Queerness, Normativity, and the Possibilities of Grimdark Medievalism in Baldur’s Gate 3

Videogames house a wide variety of fantastical medieval worlds that serve as gateways to the Middle Ages for modern audiences. Those in the genre of grimdark medievalism, however, often misleadingly exaggerate historical brutalities marginalized subjects face in their imagined pasts. This article examines how Baldur’s Gate 3 , a Dungeons & Dragons –inspired roleplaying videogame, queerly complicates such expectations by constructing a grimdark neomedieval setting without cisheteronormativity. Using several of the game’s central queer characters as case studies, I demonstrate how the speculative medieval past can be used to figuratively explore—and potentially offer healing for—difficult and painful contemporary queer circumstances without literally representing and re-inscribing violence motivated by antiqueer sentiment. I propose that this model presents fantasy medievalisms with meaningful opportunities to critique the cisheteronormative, racial, colonial, and patriarchal injustices they too habitually perpetuate.