#SORRY FOR THE ESSAY I LOVE TALKING

[dnfity]

when did dream say george is emotionally vulnerable with him

hey girl this turned into an essay sorry for being a chronic rambler

dream never explicitly said it and i dont think thats typically something that anyone would just explicitly just like that but we're more reflecting on the way dream has talked about always being able to go to george for anything and the way we can assume that to be reciprocal based on the fact that we know how emotionally mature george is (him being able to be vulnerable and self-reflective like he was during that stream back in febuary), the way hes able to recognize issues as well as solutions to those issues and initiate conversations about it (george approaching sapnap with the proposition of being civil with each other for the sake of dteam's success as a whole), the way there was sometimes misunderstandings and mistrust with dnf (8 hour stream. sorry thats just the most famous example) and yet today it all seems to be gone and its replaced by it being obvious through what we see of their dynamic that they just understand so deeply how the other just Works. its clear that dteam have great communication as a whole (sapnaps therapy stream arguably The Stream Ever) but there are other moments (marriage talk i love u) where sapnap isnt present for the conversation. i think since george is someone who tends to lean into his "goofy side", most people might brush him off as not being able to have serious conversations. but dream sees that other side of him and its soo important that he recognizes it. also i feel like we are forgetting how Sweet georges tweets to dream used to be, and how we saw some of that come back during the meetup with george tweeting out and putting in his video description that this is his favorite video hes made and this is the best week ever and how it feels like dreams been his friend his whole life. but just based on who george is, i dont picture him being someone who like will constantly spill his guts out or anything. (i personally think that if he really needs to say something that teeters on the super emotional/vulnerable side to dream he turns around or says it through a discord call.) we've all said so many times before that words dont come easy to george but we saw in his feb twt stream that despite that, hes able to make that effort to articulate himself and to be understood when he wants to. we dont hear about misunderstandings or mistrust with dnf anymore. we hear about dream checking in on george during streams and videos bc he Knows george didnt like a certain joke or he Knows george is having a problem with something. we hear dream speaking for george, talking about how george would Feel about a certain thing or situation. we hear about dream saying that the dteam house is "our house", and that george moving to la doesnt seem to be a thought that crosses his mind anymore, and that george missed content creation while he was on his break. all of this showing us small insights as to how well dream grew to understand him, things that Need communication, that cant be gathered just through observation alone. and based on allllllll of this well. idk anon u can draw the conclusion.

[serenedash]

Nomura was insane for that statement he made. I know I should be focused on the foreteller part of it but I'm stuck on the inspiration for so much coming from the story of an American blues musician meeting with the devil to get guitar skills.

Like on one hand. Darkness/mom, mom/foretellers, marluxia/sora, mom/xehanort and xehanort/terra all being the devil and guitar player throughout the series imo. But also all I can think about is the devil went down to gerogia because that is so xehanort and sora to me in kh3 like is that literally not their vibe and it's also such a hysterical vision in my mind. I'm sorry like:

"Well, that ol' Devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat

And he laid that golden fiddle down on the ground at Johnny's feet

Johnny said, "Devil, come on back if you ever wanna try again"

Also "this means demyx is mom" I will kms if that's the truth. I think its funnier if demyx also somehow "made a deal with the devil" but he's the only literal interpretation of this story in kh and that's why he has a sitar it would incredibly hilarious

[Edit] tumblr mobile is being a dick not letting me add a link here's what Nomura said irt BBS 15th anniversary on twt:

[ronanlynchusurper]

I'm not saying that I'd love to hear your thoughts on Adam's relationship with his sexuality but actually that's exactly what I'm saying please share I think about it *all the time*

(don't have to no pressure but please consider this an open invitation 🙏)

hello hi yes! i would love to tell you my thoughts on this! first off, i love your character analysis posts so i am lil nervous sharing this haha but i would also love to know your thoughts on this topic too because i actually really struggled to put all my thoughts together like you do!

also disclaimer this turned into me just pointing at info from the books (or how i remember them at least) and going 'i think he knew he was bi the whole time and was toeing the line of being open about it" more than anything haha but yes eee i’m excited ok! also sorry it ended up so long there is a TL,DR to sum my rambling up so no pressure to read it all!

so firstly, i think it's interesting that we never (to my memory) see any 'discovery' or 'acceptance' journey for adam in regards to his sexuality like we do for other canonically queer characters. we see ronan's journey to acceptance and how he struggled with that and we also see kavinsky acting in a way that is a response to his sexuality discovery whether he accepts it or not. and while these kind of narratives aren't applicable to all queer people or characters I find it very curious that someone of adam's upbringing wouldn't have had atleast SOME struggles in relation to sexuality upon discovery. He has grown up with a father who is likely homophobic and racist and has been working blue collar jobs amongst men who in many cases typically have similar ideologies about masculinity etc since he was very young and its early 2010s in a small town. (im australian so i dont know tonnes about which areas are conservative in america but i got the vibe based on some comments in the books that henrietta wasn't super welcoming to minorities). adam makes some racist 'jokes' in the later books which implies to me that he still has residual prejudices from the way he has grown up, therefore you would think he would have similiar things to say about sexuality etc but he never does. this makes me assume he was either aware of his sexuality long before the raven boys starts and had come to terms with it a while ago or we just don’t see that aspect of his journey on page (which if thats the case thats a whole other thing to discuss). Also he clocks ronan as gay in book 1 with his 'thats the biggest lie youve ever told' comment and adam is too aware and analytical of himself and others to not be aware of his own attractions if he noticed ronan's. i also see this moment and when he jokes about piper not being ronans type in book 3 (? maybe 4?) as kind of an 'i see you' type of thing, like this is the type of shit i would say to queer friends im out to.

theres also moments when they are in school that imply people think he is gay, which on my first read i thought was typical boarding school boy behaviour of calling other guys gay as an insult or a jibe. BUT on my second read i noticed that the comment although still meant insultingly, is more a statement about thinking he's gay than anything else and although adam doesn't like tad (who its implied makes the comment) he doesn't seem particularly phased by the comment and when tad actually comes over to (in my opinion) flirt with him, rather than poke fun at him it kind of solidifies that. ALSO there are much easier and more obvious ways for them to make snide comments at adam, for example his financial situation. AND adam is a fairly masculine character although described as 'pretty' and skinny on different occasions, so it makes me wonder if the leap to him being queer must've been prompted by him either being open or not actively hiding it rather than stereotypes being projected onto him.

