Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Astarion romance improvements

Thank you for posting this. I have seen all 3 kisses with a camera tool now, and what I can tell you about it: Tav clenches his fist in every kiss and is never touching Astarion. Except one time, where he wants to grab out for Astarion's arm,who is holding Tav's chin, maybe to stop him, it isn't clear ( in the karlach kiss).
Even in the bite kiss, where it seems Tav could enjoy it, he is not showing it in his body language. (While Astarion push him deeper, because of the bite, Tav refuses) So, I can confirm this is pure sadism without any kind of love (especially shown in Tav)

You can't just unleash such harsh sadism on the players after Kiss patch 5, but at the the same time censor all the sex scenes and make them fluffy - it doesn't go well, lol.

Now that I could finally log back into the forums.....someone posted Dark Urge Diaries New Kisses Free Cam video above this comment. I put my statements under that video if you all want to or care to read them because I will not retype them all over again. The "abusive" look to these kisses is coming from the devs treating Astarion as a "true vampire" master instead of the ascended one that was written & explained up until this patch (6) by parts of the Larian studio. Yet, the animations & a handful of devs (whoever decided this kisses route) have turned it into something quite different without explaining their reasons behind it. They are simply making the game a good vs evil only. There is no gray in the matter (which is the DnD aspect of it EXCEPT for 5e, but you can not ignore that vampires are written about in 2e). But if you know how vampires are and have the books to reference, this whole kiss animation is for a true vampire, not an ascended one as described. It also confirms that the entire Astarion story is written one way and another department sees him differently & does not explain that this is what their plan was. It is left out of the player's hands and takes away choice by the player with their judgment & that is not the reason I chose to play the game. If they wanted Astarion to act like a true vampire, then do not come up with the story of him getting back the appetites of man, the abilities of a spawn such as sex and so forth, if they are going to take all that away & not explain it and confuse their own story (and the rituals they intentionally used for this character). Even in the epilogue, he states he gives Tav power, wealth, and pleasure (well he can't do the last one if he is a true vampire). The story and animations do not match.

Making the face of the TAV scared and sad during kisses, in my opinion, is equivalent to a strong imposition on the part of the developers.

One thing I find odd, is that Ascended Astarion flat out tells Tav he wants to kiss them with his blood on their lips - that he can�t wait. It feels like such an obvious thing to have worked into the new animations. Perhaps we should have gotten Tav biting Astarion�s lip and Astarion just becoming drunk with lust.

That�s how I have always viewed the Tav/Ascendant relationship. It�s presented as decadent, hedonistic, and opportunistic rather than gentle or loving. Again, I actually love the masochist and domineering side of the Ascendent. This is the man who salivates over watching you with the priest of Loviator, so it fits.

I�m just tired of being force fed the abuse/trapped narrative. It�s a valid interpretation but this is role play, it should not be the only story I get to tell, especially when the narrator flat out says �but perhaps you wish to degrade yourself and he knows it�.