Thank you, Marielle, for making the effort, it must have been difficult for you.. These faces look frighteningly similar, and the blank, glassy eyes, which are a sign that someone is now under control during the "mind control" in the animations of sadistic porns for men, are also strikingly similar, also in the "bite kiss" (see pictures below from Astarion Tav). The faces of the victims of sexual abuse look frightened in these animations, terrified, which is exactly what excites people with sadistic personality disorders. Normal people may find these extreme expressions of fear of their Tavs oppressive.
This game now fosters tolerance for sadism. Yes, and before such things were available, but only to those who specifically sought such content, now - it gets in the face of everyone who had the misfortune to believe in some magical world, with a realistic and deep story, some special, inexpressible, unprecedented before in any game "healing" love. Aside from the ruined "dark romance" with completely killed narrative logic, I wonder if the Larians even thought about how many players ascended Astarion not "for evil"? Or in their cardboard-template thinking, is the variant of Spawn - a broken, Tav-adjusted human with a "burning ending" - such a wonderful "good," "bittersweet" (I used to get sick of that wordplay even earlier)? I honestly, just wish I could look into the eyes of the man who came up with this and ask him who he hates more, Astarion or us? The ones who dared to love Astarion? And bought their game (without any warning that suddenly, I emphasize, suddenly, 6 months after release, there will be sadistic content in it), bought all kinds of Astarion t-shirts in their store, souvenirs, etc. Yes, it's our Tav's facial expressions that the sadists like. Do the Larian animators like it too? At the very least, at this point, it's safe to say that those who are excited about this, "AA has always been like this", "the developers decided this, and the PCs have your role", really like it. We are being victimized for our own money, made a "minority" that can and should be disadvantaged, "in the name of goodness and morality in gaming". In the game. Traumatize real people for allowing 7000 spawns to be killed in the game. I don't know what Larian and Astarion will do next, I really hope that other game studios whose games I'll be buying see this and realize how despicable it is and don't do something like this in their games EVER. For some reason, other studios that make choice-based RPGs give their players both the "path of good" without "burning endings" and the "path of evil" without violence and abuse.
These pictures of Astarion I will keep because they are quite symbolic. Larian has broken Astarion, they are now cutting him in half, creating two cardboard images - the burning sufferer and the "true vampire" - the sadist. By the way, when playing with AA now it seems as if one is communicating with a mentally ill person, with split personality or bipolar disorder, the only difference is that such patients in reality usually have personality changes for some periods, while here - only in specific one-time moments, with a trigger for "kissing". I'd gladly give it all up and trash this game if I wasn't hurting for him.
Originally Posted by Gunsumber
I couldn't agree more with this. I'm also into the whole dark romance thing and I loved what they did with Astarion, so much that I couldn't get myself to romance anyone else in the game but with this new patch, as I've expressed so many times, I almost can't stand to look at him anymore, I hate his character. It is not the Astarion we had and knew, why change him now 6 months after release? Also I've been saying that it doesn't trigger me the way he now behaves but perhaps that isn't true... I think I do get triggered, as a victim of severe abuse and possession it does trigger me I think, they made Astarion into everything I hate and despise. I really liked his character, he was that perfect dark with a touch of evil but he wasn't abusive and he would never hurt my Tav, now I see him as he could hurt her no matter what and whenever he pleases, she is dead scared of him doing so and it shows in those new scenes.
I really sympathize with you. I too was really triggered by those scenes, I even fixated on them and couldn't stop. And I too felt like my Tav was going to die, though not physically, but emotionally. Only instead of fear, there would be the pain of rejection and broken "love-acceptance" on her face. It was a story about fully accepting each other, completely, for who they are. Just as Tav was accepting of the real Astarion, helping him to open up and be himself, Astarion was deeply attached to Tav, and he never, not once, hurts Tav in the story. It's just that the hurt is then replaced with anger. This smells like lousy propaganda, when a propagandist makes a "fake video" for the purpose of inciting hatred against someone. Yes, developers, can't make a "fake video", everything they do is considered true, they are masters of their world. But given the complete, utter incongruity of this sadistic content with the game's story, with Astarion's character, with Astarion and Tav's relationship, it still smells like lousy propaganda.
Originally Posted by Gunsumber
I posted just shortly on Facebook about how I thought these scenes looked abusive and quickly a bunch of guys jumped my throat to defend them saying I should get off my high horse cause Astarion was always evil and bla bla bla, of course they will defend it, they get to live out their fantasies now about strangling and abusing their sexdolls!!
Yes, sadistic content attracts sadists of all stripes. Now Larian will certainly boost sales at the expense of this particular category of "players".
Originally Posted by LiryFire
I don't think guys have any intention of fantasies. "Evil cannot love tenderly" - I think this their point. Big misconception, and flat.Their "high horse" point doesn't make sense as long as they kiss Mintara with a satisfied face. And to the drow, men are literally "things".
By the way, an interesting point - heterosexual male player can do any evil he wants in this game, romance with pleasure anyone, there are still all sorts of Misors and brothels, a complete break. No "punishments" or "morals". Only a heterosexual woman or homosexual man can be a victim of violence. When I started playing BG3, I liked that the developers thought about female audience - beautiful romances (until patch 6 were), possibility to choose strong female body for realistic warrior roleplay, etc. Now it just scares me - in what way are they thinking about the female audience? What is in the heads of those people who make such animations for our Tavs?
Originally Posted by LiryFire
Yeah, that's so true, AA fans have a big cartload of trauma and just general shit in their lives too.
And such people are more likely to understand and love Astarion. If the person who came up with this sadistic content hasn't thought about it, then he's extremely stupid. And if he did, then it's a different question of who he is....
Originally Posted by AkaiMikadzuki
But now, I'll just wait for them to finish this game, make one last run and if they don't change this course, I don't think I'll buy any more games from them.
It's also a shame that the player is the most unprotected consumer. If you don't like it, drop it, don't buy it... It goes without saying that you should avoid a studio that allows sadistic content in its game and inflicts emotional trauma on its own players. But how many hours of our lives have we given to that? If you sign up for a pre-made food delivery service, say for a month, and one day you get something delivered that makes you throw up, you can deal with the provider of that food, no one is going to tell you they're right and cook it the way they want. And if they do something to you in the game that makes you sick, it's your own fault, the developers just see it that way. They see their players as victims.
Hugs to everyone who was upset by this patch. We have the right to talk about it, and we have the right to be heard.
