At least they would if I had any friends

A set of commissions for the lovely @tabitha42 of Saff, Malitas, and Gale all casting magic together ✨💘✨

I love oc/canon so much!

Ship Tournament, Round 2 — Match 9 / 15

Gale/Karlach

"they are both walking around with magical death devices in their chests trying to act like they’re fine about it. like sorry but the orb + infernal engine parallels are RIGHT there. two people who know what it feels like to have their own body turned into a countdown, still trying to be funny and useful and lovable through it."

"wizard who says “erm actually” x barbarian who can throw him over her shoulder when he gets too sad"

"gale: ah. a fascinating infernal mechanism, volatile but magnificent, housed within an equally magnificent— karlach: you’re staring at my tits, aren’t you gale: i was going to say “warrior,” actually, but now i fear the moment has rather escaped me anyway they’re both hot, doomed, funny, too willing to die for other people, and desperately in need of someone who will yell “NO MARTYRING” across camp. ship of all time."

vs. Shadowheart/Wyll

"I really like the Selunite Shadowheart version of this especially. Wyll’s whole thing is trying to be good even after being punished for it, and Shadowheart’s is trying to find herself after a goddess spent years cutting pieces away from her. They’d both understand what it’s like to have someone powerful claim ownership over your choices. There’s something soft in the idea of them post-game, maybe in Baldur’s Gate, trying to build something ordinary after all that divine/devil nonsense. Shadowheart with her animals and flowers, Wyll with his stories and dancing and stupidly earnest compliments. They’d still have scars, obviously, but I think they’d be careful with each other in a way that feels really earned."

i made these on my 15 :P

Professor… 🫠

Ship Tournament, Round 1 — Match 23 / 30

Jaheira/Nine-Fingers

"These two so obviously have some history. I'm not saying it's romantic or sexual history, but it's history, and that invites thought. There's some tension between them, that could be interesting in a romance."

"Jaheira calls her 'Astele'. Nine-Fingers left an offering for her."

vs. Gale/Minthara

"They’d challenge each other in places where they actually need it. Gale can get so wrapped up in guilt and grand gestures and magical destiny that he forgets he’s allowed to just live. Minthara would have absolutely no patience for him dressing self-destruction up as nobility. She’d call it wasteful, which is maybe the least comforting possible wording, but also exactly the kind of thing that would cut through his spiral. And Gale would push Minthara too, because he’s genuinely curious about people and he loves conversation and he can be very emotionally brave once he stops trying to turn everything into a speech. He’d ask questions she isn’t used to being asked by someone who isn’t trying to control her. I think she’d hate how much she likes having someone intelligent look at her and want to understand the person under the armour."

So here are those thoughts in the form of some sequential art.

BUT you can’t tell me Mr “gave up his soul for his city, his humanity for Karlach, and already resigned to going to the hells” wouldn’t do it all again in a heartbeat. At least it’s a form that he can choose this time.

The man is passively suicidal and doesn’t value his own safety. You cannot convince me any of that changed over the course of the game. All of Wyll’s big reveals (finding out he can be sent after people who weren’t evil on a technicality, that Balduran wasn’t a hero, that everything his father was training him for built up to a pile of bones who doesn’t see his worthiness or even acknowledge him properly then tries to kill him, that the cost of his freedom is his father’s life and soon he will have no powers with which to help others OR his only friends reaffirm that his happiness comes secondary, plus his “friend” potentially sleeping with his ABUSER!!!) would only stir his resolve, pushing him to be the hero who will make up for these shortcomings whether his or others. The Blade of Frontiers isn’t just a title, it’s a coping mechanism for the little boy that got abandoned at 17 for doing the right thing, who had to justify his father’s decision because the alternative is that his hero wasn’t perfect. Wyll has spent 7 years trying to make up for well, being him.

Ship Tournament, Round 1 — Match 6 / 30

Gale/Wyll

"I feel like they don't have as much ground to stand on as a ship, compared to some others, but God, I just love them. They just feel like the most domestic couple ever. Gale will cook, Wyll will clean up, they'll cuddle down on a couch and read a nice book together. (And maybe later Gale can "slurp that thing down like a carrot", as Wyll once put it:-D With how it sounded out of context, I just had to mention it:-D) They both seem like more classical romantics, who can be suave if they want to. And Gale, who canonically enjoys the look and scent of his partner post-battle, might really enjoy being the partner to the Blade of Frontiers in this regard, too."

vs. Dammon/Karlach

"Dammon totally has a crush on her, he always smiles so cutely at her, Karlach can (could?) fantasize about him in her origin run, they're both total sweethearts, need I say more?"