Although analyzing what happens on both paths in terms of the overall narrative is fair it feels a bit like meta-gaming. I mean this is the sense that each arc is separate, and cannot be experienced simultaneously. Which, to me, leaves space to tell different, independent stories on each route. Rejecting the Ritual can absolutely be a story about breaking the cycle of abuse, and that can be accomplished regardless of what happens in the alternate timeline. I don’t think they necessarily need to be perfectly complementary. If anything, this being a video game and not a novel I think there is space for this ‘choose your own adventure’ style of narrative divergence. Which is to say, I don’t feel that having happy Tav on an Ascension path lessens the story being told on a completely separate branch.
I think the fact that AA becomes something other than a Vampire Lord has some bearing on whether he is destined to repeat the cycle of abuse. Larian left the question of what it means to be a living vampire very open. While it could mean he’s destined to go on as those before him, I’d say it’s equally plausible that he won’t. If what drove Cazador to madness and sadism was centuries of being tormented by his vampiric banes (thirst, etc) then there’s no reason to think AA will mirror him in this since he’s free of those downsides. AA is just not cursed with vampirism in the same way as his predecessors.
