A Conversation With Theo Solomon: The Blade of Frontiers

“Baldur’s Gate 3” is an immersive role-playing video game experience based on the tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) Dungeons & Dragons. Earning the title of 2023’s Game of the Year, “Baldur’s Gate 3” is enormously popular and well-loved with a 96% approval score from over 600,000 player reviews on Steam. With storylines that change based on the choices made by the player and seven interactable—and romanceable—Origin companions, the game is massive and intricate. At Anime Weekend Atlanta, with over 400 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 under my belt, I spoke with Theo Solomon, the voice and performance artist behind Wyll Ravengard, one of the seven Origin companions.

Theo Solomon | Photo by: Fynn Grindle

Watch the interview here!

[The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.]

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Spooner: Hello everyone, I’m Rachel Spooner, I'm the co-editor of The Stormy Petrel Newspaper and I'm here today with Theo Solomon, the voice and performance of Wyll Ravengard, the Blade of Frontiers from Baldur’s Gate 3. Hello! It’s so nice to be with you today.

Solomon: Hey, thank you for having me.

Of course! So “Baldur’s Gate 3” was your first video game credit. What was it like being just thrust into that world so suddenly? 

Honestly, it was a buzz and it was a bit nerve-wracking because you've got to balance so many aspects of your training. So not just your voice, but also your body because you have motion capture suits and how to marry the two together so it looks natural when you're playing the game. But once you get into the rhythm of it and you have a rapport with the different directors that you work with, it becomes second nature, and Wyll’s skin and jacket kind of became mine so it worked nicely.

You're a stage-trained actor, too, so how does that translate to voice acting and motion capture acting where you're not physically seen?

For sure, especially because my accent is very London, Wyll speaks much more proper than I do. He hits his consonants and things like that. So in theater, you'll learn you're taught even to hit your consonants so the people at the back of the theater can hear you and you enunciate and he speaks very much like that. And he's kind of got a Shakespearean element to the way he speaks: his lexicon, you know, how he uses his words so theater background helped so so much.

What do you think Wyll's favorite Shakespeare play would be?

Oh, that's a good question, you know. I'd like to say Romeo and Juliet. 

Portrait of Wyll Ravengard by Edward Vanderghote

That's what I was going to say, very romantic. And you said yourself that you love all the romance scenes that you do, that they were your favorite.

Yeah, Romeo and Juliet for sure, or Macbeth, one of those two.

Yeah, that gives very Wyll vibes. So how did you find yourself in the video game sphere since that's not what you were training for originally?

Yeah, it's weird like as an actor, as a young actor, you're like “Oh I just want to be on TV or do films,” and as you grow as an actor, you realize you can do so much more than that. You can be on stage, you can do TV, you can do film, you can do audiobooks–I’ve done a lot of audiobooks–and I hadn't really ever been exposed to the game world, and it's kind of like a combination of all of them in a way. So yeah, got the audition, did the self-tape, and got it, and I don't know how do you put it, it's learning how to come across on a certain medium, like you don't want to do a TV performance on stage because it might not read and vice versa; a theater performance might be too big on camera, so you're learning the dynamics of what reads, and as we went through because I did so so many lines on the game just learned what worked.

Such a short amount of time. You said you only had like seven or eight months to do all of Wyll’s storyline.

It was mental. I was in there a lot. It was quite nice because where some of the others may have done a bit and then had a bit of a break, with me, it was just like boom boom boom boom boom boom. So I wasn't like at home being Wyll, but I didn't get out of character too much because I knew I was straight back in if that makes sense.

You were new to motion capture; were you new to dancing as well? Wyll does a little dance; do you know if they used your motion capture for it yet? You've been playing the game yourself.

Yeah, I didn't actually do the dance motion capture. I'm not that smooth, people; I'm smooth other ways, I'm not too smooth on my feet. But no, the person who did it did an absolutely incredible job, like it's iconic at this point, do you know what I mean? I've done a lot of dancing poses with people out at cons, so no it went down really well. 

So like I said, you've been playing Baldur’s Gate yourself and streaming it on Twitch, so how has your view or emotions towards the game changed or evolved while playing it yourself?

Yeah, do you know what it is? I only knew my storyline. Even the other actors–Dev, Jen, Tim–I only started to get to know them after the game came out because we didn't record together, and I didn't really know their storylines because they wouldn't just come up to me like “By the way, this is my storyline” you know I mean? So, playing the game on Twitch, I understand their characters so much more. I understand them so much more; I'm like “Okay this is what your character goes through.” So it's been really nice, streaming and gaming again because I used to game a lot when I was younger, but now that I'm gaming again, I just love it, like sharing that with my community. Anybody who watches me on Twitch, I've got love for you. It's been a blast so far 

Wyll Ravengard Character Introduction, Character Creation Screen

Yeah and like “Baldur’s Gate 3”, 2023 Game Of The Year, how are you seeing that community at conventions and during your streams? 

