Originally Posted by LiryFire
Originally Posted by Gunsumber
They could simply add two choices :

1. Kiss me roughly (the choking)

2. Kiss me gently (none choking)

Hopefully Larian will consider this in a future patch.

I support that.


I am most outraged by Tav face and that it is OOC Astarion, as there are hints of domination, hints of power game, brutal, but it is not given attention in the quest, research.
Astarion is inspired by libertinism (Marquis de Sade among them) so maybe he has that trait. Man tells how he'll kill Tav if they start turning into MF - smiling. I had envisioned different options, knife, strangulation, immobilization, blood.
But to reveal them like this... It's better to do nothing.

It's done, fix face, Tav face during this - I can hardly believe that no one had the slightest thought of making that face appropriate to those who like Dark Romances.

Opinions from twitter and reddit - on what the story AA should be, why it's "bad", contradict common sense - contradict the idea of the Dark Romance. Contradicts the feelings, experiences, thoughts of the people who choose and explore this ending. They probably treat it differently than those who don't like it in the first place.

I know plenty of stories where everything was romanticized. For the purpose of romanticizing. It was clear as day. Thank you, Japan.

It's got to be all very carefully and smarter for a person in need of a dark romance. A mature, adult person.
Larian could have written Astarion's romance this way, however he only shows his gentle side in the romance. And I don't know if they planned to write a dark one. Considering Lord Astarion is still himself…
The animation literally doesn't match his words that Ascended Astarion utters after the kiss. They favor a gentler dynamic.

Well analyzing it from a story perspective is ridiculous right now.
It's literally done so that the player for fun everywhere could watch the knee animation. Based on that, yes respectful fanservice is when there is a choice - softly – roughly.

Thank you!!

And yes I agree, the facial expressions are everything, she looks so damn scared and humiliated, this is not bdsm it's abusiveness and violence, I've tried both like I've mentioned. If you've noticed he also slaps her face and then she looks really sad and scared and he does this in public, this is exactly what a violent abusive man would do, not a bdsm or a dark fantasy person. I remember my ex who used to embarrasse me in public similar to that and I would stay silent just because I didn't want it to get even bigger out of humiliation, that look on Tav face is exactly the look I used to get and feel. Who ever thought it was a good idea with these new animations was clearly drunk or on drugs that day or perhaps an abusive person themselves. And no one in their right minds starts to kneel for a kiss like that in public then afterwards is okay to get slapped, so damn ridiculous.