littlemonday - Tumblr blog

[littlemonday]

I seem to remember someone on Reddit summing-up player reactions to the Emperor as: “The problem with what the Emperor did was that they did it to me!”

The Emperor narrative is deliciously meta and maybe even intends for the player to examine their own interactions with the game. I did see at least one person on Reddit realize the mindflayer = Player vibes, but I have already been thinking about this for a while, so here is my personal take:

The thing about the Emperor is that he does to you what you as the player do to all the characters of the game.

You fundamentally alter the character's nature by persuasion and manipulation (and by manipulation, I mean having knowledge they do not, and choosing your actions to your own ends based upon that knowledge. Maybe you make them better or worse).

You even manipulate your way into sex and romance. Some of you make moral decisions basically upon whether you think you can get in a character's pants or not. (coughAstarioncough).

You metagame. You know beforehand what could happen, and steer events accordingly.

You are everyone's knight in shining armour...or everyone's manipulative villain.

You hate it when things don't go your way. You do everything you can to steer it to your agenda, and get frustrated when characters don't (or can't) listen.

Even down to the very act of character creation, an avatar or mask that allows you to interact seamlessly in the game environment.

You don't really mean harm. Your motives are self serving, but they are not truly malicious. You cannot change the nature of your own superiority to fictional characters. This is just how you interact with such a world.

You and the Emperor are participating in the exact same methods. He is the closest thing to an actual equal you have in the game.

"You and I are the same." He basically tells you this directly, it just sounds hollow when you are only viewing it through the perspective of the fictional persona you took on.

It's almost hysterical how many players reacted to him with intense hatred.

[littlemonday]

i am looking respectfully ʘ‿ʘ

[littlemonday]

Oh, Minsc. <3

[littlemonday]

So much of the difference in player response to the Emperor vs. Raphael comes down to aesthetics.

I’ve been seeing a lot of fan posting of Raphael lately, which is honestly fine. I enjoy seeing fan creations on all the characters. But I feel like I need to address something that is, for me, rather glaring in the fandom. Raphael is a pretty popular character, while the Emperor gets so much hate posting I’ve had to block users and entire groups on other sites because it was so over the top. These characters are functionally quite similar in the game, but the disparity in how they’re each perceived couldn’t be more different.

Both characters need to form an alliance with the main character. Both characters need the main character to defeat the brain. Both characters are willing to manipulate the main character to meet their own ends. But, one character is a conventionally attractive middle aged man, and the other is a humanoid squid monster. (How many times have we all seen posts about how upset someone was when their hot dream guardian turned out to be the squid monster?)

Not only is Raphael conventionally attractive, but he stays that way when he reveals himself as a devil.The Emperor presents himself as someone the main character would trust, but when he’s finally revealed, he bears no resemblance to the facade he was wearing - a facade that he sincerely believed was necessary to keep himself safe and to win your trust. Raphael is quite literally the handsome devil. His ascended form barely makes an appearance, but even so that form is not alien. It’s devilish, but not alien, and “alien” unlike devilish, invokes a deeply discomforting fear of the unknown.

Raphael is all opulence and performance, wearing tailored clothing and living in a grandiose house that hides the horrors of what happens there until late into act 3. While the mind flayer colonies by comparison are grotesque organisms that look like the inside of a body, and the Emperor’s home is a bare bones cellar with the last remaining keepsakes of his former life. The chains he uses to hold his victims are right out in the open.

Raphael is like an old school campy Disney villain who tries to entertain you all while openly admitting that he wants you to come to him when you’re desperate and all hope is gone. And like those old Disney villains, he just enjoys being evil. He even comes with his own villain song that he sings. He enjoys your suffering. He’s openly playing with his food. The Emperor does try to seduce you, but mostly tries to appeal to your pragmatism and empathy. However, he doesn’t have Disney villain camp to help him out here. He embodies all the body horror and fear over the player's loss of humanity by virtue of him being a mind flayer. He does have a song, but most of us miss it on our first play through and don’t hear its tragic lyrics.

