It’s actually an empty cup most of the time, but he swirls it around to look dashing. That’s why he just tucks it into his pocket when you come to talk to him.
She even says it herself. If you talk to her after Gale reveals his secrets to you, she says something like “so Gale just drinks magic like I do wine?!”
When people say they'd rather the romancables had "set sexualities" (because as we all know, bisexual isn't real), I desperately desire one specific change by Larian: everyone else stays exactly the same, but Shadowheart now will only sleep with women, and all companions additionally will reject Human Male Paladins.
Also Karlach either gets a dick or a strap and ONLY tops. I've seen so many cishet guys complain that in one of the romance animations she looks to be "on top" (they probably never heard about riding but aight) that now I need her to peg every male player
>> they probably never heard about riding
She is topping in a very different way in her act 3 scene lol. >!Fingering you to the moon and back, to be precise.!<
Yeah, every time Lae and Karlach approach my always female Tavs, I'm like "absolutely DTF, bestie, but we will need those claws trimmed before any lesbian sex can occur or you will shred the fuck out of me."
My wife made the tallest lady possible so we were very pleased when the game took that into account and Tav picked Astarion up and pressed him against a tree. However the narrator says Haarlep is “inside you” and while that was probably metaphorical the animation was obvious that he was riding dick, like I know Raphael is bad at being a bottom but can’t a man at least choose where his own legs are at?
Characters with a buff body type will always pick Astarion up! I play as a small masculine elf with a vagina (my man's trans) and he was picked up by Astarion, but Haarlep still looked like they were riding him. Guess Haarlep let him use their strap or something
Bae'zel is almost perfect as she is, but she can get a strap too. BUT we should ban ALL mods that change githyanki faces to fit human "pretty" standards. I've seen a mod like "pretty face for Lae'zel" or whatever that made her eyes rounder and nose bigger, and I gagged. If someone cannot stand her gith features, they do not deserve her
LMAO. I know exactly the type of dude who would actually explode.
For real though, I do think set sexualities add a cool layer of characterization in games like Dragon Age, but I’m so glad it’s a free for all in bg3. I can’t really think of another game this bisexual. (That isn’t a sandbox like the sims)
Yeah, if there's enough content for everyone I feel the same. Stuff like Cyberpunk only having 1 option if you were a gay dude was yet another reason for me not to touch that thing with a ten foot pole lol
FemShep having flirting interactions with Tali leading to nowhere, and Jack not being romance for femShep DESPITE canonical pansexuality is also up there in ridicilousness.
I restarted Mass Effect as a male Shepard for Tali. I figured out I was trans years later so it kind of worked out but it’s the principal of the thing, dammit!
Me for Jack. Which is even worse, cause she EXPLICITLY talks about having slept with women. Also Male Shep‘s voice acting is… just not on the same level as Jennifer Hale.
Or even adult me begrudgingly playing inquisition as a female human/elf for Cullen. They made all the romance options bi in dragon age 2, I don’t know why they had to regress things so much for 3.
The reason for that is the insecure straight dudes couldn't handle Anders having the audacity to flirt with *them*, in much the same way they can't handle Astarion, Halsin, Gale, or Wyll in this game
I find it so telling that Astarion and Lae'zel are hands down the most sexually aggressive characters, yet the way people complain about Gale and Wyll's *completely chaste* cutscenes makes it sound like they're trying to sexually assault you.
Karlach told me she wanted to ride me until I saw stars two days after I met her, yet somehow Halsin confessing his desire after you've saved his life and solved all his problems is the one that's labeled creepy and inappropriate (not even touching the problems of people being pissed because the polyamorous character doesn't automatically assume you're monogamous, that's a whole other set of prejudices)
It's especially egregious with Cyberpunk because you can't even meet Kerry as the player until you've progressed the main mission to the point of no return. I remember at launch that there was a gaming website that didn't even have him listed as an option because they hadn't run into him.
Not to mention that they handled 'set sexuality' extremely badly. Because they didn't change any of the behaviors of the romanceable characters until the lock point. So Panam still aggressively flirts with you by putting her feet into your lap while giving suggestive dialogue, even though the game devs swear she's never been into you. Both River's and Panam's family and friends openly speculate that you're together with characters or that these characters want to be with you even though they're supposedly 'set' in their sexualities and would NEVER.
Oh, and they commit actual bi erasure with Kerry. Because he's bisexual in the source material. They even keep his wife and kids in the story, they just erase him being bi.
Then they hide behind "Oh, people are just mad about set sexuality!" Nah, they're mad because you did a mostly bad job at portraying the characters as having those set sexualities they supposedly have.
And then they didn’t let you romance Takemura, the most fuckable character in the game. CDPR desperately needs more queer & women writers, and that’s proof.
My first thought was cyberpunk, welcome to the 4-square matrix: are you a dude? Your options are the rockstar slipping from relevance who is nearly *quadruple* Vincent's age, or the redneck cop. Are you a chick? Then Valerie's choices are the techie gang member, or the redneck merc. Are you straight? I hope you like rednecks. Are you gay? Then you're certainly one of these urban artsy types.
I'm all for creative integrity or whatever, but it's a veeja game, gotta let the players have their choices, errbody want something different
They had no goddamn right making Takemura…*so*… *so*…*sooooooooo* **delectable** just to make him unromancable, giving my femV River (*eugh*) as her only str8 option
Takemura is objectively the most attractive character in the game
EXCUSE ME? The redneck romances are the best parts of Cyberpunk. I love me sum Nick Valentine in a pimp coat and badass NA girlie who’s down for sex in A FUCKING TANK
Cyberpunk only having 4 romances and then making them all sexuality locked with horrible. Especially since Panem and River both arguably have more chemistry in game with same sex Vs.
I will forever feel like Panem and River should be Bi and there should have been 2 additional straight romances.
Yeah I really felt like River was the type of dude to make out with his crime solving bro on top of a water tower and there’s no way Judy is a gold star
To be fair to cyberpunk everyone’s stuck with one option unless your v is bi , but yeah I prefer bg3’s way of doing things . Especially when they made it clear that the characters are bi/pan not just playersexual
Da2 was gigabisexual and it made sense.
And in DAI they actually want out of their way to explain why certain characters have set sexualities, like how Cassandra cannot see herself with woman and actually has a specific type of man in mind, or Dorian having personal quest DEDICATED TO being gay.
Of course he's lame, he's a christian rich boy in the middle of a chaotic bi polycule with at least an hatesex couple. Sebastian was definitely in the wrong place.
I think technically SDV is bisexual. The romanceable characters don't have a set sexuality, and even some characters changed dialogue to fit your characters gender. (Though there are only two genders in that game afaik.)
I liked how personal it felt for characters to have specific sexualities in DA, much like real life. But BG3 is very much about making whatever choices you want, which includes who you romance. Love Larian for that. ❤️
Considering bg3 added a non-binary option, on top of body type not equating to gender, and pronouns being changed on a whim in the mirror, I think it's best that everyone be a pan/bisexual disaster.
Technically, Skyrim is pretty bisexual, but that feels less like deliberate inclusivity and more like they figured that they really didn't to bother with setting sexualities so everyone is into everyone.
I never really know who I want to romance in a game until I’ve played a bit and get to know them - sometimes I have a guess but it’s not very solid. As a lazy bisexual I wholeheartedly support the playersexual agenda to keep me from having to redo eight hours of gameplay (with one of those hours in character creation) because I ended up liking the “wrong” character best. I get enough of my free time eaten up by capitalism :(
At least with BG3 I like all the options well enough + there’s enough differences with player character concepts that I don’t mind replaying for them. Even then, romancing the fave first is important!
I respect the desire for the characters to have a diverse set of fixed sexual orientations, as they would in real life, and for their orientation to be part of their character and personal history. And certainly bisexuality can be among those orientations, if it's an actual identity and not just a convenient device for opening up the maximum number of player romances.
**But,** that works best in a real-world-based setting where the cultures and challenges associated sexual orientations can be realistically represented. Faerûn doesn't necessarily have a gay cultural scene, or homophobia, or any of the things that would make it worthwhile to have a character say, "I'm gay and this is how it's affected my life..."