also ronan is sitting right next to him and doesn't seem phased at all by this discussion of adam sexuality, not to say that i think he would stand up and say something because he and adam don't ever need to fight each others battles but i think he would look atleast a little bit annoyed at the insinuation if he thought it wasn't true. (or maybe he’s just used to aglionby bullshit who knows)

which also brings me to the fact that ronan never claims that he thinks adam is straight. ronan doesn't say either way what he thinks adam identifies as BUT pretty quickly after ronan acknowledges his feelings for adam, he starts doing some overtly romantic gestures such as the mixtape, moments at the barns, the lotion etc. that's not to say i think he has done these things because he is expecting anything in return in fact i think ronan shows his love through actions & gestures whether he wants to or not and part of the reason adam accepts it is because he’s one of the few who doesn’t expect anything back, but these are still very deliberately romantic actions. ronan is very careful when in comes to relationships and i think he would feel very vulnerable putting those feelings out there without atleast a little bit of knowledge about adam’s sexuality especially when they are close friends its not a risk you want to take without precaution. most of his uncertainty about what is happening between them seems to be about whether adam likes him, not about whether adam likes boys.

that leads me to adam's thoughts about men (mainly ronan when he first starts noticing the shift in ronan's feeling towards him and his own attraction to ronan). there are moments when adam openly admires men and their appearances, the most obvious being gansey and greenmantle, but again adam doesn't seem to have any shame or surprise or confusion about those thoughts. its similiar when he comes to terms with his feelings about ronan. although some of adams thoughts about his feelings can be interpreted as confusion about his feelings towards a boy, his thoughts are more focused on if his feelings are actually love or not. its his first real experience of love and he also has concerns about if his want is strong enough to act on especially because he knows ronan is serious about it. the thoughts never focus on concerns of about being attracted to a boy or the risks of that (except for saying he knows ronan is the hardest option, which goes beyond him being a boy and seems to also be about ronans powers etc). also im mentioning the comment that adam had been starving longer,that comment alone is a whole other thing too get into but i definitely think is speaks to adam's relationship with his sexuality and love, touch and being known and how deprived he has been for so long.

I think for me the bit that surprised me the most about his relationship with his sexuality when first reading, was that him and ronan appear to be quite open about their relationship post trk as robert makes a comment about him driving his boyfriends car. whether or not him and ronan are officially out as boyfriends or just hanging out so closely to the point that a rumour has spread, it's more than likely they actively made that choice.

i think i found this pleasantly surprising when i first read it because until this point adam has been conscious of trying to fit in with the other aglionby boys e.g. making sure his clothes look neat and well taken care of, paying his own way, hiding his accent etc. he resents them for all the ways they are different when they talk about their holidays and money etc and the reason he makes the sacrifice to cabeswater is so he feels equal to gansey (i know he grows from this but still).

when looking at the basic traits of adam its easy to assume he would want to be the type of character to hide his relationship or atleast not be open about it as a way to protect his options and make life easier for himself where he can, because of how hard he has struggled,and so its interesting that he then actively chooses to 'alienate' himself (in some perspectives) further from the other boys at aglionby. as someone who is constantly considering his actions in regard to his future and just having the personality he has, he definitely would've considered the cons of being out at aglionby and how that could effect his opportunities, e.g. at this point in the story all we know about what he wants for the future is the fact that networking with republicans at a gansey event would be helpful, being queer and poor wouldn't be easy to navigate in those spaces and still thought it was more important to be open in his relationship.

he is also a character that values having control over how he is perceived and being openly queer or even just being publicly in a relationship in general has so many elements you cannot control e.g. what other people say and think about you based on your partner of choice, how the scrutiny or openness can effect said relationship etc. this makes me think he would want to hold it closely to his chest to protect it and yet he defies that.

anyway i struggle to explain in words what im getting at ig but i just love that he deviates from character stereotypes that he would have some similiar traits with in that regard. he knows how treasured his connection with ronan is and considers it a privilege to be loved by him and wants to show that to the world regardless of the uncertainty. it becomes increasingly obvious especially in dreamer trilogy that despite his hard work for career and education based goals there isn't much he wouldn't sacrifice or atleast compromise for ronan, which is potentially unhealthy but idc they are codependent and its fine fight me on it.

i think i also find his relationship with his sexuality interesting because it’s easy to read him as a character who cares for his relationship and accepts being queer without actively seeking out the queer community, so adam going to harvard and lying about everything in his life except his sexuality and relationship with ronan is quite telling of his relationship with being queer, especially because he then seeks out whats implied to be an openly all queer friend group when he could've gone and befriended anyone and made himself into anyone. he finds his relationship so important to who he is and his life that instead of hiding it he wanted to exist and be amongst people who understood that, even if he wouldn’t let them understand anything else about him.

i just love him so so much i feel this hasn't really explained my thoughts whatsoever i've just rambled about parts of the book but yeah i just think its really intriguing how he approaches his sexuality so much differently to how he approaches everything else ig.

TL, DR

adam's relationship with his sexuality is fascinating because it doesn’t follow the typical 'realisation → internal struggle → acceptance' arc even though his upbringing points to this a reasonable arc for him. he seems like he’s already accepted his queerness before the raven cycle even starts, and it’s one of the only things in his life he doesn’t overanalyse, repress, or try to change. he’s a character focused on control, appearances, and social mobility, yet when it comes to being queer and loving ronan, he’s surprisingly open. it’s like queerness and his romantic love is one of the few parts of himself he feels certain about. instead of hiding it, he protects and celebrates it. and that choice is quiet interesting for someone who’s worked so hard to be palatable to the world and be successful by society's standards

[kabru-of-utaya]

i'm crazy actually . the first time kabru and mithrun looked at each other vs the last times. ohhhhhh how their relationship changed through the story, ohhhhhh falls to my knees

[dittobtch]

I'd like to hear about leatin

ah yes my favourite topic:

leah, just a lonely girl living in a lonely world. a girl who falls in love with an older disgusting man only to get her heart broken later on.

then there's fatin: bold, gifted, and tired. so fucking tired of being held back by her busy schedule that she doesn't even want.

both of them fear love for different reasons. fatin thinks she's incapable of it and even if she was, all it brings is pain and heartbreak and she's had enough of that. besides, she doesn't have the time for anything like that: not romantic love nor platonic. familial love for fatin is... well... complicated...

leah on the other hand is familiar with the sting an intense, burning love leaves behind. she's suddenly left alone and has to deal with the consequences on her own. despite everything, all she wants is that toxic love back. to her, it's the only thing that can cure the emptiness she feels.

