Alright, this has been a thing that's bothered me ever since I first saw it, and I need to bringit up for a proper discussion, because I think it's one of the most glaring examples of poor writing I've seen in a game, and perhaps the only time I've ever felt like a game is coming close to insulting me. This is, as the title suggests, referring to a specific outcome of Astarion's bite scene. I haven't played the scene for a couple patches now, so if they altered it since then, I'd love to know, especially if they've improved it.
After a couple long rests and advances in story, you can have a scene where Astarion will try to feed on you in the night, revealing that he's a vampire. You can let him feed on you willingly at that point. If you stop him at the first opportunity, it's all fine. If you don't and try to stop him at the second opportunity, he'll drain you dry and kill you. However after that, the game keeps going and you can have another party member revive your character. If you do, then you can get a conversation with Astarion actually addressing that. And he is just a complete asshole, deflecting any sort of responsibility and basically just being like "well you're alive now, what's your problem?" And I don't thnk it works on any level. My jaw actually dropped as the scene played out, I was stunned.
Firstly, I don't think we should have the option of reviving our main character after it, it should be a non-standard game over where we have to reload. Secondly, if the point of the scene is to show Astarion in a more sympathetic light, then having him be an asshole after he KILLS us makes that fail. But cruically, if the point is actually to show him as a manipulator who is playingon our emotions to get what he wants, then having him be an asshole to us ALSO makes the scene fail at doing that, because it makes him seem like a stupid, petulant child. A manipulator would try and cover himself, try and say that he's sorry and that he truly could not control himself and it was out of his hands. And they would probably bolt as soon as they realize they can't talk themselves out of the situation. Astarion just sticks around and thinks we're gonna be fine with it, and the game kinda makes us be okay with it. If the purpose of the scene is to make us hate Astarion, then we're denied the chance to do anyththing about it, which I think makes it fail on that level as well. And thirdly, the other party members should want to kill him for knowing that he's willing to kill members of the group. Lae'zel should be out to kill him right away, no questions asked.
What did Larian want us to take away from this scene? What does Larian want us to think of Astarion, one of our companions? Why did they think this scene was good? Why did they have this companion basically insult us for being dumb enough to let him kill us after trying to extend some kindness to him? Just...why? I would love to her other people's thoughts on all this.
