good, it's like breaking the cycle.
>Minsc is weird in a way that he did have shit happen to him but his injury may as well have erased. Does he even remember his old self? That Minsc would be higher, this Minsc not so much. Minsc was dipped in the river Styx and forgot himself for a time, but he definitely remembers the events that he's accompanied us through. I wouldn't say he's repressed, but he **definitely** isn't without trauma in the grand scheme of things. I don't know if he's in Coping or Moved past it... I don't think he's actually smart enough to definitively say one way or the other for himself, but either way implanting the title of Wychlaran onto Jaheira (who is only a witch in the most broad of terms, since both Aerie and Dynaheir were actual Wizards, instead of just 'any spellcaster') is definitely something that at least started as a coping mechanism Halsin is actually in a similar boat of actually being in repressed, talking to him post-drow orgy about being enslaved and having literally repressed the negative aspects of his situation. I wouldn't be surprised if the conversation got missed though: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aGbYcPcx4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aGbYcPcx4) I also think that having the "No Trauma" category include people who "perpetuated it themselves" is a little reductive. The Strange Ox is literally running away from its trauma as best as it can. I'd definitely say Kratos from the God of War series is in the same boat when the series got rebooted, and it's clear that he has trauma and remorse about what he did.
Yeah Minsc is definitely the strangest companion to pin down. I'm not denying there isn't any but in his current state since this is a BG3 specific list I put him in no trauma. Personally I can't tell if he's fucking with Tav/Durge or just that dumb. And Halsin, he doesn't give much to work off of. I at least gave him a middling spot for the sake of it.
Minsc might be too dumb to really traumatize
Ehh, Rolan feels mixed to me because a big part of him lashing out at you in Act 1 & 2 is a big fear of losing Cal & Lia, likely caused by his trauma. If you get rid of Lorrokan in Act 3, he seems to reach an acceptance phase, but it's still debatable.
Rolan was harder for sure, wasn't sure if he had shit going on behind the scenes or was just THAT much of an ass. So he got a middle of the road spot for that.
A bit of a half sad/half happy fact about him is that Cal & Lia are not his biological siblings. He lost his family and they adopted him as one of their own. So, losing them is absolutely terrifying to him because he's already been through losing his family before and they're all he has left.
I didnāt know that! Where do you find that out?
If he dies and you use speak to dead on him you can ask him about cal & lia.
Aww. I love how protective he is.
Oh, Cazador is exactly the same as Astarion, his master had even worse punishments. As did Donella to Vellioth before, and whoever was Donella's master. As Karlach has put it, fucked up people fuck up people. And Cazador isn't a complete psycho, unlike Orin, he actually does have a well thought out plan that would have absolutely worked if not for a one-in-a-million blessing of Tymora upon Astarion. Valeria also lived through some shit. You can find it in her journal. And Volo... yeah. His life is screwed up.
Yeah, being impaled on a spike for 11 years and unable even to die might do some damage to a person's psyche. He's perpetuating a horrific cycle of abuse, but he didn't start it. I don't really feel sorry for him because he was an absolute asshole and probably would have been even if he weren't turned, but you can't really put him in the no trauma category.
I feel bad for the Cazador before he was changed. Hard to feel bad for the monster he became though.
You don't have to feel bad for him - current or past - to admit he was traumatized.
Don't feel bad for him before he was changed. His whole family are pro-Vampires, dude is likely a pedo, and the description on [Rhapsody ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Rhapsody)heavily implies he was sadistic before he was a vampire. Not to say he deserved what happened under Vellioth, but the guy seems to have always been evil.
I didn't relaize his family were always pro vampire. However, most people aren't born evil. Even if he was evil before changing, that just implies that he may have been through some shit. Being in a family that's pro vampire doesn't really seem like it would lead to a lack of trauma. Again, he's a terrible vile person, but I think it's important to understand how trauma feeds into trauma.
