I Never Expected a Fantasy Game Would Floor Me in Such a Deeply Personal Way

**Heavy spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3.**

Every artistic medium is laudable for a variety of its own reasons, and with video games, much of the impact stems from how good writing complements player investment. Thus far, Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to surprise and impress me in this regard—and most recently, it nearly brought me to tears, too.

As you progress into Act 2, you’ll run into various characters from Act 1, including Arabella: a tiefling child you can save from the Shadow Druid Kagha. When you meet Arabella, she’s all alone in the Shadowlands, which is already a cause for concern since most of the other tieflings were either killed or captured. But Arabella seems capable of protecting herself, as she has some dormant magical abilities that were awakened by Silvanus’ Idol (something she stole back in Act 1).

She asks you to find her parents while she stays behind in your camp, and while she’s in camp, she befriends Withers, the skeletal emissary of the death god Jergal. Though she pesters him with questions, he does not seem to mind, and it’s a brief comfort to know she has someone watching over her.

Unfortunately, the cuteness of that dynamic is cut through with a harsh discovery: Arabella’s parents were killed by an agent of Ketheric Thorm. She’s devastated by this news, and the grief becomes so overwhelming that it escalates her inner power even more. Terrified, she begs for an answer of what to do next.

But Withers calmly, and kindly, explains that now, she has no choice but to go her own path and explore her magic further. He reassures her that he’s seen the future and can share it with her, that she will be okay, and that she will come into her own magic provided she takes that leap and sets forth. And my character, a Wild Magic sorceress herself, was able to chime in and say, “I know how this feels. I’ve been in your shoes. But you have to do this. And you will be okay.”

Maybe this seems like nothing on paper, but in the moment, I felt utterly floored by how beautifully written such a seemingly small side-quest was. In my own life, I’ve had to wrestle with grief and mourning many times over, and this process of accepting the terrifying unknown in order to move on is familiar to me. It’s something that’s difficult to articulate, let alone replicate, unless you really know what you’re doing—and clearly, the writers of BG3 knew what they were doing.

Not only that, but I chose to be a Wild Magic Sorcerer for my first run because I felt closely related to the class. The traumas of my younger years culminated in my adult years being spent learning how to live with, manage, and accept the parts of me that feel “wild” and untenable at times. Playing as a sorcerer who sometimes can’t help but unleash her inner wildness has felt cathartic, at times hilariously so. (I.e. when my enemies are suddenly turned into animals—quoth Courtney Love, “Someday, you will ache like I ache!”)

So, to see another young girl go through a similar thing, and to be there for her and give her the advice I needed when I was in a similar place (albeit in a digital fantasy setting), felt surprisingly meaningful to me. Because yes, when you find yourself all alone with the precipice of change upon you, the last thing you want to do is move forward and put yourself in situations to grow. What you want is to stay in your comfort zone and never face the music.

But at a certain point, you must. You have to trust your inner wisdom and take those risks, or else you’ll never heal your hurts, grow strong enough to deal with life’s hardships, or discover a new life that better suits you.

It might seem silly, reading this much into a scene from a video game, but that’s the merit of video games as art, no? When done well, they can tap into those deeply personal parts of us and channel them in ways that will mark us forever. I already loved this game, and I continually find new things to love about it, but this little moment with Arabella, Withers, and my sorceress is something I will never forget. Godspeed, you little tiefling. You’re gonna be okay.

(featured image: Larian Studios)