After 279 hours I finally finished my first run of Baldur's Gate 3. Let's talk.

3. Astarion
A lot of this has to do with me loving having a rogue in the party - Double dagger double handbow destruction. Vampy was the setup man for the rest of us to knock down. As previously stated I enjoy a sarcastic run in my characters, so his dialogue was pretty solid throughout. I let him bite me once then told him just to eat enemies and to leave me out of it, which he was fine with. And his quest flows through the whole game, weaving with Raphael and everything, which I valued. I convinced him not to ascend, because you know he would become an insufferable prick at best and full evil at worst, but damn did I feel horrible when started burning up in the sun during the ending. The epilogue made me feel less bad though, he seems to be genuinely happy and free. Also god dammit if I have to hear "what I wouldn't give for a skeleton key" one more time my brother in selune YOU ARE THE SKELETON KEY.

2. Shadowheart
"I can fix her." I did fix her, but damn it took a while. Battlewise, she was all buffs, heals, and scrolls but that was an integral part of things. She was also the keeper of Scratch, the best boy. Storywise I loved the pull of Shar and Selune and how she wove right into the story of the Nightsong and everything. Finding her parents was the worst part because I didn't know what the right choice was, so I solely put the burden on her and chose to kill/free them into Selune, but keep her own curse. Which, I do think was the right call but she was very (understandably) sad about it for a while. As far as companion quests, I think hers was the most well rounded and I connected with her overall character the most (which is why I romanced her). The internal struggle of base selunite against overwriting sharan was great. After fully becoming a mindflayer I thought we were done as a couple, and she definitely had reservations, but in the end she smuggled me out of the city and we got a nice cottage with a bunch of animals (and the Owlbear too!) so big wins all around. Except I had to use the last of my inspiration to resist the urge to eat her brain, so baby steps.

1. Lae'zel
Despite being all in on the Shadowheart train, Laezel was 100% the MVP of my personal story. She was everything the classic githyanki was supposed to be. Fighter first, servant of Vlaakith. Slowly, but surely, I broke her of that. Well hold up, fighter first stayed because damn she was my main damage dealer. Just crushing heads over and over and over, flying around like a banshee and action surging people to death. That never changed. But I changed her worldview about what githyanki culture had to be, and she eventually warmed to me. We banged it out once, then kept it platonic. I showed her how horrible gith culture really was and how Vlaakith was kinda a bitch and oh shit Orpheus is still alive we should check that out. She almost left the party like four times and Shadowheart almost killed her once, but we got there in the end. She completely flipped her worldview, but also went face first into the comet lore instead but we worked with it. I also forced her to stop seeing things in black or white with the mindflayers, only her and I ate brain worms since I convinced her it was our duty. Auto flight on her is busted. Also made her make friends with a sticky kitty. I'm convinced that's the only reason she didn't kill me in the end too.

The absolute best thing though is we took the githyanki egg from the creche early on and killed the person looking for it (and later refused to sell it in Act 3). It never left Laezel's inventory, as a reminder of the future being fought for. I was absolutely FLOORED in the epilogue when she brought up the egg, saying that it hatched and she named him "Xan" for freedom. And that "his destiny will be his to own to follow. Warrior, poet, explorer, scholar. His way will be the way of the Comet." I literally could not have scripted a better ending for my character, and made my sacrifice to become a Mindflayer and allow Orpheus to lead the githyanki all worth it.

0. Us
As soon as I started the game I felt like Rosa from Brooklyn 99. "I've only had Us for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself." I was mortified at the start of Act 1 when I couldn't find him and spent like my first 20 hours on a specific quest to find him and failing. I eventually moved on but then in Act 2 when I found him and he joined the party I was over the fucking moon. He was Laezel's permanent familiar, as part of her learning to chill the fuck out. Sticky Kitty!