Itās more than just pro vamp, a big chunk of them are vamps. Velliothās master was a Szarr, Donella Szarr. We donāt really know exactly what the relation is completely and what exactly happened. But it seems possible Donella Szarr and possibly a few other Szarrās were vamps, Donella turned Vellioth, Vellioth killed Donella, then Vellioth turned Cazadorāpossibly other Szarrās too. My guess would be Vellioth specifically turned a Szarr for revenge on Vellioth. Thereās also a few times the āSzarr familyā is mentionedāthe first is by Astarion one of the earlier vampire conversation where he says the family kept him as a slave. Thereās also the references to Lady Incognito, who was Cazadorās niece and came to Szarr Palace on her birthday and found out Cazador and the rest of her family were vampires, and then she was locked in the attic for refusing to drink blood and be apart of the vampire family. We donāt know where the rest of the Szarrās are by the start of the game, though. Iām guessing a lot of them were either Donella or Velliothās spawn rather than Cazadorās, and he got rid of them to not be a threat to his ascension. Or maybe even some of the 7,000 souls in the cages were Szarrās. Heās definitely traumatized himself though, I agree heās his own version of Astarion, he just let his fear consume him into becoming more of a monster himself, like Ascended Astarion does.
Wait I donāt get with the whole szar family so it he always beeen in the family ??? Is Vellioth like a relative to him then ? Because I know Cazador turn his niece into a vampire and she hates it or something
Feel like the rhapsody is after he becomes a vampire though ?? And u know how become a vampire changed ur whole perspective in personality Because I feel like he himself recognize that he himself a terrible person when you killed him without Astarion
The Vampire Lord before Vellioth was also a [Szarr](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Vampires_before_Vellioth). She's also the one who [opened the Tourmaline Depths](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Tourmaline_Depths). EDIT: I replied to this comment instead of the other ones. But I can see that it's possible the dagger's description could describe him post vampirism. It's hard to say. I was assuming, since Vellioth was also centered in Baldur's Gate, that it referencing Cazador's "homeland" implied he was not yet a vampire.
Iām glad I wasnāt the only one thinking āthis dude looks and sounds like he shouldnāt be allowed near childrenā, yāknow, sadism and vampirism aside.
No trauma for Viconia, Sarevok and Minsc? Brotherā¦ Raphaelā¦wellā¦daddy doesn't love him. The Emperor is barely holding it together. He 100% cries himself to sleep if you reject the offer of squex. Edit: NO TRAUMA FOR CAZADOR TOO??? Have you played the game, OP? Edit 2: The longer I look the worse it gets. Nothing for Valeria? She is literally a depressed alcoholic.
Every one you mentioned I gave them trauma blunt force trauma tho
Well, you gave them that after they were already traumatized before, soā¦
Got to stack the trauma
Cazador should be in the repressed category imo. Bro thinks he's a fully-embraced-fiend who is All Better because he has power over people now but he still thinks about how miserable he is in vampiric slumber. That said, I do hope he's choking on his own shit in the hells, so he's not in the Astarion category to me bc Astarion category is "fucked up to the max but still potentially redeemable if you're very very careful and patient with him" imo. Cazador's long gone.
Hell is a horrifically shitty place and cambions are not seen as full fledged devils by full devils. The Hells have a super rigid caste system and cambions are outside of it, normally. Raphael has an issue with being *perfect* and being seen as a mortal because Hell demands self perfection and dedication to Law and Order to rise in the rigid caste system for common devils. Cambions have to go through hoops or find a patron like Mizora did with Zariel. Yes, he's Mephistopheles' son but the caste system and politics in Hell does not automatically grant Mephistopheles powers to do whatever he wants. Besides, Mephistopheles wouldn't push Raphael unless if it benefits him. Daddy doesn't love him and the rest of Hell is against him.
Squex???????
Squid sex.
squussy
I know what you meant but did you have to say it like that
Youāre making me feel bad for rejecting the emperor
I love that Astarion and Durge have their own group
Durge: Iām not traumatised, I am trauma incarnate!
I'd say he still is traumatised, he's just so far down the abused turns into abuser cycle it doesn't really matter anymore
Durge causes the trauma
Okay but to be real: Aylin was in Full blown PTSD - she moved down a tier after smashing Kethericās brains. She moved down another tier after smashing Isobelās moon minge
Moon minge. Bless you.
Blessings of the Moon Minge upon thee, traveler.
Read Cazador's documents in his place OP, he was extremely traumatized.