Raphael, and this one is perhaps the most frustrating to me, imprisoned and tortured Hope for years! He takes advantage of people, including orphans, and gets them to sign away their souls for eternal torment in exchange for something they desperately want or need in life. While the Emperor has that one infamous cutscene in which we see him enthrall Stelmane, but it comes on the heels of the player dehumanizing and provoking him. A lot of players will refer to this as a “call out” and a “mask off” moment, which is very disingenuous framing. It’s frustrating that so few players never seem to consider the deeper role their choices may play in triggering this scene: you treat him like an inhuman monster, and you get an inhuman monster. Players will complain all the time about how the Emperor manipulates you and lies about everything, but apparently in this one scene he’s suddenly being completely honest and not manipulating you? So many never consider the possibility of confirmation bias when it comes to this character.

As I said, this cutscene is an obvious threat, but I know that just because he’s threatening you, it doesn’t mean there’s no truth to what you’re seeing. However, it also doesn’t mean that this is somehow “the truth” as so many players seem to think it is. I’ll write more on this in another post, but there’s just not enough information in the game to make definitive conclusions on their relationship. And I bring this up because I don’t see anywhere near the outrage over Hope as I see over Stelmane.

Then there’s Ansur. The Emperor killed his love, Ansur, out of self defense (we know this from Ansur himself), and for a lot of players, this was what solidified their hatred for the Emperor, and they will endlessly hate post about it. Raphael, on the other hand, never killed any of his loves. But the reason he never killed any of his loves is because he’s never loved anyone. He’s incapable of it, and anyone he has killed was, at best, a mere tool for his use.

Which brings me to my next point, even though both characters are trying to manipulate you to their own ends, only the Emperor sees you as more than a means to an end. Raphael does not. In fact, I wrote a lot of words on this very topic.

I’ve had people tell me that they like Raphael more because he’s upfront with his intentions, while the Emperor isn’t. That’s not entirely true. The Emperor tells you he wants his freedom, even tells you the power he uses to protect you is power he’s stolen, but he goes to great lengths to hide his identity, where Raphael barely goes to any lengths at all. As I said, the Emperor sincerely believes he must do this to protect himself. He likes to puff his chest out, but he’s quite aware of his own vulnerability, so he lives a life in which he’s constantly hiding and disguising himself. He’s surviving, as he puts it in the end. Raphael is essentially a prince in the Hells who wields a lot of power, and whatever vulnerabilities he might have are well protected. Whatever difference this makes is not enough to justify the gulf in how much hate the Emperor receives versus how little Raphael does.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is not me saying that you have to like one character or dislike another. That’s personal, and I’m not going to waste time telling people how to feel. So please don’t take away from this that I want to see more hate posting about Raphael. I don’t! Please don’t hate post about any characters, and if you absolutely must, please don’t use character tags to do so. What I am saying is that there’s a clear double standard in this fandom, and I want more players to engage with this media in a way that is both empathetic and analytical. I think both of those things together can prevent a lot of toxicity.

[littlemonday]

I’m so glad someone brought this up! I actually brought up this exact thing in a conversation a while back with someone. The Emperor is strongly coded as a masculine romantic and sexual interest and a big part of that is his character design.

Everything from his deep voice, to his height and broad chest, the status signaling of his head piece, his authoritative movements, the position of his hips when he stands (reminds me of Doug Jones in The Shape of Water), and that very intentional codpiece! All of these strong sexual markers are later contrasted in the romance scene in which we discover he’s actually a very sweet and tender lover.

If you want a good giggle, his codpiece is very prominent when he catches you after you fail to dominate the Elder Brain. Your character will literally turn their head and the codpiece is at eye level before they look up at the Emperor’s face.

I feel like not enough people talk about how oddly provocative the Emperor's codpiece is like???? The...the shape? The positioning on their body? The placement of the illithid's mouth? There is so much to unpack here.

