Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback I dream of smiling at my beloved (a request for a happy face for Tav in Ascended Astarion's kisses).

There's no better way to explain it than you just did.

These kisses are a continuation of the scene of Tav's transformation into a spawn. In that scene, you have the option of refusing to sit on your knees if you find such treatment humiliating and unacceptable. There's nothing new in what he's doing. In all the previous scenes when Astarion bit Tav, for example, Tav had satisfied faces, as in the new kisses. In the bed scene, AA was biting Tav, and Tav was satisfied. Bites are definitely painful, but since it was an intimate scene, no one resented Tav enjoying the pain. So why should it be any different in a kiss? Even the bed scene with Astarion in Act 1 was exactly the same. By changing the faces to happy ones, Larian is just making his narrative more consistent.

When I kneeled in the spawn transformation scene, I only did it because I chose to kneel myself, and in the kiss, my character does it because he's afraid. In the transformation scene, I chose the dialog "Oh, come on. Let it hurt," to have Astarion grab Tav by the neck, and during the kiss.... Is Tav afraid of that? In the dev notes it says AA and Tav are both enjoying it. Tav wasn't scared and resentful, and AA didn't revel in Tav's fear. Tav had a choice. That was the case until patch 6, because expressing fear definitely carries a context of sadism and violence. And it's not something you can get over when you've been dealing with a different narrative for six months. He doesn't force you to get on your knees in front of him by intimidating you. He does it playfully, he seduces, but in no way intimidates Tav. In the scene of transformation into a spawn, Tav sits on his knees not because of fear. This is a scene of seduction, not coercion. Tav also has the option to decline if the player finds it humiliating and offensive. Tav can refuse and face no consequences, AA will do nothing.

If the player agrees to kneel, then they are agreeing to that relationship dynamic.

Based on the whole context, these kisses can only have a voluntary dynamic. Otherwise, you should just give up your relationship with AA.

After ascension you have the option to break up with AA during the dialog at night, there is an option to break up in the transformation scene. In the spawn route there is no opportunity to break up in the graveyard scene, for example. I think the game gives you plenty of chances to leave AA.