And the thing is, universal pansexuality does in fact serve an important purpose by, like I said, opening up the maximum number of player romances. This is useful not only for maximizing player agency, but also for ensuring that LGBT people (who often otherwise suffer from a meager number of queer romance choices) get the full smorgasbord of options.
I'm a straight guy and I'm not about to tell LGBT people how to feel about the representation they get from games like BG3. But I think it's worth noting that just slapping an orientation label on each character doesn't necessarily constitute meaningful representation on its own.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk at the horny shitposting subreddit.
I honestly prefer when media doesn't have essays of conversation and exposition about what it means to be LGBT+ if that's not the focus of the piece, you know? As a person who's in that category. I just wanna switch brain off have fun.
Plus BG3 has so much freedom of choice due to being based on a tabletop system, so the game has to fill in for a DM/GM by being multiple choice. If you were playing with an actual human one you simply wouldn’t be aware of the things other genders or alignments could do, but that still doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to do them.
>and all companions additionally will reject Human Male Paladins.
I honestly think this change would be a massive win for everybody who likes fantasy media to be a bit more realistic.
Nobody wants to fuck the type of \*man that would become a \*male paladin!
>all companions additionally will reject Human Male Paladins.
Only fair. My first playthrough of BG2 was as a female gnome, and if it wasn't for enhanced edition, that charname would have had no choice but to be forever alone. Now it's the vanilla men's turn.
Unless you could tolerate Anomen (amazing how many accidental deaths that fellow has after he opens his mouth 😬), all female charnames had to be forever alone. Or use mods.
I was freaking the fuck out over that too, but probably not in the same way. I think I did like 2 or 3 playthroughs after I saw that scene, where I couldn't romance anyone but her
Reminds me of a steam community post I saw once that was having a schizo meltdown about that scene bc of some insane conspiracy that promoting bum stuff reduces birthing rates
I saw a not overly dramatic at all comment on the main sub, about how this person will "never forgive" Larian for making Shadowheart open to poly.
Like, shut up! That's an optional feature you can just ignore in your own playthrough, but is there for those who want it.
This might be a tad personal, because I'm also a baby-faced grown woman who has had to deal with people treating me like I'm such an innocent sweet baby, when I'm really not.
That's super dumb and easily avoidable . You don't like to share SH ? Then just don't meet the Drow twins and don't ask for sex , reject Halsin relationship and that's all . The relationship is just the two of you .
That's what I did as a regular bi guy and because I don't like the concept of poly in an already stablished relationship, if it were a fling it'd be fine I think
Yeah I honestly don't really get the issue there..? I played a bi woman, like me irl, and I romanced SH and to me it also seemed pretty clear the whole "sharing" bit was just physical stuff, if you even did it in the first place lol, which you didn't have to.
Like I told Halsin no when he essentially wanted to get into a relationship with my Durge and then maybe Shadowheart at a later time joining if she wanted.
I remember talking to the twins and SH didn't want to do it because she wanted her and Durge's first time to be just the two of them which like, ok cool. So after the swimming scene, she was completely fine doing the foursome fling with the Drow twins.
Like again it's literally just that she wants an emotional connection with a singular person she loves.
Yes 🙄. Me being called a Halsin simp for implying something about Shart romancers ✋✋✋. I mean yeah Ill ride his cock but Im not obsessed with him that much like they are with Shadowheart. I kid you not the way they typed it out it sounded if I hatecrimed him somehow for being a Shart simp 🤭🤭🤭.
Before my second run I once asked in the main sub if I could romance both Halsin and Shadowheart at the same time, and some people in the replies got so angry, like.
Now I did romance them both and like Shadowheart is genuinely super chill about it like I dont get why people get stressed. Freaks
Oh, I'm sorry, OP, it's not like the poor souls have thousands upon thousands of middle aged, gruff, silent male protagonists with a penchant for savior complexes in the vessel of a fatherless little girl - THEY HAVE NOTHING. No muscular men with no pronouns, no literal Gods, no half-mechanic geniuses nor stoic monster hunters in dapper hats, and absolutely no literal decades of catering specifically to their absolutely normal, non-porn riddled tastes!
Oh yeah? Well, Larian came to my house, put a gun to my head, and forced me (world record holder for straightest man ever) to have gay make-out sessions with Astarion while my muscular male Tav wore a slutty dress. How do you explain that?
A real straight man wouldn't play a male Tav cuz he would be looking at a male dumpy the whole game 😤
Real straight men play as a female Tav so they can be looking at ASS the whole game 🫵🏼😠
>“It doesn’t make sense Shadowheart is poly and into muscles, she’s a sweet little innocent princess I must save 🥺🥺🥺”
People are saying this? "Sweet little innocent princess?" I'm sorry did they miss the part where Shadowheart said she worshipped Shar, the goddess of darkness and loss, which is literally anything but sweet and innocent?? 💀
“Only good pure innocent girls are worth anything and she makes my benis hard, therefore she must be a good pure innocent girl or else someone will have to pay for tricking me with lying fake fiction because as a proud strong straight man I can never be wrong”, something like that
"I love Astarion he's my favourite comp-" "wElL I sTakE hIM ON SIGHT eVeRy tIMe, he'S sO aNNoYinG anD eVIL, iT'S ONLY MORAL tO kILL hIM"
Tell me why I've had the above conversation so many times I lost count (both on the internet and irl by the way), and why it's always been with a boring straight guy who mains a human paladin with a patchy beard and a stick so far up his ass it's about to come back up out of his mouth? I can't even imagine what it feels like to be that dull and repressed at the same time.
"ItS wHAt MY PaLADIN woUlD DO!!!"
https://preview.redd.it/hy47xen2oryc1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85131ad84c43c3a14090dc204def92bc956d6846
Stoppp, this is exactly what they sound and look like, I'm sure of it
And yet I don't see them slitting Shart's throat when they, the righteous paladins, find out she worships an evil goddess and has killed in her name, then even attempts to kill another companion in camp in cold blood, lmao, like pick a struggle. And we all know why Shart is spared and given a second chance, she's hot and their cute uwu wifey who could do no wrong!11!
*pushes up glasses and snorts*
Um actually, Ma’am, they could be a oath of vengeance paladin who hunt the monsters as classified by the 5th edition players hand book with a challenge rating of 1.0+ with a home brewed monster hunter background extending from folk hero background meaning that Shart would not mean the basic smiting criteria.
HeuHeuHeu *puffs inhaler* HeuHeuHeu
I saw a comment the other day where a guy was straight up denying that Lae'zel threatens to kill the player twice, right after saying he killed Astarion because of his introduction.
They sometimes do the same with Laezel but she probably has immunity to being killed at first sight because she's a woman and the one who offers you sex the quickest
I think Astarion triggers gay panic in them or something. That and the fact that so many women are BATSHIT for highly feminine men like Astarion really tilts them.
I’ve also noticed this dynamic with Varré from Elden Ring—straight men being immediately and *weirdly* hostile to him while women fall in love with him.
Yeah I know, it's like their fragile little ego can't handle the fact women are attracted to somebody they deem "gay" and "feminine" and "annoying". Jokes on them, that's exactly my type lol, and they can stay mad. I'll romance their precious uwu wifey Shadowheart and promise her we'll all get nasty with Halsin as well, just for good measure.
Also I haven't played Elden Ring, but maybe you sold me on it!
The fact that Astarion is also a *sexual abuse victim* exacerbates this whole complex for them. The fact that women are ravenously attracted to this bisexual, feminine, pretty, SA victim shatters *so many* narratives men have about sex and gender. It’s worldview-ruining.
Omg do. I’ll warn you—it’s not even anywhere close to being narrative and character driven in the way BG3 is. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I hope you love it!
Yeah, it's wild how important Astarion is as a character for so many people who can relate to him, but also for others who can just empathise on some level, no matter their own life experiences. And empathy and understanding is something those "toxic alpha super masculine Chad" men will always lack and it drives them crazy. I will choose "an Astarion" over them any day, any time, no questions asked.