[littlemonday]

when it comes to balduran/the emperor and ansur i think its a really interesting sort of tragedy no matter how you interpret their relationship and the nature of what happened.

because there's something to once being a hero so renowned that a home to thousands is in your name. and having a companion so dear that they'd kill you to preserve You, but also having changed so much against your will from that hero and that friend they knew and having to come to terms with it (maybe also against your will).

and being a survivor in the long run and being saved time and time again and being used and using back. of coming back home and infiltrating and taking power and being captured and used to hurt when you used to help. of running and manipulating and attempting to do the same trust-build-seduction method you once used with someone new, and trying to convince this person to become like you. because at this point you've lost the ability to feel your feelings

we obviously by nature of its character cant tell when the emperor is lying, telling the truth, or being sincere but i also like really don't like the idea of intrinsic evilness so sometimes i want to take him at face value. we have examples of a mind flayer having genuine companionship (omeluum) alongside having a purpose that lets them live a life separate from the grand design, and i fear having ansur was perhaps the only reason the emperor ever got to be free. not just physically but mentally.

because balduran went sailing one day because he missed it and never came home. ansur fought to find him and was too late. y'know. and like. how heartbreaking is that? that ansur who loved and protected and promised to keep balduran's city safe… made a promise that became a prison. to love so wholly that he wanted to preserve his partner even when his partner gave up and told him to leave and keep his memory as the thing that mattered. how heartbreaking for balduran to have killed him in self defense and then built him a tomb where he could rest? that no one would disturb him? how famous the love was that his promise to protect became legend? the last wish he ever had? that the only way to wake him was to pass a gauntlet to prove your worth? while recording praises for their partnership?

like forgive me but i don't think creating an elaborate tomb to protect ansur's final resting place is a lack of feeling. ansur made a promise that became a prison that became a legend. his legacy was love. and he recognized balduran from feeling alone and got to see him again, for what its worth. the emperor will always be ansur's balduran.

also we see ansur in his dragonborn form. not controversial i hope but they were more than friends! ansur i'm sorry king. your husband became calamari and unrecognizable. and when he accuses balduran of thralling the player, which we can refute, and ansur just stops to Look only for balduran to break the silence by RECITING THE LETTER? DEAR ANSUR? AND THAT'S WHAT DRIVES ANSUR TO ATTACK?

nevermind the fact that you can't make the dream guardian a dragonborn. and the armor it wears is awfully similar to ansur's in his humanoid form. balduran never forgot ansur. i think balduran-as-the-emperor in dream guardian form not taking a form like ansurs but still keeping that armor, still speaking ansur's words and acting out his intents when promising the player protection and care, is evidence that ansur lived in him still. even through the layers of the loss of identity that was him becoming a mind flayer.

ansur was the heart of the gate. and it's baldur's gate. he's balduran's heart. his heart. ansur lived in him. it was a promise that became a prison that became a legend. his legacy was love

[littlemonday]

Emperor is surprisingly bad at lying.

[littlemonday]

Paint the Emperor, they said - it's good for you! 🐙💙

Prints of this artwork in bigger & smaller sizes, as well as limited Fine Art prints are available in my Etsy shop! ✨🐙💜

Many MANY hours later, it's finished! Possibly my most detailed artwork to date!

The amount of details that needed to be precisely drawn in order not to make anything look muddy turned this into one heck of a challenge, but goodness does it feel rewarding to have finished it! I hope you enjoy it! Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 💖

[littlemonday]

It’s taken me close to four decades to learn this, and I still have to actively remind myself at times.

writers and artists will go "this isn't good enough." my brother in christ, you're creating something new out of nothing and expressing yourself creatively. your productivity and unrealistic standards of perfection do not define you or the worth of your art. you're doing great.

