News is coming thick and fast aboutBaldur’s Gate 3, although that may be a poor choice of words given the latest reveal. DuringLarian’sPanel from Hell, designed for the devs to show off new features not available in the beta, we saw a glimpse ofa love scene featuring a Druid… who was using Wild Shape… as a bear. This has set off the whole spectrum of reactions, but mostly, I’m thinking about how bizarrely the whole exchange is shot.
Let’s rewind a little. If you’re unfamiliar with this terminology, a Druid is a magical creature whose most iconic power is Wild Shape, which allows them to transform into animals. In the recentDungeons & Dragonsmovie, Sophia Lillis’ character is a Druid and we see her shapeshift into horses, mice, birds, cats, and an owlbear, which is probably the most famous use of Wild Shape. While she’s in Wild Shape, she’s still herself, as all Druids are. Communication in English (or Common, as the games refer to it) is not possible, but their personality and consciousness remain.
Related:Other RPGs Should Learn From Baldur’s Gate 3’s Character Creator
The fact Druids can turn into practically anything means it’s a highly creative party role and opens a lot of different avenues to players. It’s also whya recent proposed change is highly controversial. But when the Baldur’s Gate clip went viral, a lot of this was overlooked.
Social media is not fertile ground for bountiful context to grow. The clip of the Wild Shape romance was repeatedly trimmed down for easy digestion as it was shared, and to many, it showed plain and simple bestiality. What they saw was a man having sex with a bear, and that ain’t kosher. Others didn’t really understand what ‘Druid’ or ‘Wild Shape’ meant, hence my opening explanation, and so also saw a man having sex with a bear. Even with all context and knowledge available though, some people still aren’t on board, and that makes a lot of sense.
This brings us back to the present. It is extremely weird to be able to have sex with a bear in Baldur’s Gate 3, and it’s not a choice I will be partaking in. It’s understandable though that if you put such an extreme choice in your game, you want people to talk about it. I doubt it would have gotten so much traction if it were a female elf rather than a great hulking bear in the scene. But what’s less understandable is to put in such an extreme choice then do little but giggle about it.
There are lots of different ways to play D&D, from which Baldur’s Gate is derived. Some tables will play the game very seriously, considering each member’s powers and acting with efficiency and tight storytelling. Some want pure combat and don’t care about the surrounding details at all. Others see fun and laughter as the primary reason to play, and get into ridiculous scrapes before finding ludicrous answers. But despite all of the options leading up to this sex scene, the choice of direction doesn’t seem to exist.
I won’t be having sex with the bear. It will simply never be an option. But for those that will, this seems like a scene tinged with mythological energy - how many tales of old gods involve these sorts of scenes? Loki and Svaðilfari is the most famous, but it is not alone. Instead, Baldur’s Gate 3 plays the scene for laughs, with an odd smirk and a strange cutaway where a shocked squirrel drops a chestnut in disgust. It’s the Whedonisation of sex scenes - whatever you do, you gotta make ‘em laugh.
It reduces romance down to the purely physical aspects, and then turns these mismatched physical characteristics into a joke. In a world where Wild Shape is common and magic runs as readily as water, the morality and spiritualism would be very different to our own. To us, in the real world as viewers, the romance seems strange - but it would not in the reality of the game. This could be a mystical, fantastical, ethereal experience, rather than just a joke for fans who Google the right responses beforehand.
It’s such a dull interpretation of a sexual Wild Shape encounter that it might as well not exist. It wouldn’t have mattered about how grand it was for me, it’s just not a story I want to tell. But to play it for laughs seems to miss the magical aura of the scene itself. Why not romance a bard and have them throw a custard pie in your face instead, or have a wizard talk dirty about his old, gnarled wand?
I know I’m the weird one for getting bent out of shape about a bear sex scene that I’m never going to play myself anyway, but it’s the latest symptom in our culture leaning away from emotional impact. Everything is detached and ironic, everything is a joke. I don’t want to have sex with a bear. But it doesn’t seem like Baldur’s Gate 3 really wants to either, so why is it even in there?
