Thank you to the vast majority of posters here who are contributing thoughtfully and considerately on topics that can be sensitive and in some cases touch on folks' real lives.
I'm just going to give a quick reminder to anyone who needs it that while it's okay to disagree it's not okay to be dismissive, it's not okay to just keep repeating the same points rather than agreeing to disagree, and it is best to avoid making wider statements about sexuality, womens' preferences or sexism and stick to what is directly relevant.
Thanks again, all!
Thanks Red Queen
My original post was a tiny bit tongue-in-cheek but the lack of good aligned options was something I had noticed when I was thinking on the whole bear sex scene. I am also glad this conversation hasn't gone off the rails
Nope. If they are willing to have sex with both genders thst is bisexual. That's the definition. Not even The All Powerful Larian and All Powerful Bioware can change the definition of bisexual. It's a cope they came up with a lame attempt to please everyone when in reality it doesnt please. Gay characters should be gay, hetero characters should be hetero, an gay characters are bi.
All romances in this game are bi sexual. This is factz. Your spin doesnt change this.
Bio knew they screwed up hence why DA3 (a game I dislike otherwise), npcs actually had legit preferences almost like they were 'real' people.
Bottom line, all romanceable npcs in the game are bi sexual. That isn't diversity.
I don't think this would be true in EA as it is now, because we could reason that every playthrough is a different parallel universe, and the companions are only gay or straight in each one (just coincidentally aligning with the player's sexual orientation).
However, in the full game we now know there will be full respecs, presumably including gender. So a companion could be in a romance with two separate genders during one playthrough. So I think you are correct that they are really all bi or pan.
One thing for sure, sales seems to have EXPLODED after Larian Reveals Salacious Romance Scene. Sex sells way better than trying to be faithful to D&D. Nicely played. The game needed at the bear minimum some hard PR push. Still surprised Larian went that far in. And please, lets just not called it "romance" in BG3. Its downright kinky odd porn written by young "adults".
Love the studio in their ability to make great games. Big shout out to the programmers and designers. But not a fan on the content planning design/decision makers and editing staff. These scenes should of been cut out of the game asap. Or made more tasteful/shorter. They need better directing.
Cinematography 101 : With good directing, camera work and writing, a single look and silent moment can be 1000x more powerful than a sultry sex scene.
Yes, sex does sell. Having said that, as someone with over forty years experience playing D&D I wouldn't actually argue that the Astarion/Halsin scene isn't faithful to D&D. Faithful to D&D encompasses a wide variety of different things, and that includes LGBTQ+ content. There's even a way to change a character's gender in the AD&D 1e DMG. It may not be something everyone wants to see in their own personal D&D games or BG3 play-throughs, but it is definitely part of how at least some of the fandom plays the game.