even on the island all she can think about is jeff. she gets into a literal fight with fatin over him (and fatin's "laziness" and lack of cooperation, but anyways).

then shit gets real. specifically, fatin goes missing. (cue the beginning of a beautiful, complex, sometimes toxic relationship).

only after Leah's confronted with the thought that holy shit someone could die - Fatin could die, does she finally burn his fuck ass book and metaphorically let him go (for now, anyways).

things are good for a bit, then they're bad. the ups and downs of the island. sometimes they get along, like when they think they're going to get rescued. other times they still have trouble getting along and that's okay too; they're learning and they're there for each other and that's all that matters.

well, they're there for each other until they're not. leah's mental health goes into a decline as season 2 begins. fatin tries to hold it together for the both of them, but she can't help but (homoerotically) argue with leah (for the second time) to defend her grieving friend.

eventually they make up because of course they do. afterall, fatin "was starting to like her" and knew that she could never really stop caring about leah.

in fact, the opposite starts happening. she cares about leah so much that she begins to look for the truth for leah. she devotes herself to the very thing that nearly drove leah insane. because she believes leah, for real this time.

and it's good but it's makes her feel so guilty because holy shit leah was right and fatin let her believe that she was insane. she unknowingly helped in gaslighting leah, but she can't give up now. she has to prove that leah was right; it's the only thing that can make up for it.

so, fatin attempts to pick up what leah left behind. fatin, who less than two months ago was unwillingly to help in building a simple shelter, puts in so much of her time and energy in figuring out the truth for leah. she'll let herself go insane the way leah did, do all the ethically questionable things, as long as leah doesn't have to do it anymore.

because fatin loves her:

and even though leah doesn't know fatin does all of this for her, leah loves her back:

(i could not for the life of me find a "the voices you love" gif, sorry)

ultimately, i love leatin because it's a story of these two complex teenagers who heal and break together. neither of them are fond of the idea of love when they meet, especially not with each other but together, they form a unique bond. their love doesn't fix each other but instead, they do things out of love for one another that helps them both.

they relearn how to love together. it's not perfect, but it works for them.

in the words of basically everyone left in this fandom: THEY COULD HAVE BEEN EVERYTHING but also they kind of already were everything and i don't think i'll ever get over it.

anyways if you liked this you should read my new fic too lmao

[introspectivememories]

tiktok hunger games fans are like the fucking worst. half of them are so desperate to let people know that there's a Message to the book and that they understood the Morals and Themes and Messages of the book that cant look past book canon or have some fun and the other half is making ocs and slapping katniss and peeta's name on them while making the most outlandish conspiracy theories. you cant fucking do anything on there

[lorephobic]

literally nobody asked for it, but here's my list of saltburn essays that i've slowly been drafting over the course of the last week which WILL be required reading for anybody trying to engage with me about this movie. my very personal saltburn 101 syllabus just dropped

A Wolf in Deer's Clothing: Saltburn's Attempt at Innocence

an examination of party costumes and our character's last attempts to masquerade as something they're not: felix—an angel, all-forgiving and all-knowing, something to be worshiped; and oliver—a prey animal, prey to class-divide, prey to saltburn, prey to felix.

thoughts about oliver specifically are loosely organized in my #bambi tag

A Midsummer Night's Mare: Farleigh Start as the Ultimate Victim of Saltburn

a farleigh character study, about the ways he was mistreated and manipulated at saltburn, about fighting to stay alive and the scars left behind by knowing when to give in

alternatively titled "QuickStart", may be adapted into a conclusive essay specifically focusing on oliver and farleigh's relationship

The Eye of the Beholder: On Saltburn's Voyeurism & Violence [working title]

how wealth and class pushes the catton's toward the volatile reality of being able to look, but not touch. on desire and the lack thereof, and portraying yourself as an object to be desired

may end up as two separate essays on wealth and aestheticism but i'm pushing toward a conclusive essay about the intersection of the two, which i feel is at the heart of saltburn

alternatively titled "Poor Man's Pudding: A Melvillian Approach to Saltburn's Class", again, may be adapted into it's own essay

Gender-Fluid: A Study in Sexuality and Saltburn's Desire to be Dry

a deep dive into the bodily fluids of saltburn and how oliver upsets the standard of men who are just so lovely and dry. on the creative choice to lean into the messy wetness of sex and desire and the audience's instinct toward repulsion

a celebration of the grotesque and an examination of why we would label it as such

least developed of the four, heavily inspired by @charnelpit's lovely post about the fluids in saltburn

if anybody is actually interested in any of these, i can work toward something closer to a finished piece instead of just bullet points and quotes in a google doc, but mostly this is so i can share my very brief takes on a multitude of themes in saltburn that have been haunting me

edit for people seeing this in the future: all posts about my essays are being organized into my #saltburn 101 tag if you’re interested in following these through to development!

[torglives]

every day i die. why can people not accept the reality of mutual toxicity in pangili2

EVERY DAY I DIE. it drives me up the wall as a pangi main. the pili main life is something i can't even imagine.

some people are so laser focused on their own perspectives that everything done against them is irredeemably evil. these people do not know or appreciate an unreliable narrator. or characters with skew-y morals. or interesting, nuanced dynamics. come on guys. COME ON. WHERE'S YOUR FUN.

what happened to "supporting rights and wrongs." why must we be so lame... why must everything be a "right" ... do they know that this takes away from interesting characters. do the people who do this shit know that. i know they probably don't care. i love pangi's character, part of his appeal is that he does shitty things, it makes him so much more complex. it makes him more interesting to me. sidebar, sorry-- but going around and saying how much you love tr pangi and then just. COMPLETELY IGNORING/RE-FRAMING A HUGE PART OF HIM IS SO FUCKING. GOD. ITS SO ANNOYING. HE'S OVER-EMOTIONAL. HE'S RASH. HE SUCKS REALLY REALLY BAD SOMETIMES. it's not a bad thing to admit that, and you cannot claim to understand or give a fuck about his character when you deny that. doing that in itself is mischaracterization of him, not even to mention of pili. i also know that the people doing it aren't my beautiful friends on tumblr so i'm shouting my frustrations into a chamber of people who already know all of this. but still. AUGH.

their mutual toxicity is what makes their relationship so interesting. it's what makes their relationship period! it makes both of them, as characters, and how they interact with the world around them more interesting too. especially because they were a specific brand of toxic exclusively to each other. are the implications of that not compelling to the general audience? i don't understand why chunks of the fandom are so willing to let such a fascinating dynamic go in order to satisfy their "one person good, one person bad" mentality. they seriously, genuinely were both equally awful to each other. how many times do i have to say that. i also don't understand why a relationship CONFIRMED by BOTH CREATORS as being MUTUALLY TOXIC is actively spoiling a single character for so many people. it's so upsetting, because the discussion around both of them would be so peak if everyone got on the same (objectively correct :3) wavelength.