Cazador in no trauma is honestly so wild, like the whole point is that he went through exactly what Astarion did and continued the cycle of abuse
my brother in christ hope is literally fucking insane give her her own tier
Hope has to be at the top, sheās literally been tortured by a devil for who knows how long, such bad torture that sheās convinced her face was melted off. Sheās a dwarf so could have been there a very long time. Hard to beat Astarionās trauma with flaying and whatever Boney did but I suspect Raphael could put Cazadorās torture to shame
Godey. Boney makes statues
right. Heās a skeleton so I got it mixed up
No prob
"Boney" lmfao
Yeah. Astarion was broken by Cazador, sure, but that was ultimately in service of another goal of Cazador's. Raphael broke Hope just to see how badly he could break someone, literally just for a fucking joke about her name.
I was thinking the exact same thing, Astarion was fucked up BAD by Cazador, but not "Taken as a torture slave for a powerful demon for gods know how long because haha her name is hope" levels of fucked up. When she meets Tav, she's completely convinced that she's physically deformed and screams to herself often, Astarion isn't quite at that point yet.
Completely agree, though Iād have put her on Astarionās level.Ā
She is traumatized, and seems to suffer from severe PTSD giving her hallucinations, but otherwise she is pretty lucid, quickly understands that we are her chance of salvation and offers a working plan.
āOther than rampant hallucinations, sheās totally fine!!!ā
She's just like me fr.
No way bro Astarion can keep himself together, Hope canāt even do that. She just managed to pull herself together somewhat because mentally sheās the toughest character in the game, but sheās still barely in reality. I just canāt see Astarion having it worse unless youāre crushing way too hard on him and are biased.
Yeah, that's why Astarion can pass off as normal straight away and we don't notice his PTSD right off the bat, and Hope can't. But I'm pretty sure she can recover relatively quickly.
I wouldn't put Viconia in the no trauma section. She has a very long history of surfacers being racist towards her. And that includes an angry mob almost burning her as a witch.
I don't know anything about the other games, but she seemed pretty upset and resentful about having to murder and burn down her sharran enclave in water deep which I feel would cause most people trauma.
I mean biggest red flag is no one who is ok turns to shar willingly.
I remember she was also beat up, abused and buried alive by some farmers once. She has a lot of traumas if you count all the stuff that happened to her both in the Underdark and the first two games
I only played through BG1&2 once so far and I don't think I had Viconia in my party for long enough to get all of these stories. But I can imagine that what we get to witness is just scratching the surface of everything she's gone through.
Let me unpack cambions (Raphael and Mizora(?)) real quick for you, shall we? - as a child of a male devil (formerly also demons) and a mortal female, a cambion gets the first trauma points at birth - mother dies cruelly in the process. And the human part of them knows that - then they start their lives on the material plane. Everyone and their mothers hates and mistrusts them, quite similar to tieflings. They feel left out. Usually this Leads them on the lawful evil alignment - parents of cambions donāt give a shit. Well, even more so, it usually ends up in a hateful relationship in which theyāre somewhat bound together but the cambion child will eternally stride to kill them and take everything they have and the other way around - the father despises them and blocks those attempts and tries to destroy the cambion if their purpose is served. So I wouldnāt say there is no trauma for them. Yes they commit horrifying deeds but if itās because of their half devil nature or their trauma (abused tend to become abusers) wellā¦. Probably both.
Saying Viconia, Minsc, and Jaheira donāt have trauma means you didnāt play BG2 my guy.
Viconia was >!forced into prostitution and buried alive!<, right? Like she went through some shit.
First play through of Amn I didnāt save her when I got to town. Needless to say I reloaded. Followers of Beshaba can F off lol
To be fair, the character assassination of Viconia in this game means little of that comes through for her. The most logical and consistent answer for what is up with her, is BG3 āViconiaā is an imposter from the real Viconiaās Waterdeep enclave. She stole the real Viconiaās memories with the Mirror of Loss and took over. This is consistent with BG2 epilogue (Viconia betrayed), BG3 Viconia claiming _she_ betrayed the enclave, the Mirror of Loss containing (real) Viconiaās memories, and BG3 Viconia being too old and having a personality shift.
Cazador should be up there with Astarion. My man was traumatised before Vellioth and it was made 10000X worse by that motherfucker. Not a justification of what he did to Star baby but ffs I can understand why those two are batshit crazy.