People come up to me at conventions, they're like “I love your streams.” That means a lot because when you're streaming, it's just me, it's just me talking. We have a good time. They get pretty chaotic; I’m very impulsive when I play the game, but it's lovely and we've got a really nice community that we've built, so, long may it continue.

What's been your most impulsive decision while playing the game? 

Oh, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad. Do you know what? One which was that bad, I can't lie: I killed Mayrina. I killed Mayrina. Yeah, it was a bad one. Do you know what it was? Why am I even admitting this? 

It’s not very Wyll.

No, it's not Wyll, it was my Tav. I was in that place where you have to save Mayina, saved her, and then she started mouthing off at me, and I was like “Wait what? What? I just saved you,” and then I just blammed her, and then I just saw the chat like, “How could you do that to Mayrina?” And I was like “Wait what?” I was like “No no no no no no no!” Honestly, I'd like to say that was an anomaly. I have done so many impulsive decisions in the game where someone would just get blammed because I take it personally. If someone's rude to me in the game, I'm like “What?”

So you can either answer as Wyll, or as yourself or your Tav. Kiss, marry, kill: the Origin companions.

Kiss, marry, kill, the Origin companions.

Either as Theo, Theo’s Tav, or Wyll Ravengard. 

Okay okay okay. That's a tough one, you know, that's a very tough one. Unfortunately, I'm going to kill Karlach.

Wow.

I'm going against the grain.

So is this Theo’s Tav answering? 

This is Theo’s Tav answering. I'm going with the dynamic that we've built up on stream, so if I'm going to kill Karlach, I'm gonna kiss Shadowheart. 

As would we all.

Yeah, we had a little fling going on, which was nice. I'm gonna marry Lae’zel.

Oh, that's nice! I like that.

Yeah, wifed her in my playthrough so it's going smoothly.

All right, it was so nice talking with you today. I really enjoyed this; thank you so much. 

You're welcome!

Queerness in "Baldur's Gate 3": A Conversation with Jennifer English

Even over a year after its initial release date in August of 2023, the hit game “Baldur’s Gate 3” from Larian Studios has not lost its popularity. Alongside being named The Game Awards' 2023 “Game Of The Year,” Baldur’s Gate boasts a variety of other awards from BAFTA, Game Developers Choice, Golden Joystick, D.I.C.E., The Steam Awards, and, as of December 2024, The Game Awards’ “Best Community Support” for the second year in a row.  

Sporting an expansive world based in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, with sprawling, rich narratives, and a multitude of opportunities for player customization, this party-based role-playing game has a little bit of something for nearly everyone. And, it is this degree of personalization that draws in players from across the globe and populations, including the queer community.

Jennifer English | Photo by: Fynn Grindle

Editor-in-chief Fynn Grindle sat down with Jennifer English, the actor behind Shadowheart, one of the main seven Origin heroes in the game, at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2024. English discussed her perspective on the appeal “Baldur’s Gate 3” has to the LGBTQ+ community, speaking from her experience playing Shadowheart and from her experience being a queer woman. 

Watch the interview here!

[The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity and contains mild spoilers for “Baldur’s Gate 3.”]  

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Grindle: I am Fynn Grindle with The Stormy Petrel Newspaper at Oglethorpe University. I'm here today with Jennifer English, the face and actor for Shadowheart in “Baldur’s Gate 3.” First off, congratulations on being a BAFTA Breakthrough, that’s absolutely amazing.

English: Thank you very much. 

Yeah! Have you been to Anime Weekend Atlanta before? 

No, never. This is my second time in Atlanta, and when we were invited back, we were like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ Absolutely love it here.

I know you went to Dragon Con. Was that your first time in Atlanta? 

Yeah, it was.

Awesome, perfect. We saw you there. [Laughing]. Okay, so I'd like to focus a little bit more on the kind of overlap of the queer community and the creative experience if that's all right with you. 

Yeah, of course. 

That's something that I'm super interested in.

Same.

Perfect, [it] worked out great. So just first off, why do you think there is such an overlap between “Baldur’s Gate 3” and other player-insert games and the queer community?

