Omg the love triangle/breakup dynamics in BG3 kill me
Astarion offering to have a sordid affair down the road if you romance Wyll is amazing - and you can agree to that lmaooo. Honestly his retorts and jokes about Wyll if you pick Astarion might be the funniest in the bunch, love that he calls you a scoundrel if you agree hahaha
Karlach's got some really kind and funny things to say about Astarion as long as you get his act 2 scene before you sleep with her (the throwing his pomade into the river comment, joking about sharpening stakes, saying he's not one whose heart you should play with, etc). If it's the other way around you def feel like a piece of shit for picking him and she is right to make you feel that way lol. Also let her be the one to end things, don't tell her you're ending things first unless you want to cry, holy shiiiiiit 😭😭😭 I swear she makes me wanna cry more than anyone else this whole game (such good acting!)
Shadowheart, she also has some really insightful things to say about Astarion if that's your love triangle, but I think you can't really do an act 2 scene with her until the end of Act 2 / early Act 3? So in early act 2 she only gets one breakup option instead of 2 like the others, which only happens from Shadowheart initiating the breakup after you get the other person's act 2 scene. Regardless she & Wyll seem to take a breakup best imo
Meanwhile from what I can tell Gale does not take it well if you pick someone else no matter which order you do the love triangle. He's either super hurt or pissed no matter what I did even though I didn't even kiss him in the weave in my game!! I had no way to tell him let’s just be friends before anything with Astarion happened, although to his credit he does have one or two okay responses of wanting you to be happy as long as you let him down gently in the convo before his act 2 scene. He's just clearly very hurt and down bad though, I felt awful the whole time lol, almost as bad as with Karlach
When I've tried to make the love triangle happen with Lae'zel, she was just ultra salty no matter what I did & Astarion only had like one non-generic line 🤷♀️ might also be bugged cause when I tried to pick her after getting his Act 2 scene she said nothing and all I could choose was leave/breakup. Felt like they didn't add as many options for her? You can tell it def affects her though cause even though she's pissed she says your "bruises will scar" :( so... still a bummer
Similarly for Wyll if you choose someone else over him, his comments are mostly generic about writing your story and honestly he’s pretty mature about it, but you don't even get to tell him you wanna date both, which is where they can say some pretty emotional/funny stuff, so again, doesn't seem like a lot of variations were put in for him
I find it interesting that you seem to only get the "you chose me instead of X?" dialogue with Astarion if you break it off with Shadowheart or Karlach, where you can tell him you're "dead serious" about the relationship. Unless I missed it, he didn't have anything to say when I talked to him after breaking up with Gale or Wyll or Lae'zel, which is when that dialogue pops up with the other two.
He seems to have the "i hear you have a new lover / what, why?" speech with everyone though. If you choose someone else over him before his act 2 scene he has the same various replies of "lucky you, you'll think of me / i'll think of everything we did / having you once was enough" etc, but if it's after his act 2 scene it's all "I didn't think / you were a mistake" :( and you'll feel terrible about yourself
ALSO while I'm talking about it, idk if this happened to anyone else, but the "I hear you have a new lover" speech was bugged for me for Gale/Wyll/Lae'zel, so he skipped saying the 1st shady unique line for them, BUT I could see it in the journal. Karlach's seemed to work fine though. Adding pics for reference minus Shadowheart
UPDATE ok it is a known bug and Shadowheart def has variations too, adding the youtube link for these. Also I had NO idea about the act 3 versions, omg these are SAVAGE towards Wyll and Gale ahhahaha
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The other reason Rakha probably didn't kill Omeluum is she has been super distracted by the idea of going to find the noblestalk ever since Derryth mentioned it had memory-restoring powers. So our last bit of business before heading off to Grymforge is to go find that.
She asks Derryth more about the mushroom, of course, because she has no idea what it looks like or how to find it. Derryth absolutely gives some askance looks at Glut tagging along behind during the whole process.
Equipped with the necessary knowledge, Rakha remembers having seen a mushroom of the type back where they found Baelen. Ironic, given that Derryth is so angry at Baelen for not having found it, and it was right nearby. Works out well for Rakha, though, who has every intention of using it herself rather than letting Derryth take it.
"I'm not sure about this," Shadowheart says doubtfully. "We've seen these things go off. This seems like a fine recipe for a tremendous explosion."
