Originally Posted by fylimar
Marielle : exactly, that was, what I meant smile
And Hope will appear near the pool, before you see Haarlep and get into the conversation with him.

I have a lot of playthroughs and tend to do things differently every time - according to the classical "What would my character do?" ( Old DnD player here)

Yeah, I understood that and I saw that dialog. It's just that there are other lines in there that close it out. After that, it seemed more appropriate for me to immediately respond with “To kill you” in response to his “Why are you here, little thief?” On the first playthrough, you'll probably want to do the dialog anyway, as you would with any character you meet in the game, so as not to shortcut your story, but when it's already clear what's up with him, you can just kill him right away. I can play different ways, but within certain limits, there are things I would never do, and I won't be able to roleplay a character that would want to do that. Just like in DnD I won't go into LG or LE alignment because I'll get nonsense. But there are times in dialogs, like this dialog with Hope, when there are several questions that could be asked regardless of the alignment, but the game only lets you ask one thing as a result, and so you're missing something anyway.

Originally Posted by Elly
It feels a little uncomfortable that this is the assumption repeatedly being made here about everyone who didn't see the romance path as BDSM.
The user you're talking to, for example, has said in another thread that the happy expressions are triggering for them, because Tav's new reactions feel like the game signals to them that something they see as abusive behavior should be reacted to in a playful way. (And was told in response that their trigger doesn't exist and they must not know what PTSD even is, so I'm not surprised they didn't want to bring it up again.)

Not about everyone, but only about those who themselves state that they want to play this way, and that it's their roleplay. Well, if that's what such a roleplay is called, it's a bit strange to me what's the big deal, and why not call things by their proper names. Those who don't see their romance path as D/s want a variant of the classic kiss for the “Gently” choice, and they've talked about that too. The way the kiss animations are currently presented in the game - it can either be D/s (happy faces) or dead dove (scared and suffering faces). It can't look any other way, you need other animations to make it look different.

And why play what a person considers abusive behavior? And does the victim facial expression on Tav's face make it any less abusive? In my opinion, just with the patch 6 facial expressions, kissing would be abusive because you can see how Tav feels bad, scared, and how they don't want it.

But I don't want to somehow criticize a genre I don't play myself. I had a strong heavy emotional reaction to path of the Spawn, I just gave up on it, rebooted, and Ascended Astarion. Also the path of the Spawn can cause unpleasant emotions in those who, for example, were in a similar relationship and for whatever reason had to adjust to their partner, try to “be good”, wear masks and “grow above themselves”. One can see it in Astarion and it will cause their own trigger. I didn't tell anyone that their personal trigger didn't exist, I was talking about the need for warnings in those trigger scenes that are recognized as triggers by the game's rating rules and can cause a large number of people to react. There is hardly any way to avoid triggering any of your own, personal triggers in the game, unless you learn about those moments in the game ahead of time, and try to avoid getting into those scenes.

If I wanted to experience tragedy in the game, I would certainly choose the option to forgo the ritual, but should I have asked for a sad face for my Tav in that case? Should I have therefore asked for an additional dialogue option for Tav, who, after Astarion's words that he would never see the sun, realized what she had done and would feel that she had made a terrible mistake? If I wanted to play it that way, Tav's reactions would also break my roleplay. And the option of not being able to control her own actions and reactions along the way is there too - some higher power prevents Tav from looking for a way to heal Astarion, and makes her instead “joyfully” adventuring and doing other things, and in the finale, when Astarion is on fire, Tav can't even run after him - it's a complete inability to control her actions.

Originally Posted by Elly
So if Tav smiles during Haarlep's scene, would that mean what Haarlep does is not wrong anymore?

With Haarlep there are different options for roleplaying, as I've already written, you can just kill him straight away if you hear Hope's story, sympathize with her, and that's it. For someone who just wanted to have fun with the incubus, won his game and passed the checks, the smiling option would probably be fine. Haarlep's actions are quite reflective of what he is - he's an incubus, he does what incubi can do. How the player wants to perceive Haarlep's actions is up to the player.

Last edited by Marielle; 17/08/24 11:43 PM.
One life, one love - until the world falls down.