Zayir, you mentioned Dark Urge Diaries somewhere. She's improved the scene with the free camera tool. This is so much better! No ridiculous faces from Tav.
Strangely, Astarion doesn't seem so dismissive here either. There's no sense of him despising Tav, which I had when going through the scenes in the game. That was basically the worst part of those scenes for me - his contempt. Was it just Tav's face that changed? Or just the overall perception changed because of it? It looks completely different in this version.
Originally Posted by Veranis
Seriously? This is just ridiculous. Who are they trying to punish here?
It feels like it's us, the players. As if Astarion's beautiful story suddenly fell into the hands of the author of cheap women's magazines that teach "how to build healthy relationships". And how it is impossible to love a "bad guy", it is necessary to "correct" him, "break his fangs", in no case dare to love a man as he is, do not dare to help him, do not dare to put his happiness and the happiness of your couple above someone's ideas of "goodness and self-sacrifice". You won't like pure sadism. Even those who like it will be clearly shown that NO, Tav suffers and fears - they said, don't like it, then don't like it. Everyone listen to the "smart uncles" and urgently start breaking and "fixing" Astarion! At the same time, the developers don't have to fix the "burning ending" of Spawn, let's just scare everyone with how bad the Ascended Astarion is. As if in answer to the question: "Why is your 'good way' so bad, and the 'evil' way so beautiful and wonderful?".
Originally Posted by DarkAngelBeckons
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. But please read what I wrote under the video that is presented by Dark Urge Diaries on YT & you will see where I am coming from & how it is following a different path than the decision of the abusive kisses that came out of nowhere, in MY opinion. Thanks. Since the damn site is overloaded, I won't be responding to this probably for a day or two or ever, depending on how overwhelmed their site is during certain times of the day. To me, this is a cheap out Larian without proper communication. Not a good look. Thank you for your time.
It completely breaks the story of Astarion and Tav. I also got the feeling when replaying these scenes that:
1) This is NOT Astarion. Astarion would never be sadistic towards Tav. It's a cheap image created to justify Tav's manipulative line of talking Astarion out of the ritual. Saying that if you don't tell him, "Don't be like Cazador," he'll instantly turn into Cazador. Might work for the "unsophisticated player" who doesn't know much about the plot and Astarion's character.
2) This also skews the story of Astarion and Tav as a couple. It looks as if some Vampire Lord picked up Tav somewhere in a dumpster, made them spawn and is having fun. And Tav's body language is totally appropriate in that case. But that's not the case. If another department did it, did they even read the actual script?
There is also information about the Ascension ritual in the lore of DnD. Ascension does not change a person's personality or character in any way. A true vampire is one who was raised that way, usually by the one who turned him (like Veliot made Cazador a true vampire). Vampirism itself doesn't change personality, and the Ascension ritual doesn't change personality, it's the conditions and environment that change personality. All that changed for Astarion was that he became truly free, he became empowered. But where could he possibly have contempt for Tav? There's no explanation for that. Just as there is no explanation for why Tav suddenly dislikes and fears Astarion out of the blue. The same Tav who (in my case) went through the scene with Abdirak through Intimidation to show off in front of Astarion and not show herself weak in front of him after their first night.