"You say that like Rakha is deterred by tremendous explosions," Wyll points out under his breath with a flash of a grin.
"I'm just saying... as the one who will undoubtedly have to heal you up afterwards, I want it noted that I lodged a formal objection."
Rakha doesn't respond, but twists a hand, mutters a few words under her breath, and vanishes.
As she appears on the other side of the cavern, the entire place immediately erupts in bibberbang fumes. Baelen's torch, still burning somewhere within, catches them alight at once, and there is a tremendous, rattling explosion of flame in all directions.
Slowly, the fumes and the flames fade from the peak of the explosion, revealing Rakha huddled against the wall, her body hunched over, protecting the small purple mushroom she is holding. Her robes are singed and her back and head terribly burnt... but the noblestalk is intact.
Shadowheart sighs. "What did I tell you?" she says to no one in particular.
-----
(A/N: Hilariously, there's no option to ungroup Glut or move it to track a different person, so it casually burbled into the mushroom field after Rakha, helped everything get set off, and took about 50% of its health in damage.)
Several healing spells later, Rakha leans against the wall of the cavern and looks at the mushroom in her hand. It has no smell at first, but where her fingernails have punctured its skin, it emits a medicinal smell, something like the healing potions they carry in their packs. It's a deep purple color, spongy to the touch. Unthreatening.
So why does she suddenly feel so uneasy? The eagerness has drained away suddenly, leaving only a vague feeling of dread.
Wyll watches her. "You don't have to eat it if you don't want to, you know," he says gently.
She grips her fist around the mushroom suddenly; its skin splits as it cracks in half and that medicinal smell fills the cavern, cloying and overwhelming. She stuffs the mushroom into her mouth and feels its bitter taste sizzle on her tongue....
Narrator: As you choke down the acrid mushroom, a memory embraces your unlovable carcass...
She can see nothing, hear nothing, for a few long terrible moments. And then her vision clears. She is not in the cavern. She has no companions. She is alone. She has always been alone. She works best alone...
Narrator: You see a grand collection - shelves of jarred floating pickled organs neatly labeled. Taxidermied beasts and men, elegantly displayed from your killings. A study no doubt arranged neatly by your gentleman's gentlegoblin.
No - not quite alone. Sceleritas is there, wriggling at her elbow as he always does, a novice, a puppy, eager to please but unstudied in the craft of slaughter...
Narrator: As you and your butler perform a vivisection, Sceleritas' claw slips, calipers cutting the aorta of the living, screaming victim...
Precision; she has always demanded precision. A clarity of vision, to take apart the carcass piece by piece in a rising crescendo of agony-- there is a rhythm to it, an artistry. She is a virtuoso, a master beyond mastery. And Sceleritas always falls short in his fumbling attempts to support her.
She watches the blood pour over her hands from the ripped artery, hot and pulsing, smells the iron life fading from the body. Yet another failure. She will not tolerate it.
Drown the butler in the victim's open bladder-cavity.
Narrator: His tears mingle in with the golden fountain.
Narrator: As the memory begins to clear away, one thing is certain - the Butler lies not about his past service.
-----
"Rakha? RAKHA!"
Rakha's vision clears, and she finds herself crouching amid the bibberbang ashes, hunched over, breathing hard. One of her fists is clenched, grinding into the dirt, forcing an invisible head downward, downward.
Wyll has a hand on her shoulder. His voice is in her ear, worried, insistent. "Rakha, d'you hear me?"
She loosens her fist sharply, stands up and backs away. She is trembling all over, her eyes squeezed shut. The image of the vivisected victim lingers, and the sound of Sceleritas's garbled screams as she punished him for failure.
And most clearly of all, the memory of her own thoughts - hard and cold as ever, but with the weight of a lifetime of cruel memory behind them. Already the sense of history is slipping away again, back into blankness... but the memory of that icy cruelty remains, like a frozen blade shoved into her spine.
Who am I? *What* am I? she thinks unsteadily. Where was that place? What did I do there? And why?
"Rakha, are you all right?" Wyll asks. He steps carefully into her field of vision, and she can see the deep concern in his eyes.
Wordlessly she shakes her head. The beast in her head uncurls itself slowly and laughs, and for the first time she hears her own voice in its laughter.
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