Baldur's Gate Is Aerie from BG2 underage?

[Horvatii]

 

[Lacrymas]

Maybe this is because they were written by straight men for straight men, but that doesn't really let them off the hook. It feels like the women were written as romances first.

Aerie was written by Gaider.

From Beneath a Starless Sky:

Gaider: We discussed, "Let's give them arcs," and then the idea of romances came up. We initially were supposed to have six: three female, three male. We were interested in that, but what the romances would be? I don't think we [knew]. It wasn't like we had direction such as, "Make it emotionally resonate." We were just trying to write a good story. As I recall, that's all we were trying to do. It was a little weird, because romance in a video game seemed like a weird thing. We weren't sure how we would do this.

I remember when I was sitting down and trying to write romances, I was just trying to make it an interesting story. I was trying to figure out what to do with Anomen. That was actually my first romance, and I didn't know what to do with him. I didn't create his character. The first part of his character writing had been done by, I think, Rob Bartel, one of the other writers. And [the character] was kind of an asshole. I had followed up on that, here's this arrogant paladin guy, based on what Rob had started. Then at some point I remember James saying, "Okay, he's the first male romance." And I was like, "Really? Really? Anomen? You think...? Okay. Sure. I'll figure it out."

I was trying to take Anomen and figure out, okay, how would you romance this guy? I didn't give any thought, really to who the audience was or if it would be an emotional thing. I just thought, If this were a story I were writing, like a book, how would it play out? Drama is just a thing that has to happen. I didn't feel pressured to make it engaging for the player. I just thought, Well, what do I feel like? What do I think is cool?

Same thing when I wrote Aerie and Viconia [DeVir] romances. They were kind of dropped in my lap because I wasn't supposed to do the female romances at all, but Luke was falling way behind, so they said, "Why don't you do these?" So I was like, okay, they're very different from each other, so I took two different [approaches]: Aerie being the damsel in distress, Viconia being a femme fatale. When I did tabletop, I would sometimes give my players romances. If they were romancing a player in my game, how would I write that story? That's all.

Though if Kristjanson's ever said anything about why they chose Jaheira, I've never seen it.

Good, then I can now say they were written by a guy who has no experience with women. He himself says they are written to be a type (damsel in distress, femme fatale), so I was right on the money there. And yes, Gaider, romances in video games are weird, maybe you should've stopped when that realization hit instead of cursing us with them forever.

 

[Horvatii]

>tfw you tell her you are gonna rape her

 

[Horvatii]

Holy shit Artbreeder destroys portrait artists... damn. At least the realistic ones.

 

[fantadomat]

Not good enough for most codexers,not enough beard and meter over the high limit,also doesn't swear like dung shoveller.

 

[Roguey]

Gay men can still be sexist. Notice how the femme fatale gets killed off at the end, and the two 'proper' romance options get a happy ending.

A bittersweet ending isn't sexist.

What the fuck were they thinking. If there was only going to be one male romance option it should've been literally anyone else, even Jan.

The other two options were going to be Haer'Dalis and Valygar but Gaider got tied up doing what Kristjanson was supposed to do, so they never got done.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Notice how the femme fatale gets killed off at the end

you mean the one that brutally murdered an entire family?

 

[Mexi]

>tfw you tell her you are gonna rape her

Man, that's really fucking good. Who the fuck did BG2 portraits anyways? The females' portraits are all ugly as fuck. Viconia's is great, but that smurf coloring is godawful. Same issue with Pathfinder's portraits. IDK what's with artists that are so averse to having beautiful females?

 

[Johannes]

Notice how the femme fatale gets killed off at the end

you mean the one that brutally murdered an entire family?

Seeing all the shit that you do in the game, what's one family more?

 

[Daemongar]

Aerie: Does (CHARNAME) mind that, unlike birds, I have a menstrual cycle and do not enter into estrus ... if you wouldn’t mind my asking?
Imoen: As Gorion always said there are times when it’s worth getting into it. I think (CHARNAME) would agree!
​

​

These lines do not exist in this game. I just checked.

Well of course it doesn't exist - I used (CHARNAME) as a shortcut for whatever you name your character. Search for:

Aerie: Does Herman mind that, unlike birds, I have a menstrual cycle and do not enter into estrus ... if you wouldn’t mind my asking?
Imoen: As Gorion always said there are times when it’s worth getting into it. I think Herman would agree!

Some people are so pedantic. It's sad!

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Go get drown in Tali's sweat, Biowhores. Baldur's Gate fans need to be banned asap.

 

[d1r]

Aerie: Does (CHARNAME) mind that, unlike birds, I have a menstrual cycle and do not enter into estrus ... if you wouldn’t mind my asking?
Imoen: As Gorion always said there are times when it’s worth getting into it. I think (CHARNAME) would agree!
​

​

These lines do not exist in this game. I just checked.