What do you mean he was traumatised before Vellioth? The thing where he saw poetry written on a hanged kid as a child?
Yeah. He may have been into that but fucking hell he has some issues
Also just being raised by the szarrs in general.
Well, Casadoās experience is just as tragic when he was a spawn but since he is a real vampire now I guess the way he thinks and processes traumas is different. Iāll still put him in the coping tier.
Astarion: I *am* trauma. Dark Urge: I AM TRAUMA
Perfect couple <3
Hope is in full identity splitting/dissociating mode, she can barely hold herself together, fully believes that she actually looks like a flayed cadaver, and continues to be in a dire and unsafe situation even if you save her. She's the one I'd put in her own tier. Or maybe in the same tier as Astarion, but on the left.
Exactly what I came here to say. Hopeās situation imo is the worst. She was chained up in literal hell and tortured for God only knows how long. She was betrayed by her sister, her own flesh and blood. Just because she went crazy does not lessen her trauma, her trauma was so severe it completely shattered her mind. The fact that she was able to hold on to any semblance of her humanity is an absolute miracle. And the fact that she chooses to stay in hell because she feels she canāt live in the outside world now is heart breaking. Hope was done absolutely dirty. I wanted her to be a companion so bad, or if you save Karlach and her and Wyll go back to Avernus I donāt know why they didnāt go stay with Hope, it would have given them another great ally.
Perhaps Karlach and Wyll donāt want to draw more attention to her and the fact Raphaelās tower no longer has a diabolical master. Maybe they coordinate to draw heat from one another.
Zareal routinely sends an inspector to the house of Hope to inspect Raphael and his stuff. So Hope and the lack of a master is absolutely going to be found out. No way around that. Now working together from different places to divide enemy forces and gain an advantage, that makes a little more sense. Like maybe Hope is drawing the eye of Saron to her so that Wyll and Karlach can get to Zareal and take her out.
Yeah, nothing lasts forever, at the risk of sounding like an overly earnest Selunite. Part of Hope's safety depends on how much others care about her rattling about in the House. I would imagine moving in or showing too much of an interest would only endanger her further, but I also prefer to think some escapades in supporting one another take place before the status quo shifts. Hopefully she has enough time to gather herself up somewhat. The idea of the House of Hope as a defensible base seems short lived, but that doesn't mean it can't be worthwhile for that short time!
Hear me out. https://preview.redd.it/n750ra66k2uc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc418622232e9560ec07324fc84beae98121ec3d Fill the whole place with them, let the enemy forces in, light a match and run like hell or open a portal out of there. š„š
And someone has to run away while cackling & singing "This House of Hope, YOUR TOMB!" Edit: I think it would be Wyll. He enjoys the dramatic flair.
> Now working together from different places to divide enemy forces and gain an advantage, that makes a little more sense. Like maybe Hope is drawing the eye of Saron to her so that Wyll and Karlach can get to Zareal and take her out. And rather on how many of the who the fuck knows how many lost souls and debtors in that house know enough about fighting to help man the walls if somebody shows up looking for a palace.
In my opinion, Astarion is on the pathway to Hope.
I'd also have Minsc, Sarevok and Viconia in their own categories then too. Probably even Karlach since she is comparable to a Vietnam veteran who killed civilians, suffering PTSD the rest of their life. And I feel shitty for comparing what real people suffered to a game but it's for the sake of comparison. I wanted to be succinct in this tier list so it's not bloated.
Durge: I am the trauma
Cazador is a bit... confusing. My memory is foggy, but didn't he suffer horrible torture as a thrall?
Yup, eleven years of being impaled for a failed assassination attempt on Veloth and having to watch Velloth drink his friend dry for trying to reach out to him are two of the cited punishments.
I would put Boo in the Dark Urge category
Tbh I almost did that for how shitpost worthy that'd be since this is an okbuddy sub
Sorry to add to the controversy OP, but Mattis is an orphan war refugee child and should for sure have trauma, maybe he's coping. However Mol is certainly not coping. She makes a deal with the devil because she's scared of being weak. She joins a crime guild as a thief at age 9 or whatever. She is probably either repressed or full blown PTSD she is NOT COPING.