[average-transdalorian]

Oh god I’ve hit Characters with my analysis beam again

(Aka, my thoughts on Turn A’s “the world isn’t quite ready for me to begin an Industrial Revolution in a skirt” scene, by way of analyzing Lily Borjarno and Guin Sard Rhineford*)

*Yes I understand that Lineford is technically the canon transliteration, I just find Rhineford to be a more evocative name

So! This is the interaction in question

Seems simple enough; Guin wants to be a titan of progress, thinks violating the social norms around clothing would get in the way of that, and Lily tells him “fuck social norms, I, a woman, will lead as I am,” right?

Well. Mostly.

The thing is, Guin’s missing half of the conversation. Lord Guin Sard Rhineford is the ruler of the region of Inglessia, and seems to have inherited both that title and a strong industrial base from his father, or perhaps his grandfather. How the family obtained such rulership is left to the imagination, but, given their apparent closeness with the Heim family, their industrial strength, and Guin’s habit of personally tinkering with and repairing his car (a hobby unfit for a well-bred gentleman, given the dirtiness involved in it), it seems likely to me that they are new money. Guin himself is incredibly ambitious, with a stated motivation of wanting to become president of Ameria, which at this point seems to be several disparate regions, each presided over by their local nobility. He has a keen mind, and changes his plans on several occasions so that events will shake out with him having more power than before (confounding the negotiations with the Moonrace in the 2 years before they land so that he can gain more by negotiating in person, claiming ownership of the Willgem, the Earthers’ only spacecraft, striking an alliance with Gym Ghingham in order to obtain technological blueprints from the Moon, and a military force with which to conquer the Earth), and is rather straightforward, only using the slightest bit of deception in his tactics, for things like getting Loran and the Turn A on the Willgem as he ditches Kihel, Dianna, Lily, Sochie, and assorted others. That straightforwardness is half of what makes the above conversation more complex than the surface reading would indicate.

Enter Lily Borjarno. Daughter of Lord Borjarno, and heir to the region of Luzianna (well, as far as I can tell. The wiki insists that she is the youngest of 13, but I also recall the show suggesting that she’s heir apparent, so perhaps she’s his favorite as well), Lily initially seems to be an effusive young woman, who is good-natured, although maybe a bit petty. And that’s not necessarily incorrect; that rather does seem to be her own personality more than a mask she wears! However, that impression belies the keen mind underneath, one easily capable of subtle political maneuvering, and also noticing (and double checking) that the Zacktraegar seemed to have some semblance of gravity. Lily is very clever, and easy enough to dismiss as a silly and spoiled noblewoman, which gives her the potential to be delightfully dangerous. Take, for instance, one of her earlier interactions with “Kihel” (Dianna in disguise); in what seems to be a fit of whimsy, perhaps prettily driven by “Kihel”’s apparent closeness with Guin, Lily pushes “Kihel” into working as a nurse in one of Luzianna’s field hospitals. This seemed to be a little bit mean-spirited when I first watch it, but looking back, it’s more clearly Lily testing “Kihel,” finding out where this potential-ally’s limits, moral sense, and work ethic all lie. “Kihel” passes the test with flying colors, and the two (three, technically) seem to be friends from there on out. The point is, Lily was subtle. This matches with the way the Borjarno family seems to be old money, in contrast with the Rhinefords; their mobile suits are named after the family, the Duke is thank god I double checked, I was combining two entirely separate characters in my head. That would’ve been embarrassing. Erizona has a Duke, not Luzianna, and the military dress uniform I was about to go on a tangent about belongs to some other guy.

Cough. Anyways. The way Lord Borjarno interacts with his people compared to the way Guin interacts with his suggests to me that the Borjarno family are well-bred and can be considered old money, which matches with the land they have too. Luzianna has plentiful fertile farmland, while Inglessia contains much rockier soil, and likely would’ve struggled to find economic importance as anything beyond the ports within until the Rhinefords’ industrial power came to be. As old money, the Borjarnos would be more used to the subtleties of noble politics, and Lily truly grasps subtlety well. This is the other half of that conversation’s complexity.

Let’s take a look at it again, shall we?

Here, Lily starts by asking a question in a rather sideways manner. While the words are about a skirt, she’s really asking Guin “if you love Loran as much as you claim to, why are you trying to force him to conform to your wants in a partner?” Guin’s answer reveals three things.

1. He values gathering power (in this case, being the sole leader of industrial development) over his other desires, something which is entirely consistent with his characterization thus far

2. He places Loran’s wants and needs in a relationship below his own (something which Lily likely already gleaned from his continuing to call Loran “Laura,” despite that persona having been retired at this point, but which she probably appreciated confirmation of)

3. Guin missed the metaphor entirely. Guin’s response is almost entirely a non-sequitur when taken as a response to Lily’s real question, and of course it would be! Guin, while capable of deception, is a rather straightforward man, of course he misses Lily’s subtly hidden question!

And knowing this, Lily decides to drive home a point that Guin will also miss. “I’ll govern Ameria in a skirt!” She says, and while this is a proclamation of how she plans to break the status quo and take a position of great power as a woman in the equivalent of the 1920s, it’s also a declaration that she won’t abandon the things she loves at the altar of political gain. She won’t leave behind her skirts, her hats, her parasols, or her friends, and will instead bring them forward with her, because she well and truly loved them.

And Guin misses that point.

And Guin ends Turn A Gundam with none of his resources, influence, or allies, save for an odd girl whom he doesn’t particularly like, while Lily ends Turn A Gundam with the influence they both had at its beginning, and new friends, allies, and technology besides.

[katsu2ji]

thinking about how satoru always viewed himself as a weapon first because that’s how he was taught to feel (by, quite literally, everyone)—how his worth was consistently tied to how strong he was or how useful he could be in a fight. how his strength was the first thing people thought about. how sometimes, even as the viewer i think it’s hard to remember at times that through it all, there was still a heart beating in his chest, blood flowing through his veins. he was always, always just a human being.

