that imposing their personal head-cannon onto others is perfectly ok in an RPG and completely in line with what Larian intended,
I'm not sure that that I should reply because we've seemed to have come to an accord but I will say simply that this is exactly the way I see the requests to remove the facial expressions. It's a request made people who want to preserve their head cannon in opposition to the text of the romance.
Which is understandable and it illustrates a flaw of the cinematic approach to story telling. It makes it harder to maintain head cannon when the images underline the favored interpretation of the author.
Your headcanon of breaking the cycle of abuse is not affected in the slightest if the TAV's face is changed during kisses with AAstarion. The meaning you want to give to the story will remain the same, also because since the release of the game kisses were normal with AAstarion and I don't think this has ever affected or ruined your headcanon of considering AAstarion abusive.
