Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

218 - Casting Baldur’s Gate 3 - Part 3: Our Tav, Astarion’s Trauma, Minthara’s Chaos (Feat. Fin)

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Welcome back to Gaming The System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists 🎭 examine gaming through a critical lens. In this four-part series, we’re deep-diving into Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3), imagining our dream cast for a potential TV adaptation 📺, and unpacking what makes these characters so compelling.

Series Overview:

We’re taking on the ultimate challenge—casting Baldur’s Gate 3 as a live-action series. Across four episodes, we debate the perfect actors for companion and non-companion characters, sharing our favourite (and sometimes unhinged) headcanons along the way. Plus, we delve into BG3’s rich themes of identity, choice, and representation in gaming.

✨ Episode 3 Highlights:

We explore some of the most chaotically bisexual, morally complex, and fiercely beloved figures in the game. We debate voiced vs. silent protagonists, the sheer queer energy of the BG3 fandom, and the best coats in gaming history.

🔹🐶 Tav & The Great Name Debate
Ever wondered why “Tav” is the default name for your BG3 character? Turns out, it’s a dog thing . (Yes, really.) Plus, we discuss whether a live-action version of Tav should be male, female, or nonbinary.

🔹 ⚔️ Minthara: Homicidal Bisexual Energy Personified
She has paladin zeal, a deadpan delivery, and hates Gale. Our casting choices range from the seductive menace of Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) to Lena Headey’s (Game of Thrones) full-throttle villain mode. We also consider the Reddit-approved method for recruiting her without committing war crimes.

🔹 🦇 Astarion: The Chaotic Trauma Vampire We All Love
What do Andrew Scott, Jamie Campbell Bower, Matthew Lillard, and Johnny Flynn have in common? They could all be Astarion. But would they do justice to 200 years of enslavement, trauma, and biting sarcasm? We dissect one of BG3’s most complex characters, from his petulant charm to his deeply raw emotional arc. Also: the moment he stabs Cazador is some of the best acting in gaming—fight us.

🔹 🏳️‍🌈 The Queerest Game Ever?
BG3 is saturated with queer-coded energy. We talk about the fan culture, the thirst, and how characters like Minthara, Astarion, and Karlach have become iconic in LGBTQ+ gaming spaces.

🔹 🎤 Voiced vs. Silent Protagonist Debate
Should RPG heroes speak? We debate the pros and cons of having a fully voiced protagonist vs. leaving things up to player imagination—drawing from Dragon Age, Fallout, Witcher, Cyberpunk, and BG3 🎮.


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Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

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Speaker:

Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today I am your host Matt, and I'm joined by my friends Alex and Jem. Before we get started, if you want to support us you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon. com slash gaming the system for some exclusive content or you can send us a one off donation via paypal to our email address wearegamingthesystem at gmail. com

Matt:

So everyone, welcome back to part two of our little conversation about the characters, both companion and non companion of Baldur's Gate 3. We'll go through them one by one, we've done a fan cast of most of them, and that'll be a good jumping off point for us to have our conversations. We're joined once again by Finn. Thank you very much for being here, and let's get started. So we have, first off, Tav is a, an interesting choice of default name for them.

Fin:

Know where it's from?

Matt:

Tavon?

Fin:

I think it's Sven's dog's name is Gustav. So it's short for Gustav,

Matt:

haha,

Alex:

that's cool.

Jem:

I didn't know that. I normally spend ages coming up with names, for my characters. But, it came up with a character, name and it suggested Tav and I thought it was an auto generated name and I was like oh that's really cool I'll go with that and then I was I was looking for some information about it and somebody said oh yeah might have

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

And then I realized that it was it was the name of the character

Fin:

My honor mode dirge is always called Tav.

Alex:

Huh.

Fin:

time I do it's a dirge run

Matt:

so, top left is me. I decided to go for, Brienne of Tarth herself, Gwendoline Christie. I'll show you a picture of My two characters,

Alex:

wow.

Matt:

so we've got,

Fin:

wow.

