Originally Posted by Rotsen
Originally Posted by Silver/
That's a somewhat strange thing to say considering how Astarion reacts if you're emotionally interested in other people. He's not happy at all. He's extremely insecure and *also* sexually traumatised.

I don't think there were fetishes involved. I just get the impression that whoever did Halsin desperately needed a sensitivity reader. Best case, the writer wasn't aware how much ended on the cutting room floor.

As someone who knows people extremely horny about vampires, I don't think that's the deal with Astarion, either. First red flag: no mention of the fangs for way too long. No real vampire enthusiast can shut up this long about the fangs. Second, the blood drinking is described as painful and not pleasurable. If you are aware of the historical and psychological nuances, this is a no-go. Third, the framing of the whole ascension situation is too tragic. It as an actual tragic framework, not "sad". I sense an imposter. This person is as horny about vampires as stale bread.

Astarion is exactly why I only trust people with a fetish for vampires to get vampires right. Otherwise, you're going get a story where somebody happens to be a vampire and it's a bad thing! Imagine that! You're not supposed to be thinking for one minute: this character would be so much cooler, if only they weren't thirsty for my blood! If this game were less weird and more horny, there'd be fewer plot holes, less manipulation and more happy endings.

You don't get the best out of Astarion unless you play a good Durge. Halsin is as good as terminally bugged, with the last "romance scenes" being conceived explicitly for when NO romance flags were triggered. SH, I won't ever complain about SH. She and Lae'Zel were clearly Larian's favourites and I'm salty.

I see things differently so I think you and I would disagree. You say more horniness would've been better but to me that said horniness is what's making these character worse. For all of Larians posturing about the game being 'mature' and having intimacy professionals the games writing and its romances just come of as someone's poorly written fan fiction.

I don't think its strange to say that the game treats Astarion and his trauma poorly. Like you said he's been used and abused for hundreds of years by Cazador so his willingness to share is not really there. He is still insecure and doesn't want to get hurt. The whole idea of sharing and opening the relationship leans into that without a version of him saying no. The whole thing is being treated as a funny thing because Astarion is 'cute when he squirms/is uncomfortable' (same as his ending where it turns into a ha ha he's burning in the sun)

Karlach has the same problem. If you decide to sleep with Mizora she goes ballistic. She cries her heart out but if you just say sorry all is forgiven and forgotten. You'd think this character would break up on the spot for betraying her in such a way.

Shadowheart has it the worst in this regard. Throughout her entire story she is adamant that she's against sharing/opening the relationship/polyamory, she straight up says on multiple occasions with multiple companions (if you try it) that she doesn't want to be your spare lover and that she doesn't want to be shared and play a second fiddle to someone. (she is even sad if you pursue someone else at the same time and thinks its over between the two of you) And yet if you go out of your way to visit the drow twins that suddenly changes. She flirts with Halsin during that scene while ignoring the MC. Same thing happens with Mizora.

It feels as if Halsin was the writers pet in this case and for his character other already established character and their stances should change.

And finally Halsin, I already made my stance on his released game version. The depth and the development is not there and if it was there it's gone now. His main defining trait is that he's a sex pest which is rather disappointing.

So yeah I can say that the writing when it comes to Halsins/Shadows writer feels like a poorly disguised fetish because one of his characters is a meme that focuses on zoophilia (ha ha sex with bears) and the other is a out of character behavior for the sake of a poly relationship.

There are promiscuous/poly/hook up etc. companions in RPGs that I like but this one just isn't it. Everything in this game just has this weird feeling about it the deeper you get into it.

But maybe its just me, maybe my idea of having the typical fantasy story where your character saves the day and ends up with their partner without some twist is not meant to happen in this game.

Either way I think the derailment of this thread has gone long enough. I tried to stick to just voicing my issues with Halsin and the needed improvement to his story but the irritation (if you can call it that) with the rest of the writing got the better of me.
I don't disagree that the game gives people too many opportunities to be sexual to not harm the story telling. Mainly because of the time and place. I would not necessarily personally equate that to being sexualised nor horny.

E.g. vampires -- prime example. Can be incredibly horny, but not explicit. Some would even argue that is the *point* of vampires. During a time when lesbian relationships were taboo, you found extremely horny yet innocuous vampire stories -- exclusively featuring women. With vampires, you find the least expected being sexualised. It's a horniness that transcends the flesh.

You can also be extremely and weirdly horny about the dumbest vanilla shit. Even write the least horny sex scenes imagineable. I would enquate "not horny" to "unethusiastic about the subject", yet in Larian's case "mixing it with sex all the time". Arguably, your gripe with SH is an example of that. Larian does not believe in anything other than spiciness. The "spicier, the hotter" is a poor philosophy and probably why you assume this is the author's poorly disguised kink... and I the author's poor attempt at writing what they *perceived to be* kink. Because they were not sufficiently enthusiastic. Not about SH's rather default romance, not Astarion's hangups, nor even Halsin being consistently anything. It's an exercise in wanting too much and offering too little, in losing your identity.