I don't understand how the devs screwed this up so bad.
They screwed up because they confused SM with sadism and used the techniques, facial expressions and body language of the victim from the sadistic 3D content. I wrote about this a bit earlier in the thread, for example, if you take a screenshot of Tav's face and a screenshot of the victim's face from sadistic content, you won't see the difference. That's exactly what sadism is, not BDSM. Why they did it that way may be out of ignorance, but for all intents and purposes we have sadistic content in the game now, not SM content.
I saw your comments and while I do agree with you and I respect you for looking into that stuff, they're also part of why I felt the need to clarify that what's in the game shouldn't be compared to SM because it's not trying to be SM to begin with, it's D/s done wrong. Yes, the expressions and body language might be more reminiscent of noncon fantasies and sadistic 3D content and such, but that doesn't mean it's got anything to do with SM. Saying that the devs confused sadomasochism with actual sadism is not helpful because what's in the game is not SM, it's your basic dominant/submissive dynamic that can exist without any SM elements because SM is not a requirement in D/s dynamics.
To be clear I don't disagree with you on anything but your usage of SM. Like I said in my initial post, SM in BDSM is about pleasure through pain. It's not about kneeling for a kiss or grabbing someone's face, so calling what's being shown "sadistic content, not SM content" is not correct because where is it trying to be SM to begin with? Even if both parties were happy in the scene it would not be SM. That's why I wrote a clarification on the terms and explained that it's D/s done wrong, not SM done wrong. SM doesn't even begin to factor into what's being shown. It could be SM if Astarion pulled out a whip and started spanking Tav, but as it stands it's just your basic D/s done very very badly.
I will reiterate that I agree with you. It's willfully ignorant at best and actual "I want my sub to suffer for real" misinterpretation of D/s at worst (a thing that is not allowed in BDSM), but it's not trying to be SM, and the distinction is important even if it might not seem like it. I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything but the terms used in the BDSM community exist for a reason, and using the correct ones will hopefully get the devs at Larian to look up the right terms for their research at least, and if they want dominant Astarion and submissive Tav, they need to look at D/s stuff, not SM stuff. Unless they want to add a scene of Astarion spanking Tav in which case they could look up SM, or just D/s punishments.
As it stands the only actual SM in the game is Abdirak beating you with a maze, and he's actually a pretty good dom with his encouragements and praise so how Larian fucked up a much simpler D/s dynamic where kneeling (which is like the starting position of a D/s scene) is as far as it goes is beyond me.
Also just so this post thread doesn't get clogged with things that aren't about the content in the game I'm not going to start engaging further on matter of the correct terminology (unless someone wants me to explain things or clarify myself etc. of course, I like sharing my knowledge) so if you want to keep comparing it to SM and saying the devs confused SM with actual sadism when it would be far more accurate to say they confused D/s with actual sadism you do you, I'm not gonna stop you, I'm not gonna correct you again, I'm satisfied knowing I have tried to educate you (and everyone in general) on the terms and their meanings. What you (and everyone else) do with it is your business.