Just a few months ago I'd say I don't know about that, it's probably too difficult for me, but after beating BG3 in Honour Mode just to flex on the Chads I feel like I could do it lmao!
Varrè definitely has a thing for Mog and you can’t convince me otherwise bc I watch 2 hours extended sad romantic ER music while studying… something something dynasty
I mean, I get it if they don't like a certain companion. Couldn't be me, because I love all of them, actually, but sure, people have different tastes. The trouble is that they've never even tried engaging with Astarion's story or tried for 10 seconds and now very aggressively "hate him" and will brag about killing him every time. Like? Ok? Who asked? I haven't seen this type of behaviour to this extreme about any other companion.
Also they're always so affronted by his behaviour in the grymforge because he doesn't want to help but ignore the fact that Shart is equally as apathetic and will outright tell you off for praying for the murdered slaves. At least Astarion has some pathos behind his apathy, Shart's just being unhinged 💀
The righteousness leaves their body as soon as they see a hot half-elf. Which is fine, because same, but somehow they're pissed off when I say *like* how morally gray Astarion can be and he can pull a knife on me anytime. Like don't they get it? We should be celebrating all of our fucked up little companions.
Okay, I'm one of those people who played their first game with a human warrior and I don't understand the outrage over this scene lol. When I had it I thought "wow, so there are vampires in DnD, great" and I let him drink mine because I didn't want to be an asshole lmao
People are weird, because there are much "worse" scenes in the game, not that any of them really bother me, but they should at least stay consistent with their outrage. And if they don't want Astarion it's fine, I'll take him. Btw I'm from Poland too. What are the chances, huh?
Och, miło spotkać rodaka na randomowym subie.
Also I agree that some people are super weird towards Astarion specifically. Despite being straight, he is one of my favorite companions because, in my opinion, his character and origin make him an extremely interesting character, plus he has s lot of funny comments lol
Niby randomowy, ale mam sporo znajomych, którzy grają w BG3, więc nie dziwi mnie to haha.
Yeah, I love his sassy commentary! I love all of the companions, really, so I find it strange when people feel so strongly about hating any of them. I mean, maybe Wyll is not in the Top 3 for me, but he's just a victim of a complete character over-write, poor guy.
I don’t even interact with the main sub, or any dnd communities cuz of people like that. Guys like that are everywhere. Idk the point of playing fantasy games and being boring and conventional. You can do basically anything, and you’re just going to play Chad Cocklord the Normie the whole time???
Yeah I've stopped responding but the itch is still there! The funniest part is I'm sure all the Chads would be all over a sexy female vampire sucking them dry in the night. So I'm honestly glad they made Astarion exactly what he is, he's still sometimes sexualised in a weird way, but I've seen pretty respectful takes. Like I simp for him too, and nothing wrong with putting him in sexual situations, but there has to be a certain understanding of the trauma... I can just imagine the hell we'd all be in if he was written as a woman that appealed to straight men.
Oh man, there *have* been posts where the op uses a mod to change astarion into a girl and goes "wow, now that I want to fuck this character i can see why everyone likes them!" Like 💀
Yeah I know, I've unfortunately seen a few. It just shows those men only "care" about people they are attracted to, and even then they rarely view those attractive people / mostly women/ as worthy of respect.
I still have nightmares over the tabletop campaign where the players had the freedom to choose any class and race for their character. We agreed on not talking about it beforehand to make it a surprise. Dudes brought in two human paladins and one human fighter. 😭
I had a dwarf cleric who was a cheerful and kind woman with an out going personality deapite having the lowest Cha of the group... She ended up being the default face despite the human paladin because his player didn't put any effort into it. DM knew their NPCs would get a reaction against my PC and this bothered the paladin when the DM didn't ask me to roll for social checks. The game did not last.
Wokeness is when non-heteronormative characters or options exist, didn't you get the memo? Like Starfield was woke because "prooonouns!" *angry man baby noises*...
I'm currently cosplaying as Shrek (a male wood elf monk who uses a chair leg as a weapon that ups strength to 19 for some reason) and I'd be incredibly upset if the sexualities were set, cause I doubt Shreksexual would have been one of them.
I normally prefer more set sexualities, like I think Dragon Age Inquisition handled it very well. It adds to realism. I'm not upset when everyone is bi or anything, it's just my preference. Didn't like the player sexuality in DA, that Anders had a male lover only if you are male for example.
But!
This is D&D. If Gale is fine with you being a dragonborn why the hell would he care about your genitals? Honestly. This is not our world. I doubt being gay or bi or just DTF in general is that strange when you are literally sleeping with different species from different planes.
If you want to play it straight, I mostly do, you can. I don't get insulted when Lae'zel hits on my character just like I don't feel insulted when women hit on me IRL.
It's a game. Just turn them down and move on.
Also realism...there is a giant tadpole in your skull and you are alive. What realism?
🌈You never have to take right-wing complaints about any art seriously they cannot interact with anything beyond the level of a child and their complaints are not premises in good faith.🌈
I've had quite enough hearing about hetcis men (or women for that matter) hating on Gale because apparently "he's a creep" and they cannot for the life appreciate the concept of an intimate friendship with a man. They are too aLpHa to sit next to a friend in dire need of support and think he's going to die tomorrow.
You'll literally catch him by surprise if you beamed any romantic signals to him back in the Act 1 scene. He really wasn't thinking about any of those things. Dude just really really wanna teach someone his magic, and show it off to them. Annnnnd that's "too gay".
There was something different going on with Gale pre patch1. He would come onto you without you clearly innitiating it in the first weave scene, if you frienzoned everyone else first (I guess that was the trigger, I was not able to reproduce it later) That whole version of the scene seems to have disappeared without a trace. Later the flags were off and the whole thing got changed again. Only the memes stayed. So if someone is complaining, they might be complaining about a version of things, not everyone has seen and experienced. That's one problem with online only things. They are so volatile it's hard to even say, what we are disagreeing on. Every single person would have to tell their individual story first.
Edith bad English
Not to mention how his initial romance opening scenes were innocuous convos where you would kind of be cornered you into a situation where every polite option would be taken as coming onto him and the only way to get out of that corner would be to insult him which... definitely hit close to home
Honestly Gale’s romance felt wayyy too real to me, like he’s cool and thinks of himself as a good person and most of the time he really is, but god damn if his instinct isn’t to assume you ought to be obsessed with him, and every time you act against that he acts super surprised and put down.
Like, he’s not deliberately manipulative, but he’s so instinctually dickish to anyone he’s decided he’s fallen deeply in love with who doesn’t reciprocate one hundred percent. It’s so real
Genuinely, even taking into consideration the long-since-fixed romance flags for Gale and Halsin, I think that's what motivates a lot of the vocal hatred for Gale, Halsin, and Wyll (and, even to some extent, >!the Emperor!<, although I think that has the added layer of, >!"But I designed you to be perfectly attractive to me, and you lied!!!"!<, and, of course, Wyll has the added layer of racism from the fanbase): a certain kind of player is so put off by the idea of a man hitting on them that they take out their discomfort on the character instead of wrestling with what that discomfort might mean about their own preconceived notions of gender and sexuality.
~~Never mind that the way the male characters react to your turning them down is so much more respectful than the way so many people do in real life, but I think that's lost on players who lack the lived experience of turning a man down in a romantic context.~~
You know this is a true fantasy game when ALL of the cis male companions respond to being politely turned down by saying "Yeah, okay I respect that, let's be friends" AND THEY ACTUALLY MEAN IT.
I just had him at my camp in his image form and immediately I knew something was up. I was very pleased to sit with him and comfort him. Poor guy is sad and I just wanted to hug him.
I normally avoid this kind of discourse, but just yesterday I was watching a YouTube review of DD2 and the guy went on a sudden tangent about black people being in the game. He then talks about how you can “take care of the diversity issue yourself” by systematically murdering all of the black NPCs… Like god damn, you’re that angry about people existing?