[fankitcanuwo]

What are your thoughts on boss, as a character?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE BOSS AS A CHARACTER

SPOILERS FOR "CHARLIE IN UNDERWORLD" BELOW AS I GO ON MY TANGENT

Edit: I wrote like a whole A$$ essay under here so uh- just be warned 😭 sorry for the long answer @leahisnowlosinghersanityx ! Can I call you Leah? (Mainly a joke since your user is long haha ^^')

(I really love silly ghosts okay?)

(I'm a little rusty in the story, and I am replaying ciu recently, but I haven't gotten past the second(?) Chapter yet, so please forgive me and correct me on any mistakes I might make ^^')

OK, so. Boss to me isn't a bad guy, so to say. He has flaws and makes PLENTY of mistakes throughout the series.

In Underworld office, Eugene first meets Boss when he saves his life. At first he seems cold and distant. But my first impression of him when I was playing the game (for the first time) was that there was something deeper going on behind his defensive walls.

And as the chapters went by, it proved true for me when I saw how soft he got around the other's and Eugene. He even got angry for River's safety and Eugene (unintentionally) putting her in danger. He does care for the people of the underworld office, and he will continue to do so, even after the end of the second game.

Over the course of the first game, I became VERY fond of Boss, especially with his arcs with the others. (Like Eugene being a surrogate son to him, and the relationships between his friends)

As for the deeper parts of his character, over all, I believe that Boss is a deeply troubled character who has a deep sense of self loathing.

In the monster Eugene ending, he describes that Eugene, angry and wanting to lash out with vengeance, reminds him of himself, and tells Eugene there might be hope for him still, taking him into the team with the others, though all of them are pretty upset in ANY ending that Eugene is no longer mortal.

Boss does not see himself in a positive light. Or at least, not often. And it shows here, as well in a lot of other places too! Especially if you know where to look.

In "Charlie in underworld", we get more knowledge and insight into boss's life before he was a ghost.

(Again, I'm rusty on the lore, so please correct me if I'm wrong)

Boss, back then, didn't veiw himself in a positive way either.

When Boss's "friend" (I put friend in quotation marks because I don't think Boss considered him a friend, even if the man was trying to be his friend) was recently married. He brings up the wedding to boss, either why he didn't attend or other reasons, I can't remember.

Boss seems bitter about the fact that he himself can't seem to find a single person who would be interested in him. The man feels bad, and I don't remember much of the conversation, but I believe that Boss was bitter about this, which is why he was so closed off.

While we didn't get a true name for Boss, i believe he was reffered to as a shaman of sorts, which is also interesting.

Throughout the flashbacks, We see that for the majority of his life, if not all of it, Boss has been pressured by tradition (I think) and family, the weight of which is always on his shoulders. If I remember correctly, his family in specific protected a ancient area in which was one of the MANY gateways between the afterlife and the mortal realm.

I believe that his mother shamed and disgraced him for being unable to find anyone to marry, or to get a wife, to which I think (correct me if I'm wrong) BOSS APOLOGIZES FOR. (Which ticks me off- but it's fine)

he is tasked to protect the cave alone for the rest of his life I believe- but I also think there was more to this.

I probably missed this, but apparently (again, correct me if I'm wrong, i cant remember this well) Boss encountered a man/ghost during his time in the military (which also probably changed him) and promised that he would try his best to bring his son's spirit to rest or something.

Boss died in the cave he was protecting, and he kept protecting the area (or maybe other areas like it) even after his life was over.

After he shares his memories with Eugene and Charlie, I believe he explains himself more, which brings to light that he still blames and faults himself for everything in his life. To which, as Charlie, we have the option to call out that all of that is BS and it wasn't his fault thst so many things went wrong in his lifetime, but also calls him out on his selfish actions. Which I agree with strongly-

OKAY- now that I'm done with the boss biography, I'll actually start getting to my point. (Sorry guys)

Boss kept the ghosts of the underworld office around mostly because he was lonely. He was desperate for company and companions, and so he selfishly kept them from their own journey in the afterlife so he could continue doing his job with company. Even going so far as to essentially hold River hostage by keeping her keepsake away from her.

By no means are these actions excusable, what he did WAS terrible. But in the end, he did regret it, the entire time. He had just let his fear and anxiety control him. In fact this shows constantly.

When the others in the group constantly talk and confidently say that "he is never wrong" and "boss is always right", Boss tends to simply reply with "...". Which I interpret as his guilt, because HE KNOWS he's lying to them, and he isn't always right, but decides to say nothing.

And while River is overpowering Boss, threatening and probably planing to tear him to shreds, she scratches his neck/throat with her claws. As she does, the wounds become pure white almost immediately, which causes River to stop and hesitate. She realizes something and then warns boss that this will be a reminder for him, a penance if you will, and then moves on to the other life.

I believe that why his wounds turned white, is because boss actively believes that by letting himself be hurt and 'punished' is a good decision.

In other words, he believes that letting himself be hurt and possibly destroyed by the people he hurt, is what he deserves. He believes that he deserves pain, hurt, and perhaps even physical punishment, because of the hurt he had caused the people he cared about the most.

In the end, he is willing to try and forgive himself, to try and make things better, but he thinks it's best if he leaves Eugene and Charlie alone to continue their lives, without his influence, so he leaves. He leaves to find himself in the world, because he wasn't able to when he was alive.

And I wish nothing but the best for him.

Boss is a VERY deep and intriguing character, and he is one of my all time favorite game characters EVER.

Hes like an ACTUAL human being- not those flat idiot and single-minded/purposed characters on hallmark TV shows.

He has FLAWS. He had Strengths, weaknesses, regrets! EMOTION! As much as Boss tries to keep up his walls and hide his true feelings from others (with only a few exceptions to his friends), we can see throughout the games that this isn't the case. I think the most aware of this would be Joan, who seems to understand him a bit more than the others, and gives some wise words on how once you get to warm up to him, and he warms up to you, then you'll see that he's not as tough as he looks.

Charlie also seems more aware of this as time goes on, especially later in the game.

Boss may also see Eugene as a son-figure because he never had one. He was never able to get married and have a family. Eugene grows on him very quickly, and it shows through his actions.

Boss is just a very big softy, a confused, hurt, possibly scared, afraid to be alone, and troubled softy.

And i love him, and want nothing but the best for him in his journey.

I know this will likely never happen, but I would love to see more of him in the story of the Underworld office series <:].

