Turn Around Bright Eyes

Nifty little language game here.

I can read back to 1500 with basically no difficulty

at 1400 I have to read slowly and carefully, but I can understand all of it save a couple words

at 1300 I can still comprehend most of it if I read slowly, but a much larger percentage of the words are unfamiliar to me, even with context

Hiii! Sorry I didn't answer last night lol I was getting too tired.

SO! I played the game back in 2023, or rather, a friend I was visiting played it while I made all the choices because I hate strategy and turn based combat lol. I had fun, romanced Karlach, and then had to leave after just getting to act 3 and forgot all about it.

I got properly into it like 2 months ago because I read one random Astarion/Dark Urge fic while browsing through a tag on ao3 and realized that Astarion is basically my ideal fictional character lol. I have a huge thing for trauma in fiction but I am also incredibly picky about it and easily squicked, and Astarion's story manages to thread this incredibly rare needle of being everything I love while herding fic writers away from all the related tropes and stuff I hate and that routinely ruin it for me. Plus he's just fave material anyway.

I didn't realize this while playing the game because I didn't romance him, didn't finish his quest, never got the nuances of his story, and I wasn't paying very close attention in general lol. But I am playing it again now, properly this time, so I can refresh my memory and get all the first hand info I can. I had to beg an old gaming laptop off my brother for this, but it worked out. It's slow going, but despite still hating the combat lol I'm having a lot of fun! Don't have a lot of specific thoughts though yet, I'm still pretty early on and I don't remember enough from 2023.

So yeah I'm here mainly for Astarion but I do love all the origin characters! Karlach and Wyll are tied for second fave, and I'm not actively reading fic for them but I love both Shadowheart and Lae'zel and their dynamic.

I'll read any ship if Astarion is written well (and not daddy domified ofc lol), but my favourite pairing by far is Wyll/Astarion, they are like, a perfect ship imo. You'd think it would be too fluffy, and sure it's often pretty sweet, but Wyllstarion shippers do not shy away from getting fucked up with it either, it's an amazing fanfic scene honestly. And I even really like the fluff in this context, since even there Wyllstarion is all about the characters' issues and how they intersect and clash and parallel etc.

I've heard Wyll is underwritten in the game, and I can't comment on that yet until I get through his story, but if so then you'd never know it from fanfic. The fans do a great job of making him fleshed out and interesting. Even if he's more the straightforward hero to Astarion's damsel in distress he's still always entertaining in his own right, and when his own problems with his exile and Mizora etc are delved into he's got more than enough going on to carry a fic. And he's just so perfect with Astarion, like, let me count the ways:

monster hunter/monster; heroic prince/damsel in distress (or hero/dude who dreamed of being saved by a hero for 200 years and then met this guy a day after being coincidentally 'saved' by monsters); relatedly, guy who won't stop going out of his way to help people/guy who is so fucking bitter about that; too self sacrificing/too selfish; kind and considerate/enormous bitch; idealist/cynic; kid with humble beginnings who became heir to the leader of the city and then a folk hero/former upper class asshole who's now a slave; views sex as an expression of love/views sex as transactional; inexperienced sexually/has described sex as his only skill; doesn't acknowledge his trauma/knows very well how fucked his life is and trauma dumps all the time... So many ways to clash and contrast and pull each other towards the middle.

And then you also get stuff like: corny yet charismatic theatre kid/ridiculous drama queen; neither one gets assigned shy awkward nerd by fandom; they're both bitter about gods letting people suffer; they're both going to hell if they can't get saved from the assholes who own their souls; both went through involuntary transformations into a more monstrous form; an excellent age gap vs life experience gap especially in non magic AUs where it's more relevant; the fact that Astarion's canonically got a weakness for "sweet" men despite his bitterness (and calls Wyll sweet several times); the fact that they're canonically attracted to each other and Wyll finds Astarion charming lol; the fact that they're both from Baldur's Gate and both... involved in the upper classes, so there are so many good ways for them to meet in a canon divergent AU.

There's just so much to play around with! And it's all fun and good and extremely relevant to my interests and I have to dodge practically zero of my usual dealbreakers while looking or fic.

Anyway yeah, thanks for asking and giving me an excuse to ramble about bg3 for a bit <333

Your thoughts are always fun to read. I also got into BG3 in 2023. I read up on the characters you could romance before playing. No major spoilers or anything but I felt drawn to Gale. The galedekarios tumblr blog has some good meta on him if you are ever interested in it.

