By the way, the story is perceived completely differently if you play as a given character than if you play as a sort of “yourself”. The only way I can imagine where there could be some cruelty in a romance is if you imagine a story with a kidnapping or captivity, and that should be the beginning of a story that then develops. For example, if the already self ascended “Astarion”, who had no help from anyone, who achieved everything on his own, killed everyone who got in his way etc, lonely and evil, picks up Tav, dying after some fight, and makes a spawn. At first there might be conflict and attempts at “enslavement”, then Tav might find some information about their captor, get to know him more, learn his plight, there might be some dialogs between them. Help him in an emergency, causing the same surprise as with “Really?” in Act 2, then gradual bonding and romance. For example. But I truly want to see that story as you described, it really is the best love story ever, and to live together in eternal love. How could such a beautiful story be ruined, why? In order to “show abusive behavior” instead of such a touching and heartfelt story?
Right, like The beauty and the Beast story. That is true, but abusive behavior in such a romance story is often very light and stops completely when the captor realizes their love for whom they have taken. And I think it needs to be light in order to be believable. In a game you would need to make the player also sympathise with the captor for them to develop the romance. Abusive behaviour like in the recent patch 6, pushed players to leave the romance. To make players stay you would make them believe in the romance as much as a character would. And I'm not wanting that kind of story for this romance either, my headcannon is a dark romance.
Originally Posted by Zayir
but it's not the same as an RPG. The choices in game novels are also limited and mostly tend to lead to who with whom. But, well, to be honest. The best dark romances are in our heads. No one can write stories as well as my imagination. Thank you brain. You complete my gaming experience.
