#complaining about ASTARION BEING POPULAR

[invinciblerodent]

I'm so tired. "Too much XY character content!" "There's not enough content about this and that!" "This character is so underappreciated, I need more content for XY!"

Well make some bloody content then, Samantha

[explodingchantry]

The thing is it really isn't about anders' actions. It isn't. It's genuinely all about framing.

FF7 sees us partake in actual eco-terrorism - they call THEMSELVES eco-terrorists. And we're still seen as the irrevocable hero, and everyone who plays the game understands Cloud & AVALANCHE to be heroes. Complicated, flawed heroes, but heroes anyway. When Shinra collapses the upper city into sector 7, it's as a direct result of AVALANCHE's actions. But you don't see the wider fandom bickering and yelling at each other and hating Cloud or any other AVALANCHE members for the innocent lives lost. It's understood to be Shinra's fault, as they were the ones to destroy an entire sector. But what of potential innocents dying or being injured from the reactor we blow up within the first few minutes of the game? That's definitely our actions causing direct destruction, killing the employees at the facility and the ones we directly fight, the irreparable damage. We don't see people yapping about it because the writing makes it clear that their cause is just and the fandom understands.

What of bg3's Astarion? He was forced to charm these people and bring them to Cazador, yeah, sure - but he could've also chosen to let Cazador kill him or torture him more! The choice here is obvious - that he had to do what he did to survive, and the writing makes it clear as well that he is at no fault for his actions when literally a tortured slave with very limited free will. The game also looks at his rather... Morally corrupt behavior even after escaping Cazador's control via the tadpole with a lens of sympathy and understanding and compassion because our guy is still on the "kill or be killed" grindset and genuinely needs a guiding hand to teach him that he can be free without sacrificing everything - including his humanity - for it. Though the game does allow you to hate him and kill him or turn him into a piece of shit - those are openly considered "bad" endings. There is an obvious right thing to do, here. An obvious side the writing takes.

When Anders, at the time controlled by Justice, almost kills that mage girl in Dissent - it is framed as obviously a bad thing and Anders is immediately horrified. However, some of those around him try to cheer him up, for example Varric who points out the ludonarrative dissonance happening: in which Hawke and their whole party, including Anders, have killed in the hundreds or perhaps thousands and thus Anders ought to relax about the innocent life he almost took. Of course, Varric himself is presented as morally imperfect, but also deeply sympathetic. The player is most likely to side with him on most matters and be influenced by his opinions if only because of his position as your best friend in da2 and general incredible charisma and friendly attitude. This is genuinely good writing of a very sad and nuanced scene. Dissent is pretty good, overall. Unfortunately, it isn't the norm.

The game also goes out of its way to have Varric warn Hawke about Anders being crazy if they romance him, and a humorous/sarcastic Hawke may reply that they like crazy rather than actually defend him. In general, there are very few moments where we can openly support and comfort Anders without any caveats. It goes so far as to having the popular diplomatic options sometimes defending templars rather than supporting Anders, thus placing him, in the narrative, as an 'extremist' the same way Fenris is an extremist in his hatred of mages.

Even if Anders was a terrorist - which he is not - and the chantry boom was an act of terrorism - which it isn't - this wouldn't actually stop another narrative from offering him sympathy. In any other story written by any other writer, Anders would be the obvious victim, and obvious tragic hero. In another story written by any other writer, DAI would have several characters defend him. Even if you wanted to really argue that it makes sense for Varric to hate Anders and complain about him as much as he did (there is some truth to that but I personally remain of the opinion that it did go a bit too far and thus broke character in places), you would expect other characters to speak on him positively. Such as, oh idk, rebel mages or A HAWKE WHO ROMANCED HIM AND SUPPORTED HIM. Or maybe, oh I don't know, a respected and wise elven mage who undertook a difficult revolution in the past. it's these constant remarks about him, the fact that whenever he is mentioned post da2 has been negative, the fact that bioware has parroted the "all mages betray us" stupid fucking 'joke', the fact that the 'crazed' rebel mages attacking you in the hinterlands wear anders' outfit and when you meet anders in da:a he wears tevinter robes and the gift you can give him in da2 is a tevinter amulet thus drawing connections between him and tevinter when all we ever knew of tevinter until extremely recently was "everyone living there is an evil mage slaver". Literally any other writer would have made different choices in their framing that would make people see anders for the tragic hero he is.