Matt:

yeah, we've got the beautiful. slender, well not slender, actually I chose the bigger versions of each character and I've got my beautiful, pure looking druid wood half elf guild artisan that's just that's, that's the Brienne of Tarth beautiful in the, in the resplendent armor with a smile and then I've got the haggard looking wizard who's eaten every single, mind flayer parasite they could find and it,

Fin:

wearing Gortash's outfit?

Matt:

yes she is. It's a nice coat. It's a very nice coat. And this was, so I turned into a Mind Flayer at the end, but I wanted to get a look at what I looked like beforehand. And that one I had the eye plucked out by, either the Crone or Volo. Did any of you go, Mind Flayer at the end?

Alex:

I can't say it because I have not reached the end.

Jem:

No.

Fin:

want my after party with, you know, my bae.

Matt:

can have the after party.

Fin:

Yeah, but I think the only person who will continue to romance you is Gale, who

Alex:

Oh.

Fin:

very proud of his squid spouse, and everybody else is like, Nope, I'm good.

Alex:

Wow.

Matt:

that's sad. I just wanted a, she's, she's very good at being massive, but also having a range of incredibly vulnerable to incredibly, I'm in command here, you, you bastard. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna. And so I took the first run was my character called Callista Vane, which is my default fantasy character name, and that was me playing as me being nice to everyone. And then the second one was me being a bit nastier and crueler,

Alex:

Hmm.

Matt:

and she suits that one as well. Who's the top right?

Jem:

That's me. I I chose these two because I felt like they're, they have quite, There's a, sort of a neutrality about them both, in that they can be who you want them to be. So that was one of the reasons why I like them both. And obviously we've got Dev, Patel, who you might know from Slumdog Millionaire.

Fin:

Monkeyman.

Alex:

Hmm. Hmm.

Jem:

the Green Knight. but also, Yeah, I like the fact that he can play quite serious. He is, can be quite serious, and emotional, but then can also be quite light and carefree. So I felt like he had, has the range for, Ts experiences really. and then that's, Anya Taylor Joy, who, you might know from the Queen Gambit,

Alex:

Mm,

Jem:

the witch and yeah, again, she's got this ability to kind of be lots of different. kinds of personalities and lots of different intent levels of intensity. I just went for sort of people that were quite neutral is the wrong word, but I suppose, that's the best sort of description for this. And I don't think either of them look anything like my actual character. I didn't, I wasn't sort of looking for that. Because she's mine. if there was a film, would it be a male or a female? Tav? Or, binary?

Matt:

how, it's pretty much impossible to capture the dynamic of Choose Your Own Adventure that is as in depth and varied as something like Baldur's Gate 3 is. Because The Witcher 3 has branching storylines, but it's got nothing on Baldur's Gate 3. And it would have to be a very different kind of show to capture that, because you can only go one way with a TV show.

Fin:

I'm, a Witcher books superfan,

Matt:

right.

Fin:

so the Witcher at least had that to fall back on.

Jem:

it's set in your classic sort of D& D world. so it's got that to draw on, but it doesn't have the narrative side of it.

Matt:

Yes, the, well, I wonder if Larian would allow people to take Baldur's Gate and do something else with it because they've been so dedicated to it and making it free of microtransactions and standing as, yeah, this is how video games can still be, and even though the, CEO of EA said that the reason Dragon Age Velgard failed is because it wasn't live service enough,

Jem:

Yeah.

Fin:

Mm,

Alex:

mm

Matt:

It's because it wasn't Baldur's Gate III, you morons! That's what people were expecting. That's what Dragon Age fans were expecting for ten years. You were gonna make Baldur's Gate III. And imagine having two Baldur's Gate III. Games coming out in the same year. we would, ah, Imagine hopping from one to the other and then being, them being completely unique and different and they've just fucked it. But, We've still got Baldur's Gate 3. Thank God for Larian.

Alex:

mm.

Matt:

Who is that yours Alex on the bottom?

