Yknow The More I Think About It, I Really Dont Like The Twist Regarding The Elven Gods In Inquisition

Y’know the more I think about it, I really don’t like the twist regarding the elven gods in Inquisition

Solas’s pompous attitude re: the Dalish the whole game is really annoying (esp when playing as a Dalish) and the twist feels like it grants his views some legitimacy, because in a way, he’s right (he’s technically correct that the Dalish have lost their old ways and don’t fully understand their own history, but he’s not morally in the right).

I know the game did a similar thing with the Maker, with Corypheus claiming to have seen the seat of the Maker and finding it empty, but I still don’t like the twist of “the elven gods weren’t real gods, they were just mages and also slavers.” It feels like a “fuck you” to the Dalish, who didn’t need to be taken down a peg.

It also means (as I’ve seen someone else point out) that the two important examples we know about of mage-ruled societies (the ancient elves and Tevinter) were/are also societies that ran on slavery. Mages, like the Dalish, also did not need to be taken down a peg. There didn’t need to be another example of “mages bad.”

I just can’t help but to wonder if we *really* needed the “the Dalish’s beliefs are basically all lies” twist.

There ARE valid arguments to be made about "playersexuality," especially if a character is written/heavily implied to be gay/lesbian but given a straight romance. That specfic scenario isn't something I'll get into in depth right now to make this as brief as possible, but "it's ridiculous that every character is bisexual" is NOT one of those arguments. I saw it for Dragon Age 2, and I am annoyed but not surprised to see it for Baldur's Gate 3.

This will feature reclaimed use of the word queer. Tagged below, but thought it might be good to mention.

Dragon Age as a franchise is significantly less committed to queerness than BG3. Thedas was built, intentionally or otherwise, to be heteronormative and gender conforming. To a lesser extent than real life, in that same-sex attraction in Thedas is generally considered unremarkable, but oppression and othering of queer people in-universe DOES exist and it isn't hard to find. (The biggest examples: Dorian's experiences in the upper-class Imperium, the framing of Krem's trans-ness as uncommon or atypical). And DESPITE that, the bisexuality of DA2's main cast does not feel forced or ingenuine to me. The party doesn't remark on or make political statements about each other's sexuality. Sexuality is, at least to this group of people, entirely apolitical, and they all just happen to be a similar sort of queer.

PLEASE consider, then, a world built entirely void of the widespread social culture surrounding sexuality, as Baldur's Gate 3 has tried to create. Where bi or pansexuality is the "common" or "expected" orientation, or more appropriately, where the concept of orientation is absent entirely. This person just cares about personality in who they date, this one doesn't really want to date anybody, this one wants to be in a polycule, and those are all completely neutral positions to hold and inconsequential to their greater character as an individual.

In this world you could easily pluck a half dozen or so random people out from the millions and find that they all desire sex and/or intimacy with any gender equally. If there's no erasure of queerness, it follows that open queerness is more abundant. Sexuality is fluid and various as gender is fluid and various and neither are reflections of someone's personality or morals. Being gay doesn't make you effeminate because there's no preconceived notion that straightness is manly, etc etc.

That's all true in the real world of course, but the difference is that it feels like Larian has tried to craft their narrative around it being the cultural norm. YOU might think it'd be ridiculous for a half dozen random people to be bisexual, if you haven't spent the time in queer spaces to learn that there are gay people everywhere. Even if you have, and there are more queer people in your life than straight ones, you might think it'd be unlikely to pick 6-8ish random people on Earth and find that they're all specifically bi or pansexual. You may even be right, because all over the world there are restrictive dominating cultural narratives that alienate, suppress, and persecute queerness. BG3 doesn't take place on Earth, though, does it? So sit down and think about it for a minute, please.

Of course there'd still be variation. You'd find people that fit the definition of straight or gay or asexual, but there's no expectation of straightness. Sexuality simply is. If you're interested in somebody, either they're interested back or they're not. You find out, you move on. Githyanki even reproduce asexually, so they don't have any flimsy biological reason for straightness, though if you're resorting to "biology" to debate sexuality, you're too far down the pipeline to have read this far anyway. Lae'zel wants a warrior, not a man. You might happen to be both, but it's not your gender she's lusting over.

Also, bisexual men deserve to exist freely without you policing exactly how gay or straight they get to "act." And you aren't somehow less biphobic for invalidating them just because you yourself are gay, so don't think that absolves you. Yes this is about Astarion. He's a bit more overtly queer-coded than Gale or Wyll. He's not gay. Bisexual men are evidently only valid to you if they "act straight." Fuck off.

Gay people exist! Let's put that lukewarm take to rest now, please. If gay people live in a culture that allows them to exist, they exist in much greater abundance. Who would've thought? Left-handedness over time graph my love. The single greatest refutation to Straight People Whining.

Look, you can just say that you're jealous you aren't in an all-bisexual friend group. It's okay. All-bisexual friend groups are awesome.

I think more fallout games need stuff like Wild Wasteland and the Pimp Boy 3 Billion

for legal reasons, this is a joke. 

WHY DOES FALLOUT 3 CALL ME A BITCH FOR SENDING FAWKES TO ACTIVATE THE WATER PURIFIER??? HE'S RAD RESISTANT!!! THAT'S BEING SMART, NOT A PUSSY!!!

holy shit just saw pronouns in starfield and I shat myself. I sharted ,while crying, so hard that my wife came into my room (she sleeps with her femboy boyfriend) and asked for a divorce. I just turned to her and said

"p-p-p-pronouns" and broke into tears. crying rn.

fuck you Todd Howard for convincing my wife to divorce me and leave me for her woke male wife.