I will say this cause the ship poll drama reminded me unfortunately that the bg3 fandom is not as progressive as they want to claim
Because I'm tired of seeing people say they "love Wyll" while consistently refusing to engage with him as an actual character.
This is especially noticeable in any Wyll ship but the things wyllstarion fans were saying really made me remember how Wylls corpse gets dragged around in this fandom . Way too often, Wyll stops being Wyll. He's reduced to an emotional support system, a therapist, a moral compass, or a prop whose entire purpose is to facilitate Astarion's story and growth. His own trauma, relationships, ambitions, flaws, and internal conflicts get flattened or ignored.
Wyll is a man who grew up under impossible expectations, was manipulated by a devil, sacrificed everything for people he'd never met, lost his father, struggles with his identity as the Blade of Frontiers, and has to reckon with what heroism actually means. That's a compelling character in his own right not just someone else's love interest.
And yes, I think racism plays a role in this. We should be able to acknowledge that fandom has a long history of sidelining Black characters while giving white characters endless complexity and grace. Wyll deserves the same level of analysis, sympathy, fanworks, and narrative attention that other companions receive.
This isn't about saying you can't ship Wyllstarion. Ship whatever you want. It's about asking why so much content turns Wyll into a cardboard cutout whose only job is making Astarion feel better. If your version of Wyll only exists to support another character, you've stopped writing Wyll.
More broadly, the Baldur's Gate 3 fandom constantly says it loves and supports Wyll, but those words don't mean much when he's consistently one of the least discussed companions, gets dramatically fewer fanworks, has his characterization ignored, or is treated as "the nice one" instead of a deeply conflicted, fascinating person.
Loving Wyll means caring about his story too.
Not just what he can do for your favorite white character.