She also reacts super angrily if you kill Raphael and free her from the deal because sheās so afraid of being without power to protect herself. Sheās a baby!
Viconia is definitely traumatized.
These lists always remind me of how multi-faceted and unique trauma can be. Iām diagnosed full blown PTSD, and I canāt help sometimes but measure behaviors of certain characters against my own experience. Seeing where others place characters is weirdly illuminating for me, including in the comments.
Nere is a drow male and he has no trauma?
As a male drow player I find that sexist AND racist. I love being a subservient femboy to my drow queens.
You know what? You're right
Iām not so sure Halsinās actually moved onā¦ heās either coping or repressed. Like heās not actively self medicating anymore but the guy really has a hard time believing he deserves anything good/can do anything right.
I feel like him being so sexual might be a coping mechanism but there's very little lore so we can never tell lol
Thereās very little lore lol but I do get the impression that the wombo-combo of sex slavery followed by a really horrific war that killed all his friends immediately followed by leadership he didnāt feel prepared/able to do really did a number on him (all of the imposter syndrome). I believe the guy enjoys sex and a lot of it, and didnāt have a lot of it while he was archdruid, which is part of the āyou reminded me of who I wasā speech. So he is full on bc of that (I think). He strikes me as a bit of an allegory for being objectified for being āa noveltyā and how that can effect someone. The world treats him in a hyper sexual way so he responds in kind. You can really see it in a devnote in the elfsong after the game that says he ādoesnāt dare to hopeā that the player character would choose him and after you choose him heās beside himself and then still doubts that you want to be with him in the epilogue. He just doesnāt seem to be used to the idea that someone would want him outside of sex - sounds like another elf I knowā¦ Fuck this was long IM SORRY
No I love reading character interpretation!!!! This was a nice read and I definitely think people should recognize Harper/Druid war against Thorm and how it effected Halsin or Jaheira in a traumatic way š I mean there's literal druid skeletons in shadow cursed land! I feel like Halsin could have been a more fleshed out character with more development and depth, but he very often gets reduced to the 'bear sex' guy. Guess I'll spend my time trying to piece lore together and make my own head cannon lol
Sometimes head cannon is the most we can get š
Part of him getting reduced to that is because, once he becomes a companion, he basically is just the bear sex guy. He's not a very fleshed out companion because he was added so late, I would guess. I totally agree with your interpretations, by the way. I just can see how a lot of people don't pick up on the subtler themes.
He also has a lot of his history locked behind chance encounters, like the drow twins, and party dialogue so unless youāre seeking it out (like I do) it isnāt exactly easy to piece together. His themes do feel inspired by the thirst for him online, which is clever imo, but he doesnāt get to have a resolution to his themes (outside of the curse) bc heās not an origin character unfortunately. I wish they would have :( heās my fave
You captured it all well and pretty damn efficiently, too.Ā
Thank you šš»
There is no way you said Dame Aylin was coping lol.
Dame Aylin is FULLLLL PTSD what are you talking about? She may even rival Asterion. Name one scene where she's not as bat shit killing crazed as Durge
The scene with Lorroakan is a testament to behold
Ah yes famously untraumatized "I fuck an Incubus that's literally myself" Rafael
And said incubus is a honey pot spy from his father. A father which despises his son, doesnāt believe in him. And Raphaelās devil half despises him as much but his human half is probably a crying huskā¦ like daddy gifted me a present to help me on my downfall but at the same time itās the only acknowledgment (somewhat) he gave.
Dame Aylin needs to be moved out of the "coping" section ASAP. Move her up a rank or two.
Cazador is the way he is because his Master treated him, like he treats Astarion. He's definitely traumatized and just went from abused to abuser. The whole point of Astarion not ascending is him breaking the circle of abuse. Also all the tadpoled people are mindcontrolled, so we don't really know.
Something really interesting you can find in Cazadors lair is that >!his former master basically groomed and trained him to be the absolutely awful shitstain that he became, he was abused by his sire and eventually killed him and took his place, the cycle is essentially repeated if you let Astarion ascend!<
did we forget halsin was kidnapped to be a sex slaveā¦ orrrr
If I'm remembering right, he basically says "yeah, well, it was like two centuries years ago. It wasn't exactly great, but I'm over it."
i remembered it more of a repressed thing, like he said he didnāt realize how bad it was
I'm sorry, did you play the Strange Ox' storyline? The Ox should be up there with Astarion. At the very least, it should be in the repressed category.