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk 😭

[spade-the-space-witch]

greetings Blood Meridian tumblr,, at least one person was interested in seeing my OC and i decided to draw her out.

so here’s Sanna. (temporary place holder name)

i made her for an almost au, almost fan made prequel idea i had. inspired by the early explorations of the Arctic where it goes wrong and the men become stuck in the ice during a particular harsh Winter and Judge Holden is a part of the group. (this takes place sometime during either the early 1800s or late 1700s, before Blood Meridian)

he later reveals to one of the men, one of the only ones remaining, that the only reason he even went on the voyage was to capture a native woman who has apparently been ‘causing’ other explorers to become stuck and also thriving in the Arctic environment. Judge Holden wants to capture her and ‘study’ why she’s able to thrive while they’re humiliated by the environment. turns out she’s the embodiment of nature and the wilderness and the needle fingered cold and the human made cruelty of nature, who could’ve known??

and to make up for the fact this is tagged with the main tag and only features an oc and not a canon character, i’ll make up for by sharing the time i got paranoid over Judge Holden late at night under the cut. enjoy!!!!

[extravalgant]

i looove azteca from like. a narrative stand point

because we have this hero and thats you. were practically the stuff of legends by arc 2 just because of what kind of experience we have under our belt. we've never lost a fight, and it's assumed that we never will. that's how powerful the wizard is—everyone expects them to win, expects light to triumph shadow

and when we fail.... well. it shocks everyone doesnt it? people get angry. people get disappointed. to the wizard, who has never known failure or disappointment, it must feel like an entirely new thing. this culture was here for thousands and thousands of years—a culture and a people you never knew about until you were brought into the spiral.

and now because of you its gone. because you failed to save it and stop morganthe, its gone. and i think merle's passiveness about this situation hits a little differently this way—i read it more as disappointment, anyways. and to someone who has never known defeat, not to this capacity, with this many casualities and victims, the disappointment feels a little more crushing, doesn't it? the wizard is supposed to be a hero summoned from the legends, from a place not beyond a spiral where they had not heard of magic, and it feels like they let everyone down.

this imo is where morganthe truly establishes herself as a villain. i mean she already was a villain before imo BUT bringing a grieving man back from the dead to puppet around AND destroying a world is just straight up evil (and i love that). people like to complain about the malistaire bit which is valid in some cases but i think it really does sell the frivolity in which she chooses to go about things. like hey heres a man you killed with your own hands. probably when you were young. i brought him back from the dead to use as my pawn and now you have to fight him again btw. using a dead grieving man for my own goals. and then the fact that we cant beat him at the end, to 'send him back', is just another way she gets a leg up on us. she leaves us with unfinished business and xibalba destroying azteca is just icing on the already fucked up cake she's given us.

shes TAUNTING us. and this is important because it does come back to us in khrysalis—no doubt the wizard is still haunted by the sins of their past; their failure to save azteca. they have to get through this bit, to learn to let it go, before they can learn shadow magic. after all this, it's still stuck with us—our failure, one that she spearheaded.

dont even get me started on the wizard learning shadow magic maaaaaan because now they share one thing in common—they know shadow magic. they wield shadow magic. and shadow magic is so reviled that it's forbidden. no one else but her can really understand the isolation that comes with learning shadow magic, and it parallels the wizard and her even more because neither of them had a choice! the shadow magi turned morganthe into the shadow queen she is today, and we are subsequently forced to learn shadow magic and do the same if they ever have a chance at defeating her. i love it. i LOVE it. i love azteca... i love khrysalis....

[lamonnaie]

imagine how much shin loves saint. how he couldn't hate him even for what he did to him. the fact that he was never angry with the broken leg but the fact that he left him. how are they real

THIS THIS THIS 😭😭😭

and i love the way it was shown in the series (as someone who knew nothing about the og), at the start we see that saint is obsessed, he loves shin more than he loves himself, he's willing to get beat up and humiliated over and over for shin, and we just see shin enabling it

but then as the show progresses we learn just how much shin loves saint back, how much he needs him around the same way saint needs him, how he wasn't even angry about the broken leg !!!! but about saint leaving !!!!!

and there's hints of it all throughout !! the looks shin's constantly giving, and taking the kick for saint, even though he wouldn't accept his help afterwards, it's in all the little things that u can see that shin isn't as unaffected as he's trying to seem, that he's fighting himself to just give in and love saint loudly like he was so used to doing (until he wasn't) 😭 because yes he's angry and hurt because of saint, but that doesn't lessen how much he loves him

they're truly insane AAHHHH 😭😭

[sammygender]

hi.. erm im back (anon from the last 2 asks) (im too scared to un-anon sorry) i want to ask (another) genuine question abt wincest because ur the nicest person ive ever met who's willing to talk abt it from both sides.

i guess i just don't get why people ship wincest? background: im aromantic and have a hard time understanding certain shippy stuff, but i do notice alot of arophobic statements in regards to the evidence given as to why people ship. ex: a lot of "brothers don't look at each other like that." type things. (which i know is not wincest exclusive and is often used by destiel shippers too)

also i notice alot of people being quite amatonormative (definition: the assumption that all human beings pursue love or romance.) so it's hard to even take wincest shippers seriously when all their evidence tends to be perpetuating arophobic sentiments and stuff.

we can all agree that their relationship is seriously unhealthy. but i just have a hard time with it being even borderline incestuous. i also really like the idea of relationship anarchy (definition: relationships within this structure are fluid, and therefore have no solid differentiation between sexual, romantic, or platonic relationships.) so to me it's like. well it's platonic because they say it is? only the people within a relationship can determine what that relationship is and they have?

anyways i know im throwing a lot of words and definitions at you. you're just extremely helpful to talk to and i like what you have to say, so id be extremely interested in your opinions about this.

hi anon!!! im so sorry i literally yapped like crazy in response to this. had no idea i was capable of this much thought on this topic. everything is under the read more

TLDR for the TLDR: for me the 'borderline incestuous' nature of their relationship isnt actually the way they act with each other cause i do think boundaries of romantic/platonic r weird and fake (tho by normal 'societal standards' sam and dean r strange). its more the framing of it by the narrative and genre conventions of spn as a horror. i think. <3

everything im abt to say has been written on at length by much smarter people than me - if ur interested i probably have reblogged other peoples posts on similar topics and tagged them somewhere under #poison in the water and maybe #she walked in on us. i am SO sorry for the mountain of yap you have unleashed.

