Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Karlach Act 3 Romance Scene

Quick post, not intended to upset anyone, and I'm not here making demands of Larian or anyone else.

But was anyone else surprised or a bit put off by the NSFW option for the end-of-date-night cutscene with Karlach? To be clear, I'm hetero man playing as a human man in game and view myself as hetero in the game too. When I got to the Act 2 romance scene with Karlach, it felt like a perfect fit for both my character and hers. She was the one taking the initiative "I'd like to take you to bed now" and she is the one that pushes Tav to the ground before they make love.

Then fast forward to the Act 3 date night and I really enjoyed everything up until the final part where the explicit cutscene plays. Watching it pulled me completely out of the moment these two characters were sharing. I thought at first it was a bug, that the game had put Tav and Karlach in the opposite roles. But no, this is just how the scene is scripted. I have seen some people try to write it off as the Amazon sex position, but that's not what's happening. It's like it was entirely thought for a fem-fem relationship and not really anything else - unless there's men out there that like getting fingered I guess?

I just reloaded and went with the cutsie cuddle option, which also disappointed me. But it's still only a game I'll move on. Does anyone else feel this way about it or wish a modder or Larian themselves would allow the option to simply swap the roles for the cutscene? Not even do a completely new one, just swap male Tav and Karlach and leave it untouched for female Tav.

Personally I don't do any of the "romancing" and think the online sex thing is at best an outlet for the undersexed and moreso bordering on perversion but hey you nameless internet folks gotta' keep being you.

I can't help but think there's going to be an army of Karens at some point beating on Hasbro's door about this at some point.

I'm starting to think that romance in this game is ruining the experience for a lot of peoples (or so it seems).

I can't talk for anyone else so I'll talk for myself; I roleplay this type of games and try to choose the dialogues that are the closest to my beliefs. I've never used the romance options in games that had that option till I played this game (mainly because I thought I would feel weird IRL by doing so) but with this game I said fuck it and when on with the romance.

I was playing Lone Wold (2 party set up) and romancing SH, mainly because she was literally my first joinable character, I wanted Lae'zel (I like to have weird races on my party) but couldn't find her till I had my 2 people team and by that point, was too late for her to join me.

I went through all act one, and we had the kiss scene. I was mid-act 2 (or so I think) but hadn't unlocked her second romance scene yet. Fast-forward to me watching a YT video and discovering that, giving certain circumstances, SH (probably others characters too, I haven't play that long) could start flirting with eachother and there was even an option to a poly/cheating encounter. And I don't know why but I (IRL) got a bit mad, lol. Maybe because by the way the video was made, it made her seems like she used my character the whole game, then I started to find posts about it and got a bit more mad. lol

I still have not seem any explicit scene, I wanted to unlocked it in my game. But to be honest, I don't really cared much about romance in this game anymore. If in future playthroughs I unlocked it good, if not it doesn't matter. If I want to watch explicit content, I know a few different websites for that, not this game... lol

However, maybe what happens is that it does something to our brains and we kinda feel a bit attached to our characters? IDK, all I know is I felt a bit weird when I found my character could get cucked. lol. So now my rule is to romance monogamous character only and when I run out of characters, play the poly ones without romance at all.

PS: much love and respect to people who enjoy romance in videogames, I just think in not one of them.

Edit: By reading OP post again I think I'll also skip Karlach Romance, hopefully the rest of monogamous don't have weird shit on their romance scene. xD

I made a post about it HERE that talks about that scene and others where things can get uncomfortable for people.

I’ll ignore the ones who hate having romance/intimacy in the game and come to shame those who enjoy it. Cry louder lol

Regarding Karlach’s romance scenes specifically, it does feel like she is intended to be a better fit for those playing feminine or female identifying characters (at least regarding some of her cut scene animations). It feels unfair, as does having your cut scene roles reversed just because you choose a bigger/stronger body type. This is something I mentioned in my original post as my first play through was with a cisgender female body 3 type character.

I’m not even straight irl, but I do understand that making some scenes so specific in these ways can make many players feel cheated or uncomfortable and negatively affect their experience with the game and it’s story.

It makes you wonder if Larian really did make Karlach to be a lesbian due to her appearance (which is shallow af), then now a lot of cis hetero men are into her and there’s this sort of feedback for their choices in animation. It happens too if you play a muscular female tav: the game places you in the “male” role whenever there is such option. Again I wonder if they went “strong women must be lesbians or do certain sexual activities because of how they look” - that’s offensive, and it’s coming across like this even if it was unintentional. Also, who in the hell would allow Karlach to “touch them deeper than they’ve ever been touched” with THOSE NAILS? Madness, I say.

These things make me put into question the diversity-friendly aspects of the game, and that’s sad. Did they simply decide a strong female (including Karlach) must take the “male role” in intimacy? That seems simplistic and is just wrong.

Regarding a possible solution, and perhaps something that should’ve been thought of beforehand:
1. it’s not that hard to create animations and sequences where the motions and poses are still unique, but don’t specifically hint at gender roles, to avoid making people feel “left off”.
2. Instead of picking people up, if there’s no option to role reverse the animation, why not, dunno, (lovingly) slam each other into walls? That’s less gendered (and still very Karlach-y), for example.
3. Keeping legs in more neutral positions too would allow players to fill in the gaps for themselves.
4. Avoid lines that imply certain acts that won’t work depending on the players preferences - using less specific wording while still being creative works a long way.


And all that is to save work of swapping roles in animation. That way they could keep cinematics as only one option while still not alienating big parts of their players.

I think a big issue with the way the game handles just how horny literally every adult character is, is that they are just all treated as bisexual and want to have sex with everything. There's a point in Act 2 where literally all of my companions wanted to sleep with Tav, and it was annoying more than it was funny or endearing or anything else. Why is Wyll dying to dance with me, and utterly distraught when I inevitably turn him down? Why is Lae'zel after my heart when we slept together once and it was by her design, purely for sport? Gale has a hard-on for anything Tav does it seems. And Halsin, you JUST met me!

But in any case, treating all romances the same doesn't work, once you realise that not everyone has the same preferences not only for their romantic partner but for their bedroom practices as well.

My suggestion as a solution to simply swap the roles is only ONE possible solution that would require the least possible amount of work for anyone to do - just swapping Tav and Karlach around in that cutscene. I know it still wouldn't fit Karlach as much given she's clearly a top. But it beats getting devil-fingered by those nails with no idea that this was the direction the scene was going to take.

I didn't come into this game excited for the romance options, it's just a game and these are not real people. But I do care about the narrative being weaved for the characters, mine included. And I can separate myself from my character. But these decisions still make it a jarring experience. And what's worse I think is that Minthara, a non-origin character who gets recruited later in the game at the expense of half the rest of your early companions, has more variety in her scenes because they do cater to the different genders.

Like I said in the OP, I'm not demanding Larian or any modder make a change, I'm mostly asking if anyone else felt the same way I did after the date night scene.