[littlemonday]

Hi! It's me again, and it's time to start planning for the next Emperor Week! This time, as promised, I'd like to ask all of you to help me select the dates and the prompts, by clicking the link above and voting in the poll.

The poll will stay open for one week, until 29th April, and the results will be announced soon after.

🦑Now go vote!🦑

[littlemonday]

Scrolling through Tumblr, and holy shit. The level of seething vitriol some (a lot of) players have for The Emperor is so over the top I genuinely think they need a reminder that he isn’t real! He’s, you know, a character in a story, and stories require narrative tension. You don’t have to like him, but calm down and stop using Emperor tags to hate post.

Like, I really don’t like ascended Astarion, but I’m not going to write some unhinged hate rant like the bastard actually sacrificed 7000 real people and become the worst dom ever who doesn’t believe in safe words or active consent. I know he’s problematic, but he’s not real, and that’s the angle I would use if I decided to write anything about him.

The Emperor seriously lives rent free in a lot player’s heads.

[littlemonday]

I just want to say that I love the look of partial ceremorphosis. To me it’s such an otherworldly beauty. It actually reminds me a great deal of the Dhracians, a fantasy race featured in Elizabeth Haydon’s Symphony of Ages series. One of the main characters is half Dhracian, and because his skin is covered in superficial nerves and vessels, he keeps his face hidden and is considered very unsettling and ugly to look at. This unique racial feature allows him to sense vibrations in his environment and contributes to his skill as a tracker and assassin.

I would love to have seen more NPCs react to Tav/Durge’s change after taking the astral tadpole. I remember in one scene an NPC called my Durge “ordinary looking” (or something close to that) despite her half-illithid appearance. Mamzell Amira of Sharess’s Caress will fawn over how fair you are if you’re an elf, and again I would have loved to have seen a different set of reactions if you’ve undergone partial ceremorphosis.

It would have been so interesting for Tav/Durge to experience othering through their interactions with NPCs throughout act 3. This othering could come in a variety of reactions ranging from fear, disgust, intrigue, or even an object of admiration, or desire. Likewise, more narration on how this change feels the further into act 3 you get would help to add additional weight to this decision.

As for my headcanon, I believe this change is permanent. I never liked how your character reverts back to normal in the end after the brain and tadpoles are destroyed. Your character sheet after taking the astral tadpole even says that you’re half-illithid, and I think it makes sense that the power of the astral tadpole and the Netherese magic of your original tadpole combined would create a permanent change. It’s possible that once the tadpole is destroyed, your powers weaken, and maybe some of your old appearance comes back, but I don’t think they should vanish entirely, and perhaps with continued nurturing of your psionic powers, more of your abilities would come back, and those physical changes will again become more pronounced.

Those are my thoughts. And how cool would it be if the partial ceremorphosis opened up the possibility of an ongoing romantic relationship with The Emperor once the brain is destroyed? Even a tentative romance in the face of something so new to The Emperor and Tav/Durge could still be a suitable and satisfying ending. One can dream.

[littlemonday]

All my writing sessions must first begin with me leaning back in my desk chair and letting my cat walk all over my chest, screaming in my face, then finally wrapping herself around my neck and face like a scarf. We snuggle like this for about ten minutes, at which point she leaves, and I’m allowed to begin writing. This is the way.

What happens if I don’t do this for her? She sits directly in front of my screen, sulks, and lets out the most pathetic murrs you’ve ever heard until I relent. It would be heartbreaking if I didn’t know how spoiled she was.

[littlemonday]

Summer storms! ⛈️

`✵•.¸,✵°✵.｡.Event Intro .｡.✵°✵,¸.•✵´

Welcome to the Baldur's Gate 3 Summer Creativity Event.

The idea is to bring the community together to create works around a summer theme!

FAQ: How does it work? Create a work (art, writing, embroidery, song, anything) based on Baldur's Gate 3 with a summer theme. This blog will share them through the summer. (June through August)

Do I have to follow certain prompts: A list of prompts is below, but fitting in one of them isn't required, as long your work is appropriately summer themes.