before i rly start, re: talking abt the concept of wincest from different angles/sides - its honestly so totally beyond me why people dont actually DISCUSS this stuff more. ofc wincest shippers are sometimes obnoxious when they go ‘NORMAL BROTHERS DON’T ACT LIKE THIS!!!’ over anything (like i personally don’t like the whole ‘sam and dean are OBVIOUSLY in love because they bring each other back from the dead!!’ thing. like why is that romantic. i’d try my hardest to bring my siblings back from the dead too.) but like u said pretty much all shippers do that. i think people are (UNDERSTANDABLY) squicked out by the idea of incest, even fictional, and have an immediate kneejerk reaction when people ‘corrupt’ their favorite characters by talking abt it in relation to them. and i completely understand just not wanting to engage with readings you find uncomfortable or odd!! TV can just be escapism there’s nothing wrong with that!! but i tend to find immediate negative reactions against anything that even ACKNOWLEDGES the incestuous subtext in spn uncharitable and annoying. for one, incest is a real thing that happens and its not shipping goggles or creep behavior to look at fiction through the lens of it, just as its not whatsoever unreasonable to look at, for example, the azazel demon blood storyline as a CSA allegory (again of course all this is real heavy and just one interpretation and absolutely no hate for fans who like… just don’t want to think like this <3). for two, i do think there is an undercurrent of it written into supernatural with intentionality to further the themes of familial horror.

so to kind of…. explain i guess… why i say i can see canonical backing for sam and dean’s relationship as incestuous or incestuous-adjacent (lol), i have to go back to the general incest subtext in supernatural as a whole, from a completely academic-interest and not at all shippy way. like i said ofc SPN is primarily a show about FAMILY HORROR - ‘family is hell’, to quote eric kripke in the pilot commentary. or at least this is how i view it; a lot of destiel fans, for example, tend to see it more as…. idk really, i don’t claim to have much contact with them, but certainly not usually a horror. an action-adventure. a western. a story about a Tragic American Hero (sorry im being tongue in cheek and bitchy). i think viewing the show with a sam-focused lens tends to make you view it as horror for… a lot of reasons which i won’t get into here. but i PERSONALLY - getting off track here, sorry - view it as horror. that’s what he originally intended, and it’s what supernatural is most successful at doing. and incest in horror, especially gothic horror, especially gothic horror about the family and the home, is well-trodden territory (where’s my essay from last term about incest in wuthering heights where i somehow ended up, while researching, on an essay about wincest itself). - and supernatural is full of allusions to it. azazel’s silhouette in the pilot as intentionally strikingly similar to john’s, when he first feeds sam demon blood (framed as a CSA allegory, whether intentional or not). then azazel actually possessing john later. mary making the deal that dooms her family for years after via kissing her father on the mouth. hunting portrayed as something abnormal, irregular, taboo in direct opposition to a ‘normal family’ (tho abuse also comes from the nuclear family etc etc). then you can look at sam and dean specifically….

from the pilot, you have the woman in white telling sam, who has just left to go on a roadtrip with his brother, that he’s about to be unfaithful to jess; even if this could technically be said to be about the fact she then attempts to assault him (tho that doesn’t really fit with woman in white lore?? she goes after people who have already cheated…), it’s still portraying jess and dean as innately in opposition, just as jess has to die in order for sam to join dean. all the loaded lines about ‘the way they were raised’ - dean telling sam he can’t escape it. supernatural is clear: the rot is IN the family.

OF COURSE all of this can equally just be about familial abuse!! and IS about familial abuse!! but the way the story unfolds DOES position sam and dean in…. shall we say Roles. sam is the feminised ‘bitch’ to dean’s ‘jerk’; they’re mistaken for a couple in 1x08, in 1x18, in 2x16, in s8; they’re compared to bonnie and clyde, to mallory and mickey, serial killer lover duos. crowley tells dean, ‘you’re lying to sam like he’s your wife’. dean says, at a later opportunity, ‘what about sam? does he want a divorce?’. an ANGEL tells their HALF BROTHER that sam and dean are ‘psychotically, irrationally, EROTICALLY codependent’. dean himself is unable to name what’s between them, explicitly saying ‘love, family, whatever it is’ (which is just SUCH an odd line. Like it’s love and family between you two Dean is it not??? Why are you acting like neither of those words describe it???). then there’s the way jensen and jared act it, their physicality, eg. sam looking genuinely like he’s about to pull dean in for a kiss during playthings 2x16… i also find the whole ‘brothers don’t look at each other like that!!’ annoying, but tbh, they do give each other wild looks sometimes. the end of wendigo sticks out to me whenever i watch it as a genuine ‘why is jared/sam looking at jensen/dean like that… what possessed him…’.

wait another addition - when i first wrote this i also totally forgot about 4x14 sex and violence, which iirc has dean’s siren, originally described only in terms of sex/romance, literally telling him ‘i should be your little brother’. of course the concept of a siren that isn’t really about sex or even romance is really interesting and one valid reading - and also lends itself to a reading of dean as aro which i rly like. but i don’t think that reading is any more or less valid than the more obvious one. (irrelevant side bar but there’s a 2003 sociology book about sibling incest that i read for an essay on wuthering heights called ‘Siblings: Sex and Violence and that makes me go ??? every time i think about the episode. Literally what. That has to be a coincidence. But??)

i think in regards to why people ‘ship’ wincest, a lot of it is of course just that they just kind of See It, for whatever reason. whether it’s the thematic (which i talked on at length already sorry <3) or just the way they look at each other or just because jared and jensen are hot or just because they think it’s really interesting to explore an added dimension to sam and dean’s already messed up relationship. same with destiel, same with sastiel, same with whatever, like u said. shipping culture in general IS hugely amatonormative - people love to declare wide statements about what people who are In Love do and don’t do, which are always silly and shallow. partly why i don’t really consider myself as someone who ships things in general.

i also totally agree w u that only people within a relationship can determine what that relationship is. im not aro but i also really like the concept of relationship anarchy. however, when i see the incestuous subtext between sam and dean, it’s more in a media studies way than in a way of analysing their actual Relationship (though to be fair i’m not a wincest shipper); eg. asking the question why is their relationship portrayed ‘like that’, and what does that say about the themes of spn itself. also it is just an interesting concept to a lot of people.

