Originally Posted by Ametris
Originally Posted by Elly
Yes, I know. That was what I meant; a lack of options in the epilogue doesn't have to mean the options shouldn't be there or wouldn't make sense.

I think you'd have to ask them to add a lot more content than just changed facial expressions to make the trapped narrative believable. As it is now, I find it flimsy at best.

I agree with you. Tav and Astarion are both happy when they are arriving at the Epilogue, when Tav is talking with the other companions and when approaching Astarion. And they have given a grand Masquerade before. The narrative of the Epilogue shows us a consensual romance.

Originally Posted by Elly
Originally Posted by Mirmi
Originally Posted by Elly
As long as potentially triggering content can be avoided by being locked behind options the player doesn't have to choose, like the OP of this thread requested for the kisses, I don't think the game or its characters need to be censored.

I'm sorry, but how do you a romance locked behind the options? The only option I see is to not start it with that character.

Not the entire romance. Tav's expressions during the kisses could be decided by the options the player chooses. For example, I think it would make sense for any one of these to lead to the original faces:

-"You're starting to scare me..." after ascension.
-"Give in and kneel" after Tav first tried to refuse.
-"Well, I suppose it cannot be undone now" the morning after becoming a vampire.
-"Sorry! I didn't mean it" in the breakup dialogue.

I absolutely disagree with this suggestion. I would have gotten there, because I like to choose 3 of those answers, and I am not into seeing a SA scene. Beside of, that I doubt, this kind of things could be done, it will still lead players to an unexpected scene containing SV (and I think it's not appropiate and storywise for this romance or a mainstream game). I always choose the "no" in the kneeling scene, because I admire Astarion saying "yes" in a playful dominant way. As Melgred mentioned, the ‘Come on, let it hurt’ dialogue (also the Abdirak scene) implies and is a strong evidence that Larian wanted to give players a path to enjoy a kink (AA is a romance which contains D/s dynamics, and UA is a classical romantic romance). Welch, Larians former writer, also stated, it's a kink and with the kneeling scene, where you can agree or disagree or even kick him in the balls (2! breakup options for those, who are not into this type of romance / D/s dynamics) it is clear, that Astarion likes you to kneel. The "turning scene" is a truly and well done scene, which BDSM and kink lovers enjoy. Therefore, I doubt, that this kneeling and playful shove kiss should show any kind of "circle of abuse", but Larian or the animation team unintenonally made it look like a SA scene, which was just not intended and they are correcting it now.

Originally Posted by Elly
I used this scene as an example because it can be potentially triggering in a similar way, even if it isn't to you personally.
If the only options available are sleeping with Haarlep or having to fight him to the death, that's coercion, it affects the player character, not an NPC,
and it's very possible for this to be triggering for someone.
You think the Haarlep scene doesn't need warnings. Other people may think the AA kisses don't. Either way, both of these things are optional and can be avoided. That was what I meant.

If you find the Haarlep scene being inappropiate, you may give your Feedback to Larian. I don't think there's any point in using other scenes that have nothing to do with Astarion here. There is also a torture scene that may be inappropriate, if they would glorify violence. In fact, there are some games that made subsequent changes because they had inappropriate scenes or would have increased their rating. As far as I know, from a hidden coitus to a real life bullying victim's house that someone integrated into a game, which the developer later said he didn't know how THAT thing got there - it was removed and never came back, although there were complaints from several players (even a massive attack on gaming sites, who reported about it) who wanted the bullying victim's house back in the game. And the dicision to remove this reallife house of a victim of bullying was the right decision, there are things that are not appropriate.

And to add: If you find Astarion's act 2 scene inappropiate, also this, you might report and give Feedback to Larian.

"I would, thank God, watch the universe perish without shedding a tear."