@Flooter, thanks for your post! I hadn't looked at the larvae story from that perspective before. But now... Yes, it's made me look at the game in a new way.
Originally Posted by Flooter
Trigger warnings for stuff in BG3
The inciting incident is sexual assault - at least metaphorically. It happens before the player defines anything about their Tav and is the one shared trait between all player characters. Whether or not Larian recognise it, sexual assault is at the thematic core of the BG3 experience.
Never addressing it directly doesn't help, the story will still be interpreted by some players through that thematic lense. When Halsin chides you for skipping content (perhaps because you were subconsciously in fight or flight mode) Larian are saying "survivors of sexual assault should really get over it and enjoy life." When Nettie and others suggest you kill yourself, players with the "sexual assault thematic lense" will read that as Larian saying "survivors of sexual assault should consider killing themselves".
That could be a message for a work of art - one I wouldn't get behind - but the case here is worse, because it doesn't seem to be intentional.
The writing team is particularly proud of an exchange with Astarion where choosing flirty/sexy dialogue options will get him to sleep with Tav once out of a sense of obligation before ending the relationship. All this because the player didn't read Astarion's hesitation between the lines. "This is all a game, to you!" he realizes the morning after.
Eff off, Larian! It's clearly a game to you. You've trained me to ignore my own sorrow after the opening scene and are now punishing me for not being empathetic with a fictional character!
[quote]
I got the same thing, only in the opposite sense - Larian punished me for being “overly” empathetic and sympathetic to a fictional character. I wasn't going to allow the option for Astarion to “remain a spawn forever” and burn in the finale to the taunts of the companions. For that, the game forced me to endure scenes of 3 types of domestic violence as a “Valentine's Day gift”. I can't play it anymore. The worst part is that many other people in our fandom who have experienced SA/DA in real life have relived their traumas because of these trigger scenes. GamePro magazine wrote about it: “Neue Astarion-Küsse in Baldur's Gate 3 wirken verstörend auf Fans und das ist der Grund”. The article has a warning about triggered violent scenes, such a warning is put when content has been peer-reviewed. But in the game there was no warning, the traumatizing scenes were presented as a “gift”. Can this be called “art”?
Originally Posted by ArneBab
They wanted to show a variety of relationship styles, among them ones that turn out badly.
Do you mean this one? Slide from the lecture:
I would probably call this list: “A Practical Guide: How to Make a Player Unhappy in Your Game with Romantic Relationships”.
But I'm very interested in other players' opinions on this. Tell me please, would you like to see such a thing in a romantic relationship with your favorite companion in your game? Would you be interested in this way of developing your romantic relationship? Does this approach to relationships make for a better story? Or would you prefer a classic romantic relationship like we've seen in Pathfinder, Dragon Age, The Witcher, previous Baldur's Gate games, and other good RPG games with the possibility of romance?
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/GR7vYTE.jpg)
