Ah, that interview. It's a bit disingenuous of them to say we tell him to be scared because these are not the dialogue options we are presented with in the game during the ascension. He asks us to help him and we do, it's just that. It's the same as telling the other companions: "it's your call, do what you must, I'll be here if you need me".
I agree.
That quote I posted leads me to think they expected the players who help Astarion to ascend to come to the conclusion that they have done the wrong thing, even though they might have done it for the right reason. i.e. They wanted to help Astarion but they feel they have turned him into a monster.
In that particular context these kisses make sense. Tav would be experiencing buyer's remorse and regretting their decision. Although considering what our characters are capable of, if they truly regretted enabling him to ascend, I'd expect them to try and kill A.Astarion rather than continue the romance.
Unfortunately, for players on an evil playthrough who decided to do the 'wrong thing' simply because they wanted to, Tav's reactions are completely wrong. And the same goes for players who don't accept that helping Astarion ascend is an evil act and who have no issues with the changes to his personality.
There really isn't a clear moral choice when it comes to which path Astarion takes, and that was one of the things that made his story so compelling for me. The alternatives to helping Astarion ascend are killing the 7,000 vampire spawn (I assume their souls still go to the Hells?) or releasing them on an unsuspecting Faerun. It's disappointing to get such a satisfying and nuanced storyline only to have this patch put player reactions to A.Astarion on rails.
