John knows what he's doing considering he's been ignoring the feedback about the SH and Halsin thing. as I stated in the Halsin thread, this fetish sh*t is what he finds sexy. He completely destroyed Halsin's character the minute who wanted that bear scene in. The last character he created, the red prince from DOS2, had similar elements of SH and Halsin in his romance, instead though, the player was forced to go through with watching and reading the red prince have sex with another character. Any hopes of John removing this from SH, you can forget it, since similarly, people who romanced Red prince hoped that in the definite edition of the game, John would've reworked Red prince's romance. He did not. I'm on my new run of the game, I'll be romancing Astarion instead and will stay away from any future character that John will create in the future of larian
Ye, I figured his "interesting" fetish. But better to try my hardest than just to give up.
Originally Posted by Filia
I've read about John's problematic characters before and I still don't get why Larian is okay with that. I've never really seen anyone criticizing other writers, so there must be something obviously wrong with how John writes his characters - or it's just all the players who are not capable of seeing the genius behind it?
All we can do is to show our disagreement on this. Maybe they will rewrite this. Rewrites can happen. They polished Halsin's SA story so... We don't ask for much rewrite, do we? Just polish Halsin stuff regarding SH/Ast.
Could like civilly try to ask him about it on Twitter. See if he's aware of people's issues with this and if he has any intention whatsoever of changing it.
Also, if Halsin has been written like this to serve as an option to a poly relationship, why would you even come up with negativity towards him (like Astarion does)? It's the Tav who looks dumb in the end. I will never even understand how people are celebrating a Halsin-Astarion poly, especially not if you see how it hurts Astarion. When I saw his line about him being worried if you want to f*ck Halsin just because Tav and Astarion havent had *it* for a while, I really felt how hurt he was.
100% I totally agree! It is really so f*cked up — Astarion in his most vulnerable state.
John knows what he's doing considering he's been ignoring the feedback about the SH and Halsin thing. as I stated in the Halsin thread, this fetish sh*t is what he finds sexy. He completely destroyed Halsin's character the minute who wanted that bear scene in. The last character he created, the red prince from DOS2, had similar elements of SH and Halsin in his romance, instead though, the player was forced to go through with watching and reading the red prince have sex with another character. Any hopes of John removing this from SH, you can forget it, since similarly, people who romanced Red prince hoped that in the definite edition of the game, John would've reworked Red prince's romance. He did not. I'm on my new run of the game, I'll be romancing Astarion instead and will stay away from any future character that John will create in the future of larian
I've read about John's problematic characters before and I still don't get why Larian is okay with that. I've never really seen anyone criticizing other writers, so there must be something obviously wrong with how John writes his characters - or it's just all the players who are not capable of seeing the genius behind it?
Good question. Why is Larian okay with John's problematic writing? And honestly, seems like John himself is problematic if he has a thing about writing this crap. Almost like a projection of himself through his characters.
I will never even understand how people are celebrating a Halsin-Astarion poly, especially not if you see how it hurts Astarion. When I saw his line about him being worried if you want to f*ck Halsin just because Tav and Astarion havent had *it* for a while, I really felt how hurt he was.
Because unlike in all other questionable situations during Astarion's romance, the game doesn't spell it out for you that this was not a good thing to do. And some people just find it hot.
Originally Posted by Filia
or it's just all the players who are not capable of seeing the genius behind it?
No way he's the one who wrote Red Prince. Can anyone provide the proof? I know he wrote for DOS2, but I don't know which character(s) he made.
John wrote Beast, dwarf. And I know he had to rewrite him. Unfortunately I do not know why, I would love to hear the story of this character. As for Red Prince - I think he was written by someone else.
Because unlike in all other questionable situations during Astarion's romance, the game doesn't spell it out for you that this was not a good thing to do. And some people just find it hot.
In all the other scenes when the player initiates a situation with Astarion it ends up going badly for him (he disassociates with the drow twins, and dumps you after Moonrise Towers if you persuade him to drink from Araj/have sex with you). When he initiates something (sex in his final romance scenes) it goes well.
The polymance is initiated by the player (and Halsin) and the conversation with Astarion is uncomfortable to get through. It wouldn't be such a controversial issue if it was an okay choice in the game.
The polymance is initiated by the player (and Halsin) and the conversation with Astarion is uncomfortable to get through. It wouldn't be such a controversial issue if it was an okay choice in the game.
And Astarion never mentions it again so people can pretend it's an okay choice.
And Astarion never mentions it again so people can pretend it's an okay choice.
No LI aknowledges Halsin exists lul, it's handled like a fling for Tav. Epilogue always choses Ast/SH/Lach over Halsin and they pretend he doesn't exist.
