Then why does it look like that? I'm not claiming that the Larians hired someone to do this, that's just a guess, just because that's what it looks like. It looks like that kind of content, not like Astarion and Tav kissing.
Couldn't they then convey to us WHY Astarion is abusing us? I would still understand if Astarion suddenly became more evil and takes control of Tav who wants to leave him (though, in the script he doesn't do that). What's the point of doing that to Tav, who loves and understands him, when they haven't had a single fight or anything even remotely resembling a quarrel in the entire game?
What was clear? Everything was clear to me before patch 6, and the story was very clear to me. Now it's not clear to me at all.
It doesn't look like sadistic porn. It looks like abuse, because that was their intent when making the animations. Not saying I agree with the Tav faces, just saying what the intent clearly was.
They conveyed why Astarion (or that version of Astarion, rather) is abusive or will become abusive plenty already in the game itself but that's a circular and pointless argument to have if I've ever heard one, I will say the story is still very clear to me at least, this patch has changed nothing for me. The narrative is painfully unsubtle, to the writing's detriment at times. It's a very well done depiction of an abusive person though, including one of the telltale abuser's technique of lovebombing (his fake sounding over-the-top sweet-nothings, basically) and everything. Nothing about his characterisation has changed.
We're just discussing the kisses (and mostly the Tav faces, really, which is a complaint I agree with, though I have some caveats about some arguments that have popped up regarding why they shouldn't be there) but I'm just throwing my two cents here because I don't want the most narratively interesting arc I've played in an RPG (Ascended Astarion) to be made bland, meaningless, and stripped of its themes for the sake of fitting the dating sim or mafia boss booktok wish fulfilment mold which it was never meant to fit into. I like that his characterisation extends into his romance as well. It's consistent and coherent. That shouldn't change. (And it hasn't, so far)