Cullen is given 4 entire pages on his history in WoT2. It gives him a dream of becoming a Templar to 'help' and 'protect' people, for which he worked incredibly hard for. It gives him siblings who care for him and support him no matter what, and goes at length to tell you how traumatised and 'unlike himself' Cullen was post dao broken circle. Anders gets 2 pages, which in fairness is more than most. And those two pages are, also in fairness, fairly sympathetic. But we are given nothing of what Anders does post da2, aside from a couple lines in da2 itself. I know that part of it is because there is the possibility of him being killed by Hawke, but potential character death has never stopped bioware from continuing their stories somehow, and with Anders being possessed by Justice giving him an out from certain death (why would Hawke stabbing him with a knife kill him but not a Templar spearing him with their sword in the pre-da2 short story?) there is little excuses. Furthermore, they could pull something similar to what they did with Hawke, with a simple line saying "whether or not Anders lived depends on the person telling the story" etc etc. Honestly I'm not too miffed about the absence of that, I'm not saying I want Anders to have ten pages dedicated to himself in WoT, I just wanted to point out the imbalance between a character obviously loved by Bioware and one obviously disliked.

When I offer the facts of the story to my friends who haven't touched dragon age, and try to remain as objective as possible, and remove the negative framing the game gives - they genuinely struggle to understand how anders would even possibly be hated. They're pretty baffled. And I always have to tell them, it's because of narrative bias. It genuinely, fully, is because of narrative bias.

[selunesfavouriteprincess]

fuck it, shadowlach twitch streamer au headcanons because the end of the patch 8 short lives forever in my head:

Shadowheart is the actual streamer. it’s from her account and she’s the one actually playing the game, but Karlach would keep wandering into the background while Shadowheart was playing and chat fell in love with her so now she sits next to her while she plays and joins in the chatting

Sometimes they’ll do co op Stardew Valley streams together but mostly Karlach enjoys watching Shadowheart play

Everyone in the chat is so thirsty for Karlach. In other news grass is green.

Shadowheart started streaming as a hobby when she was “between jobs” (read: just escaped a cult) and got really popular pretty quickly

Considering she’s a hot goth girl streamer her audience is actually pretty cool (Wyll moderates the chat for her and he’s quick to block anyone being disrespectful or rude). It probably helps that she’s very openly queer and will call out bad behaviour in the chat

Shadowheart mostly streams story-heavy games, indie games, and then very occasionally Fortnite

When she played Until Dawn Karlach was literally on the edge of her seat whenever a potential death was around the corner. She accidentally got Ashley killed in the tunnels and Karlach was so upset that Shadowheart reloaded the whole chapter to save her

Karlach does a lot of talking to the chat while Shadowheart Locks In™️

They sometimes play multiplayer games with Lae’zel and Wyll, who have two entirely opposite reactions to losing

Wyll is a great co-op game partner and a terrible opponent because he wins so often but he’s so nice and lovely about it that it feels bad to complain about losing. Shadowheart still manages it though

Lae’zel has terrible wifi and keeps dropping off the call and stream, however nobody’s 100% sure if it’s because of her internet or because she got so angry she snapped her laptop (it’s happened before)

Karlach will literally sit on the gaming chair with Shadowheart on her lap, cuddling her and resting her chin on her shoulder to watch the game. Astarion specifically goes into the chat to call them gay slurs

One time they got Jaheira on the stream with them to play Mario Kart and the whole time Jaheira was like. What is this. I don’t understand this game. I pressed the button why am I going backwards. Who is this little lizard man.

[baldursgateanon]

"My honest opinion is that if you don't write fanfic or draw fanart you have zero right to complain about 80% of the general zeitgeist of the fan community. You could be contributing, you could be writing for X ship or Y character that you claim is so unappreciated, but instead you try to guilt trip other people into doing it for you."

This is why the fandom treats Astarion so differently compared to the other companions and why everyone hyperfixates on every little thing Astarion fans do. He's not even the most popular companion--statistically more people romance Gale and Shadowheart--but his fans make content for him and fans of other characters don't. That's the plain truth. Astarion fans are out there, cosplaying, writing, drawing, making comics and animations and edits, posting headcanons and screenshots, creating communities and dedicated character blogs, etc. And then they'll actually support other people's work by leaving kudos and commenting and bookmarking and so forth. If they want to explore a certain concept in fanfic, they write it. If they want a specific piece of fan merchandise, they make it. If they don't like something in the game (or they wanna add something) they'll mod it out, or in. And if they wanna gush about Astarion, they're going to, and you can't stop them. It's not that they never complain about other people's fanworks or pester Larian for things (they do), but 9/10 if they make the content they want to see.

The rest of the fandom just has not, can not, WILL NOT match that same energy for the characters they claim to love. At the end of the day, complaining about Larian giving him too much content or Astarion fans being too loud and annoying is just so much easier than picking up a pencil or opening a blank word document.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a lot of people's first fandom, and honestly? I think the reason why the fandom experience is so soul-crushing and miserable for so many people is that no one knows how to fandom anymore. Fandom is on tiktok and twitter now, and the primary manner in which people "participate" in fandom these days is mindless consumption followed by dunking on other fans and starting drama. For as much as people complain about them, Astarion fans are ironically the only people doing fandom right.

.

