#so we've prepared another more vanilla loving act between two adults if it's not for you

[steampoweredstrawberry]

One of the things I loved most about the Gale romance arc (and, spoilers from here folks, as well as talk of sex and kink):

I loved how Gale's Act 2 romance scene is written in such a way where the writers are aware they're asking you the player to be part of something rather nontraditional and that it may not be for everyone. And it isn't. But you're asked multiple times throughout the course of the scene if you consent to what is about to happen. I recall three to be exact, with one being after Gale introduces the Astral Projection sex angle. And that's three chances to tell him you want to have sex with him, but you do not want to do the Astral Projection stuff. There are options to hard stop the sex completely, too.

Just...the amount of care that went into writing that scene, down to how the player is informed about where the scene intends to go and extends an out even at that point. It truly felt like I was able to give informed consent to participating in that act, not just as my character (who was all in btw), but also as a player who may not want or be able to watch a more explicit and nontraditional sex scene, but who doesn't want to be locked out of the romance all the same.

It's a video game, so I don't expect to see characters sitting down and ironing out the details of their kinky nontraditional sex. But the fact that I went into the bulk of the scene with information enough to know whether I wanted to proceed and the ability to opt out if I didn't want to take part was really important.

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers #baldurs gate 3 #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #I know in the context of the game Gale’s lines are him expressing love and explaining how he likes to express it #but in a metatextual way he's the mouthpiece for the writers being like hey things are about to get really weird #but know that this is a loving act from one adult to another and we get that it's weird and it may not be for you #so we've prepared another more vanilla loving act between two adults if it's not for you #and that's really great #I love the weird sex angle but I appreciate it for those who don't