Player: A beloved slave is still a slave.
Astarion: Oh don't be like that, I'd never want to control you.
Player: After everything you went through with Cazador, you're going to make me a spawn?
Astarion: Oh that was completely different, I'd never hurt you.
You need not fear anything.
I suppose they could have written in the devnotes that it was all a lie so the kisses would make sense. After all, in the case of the lie that he was going to make Tav a true vampire in the future, they didn't fail to emphasize the fact of the lie itself. Although I never realized why he didn't lie about going to transform Tav into an actual vampire? And actually turn Tav into a spawn. Tav would have found out too late anyway. It would have been so villainous, Cazador style. But AA isn't him.
Absolutely right. Thank you very much for quoting from the game. Astarion's words to Tav explain his intentions and show his love for Tav.
Astarion doesn't want to control Tav. Astarion wants to bind Tav to him, so that they can be together forever. Astarion needs that guarantee of loyalty, of togetherness, a guarantee that Tav will never betray or abandon him. And he, in turn, gives Tav that same assurance. He does not use the possibility of control even if Tav decides to become an illithid (by the way, a good opportunity for all those who “want to be free”, illithid ceases to be a vampire and is no longer bound to Astarion). While Astarion himself is strongly against it, but he does nothing to stop Tav and prevent this tragedy, Tav make their own choices. And the person who can't (not because they don't have the capabilities to do so, but clearly for another reason) use master control even in such a critical situation would become controlling for what? For the sake of non-consensual kissing? In a fanfic, anything is possible. In a good game with consistent story writing, it's not.
But, the story doesn't seem to matter, the motives can't be named, and indeed, anyone can make up anything for themselves. If someone wants to fear and hate, they will do so, and will want to have visual evidence of it. I'm against the game having scenes
*** WARNING: sensitive content (may contain a discussion of violence, abuse, SA related to a BG3 scene) this content might not be suitable for all audiences. Trigger warning***
Presents SA content, namely repeated scenes of sexual violence. A sexual action (kissing) is clearly non-consensual, and any non-consensual sexual action is sexual violence. The lack of consent in these scenes is visualized through Tav's facial expressions, you could say “written on their face”.
Because I'd hate for Larian to be faced with having to up-rate the BG3 game from an M (Mature 17+) rating to an AO (Adults Only 18+) rating because of this. The kissing scenes with that Tav's facial expressions in patch 6 match the AO rating with Content Descriptors:
*** WARNING: sensitive content (may contain a discussion of violence, abuse, SA related to a BG3 scene) this content might not be suitable for all audiences. Trigger warning***
Sexual Violence:
Depictions of rape or other violent sexual acts. Note the “other violent sexual acts.”
There are no more scenes in the game that go beyond the M rating. To avoid being accused of spamming, I'll provide a link to my post in the thread where I touched on this topic.
Warnings in the game - necessary or not?But it might be worth elaborating a bit more on what the AO rating is, to clarify the point why a game like BG3 doesn't need it at all.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/b7bSpGx.png)
Most AO-rated games are adult video games, usually with pornographic or sexually explicit content, or games rated because of extreme levels of violence. Self-imposed restrictions imposed by publishers and distributors narrow the availability of AO-rated games, which is why journalists describe the rating as the “kiss of death” and essentially consider it a ban. All three major game console manufacturers (Nintendo , Microsoft , and Sony) prohibit the publication of AO-rated games on their platforms. Steam, the largest distributor of PC games, allows these games on its platform, but hides them by default. Most retailers refuse to sell games, and the popular video game streaming service Twitch prohibits streaming. In light of these regulatory concerns, most AO-rated games have been released for personal computers, and almost all erotic game publishers have abandoned the rating process altogether and sell their games in unregulated markets.
GTA5 received an AO rating after the ESRB review due to complaints from a number of players. For several years Rockstar Games sued (at the time of the trial the game was rated RP (Rating Pending) in order to regain the rating M. They succeeded as a result, but in the game there were no scenes:
*** WARNING: sensitive content (may contain a discussion of violence, abuse, SA related to a BG3 scene) this content might not be suitable for all audiences. Trigger warning***
Repeated video content showing scenes of sexual violence.
The controversial scenes had, according to the ESRB's preliminary conclusion, too high level of violence. What's better for the studio - to simply fix the bug with patch 7 (which they've already actually done, the only thing left to do is wait for the patch to be released) and move on, finishing BG3 and moving on to work on the next game, or to overcome the technical difficulties associated with Open Flag (which will lead to new bugs and issues that will probably require new testing and feedback, patch 8, etc.) for the sake of then facing an ESRB review and the associated need for a rating change?
Larian are of course well aware of the rating system themselves, the 6 patch was a mistake and oversight that they will fix. I've seen the new evil endings, I know they can't be discussed, I'll just say I watched all those scenes several times with close attention. In my certainly unprofessional opinion, given all the information I've been able to gather on the subject of game ratings over time, in terms of showing violent scenes (evil endings are required to contain violent scenes), there is nothing in these endings that could in any way go beyond the M rating. And while there are scenes where showing violence would have been appropriate and probably appealed to the large number of players who choose evil endings, Larian was nonetheless able to create the right emotional feeling while staying within the rating limits by not showing intense and prolonged or overly naturalistic scenes of violence.
