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nerosdayinanime · 11 months

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feral giyuu beloved

hes gonna fucking kill Shinazugawa

so Sanemi pulls his stab-the-baby bullshit which terrifies Tanjiro, thinking he'd try to open the box next to burn her in the sun. as soon as Giyuu registers his distress all the tension he'd be holding in snaps violently- he lurches forward out of the lineup and lunges at Sanemi with the ferocity of an actual demon. Sabito and everyone else are stunned in place as Giyuu punches him hard enough to send him to the gravel, snatches Nezuko's box from him and leaps back pulling Tanjiro behind him. He stands there posed protectively in front of them, every muscle tensed ready to move as he stares Sanemi down snarling as loud as thunder. Obanai Mitsuri and Tengen are cringing back- Obanai because hes closest aside from Sanemi and can smell the intense sea-salt & pine through his mask, Mitsuri because shes an Omega Prime and the warning growl/threat scent affects her more, and Tengen because the sharp ring of loathing in the growl hurts his head. Sabito's still in the lineup baring his fangs, struggling to keep calm and not make the situation any worse for his partner despite the anxiety of the situation.

"Don't fucking touch them." "I didn't even touch your stupid brat!" "YOU STABBED HER!"

Everyone startles at the implication of that- Sanemi growls and starts berating him for imprinting on a demon, stomping closer, calling him a traitor for attacking him. Giyuu leans forward ready to rip out his throat at a moments notice, not lunging solely because Tanjiro's holding onto the back of his haori pleading for them not to fight. Sabito finally snarls and stands up- Kyojuro Mitsuri & Tengen follow, fully expecting to have to intervene when the three of them start tearing each other to shreds, "SIT!. ALL OF YOU!." He snaps, harshly grabbing Sanemi by the shoulder and shoving him down. Sanemi starts to protest but Sabito leans over him threateningly and grabs his throat, "You stay fucking put. You're already 5 feet down and i suggest you stop digging any further." Sanemi stares back at him, gripping the arm holding his neck, but doesn't do or say anything else, the others hesitantly settle back down. He lets go and straightens up, looking back at the other hashira, "We're going to sit here and wait for Oyakata-sama like civilized people," a pointed look at Sanemi, "Are we agreed upon?." When everyone murmurs in agreement he nods to Giyuu and kneels next to Sanemi, barricading him and the other hashira from Giyuu Tanjiro and Nezuko.

Giyuu finally stops growling and posturing, hesitating for a moment before turning and fretting over the two of them for a bit- they finally sit down when he calms. When Kagaya arrives hes immediately hit with the tension and thick fear-anger-stress scent filling the courtyard and asks what happened. Sanemi opens his mouth- Sabito slaps a hand under his chin and closes it again. Shinobu and Kyojuro pipe up, explaining that they were questioning the boy when Shinazugawa went ahead and stabbed the demon in the box, how Urokodaki stepped up and ...convinced everyone to sit back down. He finally brings out Sakonji's letter and asks everyone else to allow it like he did. Sanemi of course objects and asks to prove the demon's real nature. Giyuu immediately snaps at him to shut the fuck up- he's already done enough stabbing his fucking cub. Kagaya recognizes the gravity of the situation and offers Giyuu to come inside so he can check on her (and maybe possibly also show everyone else shes not so bad-). Giyuu quickly takes up the offer and pulls Tanjiro over with him in the far corner- Sabito follows them to the edge of the engawa and stands guard there between them and the other hashira.

Giyuu sits down in front of her box and gently opens it, little Nezuko crawling out and looking around for a moment. She sees the blood on Tanjiro's face and tries to wipe it off with her sleeve, Giyuu makes pointed eye contact with Sanemi and carefully cleans Tanjiro's face off. Nezuko patiently sits in his lap until he pats her head and inspects the damage to her clothes. The other hashira are talking, arguing maybe- he doesn't care enough to tell. "Shinazugawa, you owe me 5 yen." "The fuck do i owe you for jackass!?" "Thread, for the fucking HOLE you put through her-" "Ah!- Giyuu-san its fine!-"