Gale is still one of my favs after multiple play throughs, but I do love the whole cast. Karlach and Lae'zel are tied for second. I don't really ship any of the origin characters together.

I like Wyll and I did accidentally romance him in the first act of my first play through. I felt so bad rejecting him! He is very sweet and funny but the writers did miss a huge opportunity to explore his character. Wyll is the son of a duke! He should have a stronger story to tell but it's never really explored. Sadly, that's why I haven't committed full romance play through for him. His content is a lot less than the other characters, around 9 hours.

Astarion is the queen of content at 13 hours. Larian's favorite child. His voice lines and story have far more time dedicated to them. Overall, I am neutral to Astarion. I naturally make "good" choices so it was hard for me to get Astarion to like me. I took care of him but never got super attached. Him being popular also made it hard for me to like him. He seemed too objectified.

I had a long break from BG3 and I finally started playing again. I want to give Astarion a chance and experience him for myself without outside influences. But your influence about him is actually helpful, lol. It makes me look at him in a different way, which I appreciate!

ty for the blog rec! That's actually perfect timing lol because I've been trying to read Gale/Astarion fic and I feel like I need a better understanding of Gale. I like him perfectly fine in the game so far but I don't have strong feelings about him, at least not yet. We'll see how I feel when I get more of his story.

But yeah I kinda got into the fandom backwards I guess, I'm playing the game now because I got sucked into the fandom, rather than checking out the fandom because I loved the game. The first time I played it I didn't have any ships or anything because like, the companions barely interact, so really it's just fanfic land that converted me lol. So I def get not having any ships or anything, I'm genuinely surprised that I fell into the fandom so hard because this isn't how I usually get into stuff.

Also yeah it sucks when a character you don't particularly love has way more content than most of the others. Like, I don't wish Astarion had less content, but I do wish that the other origin characters had just as much.

How's your Gale/Astarion fic hunt going? Are you finding their dynamics interesting. I know they are a popular ship so there's a lot of material if you get into it!

Hiii! Sorry I didn't answer last night lol I was getting too tired.

SO! I played the game back in 2023, or rather, a friend I was visiting played it while I made all the choices because I hate strategy and turn based combat lol. I had fun, romanced Karlach, and then had to leave after just getting to act 3 and forgot all about it.

I got properly into it like 2 months ago because I read one random Astarion/Dark Urge fic while browsing through a tag on ao3 and realized that Astarion is basically my ideal fictional character lol. I have a huge thing for trauma in fiction but I am also incredibly picky about it and easily squicked, and Astarion's story manages to thread this incredibly rare needle of being everything I love while herding fic writers away from all the related tropes and stuff I hate and that routinely ruin it for me. Plus he's just fave material anyway.

I didn't realize this while playing the game because I didn't romance him, didn't finish his quest, never got the nuances of his story, and I wasn't paying very close attention in general lol. But I am playing it again now, properly this time, so I can refresh my memory and get all the first hand info I can. I had to beg an old gaming laptop off my brother for this, but it worked out. It's slow going, but despite still hating the combat lol I'm having a lot of fun! Don't have a lot of specific thoughts though yet, I'm still pretty early on and I don't remember enough from 2023.

So yeah I'm here mainly for Astarion but I do love all the origin characters! Karlach and Wyll are tied for second fave, and I'm not actively reading fic for them but I love both Shadowheart and Lae'zel and their dynamic.

I'll read any ship if Astarion is written well (and not daddy domified ofc lol), but my favourite pairing by far is Wyll/Astarion, they are like, a perfect ship imo. You'd think it would be too fluffy, and sure it's often pretty sweet, but Wyllstarion shippers do not shy away from getting fucked up with it either, it's an amazing fanfic scene honestly. And I even really like the fluff in this context, since even there Wyllstarion is all about the characters' issues and how they intersect and clash and parallel etc.

