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They’ll never do a Hitman level set in a Furry Convention because gamers would absolutely ruin it but imagine. like the target isn’t a furry he just owns a hotel that happens to have one every year but you can disguise yourself in a fursuit and some guy will ask you “what species is your sona” and 47 would be like “a wolf. i always felt a connection with…hunters.” and then diana would be like “let’s see if you can sniff out some information, furrty-seven” and then he comes to my house and kills me for writing this

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I think I still hold grief over the loss of Early Access Wyll. Like, you know I do enjoy Full Release Wyll too! But if I had to pick between the two versions of him, I really do believe EA Wyll was going in a fresher direction, and would have personally preferred Larian stuck to that direction rather than bend to racist fans who were always going to hate on him anyway and low and behold, still hate on him anyway.

I also wonder if Larian didn't scrap everything and start over with Wyll, we would've gotten a fuller story arc for him than what we ended up with, too. But that's just speculation of course.

Anyway, this is just vomiting thoughts after seeing some conversation about how Larian removed Lae'zel's teeth / grit, and remembering that she wasn't even the first they did that to.

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DOOM FLOW

I’m movin’ different. This shit ain’t nothin’ to me man, I’m a god. I’m attaining absolute power, we smokin’ Beyonders. Smokin’ that Panther God, Heart-Shaped Herb, Vibranium kush. We smokin’ Infinity Stones. I’m on the Power Cosmic, smokin’ on the Silver Surfer’s board. We smokin’ Blackbeard’s treasure. We snortin’ that good Rabum Alal, Library of Worlds, Incursion pack, I see Eternity. They use all caps when they spell my name. Opps tried to step to me, I hit em with the Foot Dive. I don’t need to use my Assists, I’m already top tier. They call me Leto II the way I’m the God-Emperor of Doom. Mjolnir isn’t worthy of me. Even my robot duplicates are built different. Celestial thought he could start something, nobody judges me but me. Hollywood can’t even handle me, I’m too real. I’m like Adam Warlock, I was Him from the start. This shit ain’t nothin’ to me, man. The Illuminati got conspiracies about me. I already rule the world, the opps just don’t know it yet. Top shelf zaza retconned my origin story. I’m movin’ multiversal. Take me to Earth-1610, I am Ultimate. I’m spittin’ more fire than Johnny Storm. I’m movin’ like Omar Little, you come at the king, you best not miss. Silenced the opps from the shadows, call that Secret Wars. Went back in time to the crucifixion, let him get a good look at his replacement. Even Mephisto doesn’t want to deal with me. Call me Kurt Russell the way I got The Thing cooked. I remade all existence before Nathaniel Essex even achieved Dominion. Called my kingdom Battleworld, cause my whole life is a struggle. Richards had to scar me, otherwise I’d be getting too much pussy. Fuck it, I switched bodies with the opp. I am a Canon Event. Doom’s word is law, you stupid piece of shit. This shit ain’t nothin’ to me, man.

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Ruminations on the Chosen of Bhaal (Or, Enver Gortash is Down Bad)

"The Chosen of Bhaal." A lofty title to be sure. I remember thinking it fit well upon the man's broad shoulders, a terrible mantle he used as cloak and cudgel. Some days you'd barely notice his looming presence, until you turned and saw those glimmering red eyes glaring in the shadows. On others, ill intent would radiate from him in waves, their intensity practically pushing you aside if you weren't already rushing out of the way on your own. Even Bhaal's other adherents gave their leader a wide berth, veneration so easily giving way to fear when their Chosen dared walk among them.

But it's one of my many points of pride that I am not a man so easily intimidated. No status nor savagery would win him my respect. No woeful deity's spawn would have my attention without first showing me why they deserve to have it. Not that he seemed interested in anyone's approval but that of his daddy dearest.

And then, as I watched him, and spoke with him, and fought with him, I'd noticed something that gave me pause.

One would expect the Chosen to laugh with glee as he hacked apart and supped upon his foes, to grin madly as he rutted against his victims' remains, to fill a room with unholy reverence as he lavished praise upon his bloody Lord.

I could not yet say for certain that he had never done these things. But for as long as I'd known him, the Chosen of Bhaal did not smile. Did not laugh. Did not seem to take pleasure in many things at all, really. Yet to call him sullen didn't seem quite right. Dour, perhaps. Humorless excepting for the blackest of comedies, silent save for when his words mattered most, tense and coiled like a spring until the moment he should pounce.

This was a man given to efficiency, I'd realized. Rational and measured in spite of his bile, a confident player and an equally effective instrument when he took the star role. It made him not just easy, but satisfying to work with in a way I'd long been unaccustomed. And it sickened me, frankly, to see someone who did such great work have such a tremendous lack of fire, to have no spark of ambition whatsoever.

Perhaps I'd wanted to light the fuse. Perhaps I merely pitied him. I sought to use him either way, that much was true. The Lord of Tyranny's Chosen would not suffer an equal content to remain a pawn.

So then, I still ask myself, why oh why did my chest clench the very first time I saw that ugly, toothy, blood-flecked smile of his?

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Gale: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my anxiety. I’ll wait.

Tara: You and me, Mr. Dekarios.

Gale, tearing up: Okay.

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One of the things I think really sets apart how Larian writes their companion characters compared to other RPGs is that they don't typically start off liking or even trusting you very much at all. In like, Dragon Age, Pillars, or the other Baldur's Gates, most characters like you by default and are invested in helping you out, or at the very least, like you in addition to having a specific reason they need to accompany you. Even the more hostile characters tend to readily open up when you ask about their backstories and their interests, because that's how you as the player need to learn more about them, which to be clear, makes sense and is totally normal!

But it does hit different in a really interesting way in both DOS2 and BG3 where you have all these people forced to group up, not because they like each other, not because they even have any unified greater goals, but because they need each others' help to solve an immediate problem. In DOS2, nobody wants to be trapped in Fort Joy, so all the characters team up, all the while you'll see some IMMEDIATE friction. In BG3, nobody wants to have a tadpole cuddling their hindbrain, so everyone sticks together in this wilderness as they desperately search for a cure. There's no real camaraderie at first, it's about survival, and accordingly, these characters often don't WANT to tell you about themselves if they don't have to (though I think this part is more true for BG3, everyone in DOS2 tends to spill their initial deal pretty fast). Gale and Shadowheart actively dislike when you prod them for information, and appreciate when you let them talk in their own time. Lae'zel has no intention of even being on this plane longer than is necessary and sees basically everyone as being beneath her initially, while Astarion's lived lifetimes of abuse and deceit that've made him this naturally distrustful, closed off person. Wyll and Karlach are exceptions to this, being these happier, more heroic characters, but even Wyll wouldn't tell you about Mizora if she didn't pop up in camp herself, because he wouldn't nearly trust you with that secret yet. They're people who don't see a reason to open up to this stranger they just met just because they're the nosy protagonist, and it contributes to making them feel super textured, I feel.

And this isn't something totally unique to Larian or anything—there's Sten in DAO, or like all of the companions in Tyranny, or a third example I couldn't immediately think of that I'm sure exists and you'll pretend is here, but I think Larian making this how most of their companions work IS more unique to them and rocks combined with just the general quality of their character writing. It doesn't and shouldn't need to be how all companions in these kinds of games are written, don't get me wrong, I just think it works super well and serves to make the world feel a bit less like it revolves totally around the player.

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