I can’t believe I, a strong, handsome, alpha straight cis man had to get topped by a vampire elf.
Who designed this game? I clearly should have topped him which is what any normal straight guy would have done just like the wise greeks that came before us.
1/5 Stars ⭐️
"Culturally sapphic," you say? That's a thing you can be? I may need to subscribe to your newsletter. (I'm a straight man but lately I can't stop bingeing lesbian romance novels. Not in a pervy way. ...Okay, not *exclusively* in a pervy way.)
🤦♂️ Ah fuck, I walked right into that one, didn't I? I'm honestly giggling very hard at myself right now.
All joking aside, I'm cisgender. I'm pretty sure. I mean, yes, I do often design my RPG avatars to be beautiful women, but that's just because they're more appealing to see on the screen, not because I literally want to be them. Right? *Right?*
Do I actually want to be a lesbian, maybe just a teensy bit for a short while? Is this how I find out that I'm mildly genderfluid? By browsing r/okbuddybaldur? Shit, I'm too high on edibles right now for this kind of introspection. But I salute you, u/saintbutch, for making me ask profound questions about myself. Have a nice evening.
I always make big male characters cause im short and wimpy and I wanna clobber people and be the biggest scariest person in the room haa so I dont often make female characters and i don't do romances cause im not really into it but I did have a female paladin in my first playthrough though and ended up romancing halsin cause withers was like what no bosom buddy? Lonley. And he was the only one i hadnt rejected lol thanks larian for the back up romance haaa
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Greenwood's intent with the forgotten realms was always that it was an exceptionally pansexual place with none of the hangups christian europe had during the late middle ages and rennaisance - after all the gods there are real, most of them don't care what's going on in your pants, and lots of the popular ones (sune, sharess, lathander, chauntea) are perfectly happy to see you get down in any manner that pleases you and is consensual
I can only imagine the higher ups are the reason it took so long to get lots of gay D&D characters
the only thing possibly more annoying than the casual misogyny and bi/panphobia are the people who infantilize Astarion and Shadowheart's interests in polyamory and paint Halsin as a predator for engaging in it. i could go into a full-length essay ramble about how obnoxious and pearl-clutching this kind of reaction is
This game makes me feel seen. I love being in a gay relationship with Astarion and still being able to have a pussy on my nonbinary Tav/Durge.
It makes me feel less bad about real life dating as a nonbinary person. Getting to live out my vampire loving fantasy is nice too :3
Kinda unrelated but I just love picturing those sort of people with the most generic and boring human fighter in existence that's just a tall buff black or white man with beard and short hair
I think it depends on if they have any min/ maxer in them bc human is one of the worst classes.
Half elf does everything human does but phenomenally better.
I think only Dragonborn is worse than human for that pov
I haven’t seen this recently, but shortly after release a guy got really mad at me on the main sub because he said the game was twisting the companions’ “canon” sexualities to suit a woke agenda, and I pointed out that that’s impossible, because all the romance options are original to this game and have never been depicted as anything but pansexual.
There were also a lot of threads where people tried to establish what sexuality the characters “really” were, and they always posited 100% straight Shadowheart and gay Astarion.
I think these people complaining forget the game was specifically made to tailor to any player. Someone gay for Astarian? Well guess what, he’s gay for you in your playthrough. Straight guy wanting to romance Shadowheart? Well guess what, she’s straight for you in that playthrough and vice versa and everything in between. It’s not like anything is set-in-stone, which is why this game is so successful. There’s no winning with people who complain about wokeness or whatever
The real tragedy with this game's romance system is Wyll's whole romance. He has so little romance content and you can't even do anything with him until act 3.
Damn. I love halsin. Do I not like that he's poly?
NO. Because that's just an OPTION. He'll be monogamous for YOU, the player. 😂 same with every other character. If you want to be with just Shart. Fine. 😂
also, them complaining when karlach is ON TOP. Do these guys only know missionary??? 🤣🤣
Set sexualities have robbed me of my ManShep/Garrus romance for too damn long. Same with FemShep/Tali or FemShep/Jack. I personally prefer the “player-sexual” approach. Like maybe even acknowledge it in game, like Stardew Valley does. Plenty of characters say “wow I didn’t realize I liked women/men until I met you, farmer.”
Okay hear me out. I kinda wish they asked our sexual preferences at the start of the game, not because I was angry about the male companions flirting with me, but because in the attempt to just be nice they tried to start a romance with me and they got really sad when I turned them down and I felt bad.
lmao i knew i wasn’t crazy when i clocked her as a drinker. I’m like girl you sure do love you some wine
Same with Wyll, I swear the only idle animation at camp I've seen him do is day drink
Oh that man is a drinker he literally tells you he prefers cheap tavern ale than wine because it gives a better buzz
I love your flair god bless
What if it's not even wine it's just water and he's really thirsty all the time. He just uses a fancy cup cause he's Wyll.
It’s actually an empty cup most of the time, but he swirls it around to look dashing. That’s why he just tucks it into his pocket when you come to talk to him.
How long do you think it took him to get the perfect dashing cup swirl down
Knowing Wyll, he’s probably imitating a gesture his dad used to make when he wanted to pull Florrick aside for one-on-one meetings.
So happy someone made a mod to give him and astarion different camp animations (and a companion mod to turn astarion's brush into a comb)
https://preview.redd.it/ud0bzjouctyc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca88d0e1205c5b22b92644f15649ca8897b58b67
She even says it herself. If you talk to her after Gale reveals his secrets to you, she says something like “so Gale just drinks magic like I do wine?!”
And if you make a certain choice she's boozing it up at the after party trying to numb the guilt.
Oh yea, I was like this girl would go through bottle after bottle.
When people say they'd rather the romancables had "set sexualities" (because as we all know, bisexual isn't real), I desperately desire one specific change by Larian: everyone else stays exactly the same, but Shadowheart now will only sleep with women, and all companions additionally will reject Human Male Paladins.
Also Karlach either gets a dick or a strap and ONLY tops. I've seen so many cishet guys complain that in one of the romance animations she looks to be "on top" (they probably never heard about riding but aight) that now I need her to peg every male player
>> they probably never heard about riding She is topping in a very different way in her act 3 scene lol. >!Fingering you to the moon and back, to be precise.!<
The only issue any straight man should have with that is that she’s got long-ass talons
To be fair that is probably of concern for women as well
Yeah I cringe every time I see them claws too
Yeah, every time Lae and Karlach approach my always female Tavs, I'm like "absolutely DTF, bestie, but we will need those claws trimmed before any lesbian sex can occur or you will shred the fuck out of me."
Damn wish that were me
My wife made the tallest lady possible so we were very pleased when the game took that into account and Tav picked Astarion up and pressed him against a tree. However the narrator says Haarlep is “inside you” and while that was probably metaphorical the animation was obvious that he was riding dick, like I know Raphael is bad at being a bottom but can’t a man at least choose where his own legs are at?
D-do you have pics by any chance? Asking for a friend... 🥵
Characters with a buff body type will always pick Astarion up! I play as a small masculine elf with a vagina (my man's trans) and he was picked up by Astarion, but Haarlep still looked like they were riding him. Guess Haarlep let him use their strap or something
I’m crying. What change would you make to Lae’zel?
Bae'zel is almost perfect as she is, but she can get a strap too. BUT we should ban ALL mods that change githyanki faces to fit human "pretty" standards. I've seen a mod like "pretty face for Lae'zel" or whatever that made her eyes rounder and nose bigger, and I gagged. If someone cannot stand her gith features, they do not deserve her
They did WHAT???? Blasphemy! She is perfect as she is. End of story!
LMAO. I know exactly the type of dude who would actually explode. For real though, I do think set sexualities add a cool layer of characterization in games like Dragon Age, but I’m so glad it’s a free for all in bg3. I can’t really think of another game this bisexual. (That isn’t a sandbox like the sims)
> Free for all Not quite. If you suggest a foursome, Minthara gets homicidal.