Eventually its decided they'll let her live for now, "I also offer to take them in to the Butterfly Mansion, if that's okay with Tomioka-san." Giyuu notices the peace-offering look she gives him when she says that. "...I'll allow it.." Tanjiro herds Nezuko back into her box and Giyuu growls at the kakushi who try to pick up Nezuko's box. He puts the box on himself, Tanjiro tries to assure them he can walk on his own and immediately buckles when he puts pressure on his injured leg. Giyuu picks him up and carries the both of them out and to the butterfly mansion while Sabito stays for the rest of the meeting

#loserboy giyuu posting #neros art tag #abo sabigiyu surprise adoption au #giyuu dipped as soon as he could he did NOT want to stay around that mess any longer than he had to lmao #hes never been so junked up on adrenaline before- he dropped the two of them off in Aoi's care and went to run off the rest of it with a #few laps between the estate and the nearby village. grabbed some more thread while he was there #oh yeah i didnt talk about the mt natagumo scene w rui & shinobu #he was super panicky about possibly losing them to a lower moon so soon- he got there in time though and had that whole convo w tanjiro #abt not hesitating to slay demons- he was swayed by tanjiro and grabbed rui's clothes after he ran from shinobu. had em stuffed in his #sleeve the whole time- probably asked the btfy trio to wash it for him and gave it to tanjiro #tanjiro told him about the little family lower 5 was trying to make with the other demons- how he must've been trying to replace the family #he lost and going about it the wrong way given how happy the spider mother was to die. he smelled so profoundly *sad* when he was dying #giyuu gets why hes so sympathetic to demons like that. he doesnt really feel the same but he understands. hes just happy tanjiro found a #balance between his kind nature and his job as a slayer- he doesnt have to sacrifice his kindness and he doesnt have to sacrifice his *life #sabito eventually arrives w shinobu & fills giyuu in on the meeting stuff- they also talk about that little bit about 'his cub'#'what about it? they're ours now.' 'giyuu you cant just adopt-' 'i dont wanna hear that from you *urokodaki*' 'touche. they're ours now'#giyuu #tomioka giyuu #giyuu tomioka #sabito #kny sabito #sabito lives au #sabigiyuu #kamado tanjiro #kamado nezuko #originally it was supposed to just be a redraw but my obsession w sharp teeth won out #giyuu beloved #next im gonna try to draw somethin w giyuu original design #that fuckboy w the slutty gloves

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forcedhesitation · 2 months

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whoever made the decision to demote the resolution to wyll's story to a subquest is either unqualified to even be making that decision and should be replaced, or they are qualified, and should be disposed of, because they have demonstrated that they are not even familiar with the material they are making a decision about.

i've spoken about the wyrmway before, and as I said then, if there was anything that this quest needed, it was to be expanded. after rereading my original commentary, I decided to expand on my thoughts about the quest. so, here is a more extensive exploration of why I think the wyrmway quest is so important, and how I would personally improve the narrative, so as to give wyll a better resolution to his story.

wyll's whole quest has elements of fairy tales woven into it, and his character is an archetypal fairy tale prince. concluding his personal story by having him "slay the dragon" in the wyrmway is brilliant, as it follows the narrative of a typical fairy tale, and ties back to a dialogue of wyll's in act 1. after you've spoken to raphael for the first time, he tells you a tale his father once read to him, "the kind with a hero, a villain, and a moral." beyond this short story reflecting many different layers of wyll’s past, it also serves as a guideline for how wyll's quest plays out. but the wyrmway quest is necessary in order for it to play out properly, as it is there that the moral is fully revealed.

at the wyrmway, you learn that ansur, the "heart of the gate," is actually dead. well, undead. in meeting ansur, you learn the truth behind the emperor's identity and what led to ansur's death. and it is what led to ansur's death that reveals the moral of wyll's tale. it was ansur's rigid adherence to his lawful good moral alignment that ultimately destroyed him, and the relationship he had with balduran. and this was because he could not see his old friend as a person any longer, only a monster. ansur's refusal to compromise his values, rather than reconsider his perspective and hear his friend out, is clearly a parallel to ulder exiling wyll from baldur's gate, because he valued his duty to the city more than his own son. this is a truly ingenious way of criticising ulder's actions, and wonderfully ties the moral of wyll's story into the game's greater question of "what truly makes someone a monster?" moreover, all of this is necessary for a proper resolution to wyll's story, as it allows for ulder to show wyll that he's willing to break away from the mentality that lost ansur everything, so that he may properly reconcile with him.

