Originally Posted by Anska
Treating friendship as lesser than romance is a sentiment I generally dislike. In Astarion's case, it's especially bitter because I feel that his romance has an air of being in a relationship with your best friend, but if you do change it to a none-romance something of that best friend feeling gets lost.

Exactly this.

Originally Posted by Anska
I watched the friends version of the scene after the Araj encounter on yt and I really liked it too. It has more nuance than the romanced one, which feels like a less heartfelt variation of the other romance scene.

Because that version is about the actual topic and not about "so why did you sleep with me".