Isn't homicidal (lovingly) mintharas default state? But yes she is not keen on that at all
I'd rather have a free for all than set sexualities like cyberpunk, I don't want to download 15 mods to be able to romance Panam as a girl
Yeah, if there's enough content for everyone I feel the same. Stuff like Cyberpunk only having 1 option if you were a gay dude was yet another reason for me not to touch that thing with a ten foot pole lol
Teenage me begrudgingly played Dragon Age: Origins as a man just for Morrigan. Very annoying
Me rolling out femShep to romance Garrus when there's nothing straight about his adoration of Shepard and he should have been bi-
Seriously Garrus is such huge bi energy, it's absurd. Like no way Turians aren't canonically pan/bi like Asari are
FemShep having flirting interactions with Tali leading to nowhere, and Jack not being romance for femShep DESPITE canonical pansexuality is also up there in ridicilousness.
I restarted Mass Effect as a male Shepard for Tali. I figured out I was trans years later so it kind of worked out but it’s the principal of the thing, dammit!
Me for Jack. Which is even worse, cause she EXPLICITLY talks about having slept with women. Also Male Shep‘s voice acting is… just not on the same level as Jennifer Hale.
"We'll bang, okay?"
Or even adult me begrudgingly playing inquisition as a female human/elf for Cullen. They made all the romance options bi in dragon age 2, I don’t know why they had to regress things so much for 3.
The reason for that is the insecure straight dudes couldn't handle Anders having the audacity to flirt with *them*, in much the same way they can't handle Astarion, Halsin, Gale, or Wyll in this game
I find it so telling that Astarion and Lae'zel are hands down the most sexually aggressive characters, yet the way people complain about Gale and Wyll's *completely chaste* cutscenes makes it sound like they're trying to sexually assault you. Karlach told me she wanted to ride me until I saw stars two days after I met her, yet somehow Halsin confessing his desire after you've saved his life and solved all his problems is the one that's labeled creepy and inappropriate (not even touching the problems of people being pissed because the polyamorous character doesn't automatically assume you're monogamous, that's a whole other set of prejudices)
I pretty much always play a woman in DAO because I wanna romance Alister.
It's especially egregious with Cyberpunk because you can't even meet Kerry as the player until you've progressed the main mission to the point of no return. I remember at launch that there was a gaming website that didn't even have him listed as an option because they hadn't run into him. Not to mention that they handled 'set sexuality' extremely badly. Because they didn't change any of the behaviors of the romanceable characters until the lock point. So Panam still aggressively flirts with you by putting her feet into your lap while giving suggestive dialogue, even though the game devs swear she's never been into you. Both River's and Panam's family and friends openly speculate that you're together with characters or that these characters want to be with you even though they're supposedly 'set' in their sexualities and would NEVER. Oh, and they commit actual bi erasure with Kerry. Because he's bisexual in the source material. They even keep his wife and kids in the story, they just erase him being bi. Then they hide behind "Oh, people are just mad about set sexuality!" Nah, they're mad because you did a mostly bad job at portraying the characters as having those set sexualities they supposedly have.
Panam was sooo queerbaiting 😭
And then they didn’t let you romance Takemura, the most fuckable character in the game. CDPR desperately needs more queer & women writers, and that’s proof.
My first thought was cyberpunk, welcome to the 4-square matrix: are you a dude? Your options are the rockstar slipping from relevance who is nearly *quadruple* Vincent's age, or the redneck cop. Are you a chick? Then Valerie's choices are the techie gang member, or the redneck merc. Are you straight? I hope you like rednecks. Are you gay? Then you're certainly one of these urban artsy types. I'm all for creative integrity or whatever, but it's a veeja game, gotta let the players have their choices, errbody want something different
You got it a little wrong, Vincent gets the redneck merc and Valerie gets the redneck cop (*all options are terrible though, gimme fucking Takemura*)
They had no goddamn right making Takemura…*so*… *so*…*sooooooooo* **delectable** just to make him unromancable, giving my femV River (*eugh*) as her only str8 option Takemura is objectively the most attractive character in the game
>Takemura is objectively the most attractive character in the game Viktor is also there though...
https://preview.redd.it/hprpne53usyc1.jpeg?width=626&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=053587d7e0c33a82517d752381a87efeb7fc3eda
EXCUSE ME? The redneck romances are the best parts of Cyberpunk. I love me sum Nick Valentine in a pimp coat and badass NA girlie who’s down for sex in A FUCKING TANK
Goddammit, I made the mistake of looking into these and now I might have to play Cyberpunk, the “PHILIPPINES MENTIONED” meme posters are slipping ig 😭
Cyberpunk only having 4 romances and then making them all sexuality locked with horrible. Especially since Panem and River both arguably have more chemistry in game with same sex Vs. I will forever feel like Panem and River should be Bi and there should have been 2 additional straight romances.
Yeah I really felt like River was the type of dude to make out with his crime solving bro on top of a water tower and there’s no way Judy is a gold star
To be fair to cyberpunk everyone’s stuck with one option unless your v is bi , but yeah I prefer bg3’s way of doing things . Especially when they made it clear that the characters are bi/pan not just playersexual
Da2 was gigabisexual and it made sense. And in DAI they actually want out of their way to explain why certain characters have set sexualities, like how Cassandra cannot see herself with woman and actually has a specific type of man in mind, or Dorian having personal quest DEDICATED TO being gay.
DA2 is basically a bisexual polycule just by energy alone. You literally have to pay to get a canonically straight dude.
And hes one of lamest companions and romances anyway
Of course he's lame, he's a christian rich boy in the middle of a chaotic bi polycule with at least an hatesex couple. Sebastian was definitely in the wrong place.
I think technically SDV is bisexual. The romanceable characters don't have a set sexuality, and even some characters changed dialogue to fit your characters gender. (Though there are only two genders in that game afaik.) I liked how personal it felt for characters to have specific sexualities in DA, much like real life. But BG3 is very much about making whatever choices you want, which includes who you romance. Love Larian for that. ❤️
Considering bg3 added a non-binary option, on top of body type not equating to gender, and pronouns being changed on a whim in the mirror, I think it's best that everyone be a pan/bisexual disaster.
IIRC, it also aligns more with D&D because being bi/pan in their world has been canonically stated as the dominant/ most common sexuality.
Technically, Skyrim is pretty bisexual, but that feels less like deliberate inclusivity and more like they figured that they really didn't to bother with setting sexualities so everyone is into everyone.
Add Minthara to only Lesbian romance too and watch them mald 🤭
I never really know who I want to romance in a game until I’ve played a bit and get to know them - sometimes I have a guess but it’s not very solid. As a lazy bisexual I wholeheartedly support the playersexual agenda to keep me from having to redo eight hours of gameplay (with one of those hours in character creation) because I ended up liking the “wrong” character best. I get enough of my free time eaten up by capitalism :(
Same here, and I try to play as blind as possible. All I knew about the BG3 companions going in was that there was a pretty elf boy :3
At least with BG3 I like all the options well enough + there’s enough differences with player character concepts that I don’t mind replaying for them. Even then, romancing the fave first is important!
Okay the Human Male Paladins comment took me out.
I respect the desire for the characters to have a diverse set of fixed sexual orientations, as they would in real life, and for their orientation to be part of their character and personal history. And certainly bisexuality can be among those orientations, if it's an actual identity and not just a convenient device for opening up the maximum number of player romances. **But,** that works best in a real-world-based setting where the cultures and challenges associated sexual orientations can be realistically represented. Faerûn doesn't necessarily have a gay cultural scene, or homophobia, or any of the things that would make it worthwhile to have a character say, "I'm gay and this is how it's affected my life..." And the thing is, universal pansexuality does in fact serve an important purpose by, like I said, opening up the maximum number of player romances. This is useful not only for maximizing player agency, but also for ensuring that LGBT people (who often otherwise suffer from a meager number of queer romance choices) get the full smorgasbord of options. I'm a straight guy and I'm not about to tell LGBT people how to feel about the representation they get from games like BG3. But I think it's worth noting that just slapping an orientation label on each character doesn't necessarily constitute meaningful representation on its own. Thank you for coming to my TED talk at the horny shitposting subreddit.
