Do you mean that this spiked horror crawling into my eye socket is metaphorical sexual assault?
Here’s how the metaphore works to me. Tav is kidnapped, restrained and has reproductive DNA forcefully insterted into them.
Thank you for your openness.
I see how after looking at it this way that interpretation can stick. This is how Illithid reproduce after all.
To be more honest than perhaps I should, I’m not a survivor of sexual assault either, but someone close to me is. Though I’ve never asked for details, I used to wonder about them often and must’ve drawn a subconscious picture not unlike the opening sequence.
Originally Posted by Flooter
Originally Posted by ArneBab
Do you see a way to get a parasite that would both be similarly horrific and be something you would not see as metaphorical sexual abuse?
Good question! Real parasites find their way into their hosts in a myriad interesting ways, none of which involve kidnapping or physical restraints.
Most parasites are opportunistic (i think-it’s getting late and i aint looking this stuff up) and wait for their prey to get close enough. It’s easier in water; on land you usually need trees or tall grass to drop from. Some will find ways to manipulate their host into perpetuating the cycle, like making it vulnerable to particular predators.
For most of these, infection is barely noticeable. Because that’s the point: don’t get spotted until it’s too late to get rid of the parasite.
Similarly horrifying parasites that would fit are parasitoid wasps. But those are even worse if you look at them through the lens of “something inserted”.
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None of these are perfect, but I wouldn’t have Larian change the opening anyway. It’s affecting, if nothing else. If they want to go after these themes in an M rated game, they should go for it!
Same here. It causes a visceral reaction which shows from the start that Illithid are evil. Evil to boot.
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But they’re not going for it. As the youtube presentation shows, they’re going for sections of fandom. The presentation is about elevating the “tokenistic pandering” of usual romance systems to pandering on a “watershed” level. The way to do that is to engage with fanfiction and the reason to do that is to generate passionate fans.
The romance writing as described could be inserted into any game. If its qualities don’t include “meshes well with the rest of the experience”, I’m not as ready to call BG3 “art” as Larian seem to be.
It’s not *just* to engage with fanfiction. Only the bear scene is just that.
And they actually go for dark themes, so I don’t think many other games could have inserted that.
(this now becomes maximized SPOILER, so I add a second tag)
- Astarion is a sexual and domestic abuse survivor who was forced to lure others in. - Shadowheart has been raised in a cult and taught to treat attachment as a weakness and sex as just an action like others. - Gale has been the consort of a goddess and was dropped and punished, because he aspired to be her equal and caused damage that way. - Lae’zel was raised in a warrior culture where the strong take what they want and the weak are killed. - Wyll formed a bond of servitude with a devil to save his city and got cast out from his family and city by his father for that. - Karlach was sold into demonic war-slavery by the one she adored and got experimented on to build the subservient steel watch. - Minthara: I don’t know enough about Minthara, but from what I’ve seen, slavery is a big part of her culture. I killed her at first sight and only learned later that she could join. - Halsin is pretty much the 40 year old who always focused on his all-important work and now realizes that he’s too late. With all the desperation that causes.
I don’t think MInsc and Jaheira are up for romance. Though Jaheira could have been interesting for the mentor-mentee love relationship (similar to how the french president married his teacher).
Besides Halsin, these are all pretty dark themes which would be out of place in a game that does not start with such a dark opening.
