Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Poll.Which option of facial expression do you want to leave in kisses with Ascended Astarion

this is exactly why my BF had to leave the forum. when patch 6 came out she finally felt seen, then discussions began and she was harshly bullied off that thread for sharing her story and why it was important to have the patch 6 expressions, incredibly nasty comments in the thread and via PM that she cried for days, and couldnt even play anymore. just think about that, a survivor shares their story because it was pretty much exactly what happened to her (minus him being a vampire obviously), and she was bullied for it because others saw it as some kink. she was better but with patch 7 it all came crumbling down again. i dont understand, the internatal monologue is a good solution. nobody is taking away happy tav

And AGAIN



I would also remind people that it is against forum rules to incite conversation around previous infighting and drama. Please let's not derail this thread by doing so. It will just lead to you getting warned, potentially suspended and possibly the thread getting locked.

Corrected the text. Thanks for the hint, I didn't even notice that the option was enabled about the fact that it is necessary to vote. Now I can't fix it. But it's sad that there are arguments again. When it becomes unbearable, you will have to close the topic.

can you maybe post the same poll on reddit as well?

Anyone who wants can make their own polls on reddit. I decided to make this poll here and that's it. You can vote or ignore, but don't fight, please.

Just for the record, Ascended Only Fangs has gone private. Guess why?

Meanwhile, the majority:

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxgAM6_hYvUkYBplcBTV9NhUVYyQlH186e?si=qD6im-79tvnuXhNs

I would just like to point out that "I played the AA route and enjoyed it" does not have to mean someone didn't play it as a tragedy. "Yes, and I regret it" just means someone ascended him and afterwards, as a player, wished that they hadn't. You can see a story as a tragedy and still not regret having experienced it. "I enjoyed it" just means someone played it and for whatever reason enjoyed that gaming experience. I don't really think that says anything about how those players would feel about optional expressions.


Apologies, I missed this warning before I wrote my reply.

That poll has the same issue this one has (no offence intended illeaillas) in that you can only see the results if you click - and I doubt my "ascending and going straight to the brain without long resting" approach counts in either. But guys, how do you wreck up two pages in four hours in a thread that specifically asks you not to fight?

It already happened the night of turn, Tav can punch Astarion in the balls when the dynamic doesn't suit them.

Doing that moment again is pointless and triggering.
The character consented, enjoyed it - to call that into question by adding those options to the kisses is a bad idea and will destroy night scene.
Especially when the story of adding this is literally February 14, look, we've got a little option for you for discomfort that wasn't there before in the kiss, cOoL Eh? Nah.
To be clear, I don't hold to those “kinky whatever kisses”, I prefer a more sensual presentation of romance. But it is what it is, I guess.

At least stick to the scenario - character has already consented and enjoying.
To remove the possible trigger of people when they don't like it roughly, please mechanics for AA: rough - gentle, everything happening, animated. Hand kisses.
Unless of course someone wants to play Astarion's victim, which is not possible based on the narrative in the script.

What kissing has to do with this story, it was clear to everyone that if Tav kisses then everyone agrees, like it was all the patches before it. The story where Tav isn't comfortable and they changed their minds about being together forever didn't imply any sexual content, not on Tav's part, not on Astarion's part. Be unhappy in a golden cage all you want. The rest are headcanons.

Personally - I don't want to touch a story where a character who found his freedom and a partner after 200 years of slavery and loneliness saw frightened faces in an intimacy that was consented to and written with enjoyment - and it didn't happen originally, in August 2023.

Face-grabbing kisses was for Original Karlach in Act 2 - Is opition necessary there, or is it a romance, not an abuse with disturbing moments?

What he say after Tav stands like a rock during the kiss or shakes out of fear\anger?
“You're perfect, every time”? is the phrase from patch 0 when Tav smiled looking at Astarion in the path of evil.
If he acts like everything's fine, I've already said what Larian can do with the whole character - put it in the trash.

Friends, please stop. If you want to vote, do so and move on, don't get into an argument or another discussion of the reasons why.
<3

If that's not enough for you, take a look at the mod stats. There are not that many people who like to play tragedy.

Not everyone has access to mods. I would love to download it, but I can't, because I play on console.

