@LiryFire I think your post is incredibly well written and intelligently presents your argument. I was already on board for changing things back, but you still have supported your argument very well. I think that also, your post includes things that highlight what I believe to be the disconnect between Larian and the fandom. Let me begin by saying I don't believe Larian did this intending to harm anybody. Whatever else I think about them, the folks at Larian seem to be well-meaning, if at times immature and unstructured in their creative processes. I believe that the harm they've caused is entirely unintentional and if it actualyl reaches them (I'm very unconvinced that they actually pay attention to these forums) then they'd feel bad about it. Now having said that:
I don't believe that Larian's writers or developers go into working on this game thinking in terms of "vicious Tav" or "heroic Tav". I don't think they approach writing this game in a way that assigns Tav any sort of motivation for doing the things that they do. Not in the sense of "players can give their Tav multiple motivations". I think that to them, Tav is just Tav, Durge is just Durge. So in those ending scenes, Tav isn't written to be a willing participant who's as evil as Ascended Astarion, Tav is a mannequin for players to see the results of the player's choices. The story isn't really about Tav and Astarion as equal participants in the romance, it's about how the romance changes Astarion and what he becomes as a result. He's the main character of the story we as players create. At least that's how I think Larian approached it and how Larian probably assumed we players would approach it as well. So of course Tav doesn't look like they're into it. Tav is just a generic entity meant to provide generic feedback to the numerous unique and complex characters that populate the world. And the generic response to that situation is fear and discomfort.
