BALDUR'S GATE III (2023)

Avernus was never my home. It was my prison. I'm free now. And I'm NEVER GOING BACK.

actually trying to get back into art by drawing my beloved's

karlach for my boyfriend

The babes

Friendly reminder to go love on your Karlach 😉❤️‍🔥

The Companions!! <3 I'll be making these into stickers ASAP, I think they came out p cute ??

🐶☀️

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Oops…!

By Charidimos Bitsakakis

Edit: after some analysis, I will admit that a lot of what I say here is wrong, although I do still stand by the distinction I make in the post. Please do not continue to reblog this as it spreads the wrong message. Sorry.

One of the things that I love about Baldur's Gate is how any one particular theme can apply to multiple characters at the same time. Baldur's Gate also goes about these themes in unexpected ways. One of those themes, is forced servitude and slavery. There are five companions who have experienced some form of servitude and that is Karlach, Wyll, Astarion, Halsin, and Minthara. All of these characters have experienced what can be considered slavery, except for one: Wyll.

I often see this misconception that Wyll's pact with Mizora is an allegory to slavery. A lot of people tend to be upset (and rightfully so) that this theme has been attached to the one POC character in the game. Now, I do think it is worth having a conversation as to why themes of servitude keep getting attached to POC characters in fiction. However, in Wyll's case, his situation isn't exactly slavery.

Karlach was sold into slavery to Zariel for 10 years in which she was forced to fight in the Blood War and complete any mission Zariel gave her. She had no choice but to obey as disobedience would be punished. While under servitude, her heart was forcibly removed and replaced with the infernal engine that puts her life in constant peril while not in Avernus. She has also been in non-stop battle for all of those 10 years and her body is just littered with scars.

Minthara was a slave to the Absolute, although it's not exactly clear as to how long. While under the Absolute, she was repeatedly tortured by Orin (and I do think Orin did something much worse to Minthara than just torture). While under the Absolute, she was robbed of her own free will and was forced to commit atrocity after atrocity after atrocity. She may feel no remorse for it, but she did make it quite clear that she would not have done all those things if she was her own person. Because Minthara had no free will, she was actually incapable of disobeying or even thinking about disobedience.

Astarion was a slave to Cazador for 200 years in which he was forced to use his own body to lure victims for Cazador to feed on. Even though he did not want to, his body was forcibly compelled to obey whatever command Cazador gave him. Any disobedience would be rewarded with torture. So, there came a point where Astarion "willingly" captured victims while under constant threat of torture.

Halsin was a sex slave in the Underdark for the matrons of a drow house for three years. For his own survival, he did what he had to do to avoid any pain or punishment. And the drow can be exceptionally cruel to slaves who disobey.

All of these companions have been forcibly compelled to do things against their own will and were enslaved by their respective forces. All of them, except Minthara, had the ability to rebel but chose not to for they feared the painful consequences. But the same is not true for Wyll.

Wyll is not compelled to do anything Mizora says nor is he forced to do anything, he is contractually obligated. The fact that he has a contract, in the form of a warlock pact, makes his situation fundamentally different when compared to the others. The existence of a contract means what Wyll's form of servitude is not slavery, but indentured servitude.

Yes, we can make the argument that Mizora manipulated him and took advantage of his inexperience with the world and the situation he found himself in. But he was not coerced not forced into signing a pact with Mizora, merely manipulated. In the end, he still made the choice to enter into this pact. None of the other companions chose to enter into the servitude.

Now Wyll can rebel against his contract, but he too will be punished, we saw that in the game. And for a long time he may have done some morally questionable things in fear of that punishment. But again, these are all terms details in his pact, one he signed and agreed to. He went into this pact knowing the exact consequences of disobedience. But, there is something else in his contract that is deep and purposefully hidden away from him. Something that none of the other companions had. His time of servitude had a method to guarantee its end.

Karlach only got out of slavery by pure random chance and that the Nautiloid went through Avernus while she was, ironically, being chased by Wyll.

Astarion got out of his slavery by pure random chance when he got swept up by the Nautiloid and met someone who was willing to help him be rid of Cazador.

Halsin got out of his slavery by pure random chance and that an enemy of his captors house raided their compound. Halsin took advantage of the confusion and escaped on his own.