Alex:

That is, yes, yes. So, I think Saoirse Ronan, for those that don't know, she's been in Lady Bird, a few Wes Anderson films, what else? She was in Little Women as well. I think she's quite versatile as an actress, but she also looks a little bit like my character. she's got a sort of similar facial structure to my, if you imagine, to my ears as well. I think it works relatively well. But yeah, and I just think that, her range is pretty impressive, and I just really like her as an actress. and then the male Tav is Abubakar Salim, who is the voice of Bayek from Assassin's Creed Origins, but has also developed a game, that we talked about in a previous episode. and it's getting a sequel, so he's very excited about that as well. I'm trying to remember the name of it, but my brain is failing me. but yeah, and I just, think, he's really young still, but I think the way that he inhabited the role of Bayek, who is, a father on a vengeance mission, essentially. You saw so many different sides to him as a character, but also really bought into that fatherly bond that he had with his son in the way that the game explored that through the story. So I think that, as an actor, Abubakar, or Abhi for short, would do really well in sort of, putting himself in lots of different situations, which you do with your Tav, obviously. So yeah, those are my picks for Tav.

Matt:

I think they're all, we've gone for natural charisma that you can, they can be a blank slate. They can come, they can arrive at a character as a blank slate, and they've got that charisma to get you to be interested in watching how they develop. Cause it's a very, the, the leading role in something like this is a very tricky thing. What are your guys perspective on having a voiced main character versus a non voiced one? Cause in, cause in this game, you're not voiced. You just click on the thing and then it doesn't read them, whereas in games like Fallout 4 and Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, the protagonist is voiced.

Alex:

There is a voice for the parts when you're not in those conversations. When you're outside of it and you switch characters, they'll say something like, Oh, nice and quiet, or What have I got in my pockets, or something. And you get to pick the voice for that. so there is a voice, but it's just not when you're having conversations with people. They don't read all of those lines. I think that would have been quite a cost to have all those different voices. you can set the pitch of the voice, and then obviously choose whether it's like I think there's three or four different choices for sort of male and female leaning voices, So I liked having that voice in between times, but it was also nice to have, the silence during the conversational parts, so you could kind of inject your own intonations into things and kind of think about the tone of your, what you would have been saying a little bit more, maybe, than it, if it was suggested for you.

Jem:

I agree with you on that, Alex.

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

on Dragon Age, Inquisition, they have a voice for the character and sometimes it's off key with what I'm thinking or how I would say it. So yes, I think it's the fact that you can read it so you can say it in your own words, in your own tone. so yeah, no, I think it's quite good that they didn't voice it.

Fin:

Does anybody else like Fallout New Vegas?

Matt:

I desperately want to get through it, but it's a buggy nightmare on PC and playing it vanilla, there's no run. You can't run. In it you can only walk

Alex:

That's frustrating.

Matt:

I love have you played the outer worlds?

Fin:

yeah,

Matt:

Oh, and that was made by the same people who made fallout new vegas, and It's just this beautiful tantalizing masterpiece that i'm still trying to work out a way To play it the way that I want to play it.

Fin:

Before Baldur's Gate 3, Fallout New Vegas was my favourite game because I think they both have the key elements that I want, which is the complex plot and player choice, And I would say for like, The Witcher 3 or Disco Elysium, more so The Witcher 3, like Geralt is a character. You might be piloting that character, but Geralt is his own established guy. So him having voice lines I get, but Fallout until Fallout 4 was very much, choose your own adventure, be your own person. Make your own, you know, much like Baldur's Gate, I can tell you about my different runs, and I can be like, here's the characters I made up, and their backstories, and their motivations, and you can do that in Fallout New Vegas. But as soon as you like, add a voice actor for self insert character you've made, it takes you a step away from being in that role, you know?

Matt:

Yeah, I certainly agree with things like outer worlds and fallout because it's a very specific tone Of writing, that Fallout is so surreal that someone actually saying some of the words that you've got written down wouldn't feel right. But then I feel like things like fantasy games or where it's a sort of like a classical form of writing. I'd normally prefer having a voice actor, but it's really interesting. I just find that it's an interesting conversation to be had. Right, talking of interesting conversations, we are going to move to the remaining companions that we didn't get around to in our last episode. We are going to repeat the process that we did last time, which is I have a magic spin wheel. I'm going to spin it, and then we're going to have a conversation about the characters. Okie dokie. Pressing, spinning Now, first one is, da da da da da da, Minthara. So, there are only three choices for this one, because Minthara was another one I didn't realise you could have as a companion. So I haven't spent any time with her whatsoever. So I'll defer to you guys on this one. so on the left, I believe that's you, Alex.

