Stephen Bush

Cleric of life rather than trickery. (I never let Astarion ascend on any other playthrough)

I meta-game it by respecing him as a sorceror, just as I always respect Shadowheart if her hair goes white.

Panam should be bi because quite frankly she’s the only good love interest and is core to the plot. (I like how CDPR are so convinced no-one will actually romance the gay man that Phantom Liberty breaks the “no happy endings In Night City” rule if you romance Kerry.)

A slightly better bite attack and gaseous form, which lacked a certain something.

My one disagreement with this is that Astarion is such a fun way to do an evil playthrough. Bang Minthara, ascend, take over the world, it’s great fun.

Yeah, completely agree. The really cool thing is that he is a rare warlock who is not just “a paladin with more offensive spells and less restrictive class features”.

Yeah but if you just politely talk to her about her issues then Lae’zel, the actually good love interest, propositions you.

Hah! Yes, it does have that vibe.

He’s a creep who kills kids!

River is boring but he at least tries to pursue you properly.

I mean, it could be worse. Could always be stuck with River in Cyberpunk 2077

Come on, you deserve better than someone who is mooning over someone else!

“Oh I’m so worried about Wyll”, etc etc

He’s got the Mizora plot in Act 2. More importantly, loads of Karlach’s ambient dialogue in Act 2 is “we gotta help Wyll!”

In all senses, but again: obviously more interested in your friend than you!

Love how bad Baldur's Gate 3's male love interests are:

Wyll: hot - but obviously more into your friend than you
Gale: alright to look at I guess, but on a rebound
Astarion: hot - but a child murderer
Halsin: a child murderer - and not hot

I really enjoyed it, but I think it felt dated. It would have had punch in say 1999, but the story, which is basically "omg racism!!" is just cartoonish and not in a good way.

Reminded of one of my favourite Not The Nine O’Clock News sketches, in reference to Monty Python: “these men died for us - repeatedly!”

Enjoying the people going “don’t worry, it’s actually a satire of progressives” - because those are *never* bad!

My unfair opinion is that we all have genre blindspots which means that one breaks containment some people go mad for a mid movie.

It knows it is dopey, it’s still not as self-aware as I would like.

It’s a perfectly fine action thriller, honestly.

Agree. The leader is an immediate change or they aren’t. The reality is they get their “who is this new face?” moment to introduce themselves and it is either a game changer or it isn’t.

I think there’s a decent theory of the case for “after May” if your theory of change as leader is “things need to get worse (i.e. have a civil war) to get better“. But the existing frontrunner hesitating shows that he just doesn’t have the qualities IMO.

40) One Battle After Another. Patchy and uneven dystopian thriller that would be better if it were a) more self-aware about how dopey it is or b) as clever as it thinks it is.

What’s the theory of what the new leader brings that makes them *more* effective after May than after November? I just think this stuff shows that the Tories have not absorbed that they are *in opposition*.

I like this for many reasons not least because it says

Fix social care!

Seriously. Otherwise council services and the NHS will continue to have problems they cannot easily overcome. Nothing gets fixed until social care gets fixed

And you’d be (and he is) wrong! Because there is nothing about the job that gets easier after getting shellacked next year.

This is why the accepted Tory consensus of "we'll overthrow the Badenoch leadership after the May elections" is *unhinged*

You KNOW you have a manifestly unfit leader and you want to wait until AFTER the far right challenger party has eaten your lunch in two parliaments and hundreds of councils

It is utterly bonkers.