VILLAINESSES

I support women's rights, but I also support women's wrongs. By Jess Kinghorn

For many women, a not insignificant amount of energy is dedicated to doing what's right: exfoliating the right way, handling drama in the group chat the right way, making key career moves the right way, and on and on and on. So when a villainess comes along and says, in the immortal words of Eartha Kitt, “I want to be evil,” is it any wonder my ears prick up?

Shape-shifting assassin Orin the Red comes into the final act of Baldur’s Gate III swinging, with a number of NPCs potentially revealing themselves to actually be her in disguise. It’s a memorable introduction, with Orin leveraging social expectations to create unease rather than appease, before tearing away the mask to reveal the barely restrained pulsating id beneath. Wearing it all on her cartilaginous sleeve is just one reason why I love her – alongside her deeply relatable struggle for fatherly approval.

Shortly after, Orin can also rock up to where you sleep, call you a little piggy and threaten to paint the town with you don’t wanna know what if you refuse a very temporary alliance. Naturally I said, “Take me, I’m yours!” She’s far from the only villainess that wants to play with your heart though.