This is the third time this thread has been created, and its creators write literally the same thing in each of their posts. The same talking points over and over again, despite having been challenged a thousand times in previous threads, are now right there in the thread header.
I asked myself that too. I actually stay out of discussions that view Astarion's kisses in a romantic way, even if I personally don't like them. I always look at the facial expressions from the perspective of an evil Durge and they were a real storykiller and I always criticized that.
What bothers me here is that Astarion as "Villian" is automatically associated with "badwordwitha". As a Durge you are, by definition, probably a bigger "Villian" than AA ever will be and the Durge also has aspects in his story that in my opinion would not have been needed in his narrative to know who you are facing there. I'm glad that many things from the Dark Urge story that were "badwordwitha" have been removed from the game and hopefully will never appear again.
As Marielle said, Astarion was written as a funny villain and I'm very happy that he has finally returned to that role and will rule the world at my side. To me it's rather offensive that he was ever portrayed this way and I'm glad that this mistake has finally been fixed. I think it was bad enough that Patch 6 had to be discussed for so long in this forum. This forum can be read by everyone and it should be a place where you don't portray many players' favorite character in such a way because it is hurtful to many players and everyone should have fun in this forum.
I couldn't have said this better. I will say what I have been saying here since March.
My main issue with this is the conflation of "villain" with "ab**er". I strongly disagree with that read. And I think it robs the character of their complexity, what makes him so fun, as well as the authors intention. Evil =\= every bad thing ever.
We already know the writer's vision was to create a villain that was "evil via selfishness", and write a villain that was still fun enough to keep at the table. There is no indication that their intent was to write ab*se RP, or victimize the player.
Does this mean I don't think he's a villain? Big bad intimidating evil? No. I do. I think they made him with the DnD vampire model in mind. Possessive, obsessive, dark, controlling, domineering, and power hungry. That's why I love the character. But given what the author *has* said, it leaves me inclined to say that the desire to be ab*sed by AA is best left to the mods. It does not seem to be something the game ever intended, which means that it is HC, and best left to mods to accommodate outside of the game.
The expressions were dead dove. They implied severe things that the new neutral faces do not, such as non-consent, SA, and physical violence. Leaving it in the game still leaves the possibly for people to stumble onto it unwittingly. To me, this is not a question of RP. It is a matter of leaving dead dove content out of a gen audience game, where players do not go into it knowing what they're getting into.
Dead dove is best left to mods. They have omitted such material from the game before. Severe HC such as non-con and implied visual SA should not be in the game. And Larian seemed to agree, given they took it out. Asking for visceral non-con in the game for a niche roleplay for two to three people asking for it is a little over the top. Especially when it's been used to harass fans in a very widespread way for months at a time.
I have already seen more than a few new ways to HC the new kisses for ab*se RP. Many have even said Tav still looks scared, surprised, or like they're faking for Astarion because they're frightened. RP is still possible with these new faces. Patch 6, over the top faces for something niche and extremely triggering is unnecessary. I'm extremely happy with the new faces. And think an option is inconsistent, given no other character has such a thing.
