we deserve a soft epilogue, my love. we are good people and we have suffered enough.

Thank you yet again to the lovely and talented @ashsktchm for another stunning piece. I had been wanting these two in this style from the very beginning and I am super happy to finally see them.

The pose, her outfit, the way he’s looking at her… Incredible! Thank you, again!

That’s exactly them, thank you

While Wyll was the "corrupted" family member who valued his father despite him acting against his values and the suffering he heaps upon his son to uphold their legacy, Valygar looks to destroy his family line knowing how damaging trying to maintain the Corthala family legacy is.

I wanted to offer that Wyll never verbally tells the player he regrets anything about his pact - but only if you consistently are respectful to him about it. this is one of those wild character dev things but in my opinion it does make sense for him; he will tell you his pact was a mistake if you call him a hypocrite when you first converse with him about Raphael in Act 1 (I never saw this either, until a video on the subject crossed my path. c': ) Wyll admits to his pact being difficult to bear already at a few different points just in the natural course of conversing with him about his personal quest but he will only tell you it was a bad choice with his own words if you are cruel to him about it. </3

however, I do think it also matters that if you play a tactful character Wyll uses his words to tell you he doesn't regret his pact, but there is plenty of character subtext to suggest he either isn't being wholly truthful or is downplaying his regrets as part of a coping mechanism. in one of the conversations you can have with him about his pact in Act 2, he reiterates yet again that he doesn't regret his pact (even though he'd like to get out of it) and then just before he finishes saying his piece, his voice catches and breaks, and he clears his throat to try to cover the slip. he also repeats having "no regrets" often enough that I believe it easily reads as a sort of verbal denial in the face of overwhelming emotion.

I wrote about this more in-depth in this post, but the core of the analysis there can be summed up with this: "I also think he struggles to admit how much the pact has hurt him because I think if he had to make the decision a second time, he’d still make the same one, and he believes that must translate to having no regrets about it [...] he has been tormented and yanked around for years and has so deeply believed for all of it that he is not allowed to struggle with the damage, because he made this choice and now he’s going to live with it without a whisper of complaint." Wyll very much seems conflicted with what he is or isn't allowed to feel about his pact! he lets himself be angry with Mizora, because she's the one who leveraged his desire to do good against him, but he does not allow himself to even entertain the idea that his pact was a "bad" choice if he is being supported and respected by the player character because in Wyll's mind, any suffering he undergoes for the greater good should not matter because who is he to protest his own pain or grief in the face of doing what's right or helping those in need? this is very much a struggle for him! ;u; it's just very well-hidden under a mask (and I do wish the game's writing allowed this to be explored more, but that doesn't mean it's not there at all.) but if you treat him cruelly, perhaps he simply snaps for that moment that reveals his internal conflict; he does think his pact was a "mistake" somewhere inside himself.

lastly, Wyll does not hold his father Ulder Ravengard responsible for Mizora's wrongs because in effect, she also manipulated his father by clearing away the evidence of what happened and sealing Wyll's lips so that he could not explain what happened himself. I talked about this in another post of mine back on my main blog before I made my side blog, but to reiterate from there: "I think a lot of people think it is ridiculous or even foolish for him to not be angry with his dad. but I believe in the wake of what happened, Wyll couldn’t bear to be angry with his dad, because it would mean giving up on the idea that his father is adhering to what is “good.” [...] because it was too painful to imagine his father as less than good. because wyll learned his ideals of being good from his father - and it is too much for him to let that be threatened. thus the pattern begins - even if it is painful, even if it hurts Wyll deeply, it is better to stick to your ideals above all else because it’s just not tenable to give up being good."

now I personally think it would be really interesting to explore ideas in fanfic around Wyll developing more complex feelings around the reunion with his dad (and have plans to hehe) - but I do not think he would ever decide Ulder was the one at fault all along for the troubles Wyll has endured - because he's not! Ulder, despite being flawed in his methods and disposition towards Wyll in doing so, really did think he was doing the right thing in the moment. He thought he was putting the needs of the many above the needs of the few. he thought he was sacrificing his own pain and his own suffering on the altar of the greater good by sending away his beloved son (Ulder loves Wyll with all his heart and soul) over a mistake that could make him a danger to the city of Baldur's Gate, which Ulder is responsible for! Ulder carries a lot of burden for the city's safety as its grand duke, and he thought he was making a dreadful choice that hurt him and hurt his son, but ultimately Ulder truly believed it was the "right" choice to make. Ulder is very much the person Wyll learned his self-sacrificial tendencies from. this is an inherited trauma, in a way. remember that Wyll is 24 years old ;u;

Dorn escaping the Luskan prison.