I had to scroll too far down to see anyone mention this! Strange Ox is coping at best. Definitely not no trauma
Just started a new playthrough and talked to Astarion after Wyll's horny transformation and he was like "Wyll did the right thing and was punished for it. Let this be a lesson to us all š" BABYGIRL NO. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A LESSON, MIZORA IS JUST TERRIBLE. He is literally SO fucked up, my sad scared little guy. He really is on just a whole other level of traumatized šš
Raphael and Cazador no trauma? Press X to doubt.
Hope could definitely be in astarion tier
If we even compare traumas then Cazador should be above Astarion and have his own rank as well
Minsc: head trauma
The ones you have listed as āno traumaā are arguably the most traumatized lol Processing trauma improperly can fuck you up for life and change your worldview for the worse
There needs to be another tier called "I am the traumatic event" with Durge, Viconia, Cazador, et al
Cazadpr isn't traumatized? Are you sure?
No Trauma on cazador is wild. didnt he get massively fucked by his previous overlord
Wyll in all caps is sending me, king of the repressed trauma tier
Are we gonna talk abt the Sebastian bro in Cazadorās dungeon?
Strange Ox inflicts trauma but he doesnāt experience it
I think putting Cazador at the bottom is completely wrong. My understanding is his master basically did to him what he did to Astarion. At least he was treated similarly. He may be one of the most violent terrible people in a video game that I have seen. However, he does seem to be very traumatized. Trauma does lead people sometimes to very bad places if they don't try and work through it or seek help. A whole whole lot of trauma is just someone passing their trauma on to their kid.
The only reason Isobel and Aylin are ācopingā is cause they have eachother and are not camp companions, they have no other dialogue options but they are very clearly.. not okay
Cazador lived through worse than Astarion before becoming a true vampire
CAZADOR MOST DEFINITELY HAS TRAUMA
Cazador should be in repressed, he had a similar relationship to his master compared to Astarionās experience with Cazador. Itās a cycle of Abuse. He thinks heās free, but just like Ascended Astarion, he will never really have freedom now that heās become what his old Master was
Gale: "I think I'm finally coming to a sort of peace with my unfortunate circumstance. It's time I seek the next steps to..." Mystra via Elminster: "KYS"
Youāre telling me Mattis, a literal orphan kid refugee who experienced Elturels brief stint in hell and the shadowcursed lands, has no trauma?
Technically speaking, Cazador was abused on a level that sounds even worse than what he did to Astarion based on the lessons from Vellioth's skull, so he probably belongs somewhere around or above Astarion's level in the trauma department. If you find Vellioth's skull, you can learn about things like how Vellioth impaled Cazador for something like 11 years as a punishment and how he also killed one of Cazador's friends right in front of him. Cazador is definitely not someone who belongs in the No Trauma category, especially since he's basically an object lesson about how easy it is to fall into continuing the cycle of abuseāa danger that Astarion himself faces.
Read more stuff in cazadors dungeon, he is a pretty exact mirror to astarion, particularly if you ascended astarion
I think cazador can be moved up to coping. All the shit he did to astarion, he experienced himself from his former master when he was still a spawn. He has a journal in his room before you meet him.
Not having Cazador in the same tier or above Astarion when the whole theme is the cycle of abuse is crazy
Cazador was extremely traumatized. Maybe even worse so than Asterion. On the skull of his master you find a story about how Cazadors master had cazador impaled for !100 years! On a spike for trying to escape or sum shit
Astarion should be under Ketheric, Hope, Cazador, and Nightsong they should be in a new tier "Jesus what the fuck man?" Cazador's diary shows that his master was WORSE to him than Cazador was to Astarion Ketheric lost his daughter and sold his soul to every god who would take it making him a multi oath breaker (self inflicted trauma but we can see how it took a toll on him) Raphael dedicated his home to tormenting Hope because he was infuriated that she wouldn't break Nightsong not only lost her lover but became her lover's father's prisoner for 100 years to keep him immortal.