I also don't personally think mods would fix the game itself taking our Tav's personality and story away. If they would, people would have stopped caring about the expressions after the first mod to change them to happy was released. I'd rather just stay on Patch 6.

Given what has happened on previous AA threads, and the somewhat unpromising start from some posters on this one, I've had a quick confab with the mod team and will lay down some rules of engagement here (these are normal forum rules, but I want to remind people of them and clarify how they apply).

Failure to follow these could to you being warned or muted for 24 hours, or even banned if you've already been warned before. I'm going to have low tolerance for folk derailing this thread, particularly if they are repeating points they've already made a number of times.

(1) Please avoid discussion of sensitive topics (even in spoilers). This includes non-consent, abuse, rape and general commentary on sexual preferences such as BDSM, and any such discussion will also be considered derailment. The OP specifically asked for opinions/preferences without debate, there is *no reason* to bring up heavier topics in this thread just to vote and, if you wish, give a quick summary of why. I think most of us could do with a break from these heavier topics, especially when the points raised are often repeats from the same forum members.
(2) Remain constructive and respectful of others' opinions, and of game narratives and character preferences. Everyone experiences the game differently and we need to be tolerant of other perspectives. In fact, as this thread is asking about preferences, getting into discussion about relative merits of different interpretations is off topic. I am never going to discourage interest in other people's perspectives and friendly chat, but as soon as it's clear someone is not having fun then please disengage.
(3) Do not purposefully derail conversation or antagonise community members, or incite conversation around existing or past community drama or antecedent infighting. We all know that previous AA discussions have ended in tears, and people on all sides of the debate have contributed to that. But let us all try to let bygones be bygones and do better this time. And if we have been one of the community members who has been doing their best to discuss this topic civilly and respectfully, let's try to encourage our allies as well as those with whom we disagree to do the same. (As Mirmi did above: thanks Mirmi!)
(4) If a Moderator has asked users to drop a topic, please do not double-down or continue discussing it. This includes off topic conversation about if and how far this poll is representative. We will be keeping our eye on this thread, and if people seem not to be heeding it then I will either lock the thread while everyone catches up or mute the user while they catch up. (I may be wrong, but I think it may still be possible to vote in a poll even when the thread it's attached to is locked - I hope I don't get the opportunity to test this!)

The same can be said for the "Happy Faces" mod, but it was downloaded by significantly more people and held the top for much longer.

Yeah this poll is about what I expected.

But yeah I'm pro both kisses being in the game because I like player choice. (Wish there was a bit more in the game because it's odd I can't dump spawn Astarion during the graveyard scene. Cruel? Yes but I want the option!)

Well, the game was played more overall half a year after release, wasn't it?

@Denis999 & Elly, your contributions are derailing this topic. Please draw a line under your exchange and review my post above:

The narrative (in the opinion of 60%-70% ‘I can't do it’) of the path of evil with Astarion as the tragedy of abuse and being stuck in trauma, he's losing himself, where Tav is the victim, not as freedom, independence, love and consent to an eternal bond... only 10% of AA fans agree with the leading narrative from the reddit community.

I don't see why this narrative should link up in such a simple thing as kissing, which has always implied harmony and pleasure.

@LiryFire, that other poll is not the topic of this thread. And I explicitly asked people not to raise sensitive topics in this thread, where they are also not relevant. Plus using an emotive term like "poison" of other people's character preferences is not showing them the respect we expect.

Please draw a line, and review my post above if you wish to continue engaging in this thread. (You may also want to consider not doing so, given you have already had your say.)

We have done so many polls on this topic now I want to make a poll on whether people think these polls are effective xD /s

Thanks OP. I do wonder how skewed the results will be, given it's already making rounds in spawn spaces. There seems to be an upset over the morality of patch 7. Sigh. Also Jinet makes an interesting point, I never considered not having a "just show me the results" would skew results! For fascinations sake (and *not to debate) I wonder if there's any measurable data on how it affects polls in general.

Thanks again OP.

Edit to clarify for mods, I only mean places that are predominantly occupied by spawn fans. I am in no way trying to disparage these places, as I am also a part of them, and have friends there. I was only speaking from a curious perspective on how we would likely ever achieve clean data just in general. But if the topic of general data practices is inappropriate, very well.