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That's not true. Tav could always be scared of AA. For example, they can be intimidated out of breaking up with him. Since you brought up the devnotes, the notes for his line in that scene even indicate he's supposed to sound threatening and abusive.


What scene? Can we get a little more specific?

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Have you seen Tav's heartbroken face at the epilogue party when they ask for freedom?

I'm not arguing that Tav may be unhappy about not being able to leave, but I still don't see how that should make AA a sadist who enjoys scaring her? What does that have to do with it? And why would a scared or unhappy Tav even ask to kiss herself? I completely understand that you're trying to link dialog about freedom with faces of fear, but even in those dialog lines AA isn't sadistic or anything, he may be angry and grumpy, but there's no hint there that he enjoys scaring Tav, hurting her, etc. Not wanting to let Tav go is not the same as wanting to torment Tav. How can you not understand that?

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And their expressions in the romance scene (which has always been there) are much closer to the Patch 6 expressions than they would be to the new ones.

Tav's facial expressions in that scene are confused rather than scared. The most similar facial expression is Tav's during Karlach's kiss. But it was AA's least problematic kiss. In the bed scene when AA bites her, Tav by default has a face with an expression of ecstasy, you for one aren't confused by that? Why? Doesn't kissing hurt? https://ibb.co/W3j34Cm


Now Tav has the same exact face when her neck is grabbed during the kiss.

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you could see it in Karlach's origin route

That kiss belonged to the spawn, not AA.

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It didn't change the narrative, it added to one that already existed, that being the story of a Tav who feels scared and trapped.

Tav can feel anything, but that still doesn't make AA a person who enjoys scaring Tav for no reason. AA has always had a different approach.

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That's not true. Tav can express uncertainty before and during the romance scene, and there have always been options that very clearly indicated they were afraid of him (see my example with the breakup dialogue above).

What exactly scares your Tav, the question is “What?” or “Why?”.

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Yes, because AA didn't yet have kisses that were exclusive to him. He kept the same kiss he had as spawn, which wouldn't have given Tav any reason to suddenly be afraid or unsettled if he just kissed them the same way he always had.

So what? He'd been kissing tenderly for six months, and Tav was happy doing it. To me, gentle AA is canon. He has a tender bed scene and had tender kisses for half a year before patch 6. No sixth patch will change that with its “exclusive” kisses won't change that.