Summary

• I paired Baldur's Gate 3 characters with tracks from Charli Xcx's Brat.
• It's pride month, I'm allowed a gay list as a treat.
• Sorry, or you're welcome. Whichever!

I’ve been fixated on Charli XCX’s album Brat since it was released about two weeks ago. I’v🅰e listened to little else, which is pretty♐ rare for me, and I’ve brought it up in casual conversation to so many people that my friends now groan when I mention it. I’m not a longtime Charli fan – in fact, I’d say I only really like her most recent work – but Brat is layered, complex, and incredibly produced. It’s an intensely confrontational and yet vulnerable album, one that oscillates between exaggerated ego and heartbreaking insecurity. I can’t stop thinking about it.

That’s how we&r👍squo;ve ended up here, with me pairing songs from the deluxe version of the album (Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs soဣ it’s not) with Baldur’s Gate 3 characters, just because I’ve thought way too much about both these works of art. I apologise in advance, and if you disagree with my choices, please don’t tell me. Here we go.

Apple - Shadowheart

I guess the apple don’t fall fa🌄r from the tree/Cause I’ve been looking at you so long/Now I only see me

This dancey track is about generational trauma and having difficult, com𝓰plex relationships with the people that raised you. Who exemplifies this better than Shadowheart, who was raised as a follower of Shar and, if you encourage her to, ends up turning away from that legacy? Finding her own path leads her to forge a new destiny, one that wasn’t decided for her by people without her best interests at heart. This parallels, of course, Charli leaving to the airport, the airport, the airport, the airport.

Guess - Astarion

You waꦇnna guеss the colour of my underwear/You wanna know what I got going on down thеre

This sexy, bassy track is on the deluxe version, and it’s an Absolute (haha) banger. Charli taunts those who sexualise her with a graphic fantasy about her underwear, then twists it right at the end with the line “You wanna guess if I’m serious about this song”. It reminds me of our favourite vampire, whose underwear is embroidered with the words, “If you’re reading this, you managed to bed or behead me. Either way, you got lucky.” Astarion is overtly flirty, but ultimately resentful of the way his𓃲 sexuality has been used against him by others, which this song evokes when you look past the surface level.

B2b - Gale

Took a long tꦐime/Breaking myself down/Building muscle up/Repeating it

B2b is one of my favourite tracks, in part because it manages to turn a song about trying to stay away from a bad ex into an excellent cღlub track. It reminds me of Gale, who was so dedicated to his mentor, muse, and lover Mystra that he’s willing to martyr himself to redeem himself in her eyes. There’s obviously a lot of imbalance in this relationship – many fans feel Mystra was using him as a tool instead of treating him as an equal partner, which makes a lot of sense, since she’s a god. In my playthrough, Gale turned away from her and didn’t do what she asked of him, in a way freeing himself of her influence. May Charli XCX be able to do the same.

I think about it all the time - Karlach

I think about it all the time/That I mig🐈ht run out of time

Charli meditates on the fact that she might want to have a child, worries about running out of time, and considers that her career “feels so small/in the existential scheme of it all”. While Karlach does express wanting to have a kid if you take The Love Test at Baldur’s Gate’s circus with her, the central theme of running out of time and not wanting to waste what remains of her life is resonant in other ways too. Namely that she’s quite 𒁃literally going to die if she doesn’t find a way to fix the malfunctioning engine she has in place of a heart.

I might say something stupid - Lae’zel

I go so cold, I go so cold/C🐻ause I don’t know if I belong here anymore

This song explores how Charli feels anxious about fitting in with her peers, especially at𒅌 parties. In interviews, she&rsqu♏o;s talked about how she performs an exaggerated version of herself when she’s uncomfortable, playing up what she thinks she’s supposed to be.

Lae’zel is no party girl, but I think a lot about her desire for belonging and the persona she puts on – she’s brash with your party, b🍸ut the moment she’s put in front of Githyanki with actual authority she seems to shrink, trying desperately ๊to gain their approval. When her own people turn against her and everything she thinks she knows turns out to be a lie, she says that Githyanki have the sole purpose of acting as livestock so Vlaakith can ascend into godhood, and I can’t help but hear Charli crooning, “I don’t feel like nothing special”.

Rewind - Wyll

I hate these doubts that keep running through myꦅ mind/Sometimes I really think it would be cool to rewind

Here, Charli reflects on how things were better before she was famous, and says she sometimes wishes she could go back to when things were simpler. You know who🙈 else probably wishes they could go back in time, probably so they could have at least considered the terms of their pact with a devil before agreeing? Wyll. That said, he’d probably make the same choice, because the fate of his city was on the line, but in an ideal world, Wyll would be a complex enough character that he felt a bit conflicted about his decision. That’s alright, I can be mad about it on his behalf.

Mean Girls - Minthara

This o🌱ne’s fo✱r all my mean girls/This one’s for all my bad girls

You know those girls who are super messe🐟d up and do whatever the hell they want even though it ruins people’s lives because they’ve got a deep pain in their souls that they can’t quite articulate, and you can’t help but be obsessed with them but feel kind of bad for them at the same time? Yeah.

Bonus - Mizora, Halsin, Raphael, Jaheira, Minsc

Von dutch for Mizora. Pure ego, just living that life, you know how it is. Halsin gets Everything is romantic, because that big druid is a total romantic at heart, and I can absolutely see him looking at “Jesus Christ on a plastic sign” with absolute peace and adoration🃏 in his eyes. He truly does love the world. Raphael is 360, because he&rsquo😼;s everywhere. Jaheira is Spring breakers, in keeping with the song’s sardonic, ruthless tone, and because she is, indeed, “such a hater”.

And, of course, Mins🦩c is 365. It’s pure brainless himbo rave energy – bumpin’ that? More like Bo🧸o-mping that.