It's no secret that Baldur's Gate 3 contains its fair share of dark themes and cutscenes, but one especially questionable moment between Astarion and Shadowheart was cut from the final game – and fans aren't sure how to feel about it.
Warning: the contents of this article touch on particularly violent scenes that readers might find distressing.
In it, Astarion sneaks up on Shadowheart to bite her, much like he still does in the RPG's first act – except this time, when his unsuspecting victim wakes up and notices, his reaction is different.
More Datamined Animations between Astarion and Shadowheart from r/BaldursGate3
Another simply exclaims that the scene is "actually really dark," with more players agreeing underneath their response.
"Well," writes someone, "I can see why they cut it." Fans also take to the replies with possible reasons why Larian Studios was cooking the scene up in the first place, with many guessing that it would fit well into an Origin playthrough featuring Astarion instead of the user-created Tav: "This animation is probably from an Origin Astarion PoV."
In that case, the scene would make sense as a reaction from Astarion during the "bite night" moment in which he tries to drink a camp member's blood. Regardless, it's undeniably a heavy scene, and it's not difficult to understand why Larian chose to axe it from the game's final cut.
"This made me uncomfortable," as one fan puts in a comment. "Glad they removed it" – and honestly, despite the RPG's other dark themes, so am I.
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