by downplaying the importance of this quest, larian is not only weakening the aforementioned parallels between ansur & ulder and wyll & balduran, but also minimising the importance of ulder echoing balduran, when he says that wyll himself will be the city's saviour. he says this in response to the one instance in the ENTIRE game, that I can think of, where wyll openly admits to feeling defeated. some of wyll's dialogue post quest completion reveals that this is because he hoped that enlisting ansur's help and saving the city would have been his shot at "redeeming" himself to the city, and to his father. we know that wyll never needed to redeem himself, and that he's never done anything wrong. but despite any resentment he may express over being exiled, he never really blames his father for abandoning him, because his father is "good" and was merely "doing his duty." so when balduran tells wyll that he never needed ansur, that he is the heart of the gate, and then ulder echoes that sentiment to wyll when he returns from the wyrmway...ulder is finally showing wyll that he meant his apology and that wyll is was always good enough. it was ulder who wasn't good enough, much like it was ansur who was wrong for refusing to reconsider his morals. and this is then later reflected in the dialogue you can get with blade of avernus wyll in the epilogue, where he tells you how his father's changed his approach to governance and has become far more merciful.

now, if you're unfamiliar with wyll's quest, or perhaps with baldur's gate altogether, and are merely reading out of curiosity, you may go "wow, bumble! this sounds like a marvellously written story! I cannot possibly fathom how people are dissatisfied with this! or why larian would demote it to a sidequest!" I'd say your reaction is the result of not having the full picture. what you've read thus far merely outlines some core elements of wyll's story, and why they're important, without really discussing how successfully this narrative is executed in the game, or the way that larian & the fandom treat wyll. poorly, is the word I'd use in all three cases. the narrative is executed poorly, and he is treated poorly by both the devs and fans.

in respect to the narrative of his quest, I'll begin by saying that I believe that the idea behind the quest is great! the commitment to the fairy tale theme is incredible and works wonderfully for wyll's character. subverting our expectations of heroism and villainy through the tale of ansur and balduran is clever, and using that story to explore the relationship between ulder and wyll is, as I said before, brilliant. I truly enjoyed wyll's story as much as I enjoyed that of astarion, who most people on social media know has a very emotional and beautiful resolution to his quest. but I mention the beloved bloodsucker not for the purpose of praising his writing. I mention him, because I feel that his quest's overall narrative feels as satisfying as it does because he is given a lot of material all throughout the game. the same could be said of shadowheart, who has roughly the same amount of material as him. reaching the conclusion of their stories, despite any weak points in their writing, ultimately feels fulfilling for the player, because they've been through a lot with that character. but what of the true heart of the gate, our dearest prince wyll? well, out of the six origin companions, wyll has the least amount of material in his story. yes, the son of duke ulder ravengard, one of the most important npcs in the entire game, has the least amount of story material. astarion and shadowheart, conversely, possess no true tie to the central narrative of the game, but have the most material. now, rather than making an effort to rectify this atrocious disparity, larian chooses to relegate the conclusion of wyll's quest to a place of lesser significance, all while providing new material to less important characters instead, like gortash and halsin. gortash, who is not only bane's chosen, but also the villain at the heart of karlach's story. yet, the new material he was given implicates a more intimate relationship between him and the dark urge, and has nothing to do with karlach whatsoever. halsin, on the other hand, was originally meant to be nothing more than an npc, yet he now possesses five unique kisses, on top of several greetings for a romantic partner, which is something wyll still lacks entirely, even after six major patches and seventeen hotfixes.