Well of course it doesn't exist - I used (CHARNAME) as a shortcut for whatever you name your character. Search for:

Aerie: Does Herman mind that, unlike birds, I have a menstrual cycle and do not enter into estrus ... if you wouldn’t mind my asking?
Imoen: As Gorion always said there are times when it’s worth getting into it. I think Herman would agree!

Some people are so pedantic. It's sad!

This is how the dialogues goes:

 

[Citizen]

Who cares? She's literally the worst bg2 companion: a whiny down-syndrome elf. Annoying bitch always gets BTFO from my party

 

[Mexi]

Who cares? She's literally the worst bg2 companion: a whiny down-syndrome elf. Annoying bitch always gets BTFO from my party

You know the most memorable thing I have about Aerie is when she leaves the party after you bury her. I forgot what the trigger is for the conversation. I think when you get that ultimatum to choose between her and Jaheira, IIRC. That was fucking hilarious even seeing Jaheira get taken aback by your response. I've not played it in a while if someone can post the conversation. I'd love to see it again.

 

[Reinhardt]

She's cute cleric/mage. Literally two birds.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Today I learned that there's a mod where Aerie talks about her menstrual cycle and Imoen suggests that Gorion would have thought that's kind of hot.

 

[NJClaw]

Aerie: Does (CHARNAME) mind that, unlike birds, I have a menstrual cycle and do not enter into estrus ... if you wouldn’t mind my asking?
Imoen: As Gorion always said there are times when it’s worth getting into it. I think (CHARNAME) would agree!
​

​

These lines do not exist in this game. I just checked.

Well of course it doesn't exist - I used (CHARNAME) as a shortcut for whatever you name your character. Search for:

Aerie: Does Herman mind that, unlike birds, I have a menstrual cycle and do not enter into estrus ... if you wouldn’t mind my asking?
Imoen: As Gorion always said there are times when it’s worth getting into it. I think Herman would agree!

Some people are so pedantic. It's sad!

"Plot-related" mods were a mistake and all modders should be preemptively thrown in jail just in case.

 

[Horvatii]

Man, that's really fucking good.

You are a dumb pleb -> iggy bin.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Today I learned that there's a mod where Aerie talks about her menstrual cycle and Imoen suggests that Gorion would have thought that's kind of hot.

Why do I have a feeling this is in the imoen romance mod

 

[Xamenos]

I'm more amazed someone actually insisted this shit was base game dialogue.

 

[Gerrard]

We talked about Aerie like this already -

Her age is never stated.

But we can infer that from her dialogue. She says she's *probably* older than Jaheira, which means she's young enough to not be sure, and Jaheira treats her like a child, which means she sees her as one. Jaheira is probably around 30-40ish, if we are to believe her own biography that she was a child during the Tethyr civil war (which is kinda contradicted by she having visited Gorion when the Bhaalspawn was a child) and that civil war ended around the time BG1 came about. So, yeah, I wouldn't put Aerie more than 50-60 at best since she was taken to the circus "at a young age". It's also stated in her biography that her wings atrophied some years after being forced into the circus, i.e. not decades, not centuries, years. And Quayle helped with that between BG1 and 2. We also shouldn't ignore her portrait, she looks like a teenager.

Aerie is at best "barely 18" as an Avariel. But there is another aspect to this even if it turns out she's technically legal, a 25-year-old dating a 18-year-old irl is still iffy due to the different life stages they are in. The 18-year-old is still living with their parents and isn't independent yet or is striving for independence, so it's very easy for the 25-year-old to exploit that and try to groom them by creating another financial dependence. It's not always bad of course, but throwing a side-eye is worth it in these situations.

I.e. there's no way the romance with Aerie is ok, getting her preggo is even worse.

The butthurt ratings parade in response to this post is proof that Codex is full of lanky, pasty-faced, studded leather jacket, greasy-haired metalheads who dated high school girls.

You almost had me, until that last bit.

 

[Corvinus]

Go get drown in Tali's sweat, Biowhores. Baldur's Gate fans need to be banned asap.

There seems to be a tangible correlation between Talimancers and Aerie-fondlers. I wonder what victim they will find in the new game? Some submissive little trollop, no doubt.

Talimancer Sweat PhD

 

[Mexi]

I'm more amazed someone actually insisted this shit was base game dialogue.

I was actually wondering if it was real until dude above posted the sequence. Thought it might've been from ToB since I've not finished it, and I've heard a menstrual cycle might actually mean something in regards to Aerie there. Now, I'm laughing my ass off. Dude was using a romance mod and forgot, which that one must be like Tali-sweat levels of weird!

 

[Daemongar]

Today I learned that there's a mod where Aerie talks about her menstrual cycle and Imoen suggests that Gorion would have thought that's kind of hot.

We don't call it a mod. We call it a period piece.

 

[Delterius]

Haven't played BG2 in 9 years, and haven't seen any photo of Aerie ever since. Tried to create her face from memory in Artbreeder.

This is what I came up with:

I can only conclude that yes, she seems underage.

this reminds me of all the weird baldurs gate fan portraits i love so much