Characters who are tempted to go the other way - the paths of evil are Minthara and Astarion.
And what fun is the game in that if you romance an evil character there will be a hint of fear from intimate things? There's no such thing. Just like there's no desire to play for good.

“Good Path. Or you know you could potentially get raped and get discomfort in intimacy. We have an option for that, lucky if you're into that, but if you're not then the character won't stop (apparently), you'll be a victim (Evil Path)”.
That's what so call “create chaos, you decide”, that was the official commercial for the summer of 2023, decide if you're a potential vampire abuse victim or not.

Goodness it really wasn't in the game, it was fanon, personal interpretations (like that he won't listen to Tav\Du what they like, even though the intimate scene contradicts that), often ignoring that Spawn is as dangerous, as all of Astarion.
But that's the game.
So priority is given to the power couple, and all angst is limited to 3-4 lines, which lead to a breakup.
In Tav-Freedom line. Astarion pouts that he's not fun to be with and his love wants to destroy the eternal bond, he's trying to get back Tav's consent with gifts and all he's can now, that's all he does.
I criticized this angst line. It's almost impossible, Astarion is immoral all 3 acts, Tav cuddles him. Fanservice to make Astarion hiss and find out his tactics if Tav's eternal bond agreement changes abruptly. Written as a variant where Tav can leave Spawn Astarion, after all they've been through together.

To be clear, I don't mind others scenes where it can discuss, the night, the reaction of all the companions about Tav's vampirism. But putting fear into kissing as an opition, so that the character can enjoy Tav's suffering, well. Zero original idea - the balance of dark and fun, engaging, in the character.

Originally Posted by AnnaMyrk
Yes, that's exactly what I said. And that's why I think the kisses in patch 6 were a mockery of this serious topic. The circumstances under which they appeared in the game (on Valentine's Day), the way they were implemented (the kink demonstration). I was really hoping that Larian didn't mean it that way, and it wasn't a message about the “cycle of abuse”, because that kind of presentation of the topic just belittles the very topic of abuse. The fact that they've now corrected it has convinced me that they didn't mean any such thing. Just served up a collective fanon, but got the target audience wrong

That's right.

Now it's also the official ad for “romance with a vampire”. In patch 6, it can be described the way I did. In the patches before that and on release it is not. That perception that patch 6 brings and that fear of intimacy is a very poor perfomance.

Last edited by LiryFire; 19/08/24 06:24 PM.