[mrdaid]

all fandom is the same. just consistently picking the whitest milquetoast man who does horrible things for “justified” reasons and making them the most popular character while ignoring all the other women and characters of color in the cast. I’m not saying you cant enjoy characters who do bad things, by all means, but fandom consistently chooses the most conventionally attractive (read: caucasian) package that it comes in. Furthermore, y’all will worship poor bby astarion for being “forced” to prey on children and in the same breath complain wyll only does good things to stroke his ego. like ok I wonder what else you don’t like about wyll lol.

[ltleflrt]

I feel like I'm not allowed to complain about lack of engagement on my fics, because I have one that is creeping up on 10k kudos, so I don't deserve to feel sad. I stood in the spotlight for years, so what's my problem?

Well, my problem is that I'm still insecure about my ideas because I'm a people, and people want other people to care.

I figured when I switched fandoms my interactions would go down, but not this much. I got a surprising amount of attention in the Dragon Age fandom back in the day when I wrote my first fic, and going back to it now is a weird feeling because it's so quiet. But it's an older fandom, and I'm writing fenhanders which isn't one of the Big Ships, so I figured that's the reason, and I've been mostly cool with it.

Then I started writing BG3 fic with Tav/Astarion, which is a really busy and growing fandom right now, on top of Astarion being an incredibly popular love interest, so I figured I'd get more interaction. Not Destiel levels, never Destiel levels, but more than 1 comment per chapter maybe. Nope. I'm lucky if I get 2 comments per chapter. But again, I figure it's because I'm writing a poly fic that includes 2 brothers so it's probably a squick for a lot of people even if it's not incest. And on top of that it's male Tavs, which seems to be less popular.

I must be writing things no one wants to read now, and I suppose that's fine, even if it bums me out. But I still feel like I shouldn't even be posting this, because I don't deserve to be bummed out after the success I used to have.

The thing is though....even in the Destiel fandom, I could sense things slowing down. And I figured oh it's just a matter of the fandom slowing down because the show has ended. But then I get my kudos email every day and I see how many people are still reading my fics, especially that last omegaverse fic, and I'm like... why crickets? Why so quiet?

But at least I know people are still reading those fics. Thank goodness for the daily Kudos email. I sure wish my new DA and BG3 stuff was showing up on there with more frequency tho.

Anyway, all this is to say that the only reason I bother to write at all is because of the audience of 1 I've cultivated for both of my current WIPs, and the writing goes slow because it's easier to just talk to them about my ideas than actually write the next chapter. Also, if no one else is going to read it, I'm going to lean into the incest in the non-incest poly fic, because if I'm writing it for myself and for the one friend who I know doesn't mind the problematic stuff, then I'm going to mash my OCs faces together because no one is going to notice I'm being weird anyway.

[animentality]

Did they get a postive response from adding those Gortash lines? I thought a bunch of people hateing on it instead? Also what if they removed the lines to change them a go a diffrent direction. I'm sorry. I have a lot of worry they wont do something I agee with.

The overwhelming reaction was positive. Durgetash artists went on Twitter to celebrate, and the small but passionate fans of the ship went nuclear here and on Twitter, and helped BG3 trend, yada yada, tale as old as time.

Most people don't care about Durgetash or Gortash. The majority of people you hear from would be the people who like both of those things. It's also a small ship.

The haters of that ship are even smaller in comparison, because the hand that reaches out will always touch more than the hand clenched into a fist.

And the only "legitimate" complainers, who don't just dislike the ship on principle, are the whiners who keep insisting their durges are lesbians, and how dare Larian "force" them into a relationship with a man - which is literally not what Larian did.

No one bitches about how Gale's ORIGIN completely precludes him from being gay.

I see no reason why you can't similarly have Durge's ORIGIN make them attracted to men. Or, you know. Enver is special.

Oh. And also. It's so fucking platonic, if you want it to be. Stop being stupid and just say you don't like Durgetash. It's as easy as that.

Stop using "lesbophobic" as a handy label for your self righteous soapbox. You just don't like the ship, and that's fine. It's FINE. But acting like Durgetash is lesbophobic - oh, go play a Tav.

And also, Astarion and Gale and Wyll better not flirt with you in game, even though you can tell them to fuck off, or else they're lesbophobic too.

That's the only discourse that gained traction on Twitter. As far as I know.

If Larian had made Gale wear blackface or something, and people got pissed, then yeah. They'd back up on that, and get rid of it pronto.

But Durgetash???

Aside from the general evil antics, they're not that fucking controversial of a ship.

Most people don't even PLAY the Dark Urge.

I don't know how to stress this any other way...

People act like Durgetashers are loud - we're honestly not that loud.

Astarion fans are far louder, and yet, the most romanced companion is SHADOWHEART and then Laezel and KARLACH.

He's not even in the top 3. And yet, he dominates the content on Twitter and Tumblr... he's definitely more popular than Gortash or the Dark Urge or Durgetash together...but his fans are still technically the damn minority.

So Durgetash in comparison to Starries???

Infinitesimal.

And Durgetash haters?

Would be even smaller.

So what I'm saying is...

I'm kind of tired of answering asks about this.