Alex:

that's Lea Seydoux, who, if you've ever seen the film Le French Dispatch, by Wes Anderson, she's the prison officer in it. she's really good in that role. I think she's just got those sort of vibes about her, that fit the character particularly well. I just like the vibes, there's not much more to it than that really, it's a simple choice, yes.

Matt:

Can you describe, an elevator pitch, who Menthar is and what she's about?

Alex:

Well, we didn't get to spend too much time with her I don't think, because I think we killed her pretty early on in the playthrough. she's like in charge of A little military operation, isn't she? From what I remember. It was all the way in Act 1, I think, around the same time, you meet the Crone, isn't it? Is that right?

Matt:

Yeah, act one.

Alex:

I'm thinking back now. Down memory lane. yeah, and then there's all these floaty eyeballs. Right?

Fin:

there is a floaty eyeball.

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

in the Goblin,

Alex:

That's right. Yeah, and we didn't, we, we were like, hmm, we should probably do something about the fact that she doesn't like us, so we, we ended up killing her, so her time in my playthrough was very short lived indeed, but given the vibes, the generally evil like vibes that we got, and we were like, right, we immediately have to kill this person, we didn't even know she could be a companion. You know, that was how quickly we decided. But, I think she's also been in one of the Bond films, but I can't remember if that's right or not.

Matt:

she's Daniel Craig's girlfriend. And who looks like in the latest WAD when they're walking through, I think it's somewhere in Italy. And it just looks like a young woman taking her father out for a walk.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

And

Alex:

Because Daniel Craig's, what is he now, is he in his fifties now?

Matt:

You notice in Hollywood, the men age and the women stay the same age.

Alex:

Mm

Matt:

I went through all of Tom Cruise's films from the last 25 years, and the woman is always from 32 to 42 with Hailey Atwell and Rebecca Ferguson. But it's always pinning that level. She is quite something. who is the one in the middle?

Fin:

well, have I got a 51 year old actress for

Alex:

Mm hmm.

Fin:

Lena Headey, who was

Alex:

Mm.

Fin:

famously Cersei in Game of

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

Oh

Fin:

this character, I was thinking more her performance in Judge Dredd.

Alex:

Ooh.

Fin:

That's, it's the homicidal bisexual energy that we need. also I'm going to give everybody a tip from, from Reddit for people who play too much Baldur's Gate. If you talk to Minthara in Act 1 and then knock her out, you can have her as a companion from Act 2 onwards. Weirdest little thing that was a bug and Larian just went, Alright, you can have your evil drow. in my last three playthroughs, Minthara has been heavily involved in the party.

Alex:

Mm.

Fin:

But I'm not killing tieflings either, so. Workarounds it is.

Matt:

There's. I

Fin:

you don't

Matt:

was going to say there's so much chaotic bisexual energy is in Baldur's Gate 3 is saturated with queer energy and It's, yeah, it's just, it's the more you go into like the reddits and the discussions of it, you just go WOW! And there's a lot of, a loss of opportunity for thirst as well,

Alex:

There she is

Matt:

and on the right?

Jem:

this is Jodie Comer.

Alex:

Uhum.

Jem:

I know her best from Killing Eve. I don't, I don't, I feel like she, you can't quite see that that's who, who she is in this photo, but I, I chose this, this image of her because it looks most like Minthara the game, She's, she's, really focused and dedicated to her cause. And I think that paladins usually are. so I felt like she was a really interesting character and I think Jodie could really

Alex:

Hm,

Jem:

that to light. I didn't, I haven't played Minthera. I did actually betray her in the first act. So, but you know. Shit happens. so, yeah, but I think it would be really nice to see Jodie playing this character. And also because she's got this like, kind of much darker look than Jodie has. I think it would be quite fun to sort of see her

Alex:

Mm.

Jem:

Like,

Matt:

the I think there's some good darkness in

Alex:

Mm.

