The true abuse cycle is what Larian does over my thoughts with Astarion's story.
Agreed. Don't get me wrong, I love Astarion's entire story & have no issue with choosing either path for him because that is your playthrough. What I have a problem with is someone else putting their "judgments" on how I play my game & whoever made these particular choices is showing their judgment in their animation that simply does not even fit into what is voiced, written, or said in the game.
The way they portrayed the story, the way they animated it does not fit the narrative of the main writer or other interviews/statements of the people who are closely involved with Astarion. That is the main reason why the parts of the animation that are shown do not match even the written text or VO of the character. The way it looks now, it doesn't fit the narrative at all. So, put simply, no Larian. Whoever made this choice for these animations for the Ascended kisses, does not understand or does not approve of the way we played the character. Hells, the other "evil" (and I hate describing any character that way because there is no such thing as a pure evil character that is not an elemental in DnD if that is what you are basing the game on) characters such as Minthara did not get a suddenly abusive type kiss. Here you have a vampire lord who is saying, "Yes my treasure" while smiling and swinging his arms to choke, kiss, and shove while on their knees in front of the entire world? They may be "evil" characters, yet the one person who helped him achieve what they wanted would not be animated like that and then go back to being a "dark romance" afterward. It does not fit how the character was the entire game nor does it fit the VO of the character. Just my opinion.