I've heard Wyll is underwritten in the game, and I can't comment on that yet until I get through his story, but if so then you'd never know it from fanfic. The fans do a great job of making him fleshed out and interesting. Even if he's more the straightforward hero to Astarion's damsel in distress he's still always entertaining in his own right, and when his own problems with his exile and Mizora etc are delved into he's got more than enough going on to carry a fic. And he's just so perfect with Astarion, like, let me count the ways:

monster hunter/monster; heroic prince/damsel in distress (or hero/dude who dreamed of being saved by a hero for 200 years and then met this guy a day after being coincidentally 'saved' by monsters); relatedly, guy who won't stop going out of his way to help people/guy who is so fucking bitter about that; too self sacrificing/too selfish; kind and considerate/enormous bitch; idealist/cynic; kid with humble beginnings who became heir to the leader of the city and then a folk hero/former upper class asshole who's now a slave; views sex as an expression of love/views sex as transactional; inexperienced sexually/has described sex as his only skill; doesn't acknowledge his trauma/knows very well how fucked his life is and trauma dumps all the time... So many ways to clash and contrast and pull each other towards the middle.

And then you also get stuff like: corny yet charismatic theatre kid/ridiculous drama queen; neither one gets assigned shy awkward nerd by fandom; they're both bitter about gods letting people suffer; they're both going to hell if they can't get saved from the assholes who own their souls; both went through involuntary transformations into a more monstrous form; an excellent age gap vs life experience gap especially in non magic AUs where it's more relevant; the fact that Astarion's canonically got a weakness for "sweet" men despite his bitterness (and calls Wyll sweet several times); the fact that they're canonically attracted to each other and Wyll finds Astarion charming lol; the fact that they're both from Baldur's Gate and both... involved in the upper classes, so there are so many good ways for them to meet in a canon divergent AU.

There's just so much to play around with! And it's all fun and good and extremely relevant to my interests and I have to dodge practically zero of my usual dealbreakers while looking or fic.

Anyway yeah, thanks for asking and giving me an excuse to ramble about bg3 for a bit <333

Your thoughts are always fun to read. I also got into BG3 in 2023. I read up on the characters you could romance before playing. No major spoilers or anything but I felt drawn to Gale. The galedekarios tumblr blog has some good meta on him if you are ever interested in it.

Gale is still one of my favs after multiple play throughs, but I do love the whole cast. Karlach and Lae'zel are tied for second. I don't really ship any of the origin characters together.

I like Wyll and I did accidentally romance him in the first act of my first play through. I felt so bad rejecting him! He is very sweet and funny but the writers did miss a huge opportunity to explore his character. Wyll is the son of a duke! He should have a stronger story to tell but it's never really explored. Sadly, that's why I haven't committed full romance play through for him. His content is a lot less than the other characters, around 9 hours.

Astarion is the queen of content at 13 hours. Larian's favorite child. His voice lines and story have far more time dedicated to them. Overall, I am neutral to Astarion. I naturally make "good" choices so it was hard for me to get Astarion to like me. I took care of him but never got super attached. Him being popular also made it hard for me to like him. He seemed too objectified.

I had a long break from BG3 and I finally started playing again. I want to give Astarion a chance and experience him for myself without outside influences. But your influence about him is actually helpful, lol. It makes me look at him in a different way, which I appreciate!

Cats Stealing Food in Paintings

Still Life with Cat (1705) by Desportes, It's no use crying over spilt milk (1880) by Frank Paton, Still Life of the Remnants of a Meal with a Lunging Cat (18th Century) by Alexandre-François Desportes, Fish Still Life with Two Cats (1781) by Martin Ferdinand Quadal, Still Life with a Cat and a Mackerel on a Table Top (18th Century) by Giovanni Rivalta, The Collared Thief (1860) by William James Webbe, Cat Stealing a String of Sausages (17th Century) by Abraham van Beyeren, Still Life with a Cat (1760) by Sebastiano Lazzari, Kitchen Still Life with Fish and Cat (ca. 1650) by Sebastian Stoskopff, An Oyster Supper (1882) by Horatio Henry Couldery, Still Life with an Ebony Chest (17th Century) by Frans Snyders, Still Life with a Cat (1724) by Alexandre-Francois Desportes, A Cat Attacking Dead Game (18th Century) by Alexandre-François Desportes, Still Life of Fresh-Water Fish with a Cat (1656) by Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Fruits and Ham with a Cat and a Parrot (18th Century) by Alexandre-Francois Desportes, A Cat Holding a Fish in Its Mouth (18th Century) by Sebastiano Lazzari, Still Life with a Cat and a Hare (18th Century) by Desportes, Still Life with Cat and Rayfish (1728) by Jean-Siméon Chardin, A Cat with Dead Game (1711) by Alexandre-Francois Desportes, Still Life with Cat and Fish (1728) by Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin