It was never Tav/Durge and Astarion. All the time it was Karlach/Astarion. That’s why we got scary face, strange kisses or tooth-rotting fluff instead of normal romance with neutral evil character.
This is what I've been fearing to think about. What if Astarion's writer no longer writes him.. and it's been handed to Karlach's writer? It's also entirely possible the original writers have moved on to other projects and what's left is... staff writers? I just hope one day that Larian will not dislike Astarion fans so much. AA fans do get more crap than spawn Astarion fans. While I prefer spawn Astarion, I can see the lure of AA from a different point of view. But even spawn Astarion has been handled oddly with how little content he gets compared to AA. Prioritizing Karlach's content over content that involves Tav/Durge is also strange.
I ask for more quality content from Larian (which is what we usually get) but without preaching and without being so on-the-nose. Stuff that is too 'on-the-nose' isn't good storytelling and can be insulting to the reader or player's intelligence. The best example of a recent on-the-nose situation is the negative facial expression on Tav/Durge's face during the AA kisses. The negative facial expression during the kisses is way too much exposition. The kisses themselves are degrading which gives all the exposition anyone needs. The negative facial expressions are overkill, too on-the-nose, and ruins any roleplay immersion or dark enjoyment that could have been possible.