Minthara got out of her slavery by pure random chance that someone came and saved her in Moonrise and returned her free will back to her.

Had it not been for the pure random chance of outside forces, all four of these companions would still be slaves. The same is not true for Wyll. His pact always had a clause that allowed it to be broken, providing a method for him to be free. Now, Mizora has this clause very well hidden and Wyll was most likely not aware of it. But, all contracts can be broken, even tricky ones with devils. It had merely never occurred to Wyll to ask for it to be broken until Tav/Durge came along and proposed it. But the ability for him to choose to be freed from his servitude was always there, he just never thought to ask. I mean, someone who is a slave at least tries to get out of it, but Wyll never did. This is something that is not true for the other four.

Even if you don't ask for the pact to be broken in Act 2, Mizora still shows back up later in Act 3 and gives Wyll the opportunity to break the contract. This is something that would never happen for the other companions, to be given a chance by their enslavers to be freed. But, once again, Mizora is forcing Wyll to make an impossible choice: his father or his freedom. Wyll, being the man he is, will always choose his father and sign away his freedom. Personally, this is why I think the game forces this decision to be the player characters choice and not Wyll because Wyll will always put others above himself. He will always make the same choice. He will always sacrifice himself for others. He will always choose his father. But, no one is forcing him to do that. He is choosing to. He will always choose to remain in servitude to Mizora if it means his father lives. He is willingly discarding his own freedom for the sake of someone else and he will always do that. Someone who is a slave does not choose to remain a slave when given a free opt out by their captor.

One thing this game is really good at is subverting expectations of what we think about themes like this. Wyll, in a way, is a subversion of that expectation. I mean, it's already subversive for him to be a warlock and be good aligned. Despite the fact that he is contractually obligated to do bad things from time to time, he still manages to make himself a hero out of it. He still manages to be a good man and risks his life to help people. But, it isn't just that, he wears his scars without shame when he is punished for disobedience because he knows he has them because he did the right thing. He is in a position of servitude when you find him, but it is not one he is forced to be in nor compelled. He may have been manipulated by a devil who promised him the power of the Hells, but he is a willing participant in that very servitude.

Yes, it is concerning that indentured servitude has been attached to Wyll as he is the only POC companion. But we need to be very careful when throwing words like "slavery" and "racism" around, especially when he is not the only companion that this theme has been attached to. We also need to be very careful when accusing people of racism when it comes to Wyll. Hurling these words like this around with absolutely no thought or consideration for the reality of the situation only dilutes the true impact of a story like Wyll's. One of the points of Wyll's story is that it is okay to be selfish sometimes and to choose yourself. Another point is that signing a contract that also signs away your freedom isn't worth it. Especially since we live in a world of contracts.

When I first started typing this out I apologized for this vent but you know what? I'm not the least bit sorry, the BG3 fandom needs to hear this.

Being a queer fan in this fandom is beyond depressing, even more so if you're a queer dude or masc aligned person. It's like being transported 10-15 years back in time and I mean that in the worst way. Back to when producing queer content whether M/M or F/F would at best get you passive-aggressively ignored by the majority of fandom. Worst case involved doxxing and financial ruining people for writing characters as queer just in case you were wondering what that was like back then.

If you're trans of any stripe then it's even worse.

People will bend over backwards to defend this with preferences but you've conspired to create a climate where events will be promoted no matter the content as long as straightness can be assumed and centered, but the moment an event is created to specifically promote and create queer content it is suspect and needs to be vetted before it can be considered if it can maybe be promoted.

The BG3 fandom's frankly reactionary and conservative behavior is almost making me regret picking up this game in the first place. It is certainly making me regret getting involved in the fandom even in a small capacity. This isn't a place where fans like me are welcome, the best we can hope for is being allowed to be tolerated and only if we accept living at the edge of it and lived for too long in a world where this is all I'm ever allowed to put up with it in a space that's supposed to be for fun.

gonna cry again, bye

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𝑲𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝑪𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆 ❤️‍🔥

'There's courage in being terrified, but still going forward'

BG3 Aesthetics: Astarion | Shadowheart | Gale | Wyll | Karlach

Gonna take a risk and post this so please enjoy Karlach and Mars in their natural environment

i want karlach to **** ** and **** ** ** *** ***** and *** ** **