@Xenolithial

7 months ago

What's weird to me is that they have the scene with Haarlep where technically you don't know what's going to happen. You can guess and probably be right, but Haarlep largely plays coy. And he never reveals the full extent of what he's doing to you until its already far too late.

You can also actively try and struggle during that sequence and fail, which has some pretty hefty implications Larian just decided not to address. And nevermind the fact this can happen literally in front of your companions - at least two of whom are victims of abuse.

And if you refuse or fight Haarlep off successfully he tries to kill you. Which is one of the hallmarks of consent as we all know.

Tav's facial expressions during that aren't exactly joyful. But they're not exactly super distressed either.

If you don't fight him off or kill him then Haarlep will be able to literally forcibly assault Tav at any moment he feels like it in the future.

And for some reason at the end of all this Tav is given the option of whether they enjoy this treatment or not. Which would be fine but they give Ascended Astarion the complete opposite treatment for seemingly no reason other than they wanted to push a narrative that you're not supposed to like being with him

But by comparison Ascended Astarion tells you exactly what he wants to do. He gives you several opportunities to back out - and saying the wrong thing can cause him to call the whole thing off himself.

Tav can indulge in or skip having sex with him. And whether they do or not, they can then also accept or refuse being bitten by him - violently, in fact, if they so choose.

To get to the point of being spawnified requires literal hours of gameplay lead in, you agreeing to send 7000 souls to hell, you agreeing to help carve hellspeak into a living person's skin, and then multiple moments of expressing consent after the fact.

And at the end of it they have Tav cringing and glaring and making all these bizarre faces during scenes you can't even trigger without asking Astarion for them specifically.

Other than one or two moments companions don't initiate kisses without your consent.

And you also likely cannot get to the point of being Astarion's spawn without having pissed off one or two blood thirsty immortals along the way. So a lip bite really shouldn't be that terrifying

It just feels forced and lazy and inconsistent of Larian to approach it this way, but luckily modders exist to come through where the devs dont weem to feel like it

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