Shadowheart from the "Baldur's Gate 3" Steam page

I think to play “Baldur’s Gate 3,” because it's Dungeons and Dragons, you have to have a certain intelligence and a certain level of creativity. I think to be queer you have a kind of a different kind of brain, anyway. You've got a creative brain because you have to live as a brave individual. Do you know what I mean? I feel that like creates a certain type of person. Also, I think the way that Larian created the game was incredibly inclusive. We re-recorded all of the lines with instances of player pronouns. And that must have cost them thousands. Probably 10s [of thousands] – I don't know how much, but a lot. And so I think it kind of started out as a very inclusive game, and I think there's not enough representation out there, yet, in the gaming community, we've still got really long way to go. I think obviously, as soon as you get a really beautiful, inclusive game, that is going to attract the queer community. But we need more of that. This needs to be like a baseline level for every game.

Absolutely, absolutely. I will say, especially as someone who uses they/them pronouns, the inclusion and the choice of getting to pick they/them pronouns as your Tav was so fun. It just made my heart warm. 

I’m really glad to hear that. 

So to me, Shadowheart’s evolution and development with her identity and her understanding of herself parallels some people's experiences with unearthing their own queer identity. What do you think about this?

Well, including mine. 

Yeah, absolutely. 

It’s something that I've had to kind of reckon with; it's not been an easy journey for me with my queerness, so it was something that I really, really related to. And therefore, I put a lot of myself into it. That's why I think there's big conversations to be had about authenticity and authentic representation. I know for me as a queer person, it means so much more when you find out that the actor playing the role is queer themselves because you just bring that layer of truth to it. And so I was really aware of that, and I was really aware of that in the story. And John [Corcoran] did a beautiful job. And considering he's not queer, he's not who you expect Shadowheart’s writer to be, but he just unearths something so beautifully sympathetic and genuine. I'm really grateful. I think it really does speak to a lot of people for a very good reason. 

So over the course of the production of “Baldur’s Gate 3,” many years, would you say that your identity had evolved alongside Shadowheart’s identity? 

Absolutely did, yeah. And, you know, I was lucky in that I got to fall in love with my performance director [laughing]. Yeah, so that and me coming to terms with realizing that I am lesbian. I mean, [production] was over the pandemic, like we all changed a lot; the world changed. And so I think, therefore, everyone that worked on “Baldur’s Gate 3” will have had some kind of evolution. I think that comes across in the writing and the creation of it. I feel like people put a different level of energy into the game as a result. I wonder if the game was made outside of that time period, would it be the same game? It's interesting what happens to art when you have a global pandemic.

Exactly, for better or for worse. 

[Laughing].

So to me, Shadowheart’s story is very trans-coded; kind of the whole of shedding an old identity and name for a new one. Even though she herself isn't trans, how important is it do you think for players to be able to see themselves in parts of the narrative, even if it's not a part of the major narrative? 

Portrait of Shadowheart by Edward Vanderghote

I mean, that's the kind of point of it. And the point of this game is that you do find yourself in it. It's not the writer’s story, it's not the actor’s story, it's the player’s story; you create that. But the trans allegory was totally something I was aware of, and the inclusion of Nocturne and even the detail of the diary [where] you find out that Shadowheart punches transphobes. And you’re like, ‘Fuck yeah.’ [Laughing].

We love that, we love that.

I mean, trans rights is something so dear to my heart, and I think is vital, and I don't understand why it's not more vital to more people. It makes me really fucking cross. And it's something that I want to kind of encourage. Especially the community that follows Shadowheart, but also Aliona and myself; there's a huge trans following that we've got, and I feel very responsible for that. I really want to work with more trans creators and more queer creators in general. We need to be telling more of their stories. Have you seen I Saw The TV Glow?

Yes. 

I saw that on the plane, and I was like, ‘Yes, more of this please!’ I'm not seeing enough. It’s something that I think developers and future developers need to take note of and explore more of. 

Like we've come so far, but there's always more work to do.

There’s so much more work to do. 

So in the future, what are some kinds of roles that you're really hoping to get into?

I'm kind of very wary of going ‘I want to play this kind of part and that kind of part,’ because I think that kind of stops the universe from surprising me. I would never have expected for any of this to happen. I didn't expect to go into video games. I didn’t expect to play a main part in a video game. I think in general, it's just about exploring all depths of the human, or not human, psyche. But I'd like to do more TV and film, and I think we need to do more. I mean, the dream really is to combine that space like I feel like we're getting there with shows like “Fallout” and “The Last of Us.” Games’ audiences are really special and really important, and I feel like we need to honor them across all media, and we need to work together. There's generations of creators in games that are being overlooked outside of games, and there's so much more respect to be had for that beautiful writing and art and and acting. More collaboration is the way forward. 

Absolutely fantastic. Just a question for funsies at the end. So you can answer this as either Shadowheart or yourself: Kiss, marry, kill, the origin characters.

Okay.

Oh, you’ve thought about this. [Laughing].

As Shadowheart, kiss, marry, kill Lae’zel. All three. [Laughing].

That's a valid answer. 