SH, Astarion get very jealous if you kiss Halsin in front of them(in the game, not epilogue).
SH, Astarion get very jealous if you kiss Halsin in front of them(in the game, not epilogue).
Sorry, if this is a dumb question, but: Really? A quick yt search was inconclusive. And why does kissing Halsin give companion reactions when they otherwise don't bother? oO
SH, Astarion get very jealous if you kiss Halsin in front of them(in the game, not epilogue).
Sorry, if this is a dumb question, but: Really? A quick yt search was inconclusive. And why does kissing Halsin give companion reactions when they otherwise don't bother? oO
Every companion has reaction to Halsin's kiss for some reason, it doesn't change if you romance both Halsin/someone. Astarion makes a joke about "enjoying the show" and to don't mind him(he clearly looks unhappy though).
It feels like most of the situations with Halsin are situations in which the player is forced into feeling bad or dumb because of the choices you are given. Also the lack of empathy is really concerning. Not sure if this comes from John alone or if he decided on this together with Astarion's writer (who did an amazing job afaik) or if its from the lead writer himself. Either way, Larian did a bad job on this.
Originally Posted by t1mekill3r
Because unlike in all other questionable situations during Astarion's romance, the game doesn't spell it out for you that this was not a good thing to do. And some people just find it hot.
[...]
Healthy relationships are so vanilla.
Yeah I guess one needs to bring a bit more logical thinking into the situation to see that. If I would've been in that position, I would never even have considered spreading my legs for Halsin.
I guess it might be boring for a writer to just write a healthy relationship but if you really write a slowburn romance with small details it can also be very interesting, but if the writer is more interested in kinks and crazy stuff, I see why a healthy relationship could be boring.
Last edited by Filia; 25/12/2308:34 PM.
If you want to answer to any of my posts with just hate, please just don't answer at all.
If you want just to white knight everything and can't accept opinions, please don't even answer me.
Oh my ... so ehm thank you! And how is Minthara doing these days?
When I took my Origin-Astarion to the twins to check if the pc dialogue for poor Gale was as bad as I remembered, he looked appropriately mortified by the whole situation. Didn't make the text any better but it was funny that at least the character model seemed to disapprov of the whole thing. ^^
SH, Astarion get very jealous if you kiss Halsin in front of them(in the game, not epilogue).
Sorry, if this is a dumb question, but: Really? A quick yt search was inconclusive. And why does kissing Halsin give companion reactions when they otherwise don't bother? oO
This is the whole Halsin proposition thing with romanced Ascended Astarion. The kiss happens in the last 30 seconds.
Another problem with the proposition scene is that when you ask Astarion's opinion about Halsin poly you're automatically locked into the romance scene with Halsin and cannot say 'no, I'm not interested after all' to him after getting Astarion's dubious approval. You have to bother going through meeting the druid in the forest to be able to say 'no'. Then in the morning he acts as if you actually banged and you have to break up with him to be rid of his advances.
I guess it might be boring for a writer to just write a healthy relationship but if you really write a slowburn romance with small details it can also be very interesting, but if the writer is more interested in kinks and crazy stuff, I see why a healthy relationship could be boring.
Ye, I was being sarcastic. Some kinks really show in the writing of this game sometimes.
Originally Posted by Anska
When I took my Origin-Astarion to the twins to check if the pc dialogue for poor Gale was as bad as I remembered
Not surprised they didn't give Astarion different (more considerate) dialogue here. But disappointed.
Originally Posted by Ametris
Another problem with the scene is that when you ask Astarion's opinion about Halsin poly you're automatically locked into the romance scene with Halsin
In any other situation in the game you'd be able to say "I'm not actually going to do this" in dialogue with Astarion. But not this one for some reason.
Another problem with the scene is that when you ask Astarion's opinion about Halsin poly you're automatically locked into the romance scene with Halsin and cannot say 'no, I'm not interested after all' to him after getting Astarion's dubious approval. You have to bother going through meeting the druid in the forest to be able to say 'no'. Either way, then in the morning he acts as if you actually banged and you have to break up with him to be rid of his advances.
That's especially dumb because he really doesn't seem to be ok with it - at least that is the feeling I get.
Originally Posted by t1mekill3r
Not surprised they didn't give Astarion different (more considerate) dialogue here. But disappointed.
He can have a conversation with the twins that is unique to him. It will tell you how they both left their home because Sorn was treated so poorly there and a bit about their life. Depending on how the conversation goes that also stops them from making their more overt offer. But you can also have the normal Tav dialog.