I don't KNOW for certain whether or not this is Larian backing up or walking forward, and while I don't believe they'd walk back on this, and especially not for a handful of people, it kind of annoys me to even think about things outside of my control.

now if Larian makes a big grand statement and says actually we totally rescind something WE WROTE AND ADDED TO THE GAME because some people got mad...then I'll call them cucks, and complain.

But as of right now?

As far as I know personally, and assume in my heart... it's neutral.

The lines are probably just bugged. Also, not ALL of them are bugged either, so.

Please stop freaking out, guys.

I am the world's biggest resident durgetash freak, and I'm shrugging at this, and just saying it's a bug.

Don't let it bother you. It's out of your control, regardless.

(And I stress again - if we find out they're legitimately backing away from something they did...they have the spine of a ham sandwich. But until we know that for sure, I won't condemn them for this, because as far as we know, it is legitimately an accident.)

[linaselandbasil]

HAHA, nerds! (Working title)

CHAPTER 2

(Bloodweave University au)

AO3 link, link to chapter 1

...

"Ugh, my nail broke! How does that even happen!" Astarion complained to Shadowheart literally immediately as she got into his car.

"I have no clue. I have never seen you work. Ever." She threw her backpack on the backseat and buckled up. "So, your place?"

"Yeah." He pulled out of the parking lot of the comic parlor and drove towards the nearest Wc Deepalds. "What do we order?"

"Fries, bunches. And a milkshake. And ice cream."

"We have ice cream at home."

"It's not the same, I assure you!" Shart said, crossing her arms. "Whatever, It's not like papa Caz is letting you eat any of it."

"Yeah, it's for guests, and you are a guest, so eat the fucking ice cream at home!" Astarion drove a little faster, unintentionally of course, he's a lawyer by trade, he's not a fan of being sued. Not a good look.

"You're unbearable!"

"So are you. But we're friends, so I'll forgive you." Astarion said with no hint of theatrics in his voice. A rare occurrence.

"Likewise."

After a bit of silence they arrived at the drive through and Astarion rolled his window down.

"Welcome to Wc Deepalds, what can I get you?"

"Can I get a ummmmmmm iced coffee and two large fries, annddddd ummmm... Shart what do you want?"

"Ice cream with caramel sauce, an oreo shake and garlic sauce... For the fries." She, of course, crawled into Astarions lap to lean out the window, even though she really didn't need to.

"Alright, is that all?"

"Yes, thank you." The pale elf said, shoving his worstie back into the passanger seat and driving to the next window where they spent a few minutes waiting. "Of course a little goblin like you would know the menu of this... mistakenly popular establishment. I congratulate you on your VIP ticket to heart failure."

"Thank you, I appreciate it." The window opened and Astarion was handed a warm, delicious smelling paper bag of fatty liver disease. He paid with his papa Cazador money and drove away.

Shadowheart said "Gimme that." And took the bag of fast food. She dug right into her ice cream.

"Bon appetit, my friend."

"Thanks."

"Youre very welcome." He took a sip of his coffee.

"Hey what's up with that bearded guy you asked out? D'he text you yet?"

"Yes. About 30 minutes after I left the store. Eager." Astarions apartment is not far from them by now, they can see it in the distance. A sad beige building with several floors full of annoying neighbors.

"You like them when they're enthusiastic, don't you."

"I do, and what about it? I prefer to know that my partners enjoy themselves!"

Shart sighed. "Such a politically correct gentleman you are."

He nearly choked on his coffee trying to speak his next words. "I AM! And beautiful! Not enough people mention that." He parked his car, got out and began marching to the enterance without waiting for his esteemed guest.

She managed, carrying her gym bag and the Wc Deepalds goodies in her hands of holding. Astarion climbed the stairs with her following not far behind, he took out his keychain, which had about a dozen charms and was attached to one of those things that let you put it around your neck.

"Make yourself at home, darling."

"I will." She took her shoes off at the entrance before the pale elf put her head on a stick for it. "So, I was thinking dark makeu-"

"SAVE. IT. FOR. THE. CAMERA." He put his coffee down on the counter.

"Sheesh, okay." She plopped down on the couch. "Ugh, I don't know how long I can take working at that place."

"What was it this time."

"Just the usual neckbeard business. If we banned the customers that 'flirted' with me we'd be going out of business unfortunately. Can I have a drink?"

"But of course, dear." He opened the fridge and poured her a tall glass of delicious orange juice. Yummy.

"I was thinking of a more age restricted substance."

"We can drink after filming."

"Good... You know what, I'm taking a nap, you go ahead and do the camera things."

"Yeah, good idea. Sweet dreams!" She curled up on the couch and began lightly snoring in about 6 minutes. Astarion could never, he has horrible things to remember and he only finds a gap in his schedule for them right before bedtime.

He quietly went to his bedroom to get started setting everything up.

...

"Do you think this one's better?" Asked Gale, showing a picture on his phone to Wyll. "Or this one." He swiped left.

