Hi all. I started reading the forum after the release of the 6th patch. I decided to register and express my opinion about what happened. Of course, I also wrote feedback by email and on discord. I hope they hear us.
I use Google Translator, sorry, it took me a long time to compose such a large text.
So. I was really looking forward to the release of the update, and of course the first thing I did was go check out the kisses with AAstarion. I understand the game is not about dating and sex, but this is a large and important component of this game, my desire to look at the love interest is completely justified. And what did I see? Should I say that I was shocked? This is a small part of what I felt. It just didn't make any sense with Tav and AAstarion's behavior earlier. The kisses are incredibly beautiful, and very suitable for Astaran and our character, but not the expression on our character’s face. For what reason does it depict fear and hostility? We ourselves go to kiss, we want this, and our character simply cannot experience fear at this time. What did Larian want to show by this? That Tav suddenly became unhappy with Astarion? For what reason? We were always on the same page with him, always for Astarion, for his dream, we love him as he is, we didn’t want to change him or break him by taking away the ritual. He is grateful for this and loves our character and appreciates, in his own way, but this is so, he says that he has everything, but the only thing missing is us, he says that he will never hurt us, and he really never harmed our character.
So why would Tav look scared? We are aware of Astarion's predilections for torture, for example, and we expect it, and would enjoy it rather than fear. Of course, it was possible to play a character who doesn’t like the "changes" in Astarion, but I never chose this path, I play for Durge - even scarier and worse than Astarion, why should I be afraid of my partner. We have an alliance of two strong partners, where Astarion is in a dominant position. Now it’s as if the opportunity for such role-playing has been taken away. Larion wanted to say that Astarion controls us? But this is impossible, because we have a tadpole in our brain. Or did they want to say that Astarion has become an evil evil, don't go down that path? But why then do you need an affair with such a partner? why make different remarks on: what are we to you? Doing three different versions of the kiss? Throughout the game you can feel each other’s support, but when we kiss, we are suddenly afraid and unhappy. Then it's easier to break off the relationship. But this is simply absurd and makes no sense. We chose AAstarion because he is real, we want a better life for him, not a constant escape into the underground, I think SAstarion is unhappy, he will play along with Tav, he has no choice, we broke him, he will always remember this, his intonation and facial expressions indicate this, but that’s another story, I digress, let’s not talk about it.
AAstarion values ??his partner, and we value him.
After the ritual, his feelings worsened, yes, but he is still the same Astarion who is not indifferent to Tav, he is obsessed with us, and does not want to let us go, but we don’t need this, in the sense that he would let us go, we never spoke to him about this theme. We are together and at the same time, we cannot feel fear.
Another option why we have such an animation is that we wanted to show the "game" of Astarion and Tav, just Astarion’s remarks and his face after the kiss, which changes from serious to satisfied, suggests that it was a game, BUT it is not organized correctly , before this there could be some kind of dialogue leading to Tav portraying fear on his face, and Ast enjoying it, and also at the end of the kisses Tav should show and say that he also likes it and enjoys what is happening. Then everything would have been perfect, but the animators either overdid it with the animation or misunderstood the task, did what they did and did not think about the reaction that would follow from the players. I hope that this is a flaw in this scene, lines and animation, and not that they want to show us how bad Astarion is, and how our character is a victim, because this makes no sense and no one would want to have an affair with an abuser. Astarion is not an abuser, but he is an egoistic owner, cruel and domineering, but he values ??Tav very much, it’s all in the game. It’s a shame both for AAstarion and for our character. Hugs to everyone. I really hope that they listen and read us, and that this misunderstanding will be corrected.