Matt:

fluffy thing, there's lots of areas where it gets really dark and nasty, and I think in Lena Headdy's it would be particularly fantastic, because, yeah, Cersei, if you mix Cersei with Mama from Judge Dredd and also her as Sarah Connor in the Terminator series. cool, right.

Jem:

One thing that I did think was really interesting about Minthara was that, when you find her in the sort of goblin, hangout, she's like hidden off down in this little office, right in the back, and it was just really, I don't know if I kind of came across her. Earlier than, I would have come across her at a later part in the story. But when I found her, I just kind of stumbled on her. And she was saying all this stuff and I was like, I have no idea who you are, lady. And she was just talking at me. And I was just like, well, yeah, sure. Whatever you say, I'll do that. Anyway, bye. And then I went out and slaughtered everyone in the Goblin hangout. So, yeah, it was a whole Weird thing for me the way that I came across her and

Fin:

so funny. Complete deadpan humour the entire way around. and she's so pitchy as well. Like, she's so mean to Gale. She hates Gale. there's no universe in which she likes Gale. He has the aura of a third son. She has puns, she has, there's a very interesting dichotomy to me in how people understand characters between people who say their two favourite characters are Astarian and Karlak, because I'm like, I don't understand that interpretation of those two characters, I'm happy for you, but I don't know what's going on. And Astarian and, Minthara, which is the one I fall into, because Two bitchy, vaguely evil peas in a pod!

Jem:

Yeah.

Matt:

This is going to be an interesting conversation because Astarion and Karlak are my two favourite characters.

Fin:

Unpack that.

Matt:

will, I will, as we go along. But we've got to follow what the wheel says. And, yeah, we'll have to go from there. Right, spin the wheel. Next we have A stallion.

Alex:

excitement.

Jem:

name and he shall

Matt:

Mm.

Jem:

Oh, that's an interesting selection of

Alex:

Mm.

Matt:

it is. So top left is me, which is Andrew Scott

Fin:

I can see

Matt:

Moriarty himself. He is the most. oozing with queer chaoticness and charisma that, that because Astarion has that sort of built in emanating from his soul charisma that at first I thought he, I found him just a bit irritating and a bit cocky and a bit just flowery, but playing through his quest line Seeing the, the layers beneath how he appears on the surface, and the, he has definitely had the most catastrophic trauma of any of the characters. Because, like I said, with, with Gale, his problem is, oh, I was the most powerful wizard in all the land, and I was having sex with the goddess of magic, and then I nerfed myself down to level one by trying to do something to impress my girlfriend.

Fin:

boy was groomed.

Matt:

Whereas Astarion has been a slave for 200 years. He's been forced to eat putrid rats and cats and is literally He can't disobey his master and has been forced to seduce and entrap and bring back beautiful people to be what he thinks is just eaten and killed by Kassador. And the three, the most awful thing in one of, like, there are two ways you can come across this information is He'll reveal it to you through, you reach into his mind and look about his past and what he's most scared about. Or you can get to a point in your relationship with him where he tells you. And that's one of the best bits of acting in the entire game for me, is when he is going, I was, he buried me alive in a tomb for a year. It was a year of silence, months scratching at the walls, and then months not saying anything. And that was in his first decade, and he says it was because there was just this sweet boy that he could not bring to Khazad dor, so he tried to run. And then, 200 years, the next best bit of acting, finding all the spawn underneath Khazad dor's mansion and meeting Sebastian. And that little conversation there is just devastating because that's one person and every single person who is there that Astarian found will remember that Astarian that way and then we meet Astarian where he is now and even after enduring all of that trauma he's still charismatic somehow despite all that and that is why he is one of only seven of Kasador's spawn that are his hunters. Because he finds the people that are the most charismatic, regardless of the situation they're in. And then, that leads to the best bit of acting in the entire game for me. Which is when you talk him into killing Kazador. And The star in stabs him and just keeps on stabbing him. And then once he stabbed him, he just goes, ah, and just all of that two centuries of chrisma, Neil newborn managers to just produce the rawest performance out of that. And I, it's just one of the most stunning things I've ever seen that bit of acting.

