wankgate | 251: back in my day wank meant something

that doesn't make sense to me. if you say astarion is the same character across the board for 90% of the game, and only changes based on how it ends, you're saying that the same person with the same experiences is equally likely to choose to murder 7000 innocent people and possibly force a tav to kill him as he is to choose to spare 7000 innocent people and give up the sun. that is way too different.

an astarion who refuses to back down from ascending is not the same as an astarion who wants to ascend but can be talked out of it, is not the same as an astarion who is undecided and can let the player character decide, is not the same as an astarion who doesn't want to ascend but can be enabled into ascending, is not the same as an astarion who doesn't want to ascend. all of these astarions are possible based on the incredible volume of reactions in the game and they are all equally canon, and they are all different. it is literally impossible to get all of astarion's reactions and voice lines and content in a single playthrough even if you use him as your only companion the entire time. they are not all meant to exist in the same reality at the same time.

an astarion who wants to ascend but can be talked out of it

is more or less the default astarion though. there are different reactions and interactions, but even if he has a good relationship with tav, romantic or not, he does want to ascend unless you talk him down or ruin it somehow. there's a part of him that can't be woobified to death without sounding OOC, which is almost definitely what op meant

nope. if you have high approval and insight you do not have to do any persuasion checks just talk to him and he will choose on his own to stop if you select the say nothing options. just because it's a difficult outcome to get doesn't mean it isn't as ic/canon. you can find videos of this on youtube.

to be clear, is your counter that a player influenced astarion is the default astarion

anon they're submitting converted selunite paladin astarion who is madly in love with shadowheart as an example of a valid and real characterization choice upthread

what do you think

i love this response for so many reasons

including that it reminded me their friend swapped him to paladin early on but shadowheart takes a while to admit she follows shar, which doesn't even touch how long it takes her to convert to selune

loving this the more i think about it negl

is the problem in this fandom that some people have no idea how to distinguish between gameplay and rp and are just using rp the way tumblr and twitter use the word headcanon

based on the thread a couple months back where tav players were insisting it's ooc for npc players to not want to tag them because everybody wants to fuck tav in the game,

yes

who said this? where?

Re: Pairings you never want to play from your canon

(Anonymous) - 2024-07-30 23:39 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pairings you never want to play from your canon

(Anonymous) - 2024-07-31 05:10 (UTC) - Expand

but it is. people on here argue that a tav is irrelevant because you can play as origin companions without tav, as if the origin companions don't have the same malleability as a tav when they absolutely do.

i have no idea what people argue because i almost never come to wankgate

i can tell you that i see origins as no different than tav when you play as them because you're largely playing with the same options. so yes, they're malleable when you play as them. having said that, you should not be rping the characters this way on dwrp because the choices presented to them are not always ic for them. lae'zel could go to the grove but we know if left to her own devices she will run to her people. the choices you can make are not the choices the character would make, they are gameplay decisions. they aren't blank slates, they are characters with backstories and personalities. if you are assigned a character and given a sheet with all their information and you disregard it, you aren't playing that character but an oc

you're arguing that someone ignoring their sheet info is a valid interpretation but it isn't an interpretation at all. yonout it another way, an actor in a movie or show can ad lib but they still have a script and if what they add doesn't make sense for the character then it won't make it in

unless it's thor, but also we should ignore thor

if that were true, the origin characters would not be reclassable and would not have tav's dialogue choices. "you should not be rping the characters this way on dwrp" is ridiculous. people can play however they want, and *every single option* in the game is canon, even ones you don't think make any sense.

origin characters are reclassable for player benefit and gameplay flexibility. redistribution of their stats is the same because their stats are not well balanced for gameplay

you are arguing everything is strictly rp and willfully ignoring what is clearly designed to be gameplay. by your argument, because you can flipflop and make arbitrary choices it's a valid characterization because it's part of the game. an origin who spares the tieflings can choose to slaughter them, so what would cause that development? or if you side with the myconid colony then decide to attack them after doing everything you want, what would the rationality be?

if you want to rp any arbitrary decision and call it "role playing" on dw, go ahead. good luck to you

this is a bonkers stupid take on characterization, like "you only rp on dear_mun" level stupid

Re: Pairings you never want to play from your canon

(Anonymous) - 2024-07-31 00:04 (UTC) - Expand

there's no way you're this dumb

sadly they probably are

unfortunately i have better things to do than keep arguing with them. hope to see them or their friend rp paladin astarion

don't be a coward. back up your beliefs, anon

Re: Pairings you never want to play from your canon

(Anonymous) - 2024-07-30 23:44 (UTC) - Expand

are you the tav that got really mad on rpa about this exact topic

in hindsight this would explain why they acted as if rp preferences like "not wanting to play with tavs" were an alien concept never before heard of in dwrp

i wasn't even there but if they are this whole argument is even dumber

"you can play anything you want it's all ic" "except not ship with tav"

maybe this hypocrisy is a way of coping with their rejection

no, not at all. i am saying there is no default astarion.

astarion makes it clear multiple times he wants to ascend and plans to. that is part of his character and part of his story by default

there is no scenario where this is not true even if you play him as developing later because of tav

it's possible as origin astarion...

it's also possible as origin astarion to do every single thing regular astarion disapproves of, and if someone plays him like that, they're the exact type of shitty astarion that started this thread

Totally different actions =/= totally different person and that's a very shallow way to view a character. An Astarion that doesn't kill 7000 people is an Astarion who has grown enough as a person through his relationship/respect for the mc to back off the selfish, nuclear option, but that doesn't make him a completely different dude.

Just because your hubby and friend have dumbass takes on the character doesn't mean those dumbass takes are real and valid and you'd be laughed out of dwrp if you tried to play converted Selunite Paladin Astarion. There is no version of the game where sad woobie Astarion is an actual character.

god, why is it always the sad backstory white dudes. Nobody is ever out here trying to Well Akshually Lae'zel into a more likeable person.

that's because Lae'zel is already perfect

not even touching the selunite astarion but

if you play astarion, or any of the origin characters, you can't just say that their opinions don't exist because you kept them in camp to avoid consequences. that approval/disapproval still exists as facets of their personality, even if you avoid it.