How will you share the works? Either @ the blog or submit your post! There will also be an AO3 collection (coming soon). Please don't just tag with a hash tag because that will be very hard to share.

Are there any ratings guide lines? Nope! Just tag appropriately please!

Who can participate? Anyone 18+ since there is not interest in policing who submits what content.

Who's running this thing? Just me, @tragedybunny

Anything else? Please share so lots of people can participate.

AO3 Collection coming soon!

Prompt list:

Ocean / waves 

Sun / Sunburn

Heat / Humidity

Beach / Sand / Sandcastles /Sea glass

Ice cream

Sunsets

Calimshan and Amn

The Sea of Fallen Stars (pirate region on forgotten realms)

Festival / County Fair

Summer flowers / night blooming flowers 

Beach Party

BBQ

Travel

Bonfire / campfire stories

Swimming/ water / first time swimming in the ocean

Fireflies

Summer storms

Fruits / summer harvest / summer refreshments

Mosquitoes

Boats / sailing

Surfing 

Snorkeling / Scuba diving

Camping (for fun this time)

Summer Love

Dividers by @ / saradika-graphics

[littlemonday]

Confirmed! Emps is an old man who keeps his socks on during sex.

I'm messing around with a debug/cheat mod that lets you spawn in any character in BG3 at will and I love that the various versions of the Emperor's model in the game files are: normal, totally non-suspicious disguise, shirtless, normal but without the big headpiece, and...... naked except for boots ??

[littlemonday]

Emperor Solo Ending <3

This is so cool! If you defeat the brain with your party, one of your companions will tell The Emperor that they will miss him, and this is what follows:

The Emperor “I will miss you too.” Narrator: Now that you no longer live in each other’s minds, it’s hard to tell if the mind flayer is being sincere. Though perhaps no harder than it ever was.

If you have a solo ending in which it's just you and The Emperor on the docks, this is what he says to you and there's no interjection from the Narrator! I chose the "I trusted you" dialogue.

The Emperor: “Strange, isn’t it? To have traveled this far, inseparable from one another, only to cut the cord at the final step. I’ll miss you, you know. You have become… important to me. And should our paths ever cross again, I will be glad to see you.”

The voice acting is also quite different in the solo ending. To me, Emps sounds very sincere and a little vulnerable, almost like he's unsure of how to express himself. Scott Joseph really nailed the voice acting for The Emperor. And judging by the expression in his eyes in the final close up, I'm convinced he's smiling when he says he'll be glad to see you.

[littlemonday]

I couldn’t agree more. The part where your companions walk in has been screen capped so many times as a quick joke. I guess it’s funny for the “I did it for the achievement” crowd, but for those of us who saw real significance in this humanizing scene with the Emperor - a scene that is otherwise beautiful and sincere - the companions walking in was so out of place. It’s like last minute the writers (maybe this was Swen’s call) decided they were too chicken shit to stand by this scene, so they just threw in your companions being disgusted. I also would have been fine waiting for when they could have had all the voice actors record reaction lines, but that just didn’t seem to be a priority.

I’ve written extensively about this, but there was definitely a lot of disagreement on the Emperor in the writing room. It feels like the game can’t decide on how it wants the audience to perceive monsters; whether they want you to see their humanity or not.

At this point, I fear any additions they make to the Emperor in subsequent patches will just continue to undermine the potential and careful work that is there. There’s so, so much potential with his character, the foundation is there, and I think it’s up to fans at this point to expand on that.

Seeing Larian changing some stuff here and there in the game, the little unnecessary added dialogue in The Emperor's romance scene that ruins the vibe, the current Minthara debacle...

In retrospect I don't wanna see them touch The Emperor again 🤷‍♀️

Like, you can leave him be, he's fine the way he is, no need for more stuff, it's fine, we can fanfic/fanart the rest, no worries, leave it to us