Fin:

emotions.

Alex:

Yep.

Matt:

Yeah.

Alex:

really good.

Matt:

just wildly well written part and a stunning performance from him. That's, yeah, so that's, that's why he's my favorite character alongside Karlak is because of that. That, the sheer richness of his journey and the way he is at the present point from all of that. I've talked enough about him. and yeah, Andrew Scott is, he brings the sexy priest vibe from Fleabag. just that sort of, he can polish himself up as well, but he's also got that. when he looks like, even when he looks like he's having a bad day, he just goes so, who is the second one.

Jem:

he's been, he was Vecna in The Stranger Things, and he was a vampire in, one of the, the Volturi vampires in the Twilight movies, and he's been in other bits and bobs. He was also, he, one of the dark wizards defeated by Dumbledore in, Harry Potter series. so he's, he's played the right kind of characters and I felt like he's got the look. He's definitely got the look. I think, you know, what you've just been saying, Matt, that I worry whether he would be able to bring that depth of, story and, and characterisation to the, to the story. To the, to the screen, actually, because he's, I think that requires age. And I think this is always one of the difficult things,

Alex:

Mm

Jem:

Because they're usually, vamped when they're quite young, so they're sort of old souls in young bodies, so the actors that play them tend to be quite young, but they can't necessarily bring their age, agelessness. Or ancientness that vampires really need. And that's the kind of juxtaposition between the two, worlds that they inhabit. And I think that, neo newborn, is it newborn or newborn? Newborn. Newin. what he really brought that to stallion, and. Yeah, I think, I really liked the character. I, I did find him petulant. I think it's really interesting what you were saying Matt about him having This traumatic past which you don't find out until sort of halfway through the game really and then it starts to unfold as that goes along and you, and that scene, the scene with Cazador is, is traumatic, you know, it was really emotional that whole thing. he does have this much deeper side to him, but vast majority of the time he's sort of happy go lucky and just, yeah, cheeky chappy really in a lot of ways and, and sort of this petulant child. So yeah, I wouldn't date him. But I, I absolutely know that my youngest self would have been

Alex:

mm.

Jem:

percent in love with him. Yeah, but the thing is that I've reached that age now where I just want to mother people like that. I'm sort of like, Oh, come on up, come around and I'll give you a nice dinner and let's, let's see if we can talk about your problems.

Matt:

I just wanted to give him a hug and make him safe.

Fin:

give him a hug.

Jem:

just me then.

Fin:

You can give him a hug and become his best friend. that's the nicest way out of that

Matt:

yeah.

Fin:

every time

Jem:

That is what I ended up with, with him. He was, he was really like, oh, you're like the only person who's ever, like, listens to me. And, and I was like, oh.

Matt:

Hmm,

Alex:

Mm

Matt:

there's a wonderful dynamic that very few actors are able to properly make use of. Very, very old characters. So characters like elves. Because when you've got 200 years worth of trauma to display, that isn't something that humans have. there isn't a normal way that humans can experience that. But then you get characters like Baldur from God of War who's been completely numb for a hundred years. And you just feel that through his performance. And then the various doctors, particularly David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston, I think, who carry the weight of the Almost 800 years they've been alive, Neil Bonham is incredible at that. Bottom left, I believe that's you, Fim.

Fin:

We had Lena Headey's bisexual homicidal energy, is more sinister, and now we have chaotic homicidal bisexual energy, which is young Matthew Lillard. And you can't tell me that in every single role he had prior to Scooby Doo, he was not bringing that 100%. Like, the nice thing about having a ton of trauma is you can be a weirdo and people just roll with it. I wouldn't recommend watching the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, but if you did, he's the highlight. But, yeah, young Matthew Lillard, he's got the physicality, very good at playing chaotic characters where you know there's something underneath, but

Jem:

Hmm. Yeah.

Fin:

I don't think he's ever been given the opportunity, but I think he'd nail it.

Matt:

He looks a bit like the first time you meet a Starian. Where he goes, there's something over there! And he goes, oh you go and get it then, and then he grabs you.