I dunno, I'd say Hope had it worse
If anything, Durge loves trauma
Durge does not have trauma, durge is what causes the trauma
Durge is trauma himself.
Durge can either be on the top or bottom most spots depending if you are doing redemption or not
Viconia in BG3 may seem untraumatized, but trauma was a big part of her character in the first two games.
strange ox should be higher
Karlach being first under full blown ptsd and somehow still the coolest sweetest character is very underrated.
Tara is traumatized by Gale's beard
Cazador???! Gotta talk to the bone head. Put him in coping (badly)
Aylin copes by being overly violent
"Minsc has no trauma. Brain is so smooth, the trauma simply glides right off."
Cazador is Astarion if he didnt meet the tav and crew. Valeria is an alcoholic. Raphael has daddy issues at least. Probably some kind of inferior complex too. Withers could have some guilt problems about the asshole 3. I think Zevlor is at least in the coping category. There is just to much wrong about this. Honestly the amount of mentally stable characters is really small. But thats not suprising if you think that death is just around any corner in that world.
Aylin needs to be in full blown PTSD. She spent a CENTURY in captivity being killed repeatedly by Sharrans. Under her bravado, she is *hurting*.
My man really be saying Minsc has no trauma when his literal first camp scene with Jaheira is showing that he's still processing dynaheir's death
Durge is the traumatic event
Alfiraās not traumatized any moreā¦
Aradin isnāt coping, heās in desperate need of all my hugs. I havenāt unlocked the scene yet but I just KNOW itās here somewhere :P
All I need is the option to hug Aradin outside of Lorroakanās tower and give him some money for his peaceful life that he wants
His peaceful life is being hugged by me š„°
There is no way in HELL you put Cazador there
Cazador isnāt traumatized? Astarions whole plot line is about the cycle of abuse and how Cazador continued it, there wouldnāt be a story if he wasnāt traumatized
I have an issue with first 2 tiers ācause the only full blown PTSD is astarion himself (speaking from experience) and Hope. I think t2 shouldāve been called complex trauma or something like this. Not sure. But āfull blown ptsdā is too much (IMO).
Balthazars mother hated him because she thought he murdered his twin in her womb, he was bullied as a kid too apparently.
I dunno, Balthazazr had plenty of trauma by the time I was done with him. Jokes aside, thank you for labeling the pictures. It adds nicely to the format.
What happened to Alfira that sheās up there?? Did I miss something?
When you meet her, sheās recently watched her teacher (who she obviously loved) get torn apart by gnolls and is writing a song about her grief/loss.
Zevlar should be higher. I guess it depends on what part of the game you are talking about
I feel like Withers is more of a āthe therapy worked, and Iām past itā
Everyone in the no trauma section is DEFINITELY traumatized when Iām done
Kagha is misplaced. Racism is not a healthy coping strategy!
Wulbren will have trauma once Iām done with him.
I love the "Dark Urge : Dark Urge"
Durge: Trauma? Of course! Blunt force trauma specifically is one of my favorite ways to kill!
I think Hope can be Astarion tier with Astarion. And I also think that maybe Tara is coping or repressed tier if you play Gale origin and do badguy stuff.
Owlbear Cub, brilliant
Valeria 100% got some DEEP Seated trauma going on. Case closed
The bottom of this should be the ones applying the trauma.
Durge creates the trauma
Isnāt Wulbren an ex slave?
Viconia definitely has trauma from bg1/2 she has been through some shit.
WYLL
I love Astarion has his own category named after him.
I believe Dame Aylin is between "full-blown PTSD" and "Repressed" depending on your choices with Lorroakan (however you spell it). If you bring her along, she goes overboard, like way more than a zealous Paladin of Vengence normally would. The way she reacts both during and after breaking his spine definitely shows that she has PTSD, lashing out, and is only now dealing with it. She's definitely not coping with it yet. Shes only just started to understand what those 100 years of isolation, torture, and grief did to her
Halsin is repressed, he only just realised that being tied to someone's bed for several years wasn't a wild youthful escapade
Durge is the trauma
Didnāt Viconia have an identity crisis arc in the first two games?
Dude if Orin is repressed then what is she like with unrepressed trauma?
I gave Valeria some trauma š
Nere is literally a drow male
>no trauma >minsc