#as a gay man i can appreciate karlach

[undead-merman]

As soon as I get farther into baldur's gate 3, it's over for all of you. I WILL write for it, and I will not be stopped. Already thinking about writing something a little self indugent.

[all-pacas]

Bg3 query! How do you feel about Karlach/Astarion, on a scale from 'can't stand it' to 'eh' to 'one of my OTPs (recognizing the irony in that phrasing)'?

I feel medium about it! I prefer Karlach/Wyll and kind of do believe they’re… I mean, they get a paired ending and openly talk about how much they love one another (as friends), it’s just so wholesome! But Karlach and Astarion have a very cute “softie and trying not to be charmed by the softie” dynamic, and of course the hot/cold thing. If I played an Origin run with Astarion she’d be who I romanced for sure! There’s something very very fun about how Astarion has to revise his seduction plan with her, and how they can’t sleep together and then can but won’t and just. It’s nice. It’s fun. It’s different!

Also I am a deeply petty person, and whenever I see someone earnestly explain Astarion is gay coded or “they can’t see him with a woman,” or that Karlach is clearly into girls and would never fuck a man, I ship the two of them harder out of spite. None of that “x leaning bi dating this person regardless” crap: when they are paired, in my brain, they are madly attracted and deeply het for one another.

I suppose if I had one knock on the pair — and it’s a very faint one — I am not utterly sure what Karlach would see in him besides the superficial. From Astarion’s POV it makes sense, she’s big and can protect him and be a space heater and they can kill demons together, zero downsides. And clearly they get along as friends fairly well, so it’s not like Karlach doesn’t think he’s funny/probably appreciate his violent streak/etc. But she’s such a softie, I kind of imagining her almost wanting that sort of classic romantic romance — but hey, watching Astarion struggle to figure out how to Do Emotions and be that supportive partner (emotionally) could make for a great story.

ALL IN ALL: 7.5 out of ten. Very good pairing, not quite my thing but no judgement on those who love it!

[wardenmages]

I finished Baldurs Gate 3 and I need about 3-5 business days to recover before I hop back into Elissa's playthrough. oh my god. I cried so much. my mom is trying to talk to me about this documentary on tv and I'm like "yeah that's great" while actively weeping

SO under the cut to help people avoid spoilers. my playthrough took nearly 120 hours and I didn't even finish everything in every act. this has spoilers for like, the entire main quest line of act 3 since I did a lot of the main items today lol

HHHHHHHH it was very difficult to make the decision to make Orpheus a mind flayer. I was going to have Alet do it but backpedaled immediately because I just could not imagine them leaving Astarion alone like that. I had to pause and pace around for a long time. I knew I didn't want to side with the emperor but Man

I literally played through killing Orin and Gortash today, saving the guild, a bunch of other smaller quest items, and wrapping up the Orphic Hammer stuff once I had Lae'zel back. So like. It's been a lot all in one day.

I had Karlach with me while I killed Gortash and her breakdown afterwards was so painful, I was already so upset at that point. then afterwards I go talk to Astarion and

Astarion and Karlach understand each other so well and love each other so much it makes me want to eat drywall. I just. think about after killing Cazador w/o doing the ritual, Karlach telling Astarion how fucking proud she is of him, how happy she is that he's free. and then this happens and he can't even return the sentiment, because there is no other way out for Karlach. there barely was for him - he's free, but he knows that freedom comes with a heavy price he hates that he has to pay. I just. want to squeeze them both so hard. lovingly.

At one point I looked up if you could become a mind flayer and then turn back into a humanoid and saw people saying that at the end Astarion could die from getting caught out in the sun and I literally spent the whole final quest panicking because he was literally in my party 100% of the game and I was scared he'd die because of it, but he was fine. I think the game was trying to half-joke about it but I was so emotionally raw at that point I literally minimized the game because I panicked so hard lol

I'm a little bummed there was no scene about where Shadowheart, Halsin, Minsc, and Jaheira were going after the dust settled. I also kind of wish there was something like the classic Dragon Age "put all the companions in a space so you can say goodbye to them individually" thing, I didn't realize once you find the boat to the brain you wouldn't be able to change your party or even talk to most of the companions again (besides Halsin and Jaheira, at least for me). I just expected there to be more between killing Gortash and setting off for the brain, I guess? or something at the end like the act 1 tiefling party where they wait until night so Astarion can join them and the player gets closure with everyone. I like the few bits of closure we get it would just be nice I guess?? idk

Alet and Astarion are off an another adventure though, going to try and find a way for him to walk in the sun again, because while Alet is more than happy in the dark with him the rest of their lives, they know he's not happy with it, and they will do Literally Anything to make him happy again, and that last conversation between them made me gay. also it was funny in that whole last section you can say "this might be the last time we ever kiss" and he says "well then let's make it a good one" and they have the quickest most chaste kiss I've ever seen, it was shorter than the one you can do at the camp, it was genuinely so funny like Neither of you have any clue what you're doing and I appreciate the effort

Karlach ended up going back to Avernus with Wyll. I'm sad the scene only has Karlach talking, but I get why it's like that, so not that disappointed. But. I'm so happy for them. They love each other so much and have such a deep connection, neither of them will ever be alone again. as soon as they figure out if it's even safe or not ("is the thing lighting up the hells actually the sun") Alet and Astarion are going to visit them and Hope

ANYWAY I need to take a break from the game so I don't explode, probably going to write some more fic about Alet and Astarion, and then I will attempt to jump into a second playthrough without romancing Astarion which feels Genuinely Wrong, why would I even play the game without my favorite weird little guy hanging out asking for hugs :(