I'm not sure why people say things like "We should all come together and agree". I mean, name me one single instance in all of human history where everyone agreed. What that translates to really is "everyone should agree that MY idea is the best".
My best advice is to get a solid response from the devs on whether they want the game to be realistic or over the top, and if they say realistic then give up on the ladder animation because it's not going to help to hold onto something that's hurting the game.
And if they say over the top, then they have a lot of work, because the entire story right now isn't over the top. And I'll miss the amazing writing currently in the game, but like you should with the ladder if they say they want it to be realistic, I'll give up on my opinion about the writing if they say they want it to be over the top.
This is the wrong way to think about it.
A game which is all serious or all silly doesn't work well. There needs to be a balance between the two or else they lose all the impact. So no, the burning pigs do not need to become yet one more item of horrible morbid pain on Braccus Rex's Isle of Damnnation. There's already plenty of that on the island as it is. More is not needed just because the pig-mages not being insane is one thing when you randomly and arbitrarily decide realism must be adhered to.
That said, vometia is right that there needs to be a respectful distance between the two parts. For example in D:OS 1, shortly after hearing one of your party members give an account of a horrifying, terrible ordeal when their village was attacked, you reach said village which had been invaded and most of the innocent people slaughtered. Right outside. though was a cheerful skeleton picking through the corpses and making witty comments. That just flat-out didn't work at all. That was not at all a good time to try and inject some light-heartedness, it failed.
A lot of the community, in any community for any game, doesn't actually understand what they want or why they are complaining about things. They are just looking at things on the surface, for example:
Oh hey, I really hate this durability thing. It should be removed.
It shouldn't be removed, it should be fixed.
So only YOU have the Right Answers and anyone who says otherwise obviously doesn't understand what they're talking about?
