Hard disagree.
If we want disgust faces for one companion, or the option to not consent, then we should have it for all companions.
If Larian wants to give us options on how to feel about one companion, they should give it for all.
Yeah, if it's about rpg and how you can play a character. Maybe my character is afraid of touch. Or I play a half-drow who wants to integrate into the drow culture and find a home, but he's intimidated by all the brutalism, possessiveness that comes from Minthara.
In my opinion these suggestions option destroy more than they create.
Of course, how Astarion will react is another question. If on 1 and 3 he will react with enjoyment\doesn't care Larian can throw the
entire character and story into the nearest Belgian trashcan near the office. 18 charisma, sweet talk reflexion and sex on the grave doesn't fix in personality enjoyment and the impulse to see when his partner is really uncomfortable in intimacy.
>Grimice in disgust. You gave him this power, you don't deserve to be treated like his slave.
With the first option. As can be seen from the original script of the night of turning, when Tav kneels, it was all
about consent and pleasure. If the next morning Tav approaches Astarion and asks for a kiss, the same scene is repeated. No small matter added on Valentine's Day. Then what was associated with pleasure and consent is turned into a negative, associated and attached to it.
Word selection. This dictation that someone is a slave, considers themselves such because of kneeling, this mood that narratively about enjoyment in an intimate atmosphere will be destroyed - the
same damage that was done on February 14. When it comes to quarrels and breakups - it can be understood.
Kissing is not. >Smile longingly, feeling safe in his cold embrace. You want this.
Second option.Lord Astarion is warm. He has a beating heart. So, most likely he's warm.
If that's a metaphor, that's a moral, it's not the way "I can fix him" where the purest tender warm kisses – it feels like it. Which is not true
Astarion on the path of evil kissed tenderly and gently if Tav wanted it. Animated and shown beautifully.
Astarion literally gives the usual tender kiss in the new evil endings.
The rest is personal interpretations.
>Try to hold back your fear for the control he has over you.
Third option. The same claim as with 1. All fear should be solved by pressing “break up”, not by intimating things and linking the conflict to intimacy.
Neutral faces for this character alone - bowand hinting that Tav is uncomfortable during intimacy, emotionally distancing themselves from what's going on and Astarion's 0 reaction afterwards as if everything is fine are also absolutely ruinous.
None of this happened until 14. 02. 2024.I think those who propose these options rather want some kind of
conversation, clarification of something and subsequent conflict, not a kiss.
Especially since it will be a truly one-time event.
I was suggesting a more extended discussion about what happened back last year. After all, we have a tadpole, we can make Astarion eat an astral tadpole, to get inside his head. We can learn a lot more on both paths even if it destroys the trust built.
It was a bad idea to achieve that with a kiss.
A moral dilemma perhaps some might consider not enough in Astarion's journey. The cages with only "good" (deserving of redemption) spawns look pushy and unconvincing.
I always wanted more of the reveal of the moment where Astarion sold people to the vampire clan before.
That way we'd have complex morals, evil and
the player wouldn't be victimized in romance.I would
never want intimate things, romance to be the source of some kind of compulsive morality. This generally
works very poorly with Astarion from Act 1.What can I say: abruptly playing the victim with a character when he was clearly immediately dangerous almost ruins the story. And an image of a character about evil and fun, to companion and play with.
It's been given a very limited number of lines and branches, on the level of how Astarion can be forced in Act 2, it's like writing that he can't break up with Tav that time and
every kiss is uncomfortable for him after being forced.
That didn't happen with Astarion, or Tav with Astarion in the path of evil. Adding that to one of the main romantic interactions has always been
and will be a terrible idea.Larian had an approach to kissing and sex, including with Astarion, so
Tav enjoyed it. As extravagant as it was.
When Astarion towered over Tav there was
no hint that they didn't like what was going on. Although it could have been as you described, after the "yes-no-hit".
There was only the setting: gentle and rough. Which is very telling.
Rather than trying to “improve” an inappropriate idea that contradicts the turn scene, the narrative there, an idea that has already been abandoned, it is better to make such an setting as on the night of the turning.
It will remove possible triggers for people. Won't be annoying with tired morals tied to intimacy (which has already been agreed to). Close to the phrase “ask everything and it will be yours”. Would be close to Larian's original approach in the intimacy scene on this path.