"I'm not sure, they're both very elegant. Is there a specific dress code? Like, a color scheme?" Wyll was not the best person to ask about this sort of thing, but he is the only person Gale was willing to talk to about it.

"I'm not sure, I can ask him tho."

"Do that, but don't tell him about what your outfit will be, trust me he'll love a surprise!" He tried to reassure the wizard with a smile but it went unnoticed, since the man in question was ferociously typing a message to his future husband and possibly father to their children.

The cafeteria was not busy, people are cooped up in their dorms studying and eating takeout. A shame, honestly, they're serving pizza today.

"Oh my weave he texted back!"

"What did he say?"

"Dark colors, preferably, but I won't get kicked out unless I look underdressed."

"Good thing you have no shortage of wizardly robes."

"True that.... I think I'll wear the purple one."

"Robe of summer? Good choice." He said, glass of water in hand. "I'm almost jealous, I do miss balls, but I don't miss the kids of people who attend them."

"Right, I forgot you were once a well coiffed little noblemanlet! You blend right in with the rest of us common folk!" He put his phone in his pocket but right as he was about to forget about it, he received another message. "It's him...."

"What is it about?" Gale read it, and turned a little red.

'It matters to me very little what wrappings are on a gift, all I care about is what's underneath.'

"Well, it could be interpreted in two different ways, I'm not sure what he really meant.." Gale showed his friend the text.

"I think... If you were to take offense to his boldness, he'd say he didn't mean it like that to not make you uncomfortable, but he definitely meant it like that!" He took a bite of his pizza, it's growing cold.

"That's smart." Gale took a deep breath and started typing. He then changed his mind and deleted all the letters, he could do better. He then literally typed out the exact same sentence.

'Well, it's quite impolite to give a gift without wrapping isn't it? Unwrapping is part of the fun!'

"Wyll my heart is pounding, I don't know how people do this whole dating thing casually..."

"I believe in you, you will persevere!"

"I hope you're correct." He got another notification.

"ITS A P-" He realized he was yelling and stopped, he calmly began anew. "He sent me a picture..."

"Open it." Wyll was very invested in this love story that he was merely an observer of. Gale opened the message, it was a picture of a camera setup.

"I was worried it would be a more anatomical image." Said Wyll.

"I doubt he'd do that. He seems more refined." Gale remembered he had pizza so he took a big bite as he thought of something to write. Another message came in the meantime.

'I neglected to mention but I do have an adorable side hustle of doing makeup on youtube~'

'No need, I recognized you.'

'That's cute. But I am going to be quite busy for the next few hours, you go ahead and enjoy your night darling'

'I will, thank you!'

Gale put his phone down. "Dear gods..." He breathed deep. "Wyll I think he put a spell on me!"

"I thought an evocation major would have noticed by now." Wylls pizza was long devoured, so he took to eating the suspiciously healthy looking salad they gave him.

"Or maybe I- He's just- hmmgh..." He bit into his slice of pizza once again. "I don't know, but he did something to me for certain!"

"You know, I think maybe you should worry less about it. He asked you out so he's clearly interested!"

"Stellar advice... I'm going back to dorm. Bye!" He took his tray to the tray receptacle (whatever it may be I hadn't been in a school cafeteria in a while) and dramatically went back to his building.

...

"Shart..." Poke. "Shaaart." Poke. Poke. "Jenevelle Hallowleaf, you wake up immediately or face my fury!"

"It's been at most 3 minutes, stop it!" He kept poking her. "Cease!" She sat up and grabbed Astarion.

"AGH! UNHAND ME YOU BASTARD!" She gave him the full sibling experience and slapped him with his own hand. "Stop hitting me!"

"Stop hitting yourself!" She chuckled and let go of him. He immediately stood up and smoothed his clothes out. "You changed?"

"Surely you didn't think I'd be recording the video in pajamas."

"You're right, going to the street in them was nowhere near as embarrassing." She said, stretching. "Let's get this done, I want to drink already."

"Yes, let's."

...

Gale tried on every fancy wizardly robe he has, the blue one, the yellow one, the other blue one, the purple one, he can't decide. He never even wears these, he's been living in sweats ever since he moved out of his mom's magic tower!

"I think you look quite dashing in this one Mr. Dekarios!"

"I don't feel very dashing." He admitted, looking at himself in the mirror he hexed to float.

"Maybe shaving would help."

"I'm certain it wouldn't. Maybe I ought to brush my hair." He held his hand out and a comb flew to him. He ran it through his glorious mane.

"Wash it." Tara jumped on the desk to see better. "You live like you're invisible, I'm surprised that this Asterion noticed you!"

"Ah-STAR-ion."

"Yes him, he has an eye for fixer uppers." She laid down on his laptop, sprawling out like it was the nicest pillow she ever touched. "Put your earring on too. And cologne!"

"Great idea... When Mystra-"

"I don't want to hear her name from your mouth." She headbutted him. "When is he picking you up?"