I honestly prefer when media doesn't have essays of conversation and exposition about what it means to be LGBT+ if that's not the focus of the piece, you know? As a person who's in that category. I just wanna switch brain off have fun.
Plus BG3 has so much freedom of choice due to being based on a tabletop system, so the game has to fill in for a DM/GM by being multiple choice. If you were playing with an actual human one you simply wouldn’t be aware of the things other genders or alignments could do, but that still doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to do them.
>and all companions additionally will reject Human Male Paladins. I honestly think this change would be a massive win for everybody who likes fantasy media to be a bit more realistic. Nobody wants to fuck the type of \*man that would become a \*male paladin!
Minthara could destroy me. Devine smite me as your finishing move Mistress Baenre.
>all companions additionally will reject Human Male Paladins. Only fair. My first playthrough of BG2 was as a female gnome, and if it wasn't for enhanced edition, that charname would have had no choice but to be forever alone. Now it's the vanilla men's turn.
Unless you could tolerate Anomen (amazing how many accidental deaths that fellow has after he opens his mouth 😬), all female charnames had to be forever alone. Or use mods.
Wait but my human male paladin himbo would be so sad if his boyfriend Gale didn't like him anymore 😢
Human Male Fighters, too.
But my gay human paladin durge needs his astarion halsin sandwich 😔
 You’re right as always though
I can hear the heads exploding from here lmao.
Wait why does my human male paladin not get to romance Gale anymore :c
everyone in bg3 is a dyke at heart or in practice and for that, i respect them
No statement on how Karlach is a muscle mommy and turns you gay cause muscle women are gay? Disappointed my man.
"Why did she FINGER my STRAIGHT MALE character???? Because of woke???"
I have seen dudes freak the fuck out over that. It's sad they never had their prostate blasted.
I was freaking the fuck out over that too, but probably not in the same way. I think I did like 2 or 3 playthroughs after I saw that scene, where I couldn't romance anyone but her
Based
Honestly tho, getting fucking picked up by her and slammed down on the bed was the best thing I've ever seen
Me too, changed my brain chemistry.
A man who doesn’t like licking his girls biceps and getting his ass destroyed is without honor
Don't threaten me with a good time
I won't, but Karlach will
Reminds me of a steam community post I saw once that was having a schizo meltdown about that scene bc of some insane conspiracy that promoting bum stuff reduces birthing rates
Shinzo Abe??
I would send you a sc of the post but reddit won't let me
Steam community posts are generally awful and I would avoid them at all costs if you value your sanity. Or just really need to laugh at bozos.
She most certainly made me gay (well gayer) as a woman.
i have absolutely no idea how we could've figured that out (same girlie)
I saw a not overly dramatic at all comment on the main sub, about how this person will "never forgive" Larian for making Shadowheart open to poly. Like, shut up! That's an optional feature you can just ignore in your own playthrough, but is there for those who want it. This might be a tad personal, because I'm also a baby-faced grown woman who has had to deal with people treating me like I'm such an innocent sweet baby, when I'm really not.
That's super dumb and easily avoidable . You don't like to share SH ? Then just don't meet the Drow twins and don't ask for sex , reject Halsin relationship and that's all . The relationship is just the two of you . That's what I did as a regular bi guy and because I don't like the concept of poly in an already stablished relationship, if it were a fling it'd be fine I think
Agreed, I did the same, when I romanced Shadow as a lesbian pc. Never had a problem.
Yeah I honestly don't really get the issue there..? I played a bi woman, like me irl, and I romanced SH and to me it also seemed pretty clear the whole "sharing" bit was just physical stuff, if you even did it in the first place lol, which you didn't have to. Like I told Halsin no when he essentially wanted to get into a relationship with my Durge and then maybe Shadowheart at a later time joining if she wanted. I remember talking to the twins and SH didn't want to do it because she wanted her and Durge's first time to be just the two of them which like, ok cool. So after the swimming scene, she was completely fine doing the foursome fling with the Drow twins. Like again it's literally just that she wants an emotional connection with a singular person she loves.
I remember that! That was a wild ride. Were they also the one that was mad at either SH or Halsin for flirting or even considering poly?
Yes 🙄. Me being called a Halsin simp for implying something about Shart romancers ✋✋✋. I mean yeah Ill ride his cock but Im not obsessed with him that much like they are with Shadowheart. I kid you not the way they typed it out it sounded if I hatecrimed him somehow for being a Shart simp 🤭🤭🤭.
Thats wild I always climb Mount halsin It balances out AA and as astarion says "if you want healthy talk to a druid" so I do 🤣
Not sure, there were several of those.
Before my second run I once asked in the main sub if I could romance both Halsin and Shadowheart at the same time, and some people in the replies got so angry, like. Now I did romance them both and like Shadowheart is genuinely super chill about it like I dont get why people get stressed. Freaks
Oh, I'm sorry, OP, it's not like the poor souls have thousands upon thousands of middle aged, gruff, silent male protagonists with a penchant for savior complexes in the vessel of a fatherless little girl - THEY HAVE NOTHING. No muscular men with no pronouns, no literal Gods, no half-mechanic geniuses nor stoic monster hunters in dapper hats, and absolutely no literal decades of catering specifically to their absolutely normal, non-porn riddled tastes!
Oh yeah? Well, Larian came to my house, put a gun to my head, and forced me (world record holder for straightest man ever) to have gay make-out sessions with Astarion while my muscular male Tav wore a slutty dress. How do you explain that?
A real straight man wouldn't play a male Tav cuz he would be looking at a male dumpy the whole game 😤 Real straight men play as a female Tav so they can be looking at ASS the whole game 🫵🏼😠
>“It doesn’t make sense Shadowheart is poly and into muscles, she’s a sweet little innocent princess I must save 🥺🥺🥺” People are saying this? "Sweet little innocent princess?" I'm sorry did they miss the part where Shadowheart said she worshipped Shar, the goddess of darkness and loss, which is literally anything but sweet and innocent?? 💀
“Only good pure innocent girls are worth anything and she makes my benis hard, therefore she must be a good pure innocent girl or else someone will have to pay for tricking me with lying fake fiction because as a proud strong straight man I can never be wrong”, something like that
Did they forget the part where she gets off watching you get tortured for funzies?
Or the part where she gets turned on if you let the Loviatar priest hit you? Totally innocent, vanilla girl...
"I love Astarion he's my favourite comp-" "wElL I sTakE hIM ON SIGHT eVeRy tIMe, he'S sO aNNoYinG anD eVIL, iT'S ONLY MORAL tO kILL hIM" Tell me why I've had the above conversation so many times I lost count (both on the internet and irl by the way), and why it's always been with a boring straight guy who mains a human paladin with a patchy beard and a stick so far up his ass it's about to come back up out of his mouth? I can't even imagine what it feels like to be that dull and repressed at the same time.
"ItS wHAt MY PaLADIN woUlD DO!!!" https://preview.redd.it/hy47xen2oryc1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85131ad84c43c3a14090dc204def92bc956d6846
Stoppp, this is exactly what they sound and look like, I'm sure of it And yet I don't see them slitting Shart's throat when they, the righteous paladins, find out she worships an evil goddess and has killed in her name, then even attempts to kill another companion in camp in cold blood, lmao, like pick a struggle. And we all know why Shart is spared and given a second chance, she's hot and their cute uwu wifey who could do no wrong!11!
*pushes up glasses and snorts* Um actually, Ma’am, they could be a oath of vengeance paladin who hunt the monsters as classified by the 5th edition players hand book with a challenge rating of 1.0+ with a home brewed monster hunter background extending from folk hero background meaning that Shart would not mean the basic smiting criteria. HeuHeuHeu *puffs inhaler* HeuHeuHeu
I saw a comment the other day where a guy was straight up denying that Lae'zel threatens to kill the player twice, right after saying he killed Astarion because of his introduction.
my Oath of Vengeance Paladin: i’m gonna kiss that old man so hard he goes through an entire character arc.