TLDR the reason i can view sam and dean’s relationship as borderline incestuous isn’t due to their codependency, or dean’s intense possessiveness, or how close they are, or because they spend all of their time together, or because they’ve brought each other back from the dead multiple times and get suicidal without each other. this is even though in our society all that together IS often coded as romantic/sexual and is definitely acknowledged in that lens by the writers (hence constant comparison of them to married couples) - because it could also just as equally be completely platonic and completely insane and the result of the world’s worst trauma bond (the latter which it CERTAINLY is <3). when i talk abt canonical backing for their relationship as borderline incestuous, it’s more about the narrative framing and context surrounding it. at the very least, their relationship is ‘abnormal’, deviant (meant in the most literal meaning as an digression from social norms); different from accepted ‘sibling relationships’, pointed out by the characters around them. <- none of this makes any sense but its 3am and im on tumblr so its ok.

feel free to dm also if u want to or just send an ask back!! and also ofc feel free to argue with/disagree with me in any way u like. or ask wtf i mean by anything cause i talk too much. tbh from what u say it sounds like u just don’t really vibe with shipping culture in general (might be an assumption sorry if so) which i totally understand/agree w. but i hope i answered ur question in some way somehow

[camilleonne]

Trying to work out Gale age+ timeline, plus analysis

BG3 is my first introduction to the DnD lore, so this is really just me trying to work out where the BG3 story fits into the broader timeline of DnD. All of this information I got from the Forgotten Realms wiki, so if I'm misunderstanding anything I'd love input!

My goal with this is to guess how Gale's personal story fits into the timeline of the Forgotten Realms, mainly to estimate how old he might be and how long his relationship with Mystra was. According to the Wiki, Mystra was only recently resurrected, which means her relationship with Gale is very restricted in how long it could have been.

Here's Mystra's timeline:

1385 - Mystra dies, the Weave becomes unstable, magic changes, and the Spellplague begins

1395 - the Spellplague mostly ends, but the Weave is still unstable and Mystra is still dead

1479/1480 - Mystra returns with help from Elminster, magic starts to go back to normal

1482 - the Second Sundering begins, which aims to reorder the hierarchy of gods

1484 - gods begin acquiring Chosen mortals in order to cement their power

1487 - Mystra returns to her full power, the Weave is finally restored, and the Second Sundering ends

1488 - prayers to deities are ignored, and instead divine missives are directed through deities' Chosen

1489 - prayers begin to be answered again, while Chosen's powers and gifts are revoked by their patron gods, since they no longer serve a use to their gods. Only a few Chosen retain their powers.

1490 - nothing of note happens, according to the Wiki

1491 - Mystra restricts mind-reading magic. Otherwise, nothing of note happens pertaining to Mystra

1492 - the plot of Baldur's Gate 3 happens

If I understand this timeline correctly, the earliest Mystra could have begun interacting with Gale is the year 1480. But because this is when she had only just been resurrected, this is likely when she began to "mentor" him, and not when their romantic relationship began.

It was probably sometime between 1482-84 that Gale became Chosen and his romance with Mystra began. And if Gale was also one of the many Chosen who were cast aside by their gods in 1489, simply because he was no longer useful, then their romantic relationship would have lasted 9-10 years at most, but more likely was 7-8 years. But still! Nearly a decade of having a close relationship with your patron deity is hugely influential on someone's personality and outlook on life, and definitely explains where a lot of Gale's arrogance and hubris come from.

1480-82 - earliest possible time frame Mystra could have begun interacting with Gale

1482-84 - likely when Gale is Chosen, and the earliest their romance could have started

1489 - Gale likely loses his status as Chosen, and with it his extra powers gifted to him by Mystra. He would have been cast aside for no reason other than he was no longer useful to Mystra. This likely happened with little to no explanation from Mystra, forcing Gale to guess as to why he had been cast aside by his god and lover

1490 - this is likely the year that Gale searches for the "missing Weave" and takes the orb into himself, destroying his innate magical gifts and leaving him weakened and dying

1491 - Gale isolates himself in his tower for a year, depressed and heartbroken

1492 - BG3 plot occurs. One way or another, Gale comes to terms with his relationship with Mystra and manages to remove the Karsite Weave from himself

Gale mentions something about being called "delusional" by his professors when he graduated from wizard college (or whatever it's called). My guess/headcanon is that Gale would have graduated wizard school before Mystra began to mentor him. So he'd be, at the youngest, 21 when she initiates contact with Gale. Gale mentions that he'd been in relationships before Mystra, but that she was his longest partner, and 21 fits that backstory pretty well. This means that Gale is either 30 or 31, at the youngest, when Mystra casts him aside. This puts Gale at approximately 33-35 years old when BG3 occurs.

Another important thing is that, at least from Gale's perspective, he was cast aside by Mystra suddenly and without explanation. This left him having to guess why he was no longer one of her Chosen, which is what motivated him to win back her favor. Unfortunately, by trying to win her back, Gale took in the Karsite Weave, which ate away at his innate magical abilities and left him even weaker than he had ever been before.

Something that sticks out to me about this timeline is what Mystra says to Gale when he's finally able to confront her. She says to him something to the effect of "I would have made you my Chosen again, you just needed to be patient. But because you were impatient, you will never be my Chosen again". Likely the key difference between Elminster and Gale as both being powerful wizards devoted to Mystra is that Elminster understands that Mystra is a goddess, and should be treated with a sort of awe. If she does something that he doesn't understand, he just defers to her judgement as a goddess. But since Gale was in love with her, he treated their relationship like one between mortals, not that between a deity and their faithful. Gale's main folly is that he was in love with Mystra, while she was just using him as a pawn to consolidate her power. She probably wasn't lying to him about him being gifted, and probably would have made him Chosen again when it suited her, but Gale wanted more and couldn't stand the lack of communication, and so those powers were revoked from him.

It's really sad because Gale wanted real love, and wanted to be treated as an equal to Mystra. In a normal, human relationship, begin treated equally by your partner is a normal expectation. But because Mystra is a god and would never acquiesce her power, especially after only very recently regaining full control of it, Gale was doomed to be heartbroken. Also, the fact that Mystra cast Gale aside without telling him why, then didn't warn him that the Weave he found was deadly and would kill him, and then didn't tell him how to fix it, and then told him to kill himself to apologize, then ONLY tells him the truth of the situation after he starts to threaten her power, is super shitty. Can you blame him for any of it when he was literally ghosted by his goddess/girlfriend of 10 years?

The fact that Mystra is one of the "good" gods and can't even be bothered to treat one of her Chosen with decent respect, after manipulating him for his entire adult life, is super messed up. It really ties into the subthemes of BG3 about gods and how they just... really don't give a shit about their followers. Even the "good" ones still only really care about their power and protecting their interests. Like obviously Shar and Vlaakith are evil and treat their followers like shit, but the fact that Mystra does essentially the same thing with zero remorse, and then also blames Gale for all of it and forces him to beg her for forgiveness, is... sad.

And that's why Gale is a sweetheart and deserves all the love. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.