You know what? No, I think Karlach has got to be in there. I feel like Astarion’s like [the] gay best friend. 

Oh, perfect. 

And Gale, no, although I do think Gale and Shadowheart would live happily ever after. Like the cottage-core style. For me though…kiss Lae’zel, marry Karlach, kill Astarion. [Laughing]. Sorry, babe.

Sometimes it has to happen. 

Sorry, Neil. 

It’s just a part of the decision.

He doesn’t mind. He knows it.

He knows it, it’s okay. Well, that’s all I have for you. Thank you so much for this, this has been wonderful!

What a good interview, what great questions. 

I’m so glad!

More queer interviews please, for the love of God!

Discussion of Ballroom Culture Celebrates Trans Existence

Hosted by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Victor Ultra Omni, PhD candidate at Emory University and a proud father in the worldwide pioneering House of Ultra Omni, led a talk on “Gender Visionaries: Ballroom Culture and Everyday Trans Icons.” Also closing out Transgender Awareness Week, students filled the TLCC Trustee Room on Nov. 19, as Omni highlighted the history of Ballroom culture using work from their own dissertation, “The Love Ball: A History of New York City House-Structured Ballroom Culture from 1972-1992.” 

Victor Ultra Omni | Sourced from Omni's webpage

“It’s very common for us to see this sort of paradigm or way of thinking about transness where you either have to be exceptional or you don’t get to exist,” Omni detailed at the beginning of their talk. “So, my work asks ‘What about the people who aren’t on the cover of magazines and don’t have their own companies but were still doing things with gender and race way, way, way before it was in mainstream awareness and attention.’”

Ballroom, as described by LGBTQ Nation, “is an underground LGBTQ subculture in which participants, who are largely Black or Latinx trans people and gay men, compete for prizes, trophies, titles, or cash at events known as balls. Judges evaluate those who ‘walk’ in a ball in various categories, including voguing, pretty boy realness, butch queen, face, body, [etc.]People in the ballroom scene are also part of house culture, meaning each participant is a member of a specific ‘house,’ or ballroom unit, that has its own leadership and rules.” 

Omni grew up in the Northeast and eventually became enthralled by Ball culture, even walking a few times themself. However, after starting their undergraduate education, they discovered a lack of books and accessible archival information on the history of Ball and the figures involved. So, Omni took matters into their own hands, financing trips to New York to talk to elders who were alive during the ’80s Ball scene. They iterated that, despite greater awareness of Ball due to media like “Pose,” “Legendary,” and “Paris Is Burning (1990)”, “a lot of people still can’t answer the question “How did this all begin? Where did it start?’ It was really a call to start my project.”

Since then, driven by this call and a passion for oral history and community-based research, Omni has spoken with around 35 pioneers, a status given to individuals who made influential shifts and walked the Ball before 1984. 

Omni reflected on the importance of uplifting these pioneers’ stories: “We don’t get good mirrors at all of what it would look like to have a full lifespan [as a queer person]. Finding out all these different ways that people have cheated death, and have been successful, has meant everything to me and the people that I call my chosen family. I see these mirrors. The things that we think are so new aren’t new and I find comfort in that.” 

During their talk, Omni underlined a scene from the 1968 film, “The Queen” which followed a drag pageant in Manhattan. During this time, colorism was prevalent with a preference for lighter-skinned queens to win these competitions. However, Crystal LaBeija, in response to a white drag queen commenting that she was “showing her color,” said “I have a right to show my color, darling! I am beautiful and I know I’m beautiful!” In 1972, LaBeija co-founded the first house, the Royal House of LaBeija, planting the roots of the Ball scene that would eventually spread out of its origin in New York City. “It becomes a symbol of when black and brown queens said, ‘We’re going to start having our own affairs, or functions, or balls,’” Omni said. 

Crystal LaBeija in "The Queen" | Sourced from "The Queen" (1968)

Beyond this, Omni’s dissertation and talks with these queer elders were much more than just research. For them, as a trans-adult, it meant visibility and loving the mundane. 

“[Ball] is one of the few places where there is an opportunity for intergenerational, queer of color, trans of color connection,” they said in an interview following the talk. “I didn’t know anyone who was 10 years on testosterone when I started taking it. Now, I’ve had the opportunity and the privilege to meet all sorts of different types of trans people. Even though we are entering a period where a lot of people are scared for good reason, [I know] that I’m committed to not ever shrinking that part of myself. I realize that when I am brave, I am giving permission to a lot of the younger people to be brave in their own ways. Being a trans adult, for me, means being very public about that. It’s important to be the model that I didn't have. We don’t all have to be exceptional. I’m so for ordinary, regular-degular trans people just living because we’ve earned that and deserve that.”