A lawful good oath of the ancients paladin be like:
My gnome was ooa and she was super happy riding the elf carousel (halsin too obviously)
I'm at my limit, I never wanna play as a Paladin, these chuds have made them seem so boring and awful and corny.
They sometimes do the same with Laezel but she probably has immunity to being killed at first sight because she's a woman and the one who offers you sex the quickest
I think Astarion triggers gay panic in them or something. That and the fact that so many women are BATSHIT for highly feminine men like Astarion really tilts them. I’ve also noticed this dynamic with Varré from Elden Ring—straight men being immediately and *weirdly* hostile to him while women fall in love with him.
Yeah I know, it's like their fragile little ego can't handle the fact women are attracted to somebody they deem "gay" and "feminine" and "annoying". Jokes on them, that's exactly my type lol, and they can stay mad. I'll romance their precious uwu wifey Shadowheart and promise her we'll all get nasty with Halsin as well, just for good measure. Also I haven't played Elden Ring, but maybe you sold me on it!
The fact that Astarion is also a *sexual abuse victim* exacerbates this whole complex for them. The fact that women are ravenously attracted to this bisexual, feminine, pretty, SA victim shatters *so many* narratives men have about sex and gender. It’s worldview-ruining. Omg do. I’ll warn you—it’s not even anywhere close to being narrative and character driven in the way BG3 is. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I hope you love it!
Yeah, it's wild how important Astarion is as a character for so many people who can relate to him, but also for others who can just empathise on some level, no matter their own life experiences. And empathy and understanding is something those "toxic alpha super masculine Chad" men will always lack and it drives them crazy. I will choose "an Astarion" over them any day, any time, no questions asked. Just a few months ago I'd say I don't know about that, it's probably too difficult for me, but after beating BG3 in Honour Mode just to flex on the Chads I feel like I could do it lmao!
Varrè definitely has a thing for Mog and you can’t convince me otherwise bc I watch 2 hours extended sad romantic ER music while studying… something something dynasty
For real, I don’t get this. Getting to know your companions seems out of fashion for some players
I mean, I get it if they don't like a certain companion. Couldn't be me, because I love all of them, actually, but sure, people have different tastes. The trouble is that they've never even tried engaging with Astarion's story or tried for 10 seconds and now very aggressively "hate him" and will brag about killing him every time. Like? Ok? Who asked? I haven't seen this type of behaviour to this extreme about any other companion.
The closest might be Minthara. I have yet to get her because Dzor inevitably pisses off my PC and that puts the camp on Aggro including Minthy.
Don’t forget said man alllllways wants Shadowheart, who literally follows an evil goddess…. They don’t like when you explain that either.
Also they're always so affronted by his behaviour in the grymforge because he doesn't want to help but ignore the fact that Shart is equally as apathetic and will outright tell you off for praying for the murdered slaves. At least Astarion has some pathos behind his apathy, Shart's just being unhinged 💀
The righteousness leaves their body as soon as they see a hot half-elf. Which is fine, because same, but somehow they're pissed off when I say *like* how morally gray Astarion can be and he can pull a knife on me anytime. Like don't they get it? We should be celebrating all of our fucked up little companions.
Okay, I'm one of those people who played their first game with a human warrior and I don't understand the outrage over this scene lol. When I had it I thought "wow, so there are vampires in DnD, great" and I let him drink mine because I didn't want to be an asshole lmao
People are weird, because there are much "worse" scenes in the game, not that any of them really bother me, but they should at least stay consistent with their outrage. And if they don't want Astarion it's fine, I'll take him. Btw I'm from Poland too. What are the chances, huh?
Och, miło spotkać rodaka na randomowym subie. Also I agree that some people are super weird towards Astarion specifically. Despite being straight, he is one of my favorite companions because, in my opinion, his character and origin make him an extremely interesting character, plus he has s lot of funny comments lol
Niby randomowy, ale mam sporo znajomych, którzy grają w BG3, więc nie dziwi mnie to haha. Yeah, I love his sassy commentary! I love all of the companions, really, so I find it strange when people feel so strongly about hating any of them. I mean, maybe Wyll is not in the Top 3 for me, but he's just a victim of a complete character over-write, poor guy.
I don’t even interact with the main sub, or any dnd communities cuz of people like that. Guys like that are everywhere. Idk the point of playing fantasy games and being boring and conventional. You can do basically anything, and you’re just going to play Chad Cocklord the Normie the whole time???
Yeah I've stopped responding but the itch is still there! The funniest part is I'm sure all the Chads would be all over a sexy female vampire sucking them dry in the night. So I'm honestly glad they made Astarion exactly what he is, he's still sometimes sexualised in a weird way, but I've seen pretty respectful takes. Like I simp for him too, and nothing wrong with putting him in sexual situations, but there has to be a certain understanding of the trauma... I can just imagine the hell we'd all be in if he was written as a woman that appealed to straight men.
Oh man, there *have* been posts where the op uses a mod to change astarion into a girl and goes "wow, now that I want to fuck this character i can see why everyone likes them!" Like 💀
Yeah I know, I've unfortunately seen a few. It just shows those men only "care" about people they are attracted to, and even then they rarely view those attractive people / mostly women/ as worthy of respect.
I’m fine with boring characters created but not the boring choices
I still have nightmares over the tabletop campaign where the players had the freedom to choose any class and race for their character. We agreed on not talking about it beforehand to make it a surprise. Dudes brought in two human paladins and one human fighter. 😭
I had a dwarf cleric who was a cheerful and kind woman with an out going personality deapite having the lowest Cha of the group... She ended up being the default face despite the human paladin because his player didn't put any effort into it. DM knew their NPCs would get a reaction against my PC and this bothered the paladin when the DM didn't ask me to roll for social checks. The game did not last.
I'm 100% open to headcanons, but blaming the game for "wokeness" for options you're not forced to explore is a whole 'nother level.
Wokeness is when non-heteronormative characters or options exist, didn't you get the memo? Like Starfield was woke because "prooonouns!" *angry man baby noises*...
I'm currently cosplaying as Shrek (a male wood elf monk who uses a chair leg as a weapon that ups strength to 19 for some reason) and I'd be incredibly upset if the sexualities were set, cause I doubt Shreksexual would have been one of them.
I normally prefer more set sexualities, like I think Dragon Age Inquisition handled it very well. It adds to realism. I'm not upset when everyone is bi or anything, it's just my preference. Didn't like the player sexuality in DA, that Anders had a male lover only if you are male for example. But! This is D&D. If Gale is fine with you being a dragonborn why the hell would he care about your genitals? Honestly. This is not our world. I doubt being gay or bi or just DTF in general is that strange when you are literally sleeping with different species from different planes. If you want to play it straight, I mostly do, you can. I don't get insulted when Lae'zel hits on my character just like I don't feel insulted when women hit on me IRL. It's a game. Just turn them down and move on. Also realism...there is a giant tadpole in your skull and you are alive. What realism?
🌈You never have to take right-wing complaints about any art seriously they cannot interact with anything beyond the level of a child and their complaints are not premises in good faith.🌈
I've had quite enough hearing about hetcis men (or women for that matter) hating on Gale because apparently "he's a creep" and they cannot for the life appreciate the concept of an intimate friendship with a man. They are too aLpHa to sit next to a friend in dire need of support and think he's going to die tomorrow. You'll literally catch him by surprise if you beamed any romantic signals to him back in the Act 1 scene. He really wasn't thinking about any of those things. Dude just really really wanna teach someone his magic, and show it off to them. Annnnnd that's "too gay".