And what of the wyrmway itself? I will say that the area is notably...underwhelming, for the lair of a legendary dragon, but the same could be said about the area every companion's quest concludes at. so I will not delve into how I feel that area could be structurally expanded. what I will talk about, is what I mentioned above- the narrative. I've seen a lot of hatred for the emperor's reveal, but I do not think that the reveal in itself is the problem. what is rather the problem is that the writing does not account for wyll being a companion, rather than an avatar. if he is your avatar, the reveal feels more impactful, because the narrative has followed wyll as the central figure of the game, rather than a customised character. thus, revealing the mysterious guardian figure as a hero of legend makes perfect sense, in the context of wyll's fairy tale themed quest. however, if wyll is not your avatar, the reveal falls flat. this is because he is no longer in the spotlight, and the game does nothing to account for that, which makes the entire quest feel like it is more about balduran than it is wyll. and this is done despite the fact that without wyll, there isn't even any point, narratively speaking, to having the emperor secretly be balduran. the emperor's function in the story is relevant specifically to wyll, and as I've explained, ansur and balduran's story is incredibly important to the resolution of wyll's own story. what needed to happen was sufficient material being added to the quest to ensure that wyll is still treated as the point of focus. not only that, but there should be material added at earlier points of the game, so as to strengthen the connection between wyll and the emperor, because prior to the wyrmway, the emperor only singles out whoever you're playing as, and there's nothing to account for that not being wyll. this lack of early game connection only serves to further weaken the impact this conclusion has. how would I improve wyll's story, to account for when he is a companion, so that he is treated as the focal point of the conclusion to his quest, and so that he is given a satisfying resolution to his story?

give wyll dialogue with and about the emperor that is exclusive to him, to draw a connection between them earlier on in the game. if gale can have an interaction with mystra that excludes your character entirely, as shadowheart does with dame aylin, then there's absolutely no reason why wyll cannot have an exclusive scene with the emperor.

rework the scene in which mizora gives wyll the ultimatum. while wyll is given agency to choose his own fate at the wyrmway, I feel that he should be given agency at this point as well. once again, there's no reason for why this can't be possible, as shadowheart is given the option to choose for herself both in act 2 and 3. then, by having the emperor pay special attention to wyll, the possibility for him to choose to save himself would become more realistic, as the emperor would have an understandable reason for trying to convince wyll to choose himself over his father. moreover, the emperor would possess the means to believably convince wyll to choose himself, because the emperor knows gortash personally and thus knows that gortash wouldn't just immediately dispose of someone as useful as ulder, which is something he could tell wyll. to account for the relationship between your player character and wyll, if wyll is told to choose for himself whether he should accept mizora's new pact, his choice to believe the emperor's claims could be determined by his approval of your avatar. if you've treated him well and reaffirmed his worth as a person, wyll could realise that the emperor has no reason to lie, and that alongside you, saving his father from gortash should be possible regardless of what mizora has promised. meaning: he would choose to break his pact. if you've treated him poorly, he could argue that he hates mizora, but he at least he knows he can rely on her power and lawful nature, whereas he has no reason to trust that you would actually help him save his father from both gortash and mizora, if he is indeed still alive. meaning: he accepts mizora's new terms.

introduce the possibility of multiple final outcomes for wyll's story a little earlier on in the game. if I'm not mistaken, it is only when you get to the wyrmway itself, and have defeated ansur, that the possibility of wyll even becoming duke is mentioned. I feel that the "blade of avernus," is an ending best left to be announced by wyll himself, after ansur's demise, but wyll becoming the new duke should be hinted at shortly after he's been given the ultimatum by mizora. how it is mentioned, and how likely wyll would be to follow that path, would obviously be dependant on whether he accepted mizora's ultimatum, but could also consider other factors, such as if ulder is alive.

if wyll is in your party, it should not be possible for the cutscene with ansur to be triggered by anyone else but wyll. if other companions act immediately in dialogue with npcs important to their quests (i.e. shadowheart attacking dame aylin, astarion attacking his siblings & cazador) if they are in your party, wyll should be given that same grace. he is given some, in act 2..... should you fail the perception check that allows you to negotiate wyll's original contract with mizora.....but I think anyone with any measure of intelligence can agree that that should not be locked between a random, unexplained dice roll which you have no control over.

