Originally Posted by The Red Queen
Shock, because clearly there are taboos against sex with animals so seeing the build up to something that looks a bit like that can be rather startling even for those of us who like to think of ourselves as open-minded. And I think that some of the people there didn't expect the game to go that far in depicting a sexual encounter that involved a wildshaped character, and even some of those who weren't surprised it was in the game were nevertheless expecting that we would be permitted to see less than we did in a global livestream. But while people were surprised and even somewhat shocked (as seems pretty clear from some of the audience shots!), this seemed to be because of how they thought it was likely to go down on the internet and in media more generally and weren't expecting Larian to risk the level of furore that it was likely to generate, and nobody I spoke to was at all personally offended by what they saw. And certainly nobody I spoke to had interpreted what they had seen as a depiction of bestiality. Insofar as people saw any real world parallels at all, the discussion was about furries, and hoping that they'd be stoked by the content and that some sections of that community might feel decently represented by elements of the Halsin romance.


As I had mentioned before I think what Larian did here is incredibly brave. Most fantasy world never really explore the consequences/possibilities of their fantasy elements. We joke about them or are horrified at them behind the scenes but these thoughts don't get placed into the mainstream.

At the end of the day, this has been a huge marketing coup for Larian as well. it was shocking and it has spurred a lot of great discussion. There are more people today that have a better understanding of consent than before this scene.

It also outed a small minority of bigots who we all got to make fun of for being weak, over-sensitive little snowflakes and who think the entire world needs to cater to their personal bigotry.

So big win.


Blackheifer