Jennifer English, the voice of Shadowheart, the brooding cleric in popular fantasy RPG Baldur's Gate 3 has shed more light on her performance, stating that the character's arc is a “trans-allegory.”
In an interview with TRG, English revealed that she approached the performance from a queer perspective. “There's been a lot of talk about the trans allegory of Shadowheart, which I was definitely aware of during the recording. I wanted to honor that.”
When it comes to approaching the character from an LGBTQ+ perspective, English went on to say, “It's something that maybe I couldn't get through from the beginning – whether I consciously thought about it or not. (…) It's not something I've looked into.”
The explicit framing of Shadowheart's story as a queer coming-out story marks a new step for the character. Shadowheart's willingness to leave her past behind and attempt to embrace a future that is more her own resonates with many queer fans, myself included.
For those who don't know, Shadowheart is not only attracted to the player character regardless of their gender, but also has a mysterious hand injury that flares up throughout the game – a vulnerability that makes her all the more relatable as a character.
Like a strange woman herselfEnglish is well-positioned to deliver this kind of performance and to provide the kind of nuance that LGBTQ+ people deserve from queer characters in video games.
English went on to discuss other aspects of the character that resonate with fans from marginalized groups. “There are a lot of people who resonate with (Shadowheart's) religious trauma. There's a tremendous amount of that. And obviously the strangeness and also things like PTSD (… and) chronic pain.”
“I definitely resonate with (these themes) and wanted to be very careful with it,” English concluded.
In other news, Baldur's Gate 3s The latest patch dropped yesterday (November 30) and brings brand new epilogue scenes, as well as promises from developer Larian Studios that it would improve the animations in all of the game's romances.
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