going off the last point, the emperor's dialogue following ansur's final demise should perhaps be delivered in a short cutscene format. the dialogue with wyll, where he laments that ansur will not save them, and questions if this means baldur's gate will fall, can play out normally. but when the emperor tells wyll that he is the heart of the gate, there should be a moment in which the emperor shows wyll (and you as the player) visions of wyll surrounded by baldurians cheering after you've all defeated the brain. it could be a short scene, just a momentary vision, but it would clarify that the emperor is speaking directly to wyll. the vision paired with the emperor's words then makes wyll's following confidence feel a little less spontaneous, and gives his consideration of taking up ulder's ducal title a little more foundation.

after the emperor's identity is revealed, at some point after leaving the wyrmway, give the emperor a dialogue that explains that he was urged to protect wyll, in a way, because he related to wyll's experiences. it'd be important to ensure the emperor still sounds selfish, because he is, but to suggest that he feels some degree of connection to wyll. that way the writing would remain faithful to the emperor's character, but would also emphasise the connection between wyll and balduran (both heroes) as victims of those with inflexible lawful good morality (ulder and ansur/the moral), and those who exploit vulnerable people (mizora exploiting a young, selfless wyll by offering him the chance to save his city & gortash exploiting that balduran is a mindflayer and thus a monster in the eyes of society/ both villains). and for the "mindflayers don't have any feelings crowd" : experiencing such fondness for a person is not completely unrealistic for an illithid, as omeluum expresses feeling "warmth" towards your character if you save him from the iron throne. the emperor is selfish, yes, but writing him with some degree of sympathy for a character that is paralleled to him in their quest makes him more interesting of a character, in my opinion.

add a post quest cutscene. shadowheart is given a cutscene after her quest is completed, regardless of whether your character has romanced her. the cutscene works well to show the player the complicated emotional state she is in, and allows her to express some of the anguish she's kept inside for so long. I believe this kind of cutscene would be perfect to fully conclude wyll’s quest, as he keeps a lot of his feelings to himself and deserves an opportunity to express them. if ulder is alive, the cutscene could feature the moment in which he echoes balduran's words and reaffirms that wyll never needed ansur to save the city. then, the scene can shift to your character helping wyll to prepare the dinner he mentioned wanting to make. in this scene, you can ask him about his feelings about everything that's happened. if ulder is not alive (something I've never personally had happen), the post quest cutscene could feature a moment in which the emperor reaffirms wyll as the true heart of the gate instead, and then transition to the dinner preparation. of course, wyll's responses would obviously be different depending on his approval of your character, whether he remains pacted to mizora, and whether his father is alive. either way, adding this cutscene would offer an opportunity for wyll to comment on how he personally feels about the conclusion to his quest. and by using cooking, which wyll seemed very excited about doing, there is the chance to include some dialogue about his time adventuring the sword coast.

those are just some of my ideas to make the wyrmway quest, in specific, stronger as an ending. if there are inconsistencies, I apologise, but his quest remains bugged, and I'm not entirely sure of the correct order certain dialogues are supposed to play out following ansur's death. I did my best to figure it out and you are welcome to correct any innaccuracies.

beyond the wyrmway, there is of course, much else that wyll deserves to have added to his companion quest & romance (some of which I briefly brushed upon). if you've read through all this, thank you for caring enough about wyll to do so, and I'd love to hear anything you might have to say about wyll's quest, wyrmway or otherwise. perhaps you may have better improvements in mind than I do!

please just keep comments respectful and focused on wyll. I will just block people who derail this post to speak about other companions for any purpose other than calling to attention the disparities between their quest material & wyll's.

also, if you're interested, here is the original post in which I talked about the wyrmway quest.

#bg3 #thoughts about media #wyll ravengard #I understand that some changes require a lot more work. but it's been SIX major patches and they've said NOTHING.#even if it'd take longer than six patches- they could simply ACKNOWLEDGE the disparity and say that they are working to fix it PROPERLY.#but I highly doubt they even care. given that wyll's quest is still bugged and that wyll still doesn't have unique romantic greetings.#it is disappointing. to put it....well in a way that does not get vulgar. because I want to just... say some very unpleasant things.

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