Omg, this is everything I needed and more! You're amazing! Thank you for your lovely mods and everything you do for the AA community! <3 Since patch 5 came out, Ascended Astarion is still the only romance partner we can't hug or kiss in the epilogue. But you can hug some of the companions as just friends. Him being singled out as the only one you can't interact with romantically is what feels so unfair to me. Thank you for making this fantastic mod - now the romance feels more complete and perfected.
*Larian not giving us decent Ascendant scenes.* Modders: Fine, we'll do it ourselves.
Seriously though, I am glad that so many mod makers who pick Ascendant ignore the "he is meant to be abusive and you need to suffer if you romance this version of him" yells from Spawn preachers and just create little mods like these that give us other perspective and allow us to decide how we want our story to go. The "he is abusive and doesn't love you" crap is just ONE story, but you can also play it the other way around: f.e I play as a screwed in the head, evil cleric of an evil god and I can absolutely role-play that both of them are content with this relationship. That's why Larian kept AA's treatment of MC so ambitious: he is controlling but also loyal, he doesn't turn MC into a full vampire, but he also doesn't share his vampire gift with anyone else, and literally tells Minthara when she asks him to turn her that "this gift is for my beloved only". You can play BOTH the "he is abusive Cazador 2.0" route and "he is better than Cazador, capable of love and connection while still remaining power hungry". Sucks that not many see all these opportunities. Lack of imagination, creativity and labelling everything into "good'/"evil" ruins complexity of stories.
I agree with you on everything. It's a role-playing game and it becomes what you make of it. I love AA, I could never play it any other way and every mod that makes it possible to interact with him in a different way than Larian intended is a highlight for me every time.
" I play as a screwed in the head, evil cleric of an evil god " in connection with your profile picture made me laugh :)
Totally agree with you! Spawn preachers with their “he is meant to be abusive and you need to suffer if you romance this version of him” only have to smear snot all over their reddit and whine as their “dead dove” flies to the trash. The whole “he doesn't love you” nonsense is fanfic that Baudelaire Welch unsuccessfully pulled on Astarion's plot in the most primitive way possible - trying to turn an RPG game into their own novella by depriving the player of roleplay. What's really “evil” is shoving non-con to people in an RPG and trying to deprive the player of the ability to happily play through the game with their LI. To the modders, huge kudos!
Thank you so much for this mod! This is what players wanted and what players have been asking for from Larian since patch 5. Astarion is beautiful in the epilogue, his lines, his facial expressions, his smiles, the adorable bat, the tossing of the goblets and all his actions! (*Yes, Astarion, I'm watching you the whole party. Always watching...) But this extremely annoying injustice where everyone can hug and kiss their LI except you... When you can hug other companions (which I could totally do without) that you're “friends” with, but you can't touch the one you love. In patch 7 they only gave the kiss in the “evil” ending, so a special thank you also from the innocent citizens of Baldur from my playthroughs, they now do not have to die so that my Tav can kiss Astarion! It is with great pleasure that I replay this epilogue separately several times in a row....
30 comments
Since patch 5 came out, Ascended Astarion is still the only romance partner we can't hug or kiss in the epilogue. But you can hug some of the companions as just friends. Him being singled out as the only one you can't interact with romantically is what feels so unfair to me.
Thank you for making this fantastic mod - now the romance feels more complete and perfected.
Modders: Fine, we'll do it ourselves.
Seriously though, I am glad that so many mod makers who pick Ascendant ignore the "he is meant to be abusive and you need to suffer if you romance this version of him" yells from Spawn preachers and just create little mods like these that give us other perspective and allow us to decide how we want our story to go.
The "he is abusive and doesn't love you" crap is just ONE story, but you can also play it the other way around: f.e I play as a screwed in the head, evil cleric of an evil god and I can absolutely role-play that both of them are content with this relationship.
That's why Larian kept AA's treatment of MC so ambitious: he is controlling but also loyal, he doesn't turn MC into a full vampire, but he also doesn't share his vampire gift with anyone else, and literally tells Minthara when she asks him to turn her that "this gift is for my beloved only". You can play BOTH the "he is abusive Cazador 2.0" route and "he is better than Cazador, capable of love and connection while still remaining power hungry". Sucks that not many see all these opportunities. Lack of imagination, creativity and labelling everything into "good'/"evil" ruins complexity of stories.
It's a role-playing game and it becomes what you make of it.
I love AA, I could never play it any other way and every mod
that makes it possible to interact with him in a different way than
Larian intended is a highlight for me every time.
" I play as a screwed in the head, evil cleric of an evil god " in connection with your profile picture made me laugh :)