Fin:

Can you kill it?

Matt:

it's so good.

Alex:

Oh,

Matt:

It's always a sign of good writing where you can recall exactly A lot of the dialogue, and also the way that they delivered it.

Fin:

Well, a really fun little, again, I'm too into this, is that that line, when he says My name's Astarian was one of the first, or if not the first line that Neil Newman recorded. you can tell the difference, he has a very different register depending on what context he's talking to you and how much he likes you and all of that stuff. And the, the most, earliest draft, the most closed off, the first whatever, is that line, My name's Astarian, and it was the first one he did, and I thought that was really cool.

Matt:

I'm assuming that's from, he does that on an interview or something, or a podcast.

Fin:

Yeah, well actually it's quite fun. obviously there's interviews and podcasts and all that good stuff. There's, he's also has a let's play of him and his friend playing Baldur's Gate

Alex:

wow.

Fin:

is also amazing. both great and you get a lot of behind the scenes tidbits while that's happening. You mostly get the fact that Neil Newburn is a chaos gremlin. not a homicidal gremlin, but a chaos gremlin nonetheless.

Matt:

I know that, the actress who plays Shadowheart and her girlfriend, they have a very successful YouTube channel where they've been, they've been playing it together for over a year now. It's doing really well, and just seeing these, they're on podcasts, TV shows, live Dungeons and Dragons sessions, which look really fun, where they play as the characters, and Newborn's got such a fabulous face when he does a Starion. They're very sharp, and, and, bleurgh. That's fabulous.

Fin:

I also like that, again, he's made it, I really like the fact that he's like, oh, we've all got our own Astarian, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. it is quite, cause he's, he's a little wet drowned cat man. I love him, but I'm partially taken out from the fact that Neil Newman said he based him in part on a stray cat that lives in his

Alex:

Yeah.

Fin:

and it's just fun when you see him, he's like, you see, he's an annoying arsehole, darling, so you need to do the voice like this. And I'm like, yeah, you

Matt:

Hehehehehehehe.

Fin:

it, you get it. We're all on the same page, and I love that.

Matt:

He originally gave me Julian Clary vibes. Julian Clary crossed with Kenneth Williams from, is it Kenneth Williams from Carry On Films? It's very darling. Urgh. Goodness me. okay, bottom right, so that must be Alex.

Alex:

Yes, and I went for Johnny Flynn. You may, you're welcome to argue he's not queer enough, which is a valid. Argument. but I think he's got some of the look of a Australian, particularly with the hair. but also he's been in, the, you probably know him from the most modern adaption of Emma with Anna Taylor Joy. he plays Mr. Knightly and he gets a lot of the sort of like, Well, he is quite petulant in that, actually, in that role. Petulant's a good word for it. but also, he's quite got a kind of charm, but an arrogance about him as well, as a, as, like, his position in society, and things. And he, he gave me those vibes from, from that side of Asterion's character, that he obviously has, like, some airs and graces when he first meets you. He's like, I'm not sure I like you, and I'm better than you. you know, that kind of thing. That kind of thing. But also he was, uh, uh, Johnny was in a, I think it was a TV series, possibly on Netflix, can't remember, but it was called Love Life. And, uh, there's a lot of like, there's a, he's quite, he's quite sort of naive and immature in that, and I think that's also a side of Asterian that you kind of explore as you go through the story. There is a sort of vulnerability to Asterian. Um, and I think that. Johnny could also play that, that part of it particularly well, but I completely take on board that he is nowhere near, um, bringing the queer vibes as much as some of the other suggestions, um, for Astarian, so yeah, it has to be, it has to be a whole package, but I think, yeah, Johnny's, uh, gets partway there, but perhaps not all the way,

Matt:

We don't know what he's looking at in that photo. He could be looking smoulderingly at a picture of Henry Cavill.

Alex:

it's true, yes. That's true.

Fin:

Well he does make numerous references to how Will is the type of man that he dreamed of marrying one day when he grew up, so we could just say Will.

Alex:

Mm. Yeah. That would work.

Matt:

uh, that's, uh, that's my beloved Astarian, our beloved Astarian.