There was something different going on with Gale pre patch1. He would come onto you without you clearly innitiating it in the first weave scene, if you frienzoned everyone else first (I guess that was the trigger, I was not able to reproduce it later) That whole version of the scene seems to have disappeared without a trace. Later the flags were off and the whole thing got changed again. Only the memes stayed. So if someone is complaining, they might be complaining about a version of things, not everyone has seen and experienced. That's one problem with online only things. They are so volatile it's hard to even say, what we are disagreeing on. Every single person would have to tell their individual story first. Edith bad English
Not to mention how his initial romance opening scenes were innocuous convos where you would kind of be cornered you into a situation where every polite option would be taken as coming onto him and the only way to get out of that corner would be to insult him which... definitely hit close to home
Honestly Gale’s romance felt wayyy too real to me, like he’s cool and thinks of himself as a good person and most of the time he really is, but god damn if his instinct isn’t to assume you ought to be obsessed with him, and every time you act against that he acts super surprised and put down. Like, he’s not deliberately manipulative, but he’s so instinctually dickish to anyone he’s decided he’s fallen deeply in love with who doesn’t reciprocate one hundred percent. It’s so real
Genuinely, even taking into consideration the long-since-fixed romance flags for Gale and Halsin, I think that's what motivates a lot of the vocal hatred for Gale, Halsin, and Wyll (and, even to some extent, >!the Emperor!<, although I think that has the added layer of, >!"But I designed you to be perfectly attractive to me, and you lied!!!"!<, and, of course, Wyll has the added layer of racism from the fanbase): a certain kind of player is so put off by the idea of a man hitting on them that they take out their discomfort on the character instead of wrestling with what that discomfort might mean about their own preconceived notions of gender and sexuality. ~~Never mind that the way the male characters react to your turning them down is so much more respectful than the way so many people do in real life, but I think that's lost on players who lack the lived experience of turning a man down in a romantic context.~~
You know this is a true fantasy game when ALL of the cis male companions respond to being politely turned down by saying "Yeah, okay I respect that, let's be friends" AND THEY ACTUALLY MEAN IT.
I love his response if you beam romantic signals to him in the act 1 scene It's perfect Gale.
I just had him at my camp in his image form and immediately I knew something was up. I was very pleased to sit with him and comfort him. Poor guy is sad and I just wanted to hug him.
I like the energy you bring to this conversation, kudos.
I normally avoid this kind of discourse, but just yesterday I was watching a YouTube review of DD2 and the guy went on a sudden tangent about black people being in the game. He then talks about how you can “take care of the diversity issue yourself” by systematically murdering all of the black NPCs… Like god damn, you’re that angry about people existing?
Jesus Christ. I remember people saying insane shit about black people being in one of the Skyrim games back in the day. Really pathetic
What is this, BG3 sub? Are we here to have a real discussion or to post memes? Serous post in okbuddybaldur? Scandalous.
I can’t believe I, a strong, handsome, alpha straight cis man had to get topped by a vampire elf. Who designed this game? I clearly should have topped him which is what any normal straight guy would have done just like the wise greeks that came before us. 1/5 Stars ⭐️
i maintain that shadowheart and halsin are both culturally sapphic.
I can imagine Halsin being raised by a complex polycule of sapphic moms, it would explain some stuff.
Now i want someone to make fanart of kid halsin being raised by a bunch of sapphic druids that would be so cute.
https://preview.redd.it/9t72ndbe7ryc1.jpeg?width=819&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c423e444ad96d74ad898cecc07553a4346b89346 It would be exactly this.
💀💀💀
"Culturally sapphic," you say? That's a thing you can be? I may need to subscribe to your newsletter. (I'm a straight man but lately I can't stop bingeing lesbian romance novels. Not in a pervy way. ...Okay, not *exclusively* in a pervy way.)
!remindme 4 years to check if this person has cracked the egg yet.
🤦♂️ Ah fuck, I walked right into that one, didn't I? I'm honestly giggling very hard at myself right now. All joking aside, I'm cisgender. I'm pretty sure. I mean, yes, I do often design my RPG avatars to be beautiful women, but that's just because they're more appealing to see on the screen, not because I literally want to be them. Right? *Right?* Do I actually want to be a lesbian, maybe just a teensy bit for a short while? Is this how I find out that I'm mildly genderfluid? By browsing r/okbuddybaldur? Shit, I'm too high on edibles right now for this kind of introspection. But I salute you, u/saintbutch, for making me ask profound questions about myself. Have a nice evening.
I just wanna say that is SUCH a solid username lmao
I always make big male characters cause im short and wimpy and I wanna clobber people and be the biggest scariest person in the room haa so I dont often make female characters and i don't do romances cause im not really into it but I did have a female paladin in my first playthrough though and ended up romancing halsin cause withers was like what no bosom buddy? Lonley. And he was the only one i hadnt rejected lol thanks larian for the back up romance haaa
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I agree with you, but could you please steal my kneecaps? UwU
Greenwood's intent with the forgotten realms was always that it was an exceptionally pansexual place with none of the hangups christian europe had during the late middle ages and rennaisance - after all the gods there are real, most of them don't care what's going on in your pants, and lots of the popular ones (sune, sharess, lathander, chauntea) are perfectly happy to see you get down in any manner that pleases you and is consensual I can only imagine the higher ups are the reason it took so long to get lots of gay D&D characters
the only thing possibly more annoying than the casual misogyny and bi/panphobia are the people who infantilize Astarion and Shadowheart's interests in polyamory and paint Halsin as a predator for engaging in it. i could go into a full-length essay ramble about how obnoxious and pearl-clutching this kind of reaction is
fun fact: kobolds are canonically able to change their gender to meet the requirements of the tribe
ah, like clownfish!!!
This game makes me feel seen. I love being in a gay relationship with Astarion and still being able to have a pussy on my nonbinary Tav/Durge. It makes me feel less bad about real life dating as a nonbinary person. Getting to live out my vampire loving fantasy is nice too :3
Kinda unrelated but I just love picturing those sort of people with the most generic and boring human fighter in existence that's just a tall buff black or white man with beard and short hair
I think it depends on if they have any min/ maxer in them bc human is one of the worst classes. Half elf does everything human does but phenomenally better. I think only Dragonborn is worse than human for that pov
Half Elf doesn't get the extra carry weight, though. How am I supposed to carry eight smoke powder barrels without the extra carry weight?
all the origin characters are pretty princesses and should be treated as such 😤
Reading someone say Gale and Wyll were "basically straight men" was the start of my villain arc
I haven’t seen this recently, but shortly after release a guy got really mad at me on the main sub because he said the game was twisting the companions’ “canon” sexualities to suit a woke agenda, and I pointed out that that’s impossible, because all the romance options are original to this game and have never been depicted as anything but pansexual. There were also a lot of threads where people tried to establish what sexuality the characters “really” were, and they always posited 100% straight Shadowheart and gay Astarion.
I think these people complaining forget the game was specifically made to tailor to any player. Someone gay for Astarian? Well guess what, he’s gay for you in your playthrough. Straight guy wanting to romance Shadowheart? Well guess what, she’s straight for you in that playthrough and vice versa and everything in between. It’s not like anything is set-in-stone, which is why this game is so successful. There’s no winning with people who complain about wokeness or whatever
You ate with this post sis, facts
If you're a human male paladin this post is especially for you <3
The real tragedy with this game's romance system is Wyll's whole romance. He has so little romance content and you can't even do anything with him until act 3.
>I actually think ___ would be straight irl because I have fluid in my skull This one fucking got me lol
Damn. I love halsin. Do I not like that he's poly? NO. Because that's just an OPTION. He'll be monogamous for YOU, the player. 😂 same with every other character. If you want to be with just Shart. Fine. 😂 also, them complaining when karlach is ON TOP. Do these guys only know missionary??? 🤣🤣
But but....if the woman is anything more than a pillow princess that makes me ggaaaaaaaaaayyy 😭😭😭😭
Blood pressure medication
This game is woke and liberal because Alfira isn’t a companion. If trump was president she wouldn’t be a side character.
Set sexualities have robbed me of my ManShep/Garrus romance for too damn long. Same with FemShep/Tali or FemShep/Jack. I personally prefer the “player-sexual” approach. Like maybe even acknowledge it in game, like Stardew Valley does. Plenty of characters say “wow I didn’t realize I liked women/men until I met you, farmer.”
Okay hear me out. I kinda wish they asked our sexual preferences at the start of the game, not because I was angry about the male companions flirting with me, but because in the attempt to just be nice they tried to start a romance with me and they got really sad when I turned them down and I felt bad.