D&D General BG3 Massive Spoiler Thread

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean, even Received Pronunciation is an accent, isn't it? It's just the accent of the establishment and much of the middle class and especially upper middle class, and was the accent of the BBC for decades, so tends to be overlooked at bit, at least when one is down south. And Karlach's accent is a mix of that and sort of Estuary or maybe Cockney, certainly East London.

I mean, she sounds like pretty much everyone I know (apart from my scouse relatives).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean, she sounds like pretty much everyone I know (apart from my scouse relatives).

Which would suggest either "pretty much everyone you know" is middle class and from the South or certain parts of the North (true for much of Britain) and thus has some kind of basically Received Pronunciation accent, or you don't really hear accents unless they're quite extreme (like Liverpool/Scouse definitely is!), which isn't a criticism at all, it's just a thing that's true of quite a lot of people. I think maybe it's a bit like face blindness - nobody is bad for having it, it's pretty common (or some degree of it is), it's just a thing that occurs and clearly on a spectrum (disclaimerthisisatheorynotafactpleasedonotattempttoholdmetoit!).

For me, I think growing up in London but having parents/relatives with strong accents made me quite sensitive to accents - also I have the classic ADHD thing of having a "drifting accent" myself (I remember reading in the 1990s, before ADHD was really recognised in the UK, some pop psychologist writing in a newspaper - probably The Times - basically doing the speech pattern equivalent of phrenology, confidently claiming everyone with a drifting accent was at best a dangerous criminal in waiting which was just great to read as a kid - we often forget how incredibly hostile to any difference from the norm a lot of supposedly open-minded/educated society actually was in the 1990s), so I have to think about it a bit more and check myself before I wreck myself! For instance by drifting so much it might appear to be mockery or something.

 

[Andvari]

I got Karlach's good ending

 

[Gladius Legis]

Yeah, you're going to be disappointed with FFXVI, if you think terrible fantasy racism and stories that relish in the others being victimized are good storytelling.

lolwut? FFXVI, the game that has almost no people of color? The game that fridges one major female character in the first third of the game, and then literally sidelines the female lead for the ending sequence?

It takes some kind of mental gymnastics to think that BG3 is anything on the same plane of offensive as that.

 

[Seramus]

Well, it's not really their plot!

It's Durge's Plot! And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for that inbred nepo-baby!

 

[haakon1]

Not a bug, her depature is scripted. She is on the run, there is no reason for her to hang around if she isn't needed to provide the explosive to free Nere.

Thanks for explaining.

 

[Scribe]

I got Karlach's good ending

I did as well, I think. I can appreciate a game that doesnt just prostrate before the whims of the player, that has an arc that maybe just doesnt work out how the player would wish and you have to make the best of it.

Like life.

 

[haakon1]

I mean, she sounds like pretty much everyone I know (apart from my scouse relatives).

I think probably all the main characters have some variation on British accents, but honestly I wasn’t paying attention. I’m American but lived in SE England for 3 years, watch a lot of British TV, and work with people from many countries. I did notice my PC, Karlach, and Astarion do sound British. Does everyone? Seems like the default in fantasy.

But it’s all just Sword Coast and Githyanki accents, right?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I did notice my PC, Karlach, and Astarion do sound British. Does everyone? Seems like the default in fantasy.

Jaheira and Minsc have their own unique accents, deriving from the accents used in the original games. Ketheric obviously has an American accent, I would hesitate to place it personally because JK Simmons has a remarkable voice (and having been to Michigan, I don't think he sounds like he's from Michigan specifically!).

Cohhcarnage, who is from North Carolina, voices a character but I think I missed them.

Most of the other characters have British Isles accents, the vast majority being English accents and largely Received Pronunciation, but there are a few Scots, Welsh and Irish ones in there, possibly some other regional ones though I don't think heard any Brummie, Scouse, West Country or the like. Apart from Jaheira and Minsc, the only companion with a non-English accent is Halsin, who has a soft Welsh accent.

Minthara, Shadowheart, Astarion and Lae'zel all have pretty posh (upper middle class-ish) Received Pronunciation accents (albeit Lae'zel's heavy use of Gith interjections gives it a different feel), Wyll is sort of in-between, Gale sounds like Richard Ayoade on The IT Crowd, and then yeah Karlach has the most "normal" accent, like, middle-middle or lower-middle class Received Pronunciation with a hint of the regional (in her case, East London).

All the PC voices sound English though they vary a bit in implied class. It's a pity there are no Welsh, Scottish, Irish or even strong regional options imho, given there are four of them for femme and masc each.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I mean, she sounds like pretty much everyone I know (apart from my scouse relatives).

As an American, yes, she has an accent. I'm not sure if I could have identified it as precisely as Ruin Explorer did, but I agree with their analysis. Like someone who grew up in a context where you spoke RP to your elders and Cockney to your friends until the two kind of blended together. Her way of saying "soldier," for instance, is very Cockney, but many of her vowels are crisp and full, as opposed to the generally more bitten-off/clipped way Cockney accents are depicted.

lolwut? FFXVI, the game that has almost no people of color? The game that fridges one major female character in the first third of the game, and then literally sidelines the female lead for the ending sequence?

And, for all my love of CBU3, it also:

1. Kills off all important gay and bi (or at least bi-coded) characters
2. Repeatedly puts the female lead in situations of sexualized violence
3. Portrays both of the major female villains as petty, spiteful, cruel, and twisted, with the "screaming banshee" in one case and the actively abusive "black widow" in the other
5. Frequently relies on different characters being either incredibly foolish, actively avoiding communication about basic stuff, in blatant and ridiculous denial about obvious facts, or manipulated by the smallest things with no effort to try to verify or confirm
6. Makes the most emotional moments occur primarily between straight, white, male characters.

And I don't even think FFXVI is problematic. It's flawed, to be sure, but not hostile or insulting. The gay character that dies in the narrative gets a serious send-off after having a real arc, and his death is a pretty clear noble sacrifice to enable the hero to save the world. He goes out fighting, not like a chump. And the bi-coded character is clearly shown to be in bad health from almost the moment you meet him. He gets a lingering death that haunts the main character long after it happens, an additional father figure (the game is overstuffed with them tbh) whose loss hurts lots of people.

It takes some kind of mental gymnastics to think that BG3 is anything on the same plane of offensive as that.

Agreed.