I’m gonna complain about something.

bg3 and especially astarion has been instrumental in me recovering a sense of personal creative joy.

I don’t like being ridiculed or made fun of (who does?) but it’s especially hard for me to allow myself to love something loudly and earnestly. It’s just a personal challenge for me. I’ve been made fun of a lot in my life and yeah, it makes me sensitive to that kind of thing.

You know who also gets ridiculed a lot? Women in fandom. Especially young women, especially passionate women, especially young passionate women who love romance and have romantic fantasies. Where it comes to Astarion I see a lot of ridicule leveled at fans who gravitate toward his “softer side” because they’re, I guess, interpreting him incorrectly.

But like … why is their interpretation less valid than yours? This character is written and designed to be romanced by anyone who wants to romance him. The whole point of the game is that the player is part-author of their own version of the story. Those of y’all who want to be ironic purists about characterization are not more “correct” about astarion (or any other character) because the character as he exists is a template with intentional gaps for interpretation.

“Weapons grade copium in the notes” “someone take x character away from these people” “lol @ anyone who thinks astarion actually loves them when clearly voice actor #537 said something vaguely contradictory in a livestream 2 years ago” all you’re doing is shaming people for the way they’re engaging with a piece of art that was meaningful for them.

And yeah, it hurts my fucking feelings. I’m sick of couching my enthusiasm for something in 8 layers of irony so I can maybe avoid being made fun of by strangers on the internet. I know this is partly a me problem—curate your own online experience, et cetera, whatever—but this is my house and I can complain if I want 🤷