Fan treatment of Baldur’s Gate 3 companion Lae’zel has sparked a conversation on the double standard female characters face that has Dragon Age creator David Gaider weighing in.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a deep storyline and fleshed-out characters that players will meet along their journey across the Sword Coast and beyond.
One of the game’s playable characters is Lae’zel. Players who don’t select her as their Origin character will meet her in the first area. The Githyanki fighter is quite abrasive and violently inclined, generally approving of evil choices and scoffing at acts of sympathy and mercy.
Lae’zel’s personality has put off many fans, but she isn’t the only companion to act this way. Now, fan treatment of her is sparking a conversation on how female characters are treated by fandoms, a topic that has Dragon Age co-creator David Gaider weighing in.
Dragon Age creator says fans would treat Lae’zel differently if she were male
The conversation was started in response to a tweet by PleasantKenobi. The streamer said that, while Lae’zel gets quite a bit of development over the course of the game, her behavior was too frustrating to be worth the time it takes to get there.
Lae'zel is the RPG party member equivalent of "the show gets really good after season 4".I'm glad she has an arc, but im not putting up with her shit for 10 hours for her to eventually maybe stop being an ass. pic.twitter.com/dLgh3UpmwE
— PleasantKenobi (@PleasantKenobi) August 15, 2023
Reactions to the tweet have been mixed. While many agree that Lae’zel can be coldhearted and mean to the players, she’s no different from most other Baldur’s Gate 3’s companions. For example, Astarion is just as cruel as Lae’zel. However, he’s pretty consistently been lifted up as a fan favorite.
As some have pointed out, the main difference between them is that Astarion is a conventionally attractive male character, while Lae’zel is neither of those things.
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I understand this but also think that MOST of the starting NPCs, with the exception of Gale & Karlach are abrasive.I think Lae'zel gets singled out a little unfairly because she's not conventionally attractive like Astarion or Shadowheart but y'all ain't ready for that convo. https://t.co/IKLuZuRAdK
— ThatBronzeGirl (@ThatBronzeGirl) August 18, 2023
Lae'zel discourse is fucking dumb cause she's not your beautiful uwu waifuShadowheart is part of a genocidal death cultKarlach will use the souls of innocents to fuel her engineGale has the ego the size of the material planeAstarion is literally AstarionWyll is lawful good https://t.co/U0e02o9L45
— Newosan 🐸 (@NewosanWasTaken) August 18, 2023
Lae'zel is a reflection of her environment, she's not actively mean or cruel to you or the group, but you kind of have to approach her differently based on the character you are playing. not saying this as a dig or some way to shame OP, just wanted to get my own thoughts out https://t.co/pb9Nv5NS5n
— GilltyPleasure (@GilltyBusiness) August 17, 2023
This discussion over Lae’zel and how Baldur’s Gate 3 fans view her, especially in comparison with Astarion, got the attention of David Gaider. The creator of the Dragon Age franchise and its world of Thedas pointed out that the same scenario happened among fans of that series.
Can confirm. The Dragon Age fandom consistently gave WAY more latitude and forgiveness to male characters as opposed to female characters, in every game. It is very much a Thing. https://t.co/fTNe9WROkf
— David Gaider (@davidgaider) August 18, 2023
While Gaider doesn’t cite any Dragon Age characters as examples, many fans compared Lae’zel to Dragon Age: Origins companion Morrigan. For Gaider, though, the specifics of who the characters are and how the game frames them are irrelevant.
It truly does not matter. This isn't specific to Lae'zel, but in her case had the character been male the fandom would be more forgiving. I guarantee it.
— David Gaider (@davidgaider) August 18, 2023
In both Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate 3, players were far more lenient and willing to give male characters second chances, while female characters who were not immediately appealing were permanently marked as bad or unreasonable.
The conversation surrounding Lae’zel, and female characters at large, is an important one, though not one with a satisfying resolution.
Fortunately, not all online debates regarding Baldur’s Gate 3 are so contentious, as fans are also discussing which D&D setting Larian Studios should tackle next.