"Tomorrow at 8 i think, ill have to check."

"Then you have time until tomorrow to get yourself into shape, you will be fine. OH, why don't you put your hat on?"

"You said it would ruin my hair." He snapped his fingers and it appeared in the air above him.

"Well, I changed my mind, I think it goes very nicely with these robes!"

"Very well." The hat floated down to his head, crowning him the king of rizzards. "It does look good, thank you for the suggestion."

"Great, now that the outfit is decided on, go rest! Tomorrow is a big day."

[wetcatspellcaster]

I can totally get why you feel pressured with Pieces! When you write a popular fic, you do write it for yourself, but it's hard not to think of the thousands of people who give you their undying support, and you want to do right by them!! But, we are here because we love your writing (all of it. If I told you how many times I've reread Party Favors... Or dipped my toes back into An Honest Lie. God, God. I'd say too many, but it's honestly not enough) and we are here for the ride you choose to take us on. I have a firm belief in your abilities that has been proven true again again.

Personally I love your writing because it's amazing and well thought out, not because it's perfect. Which isn't to say that I notice any flaws (because I don't) but it is to say that perfection is unachievable. Pieces is fucking ambitious as hell, and you are slaying with each chapter, but you also aren't being paid. We are all freeloaders off of your google doc. Don't sweat about it too much.

That being said the last chapter had me SCREAMING. SCREAMING. I AM UNWELL!!!! THE HAIR REF,,,,,,,,,, HIS LITTLE CATTINESS,,,, ROSE BEING CRINGEFAIL,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ugh. UGH! IT'S JUST LIKE THE GOOD OL' DAYS ONLY NOT AT ALL AND EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

hello petal! thank you for sending this! I have been very tired for the last week or so, so I'm sorry to say that is why it sat in my askbox, I didn't want to not do the reply justice.

Thank you for being so kind! I'm really glad you enjoy my writing. I will 100% admit that I didn't think Pieces would become what it did, it's honestly amazing and I'm consistently blown away by the response it gets from readers and how nice everyone is, but it is very strange to write something ambitious just for your own curiosity versus suddenly hundreds of people getting an email when you're essentially 'fucking around and finding out'. I'm never going to complain! I'm very very lucky!! People like you now come to my tiny little tumblr and say nice things to me! But it has been a big change and it has definitely involved some adjustment lol.

It is nice to be reminded that some readers actually like the brand of Astarion/Tav I wrote before I touched an Ascendency AU, and that returning to that isn't a massive letdown lol. What is coming in the next few chapters of Pieces is a much softer brand of problem, and it's nice to be able to be a little kinder to the characters even if they're stewing in their own feelings! I hope people enjoy it when it happens, there is more repression and more absolute cringefail moments to come :')

I'm aware that I haven't updated anything in a few weeks, but unfortunately I am spending my days wrangling my PhD thesis and trying to edit it down to the wordcount. I have been writing, but I have not got an editing braincell in my body by the end of the day and that is why I haven't felt comfortable posting. I hope to be back soon, or at least by the end of the month once my draft is handed in. I know that's not what your purpose was in sending the message, but I just want to reassure you and other readers that I've not fallen off the face of the earth I am just. very very tired. Thank you for your kind words when my brain is on fire xx

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Seeing the confessions about Astarion dolls being everywhere make me a little hesitant to share my dolls online, not because they're of Astarion, but they're from media that's been seen frequently in recent years that some people in adjacent hobby spaces complained about seeing everywhere as well. I'm a bit of a people pleaser, I'm trying really hard not to be, but seeing someone just loudly complain on my page or in groups I've shared my work in about something I poured my whole heart and soul into making just because it's a character from popular media they're tired of seeing everywhere hurts my heart. Like I get it, I get being sick of seeing the same trends across hobby spaces, but I'd rather you leave your complaining on your own page or on confession blogs like this one, or literally anywhere that's not on my photos.

~Anonymous

[aureliaen]

When you say “is anyone hurt by the lack of florrick content” that’s kind of what op is getting at. I write & read mainly f/f & it does in fact suck that there’s so little content of those ships & chars. When demographics are so skewed we need to ask why-that’s why they brought up “ppl say female chars are less interesting” bc that’s a justification we hear a ton. They weren’t attacking individuals but a cultural issue in fandom. Interrogating systemic biases anywhere is important & makes fandom as a whole better.

That's fair, I def see your point. It's frustrating when your favorite ships and characters aren't getting as much attention as you'd want, especially as an active creator yourself, and I def understand how that might make you more reactively bitter about those that do. I feel similarly about Astarion. I quite enjoyed him while playing for the most part, but seeing how unreasonably overrepresented he is in the fandom made him a lot more annoying.

The thing is, just because it's personally irritating doesn't make it an actual issue. What I mean by that is, fandom is driven by active fans. It is very possible that Astarion's fans are, for example, more prolific than Shadowheart's and make more than 1 fanfic per author on average, or that they're a lot younger and have more time on their hands. Just some possible examples.

We can and should talk about biases and the way they interact with the game and its community, but that's not what happened in that post. People reblogging are just using it as a place to complain and insult those they deem as guilty of the female characters' lack of popularity, with no quality discussion taking place. But those of us who write and read fanfics about Gortash instead of Orin don't do it because we hate Orin, it's because we love Gortash (and because his dynamic with Durge is completely different from Orin's so comparing them in the first place is inaccurate).

They weren’t attacking individuals but a cultural issue in fandom.

This rubs me the wrong way too. It just doesn't seem true. The fandom isn't a hivemind. It's made of individual, very specific people with specific interests, reasons to create and circumstances that do or don't allow them to create. It's not a cultural issue that a bunch of different groups enjoy male characters the author decided to often arbitrarily juxtapose with a different female character for the sake of proving a predetermined point. It's not like it's a male fans vs female fans thing either? I love Gortash and would rather write about him than Orin (even though I really like Orin). I love Minthara and would never write about Halsin. I don't give a shit about Zevlor or Florrick. For many, many people, there's no overlap.

So what the post (or maybe the people reblogging) is/are really doing is addressing a collective of creators with extremely varying interest in dynamics and characters, with one shared trait of them being male, and telling them that that's a bad thing and they're perpetuating misogyny. And you should also account for the fact that many of those people ship those male characters with their own female Tavs/Durges, who are often extremely fleshed out characters with intriguing backstories and characterization. It makes no sense.

Having said all that, I know how hard it is to start writing and I hope more F/F fans who don't currently create will join you in building that side of the community. BG3 has a ton of great female characters that deserve love, def no doubt about that.

[binghelovebot]

I can't take people saying they just care about characterization re: ascended astarion seriously when the same people never seem to complain about any number of quite popular spawnstarion posts that fly directly in the face of canon

There are *objectively* more posts making spawn astarion out to be just a sweetheart with an asshole shell who isn't *that* bad (despite him. Approving of slavery, extortion, and generally any cruel act you can do) than there are apologist posts for ascended astarion. There are more posts defending it as just temporary behavior that he'll surely keep growing past end game than there are posts saying ascended astarion could change.

But mysteriously only the ascended astarion apologists get daily posts making fun of them in the name of "media literacy" and "you can like a toxic character just admit he's toxic" (weirdly, no one says this to people romancing astarion with a gnome tav despite him being racist against them.)

And like to be clear I don't think there should be posts making fun of that, I don't think there should be posts making fun of *anyone*.

[bloodweave-fandom-critical]

Is this a safe space to say that I find it increasingly difficult to stay engaged with this fandom? It feels like nobody even cares about the characters anymore. Everything you see is are AU that change characters so much, they barely feel like the same people. I want to support everyone. But it's difficult when I feel like even though we ship the same pairing, I have no actual interest in common with the person. People on here have complained about the cliques and how difficult it is to make friends but this isn't too surprising to me when the fandom has evolved this far from the source material. I'm glad some people are enjoying it but as someone who's primarily interested in the source material I simply cannot stay invested.

I agree. Now I have stepped away from the fandom I can see Bloodweave for what it is, and I understand why it gets the hate it does.

I think I got so wrapped up in liking the ship and supporting creators that I didn't think to step back and actually ask myself if the stories were in character. I enjoyed reading the stories, but at what cost?

People are allowed to create what they want, but I am also frustrated at the number of AU's being created. It seems like people just write AU's so that they can get away with making Astarion softer. AU's where they are both still in character, or at least acting in a way you would expect them to act in this different situation, are a rare find.

I do think some creators should be creating for a different ship instead of Bloodweave.

I have got into another MM ship in this new fandom I am part of. It's a rare pair (despite them both being popular), but 90% of the fanfics created for this ship remain in character for them both. I would prefer that over a large quantity of OOC fics. This other ship has helped me put into context a lot of the hate Bloodweave gets. It's not that they don't work together, it's the fandom that has descended on to this ship that makes the ship bad.

I think there might be some truth in why people hate the most popular MM ships in fandoms.

I will still defend the ship when it gets hate, but otherwise, I am out of the fandom now.

.

[baldursgateanon]

"This is why the fandom treats Astarion so differently compared to the other companions and why everyone hyperfixates on every little thing Astarion fans do. He's not even the most popular companion--statistically more people romance Gale and Shadowheart--but his fans make content for him and fans of other characters don't.

The rest of the fandom just has not, can not, WILL NOT match that same energy for the characters they claim to love. At the end of the day, complaining about Larian giving him too much content or Astarion fans being too loud and annoying is just so much easier than picking up a pencil or opening a blank word document."

I just want to point out that while Astarion does legitimately have more dialogue than the other companions, his entire backstory never made it to the full game, nor did his connection to the main plot via Cazador fueding with the Absolute. There's so much we don't know about him even compared to characters like Wyll: we have his profession as a mortal elf, cause of death, and the dates on his tombstone (which might not even be accurate). Even what he's getting up to in the epilogue is super vague. But that doesn't stop his fans from coming up with these really elaborate backstories for him or fleshing out really minor characters associated with him like his spawn siblings. It's not about what the canon gives you but what you do with it.

In all fairness, a lot of Wyll's dialogue (particularly his romance scenes) are bugged and clearly half-finished. I think we can strike up a balance between not being unfair to Astarion/his fans and recognizing that Wyll and HIS fans were treated unfairly by both the game studio and the larger fans community.

[bg3critical]

People like to shit on Bloodweave because it i is popular, but the same could be said about most ships. (...)

Not the anon you were responding to, and only quoting this part for length but I'm replying to the entire post.

This is why most ships between companions just don't work for me.

Some of them could work without having to change the companions behavior and personality, like Wyll x Karlach (probably the closet thing to a canon pairing, while still being ambiguous enough that they could also be purely platonic), Selunite Shadowheart x Gale or Halsin or Wyll (especially in his Duke ending) or Karlach, Wyll x Gale, Astarion x Lae'zel (at least up to a one night stand at the Tieffling/Goblin party), maybe Lae'zel x Wyll since if you don't sleep with her but spend the night with Astarion she tries to sleep with Wyll only to complain the next morning that he only wanted to talk, but still apparently stayed with him the whole night, and originally he did flirt with her in party banters, but I'm not sure she'd be very compatible with his whole fairy tale romance, but most of them, and especially the most popular ones, require to have one if not both of them being OOC to even begin.

As for Bloodweave, while I think they'd already be more compatible than Astarion x Wyll, technically Gale wouldn't be able to sleep with Astarion to start his romance since he's afraid he might blow up if he gets too excited (which somehow the game ignores when playing as Gale), plus Gale isn't particularly receptive to Astarion's flirting, but honestly based on their respective personality, Astarion is the opposite of what Gale needs in a lover, considering Gale is power-hungry and Astarion encourages you to seek more power every time he has a chance, and doesn't like the gods. You'd pretty much be sure to end up with either a Gale who gets destroyed by Mystra for trying to overthrow her or his God of Ambition ending, as for Astarion it's kinda 50/50 on whether or not he'd ascend, technically Gale isn't exactly okay with him ascending, but he also likes AA. They both need a lover who can get them out of the idea they need more power and considering they're both in that mindset at the same time, I don't think they'd be good for each other on that front, unless you're specifically aiming for a "they can make each other worse" kind of romance.

.

[aureliaen]

Some of y'all need to touch grass. And take a statistics class. Unless you just wanna get mad about stuff that doesn't matter, then disregard, I guess. Rant/analysis below.

Works on AO3 are not representative of the BG3 fandom. The BG3 fandom isn't representative of the entire BG3 playerbase. Comparing the number of works about characters (AO3) based on how popular they are overall (playerbase) is insane. Obviously you need to account for the demographics of fanfic writers.

Choosing a few categories that happen to support your preconceived bias is not the move. How were they chosen and why? You could easily find categories where the female character is more popular.

Orin and Gortash are completely different characters and their shared connection to Durge is literally meaningless, considering Gortash is usually a romantic interest and Orin a family member. Romance or smut focused fanfics are vastly more popular. Pretending like they're the same based on one shared characteristic is a fallacy. Also not some of you thinking Gortash doesn't deserve to be popular bc he's evil. Like. Lmao. At a loss for words genuinely.

Minthara is obviously a much better character than Halsin (I'm sorry I don't like him). But like. Do you really think she's less popular because of sexism or are you just being disingenuous? A vast majority of people save the grove. To most players, Minthara is just a random miniboss in act 1 they'll kill once and never think about again. I wish she had more fans, but with the way recruiting her works, she won't.

Astarion doesn't shut up about Cazador since act 1, and we learn in some great detail about who he is and what he did. Viconia isn't even mentioned by name since literally the moment she first appears, and she isn't the central antagonist in Shadowheart's quest. Besides, I'd assume there's a significant overlap between Cazador writers and Astarion writers, and he IS the most popular BG3 character on AO3.

Some of these are just insane, too. 14 fic difference between Z'rell and Nere, really? Lol.

And what is y'all's supposed solution to this problem anyway? Is this post just to bitch about women and queer people who happen to find joy in writing about men? What are we supposed to do, start writing about characters that don't excite us as much just to fill a quota? If you love certain characters and you find that their fandom isn't too big, write about them. Stop complaining that fans of other characters create more.

A common issue in fandom spaces is female characters ignored in favor of their male counterparts, and one of the biggest reasons I see given is that the women just aren't as interesting as the men. They're placed in lesser roles with less story impact, less personality, less character development, so of course the men get more fan interest.

With that in mind, here's 9 sets of characters who DO have comparable characterization, plot relevance/presence, and personal development -- and how many tagged works each character has on Archive of Our Own. Spoilers: it's pretty bad.