Having seen the updated expressions for Tav in the kiss cinematics with Ascended Astarion, I would like to request the original expressions to be added back as an option for those of us who found them more fitting, and/or less uncomfortable or triggering than the new ones.
For a year now since release, it has always been possible to play Tav as scared, unsure, or feeling trapped in their relationship with Ascended Astarion. Just to give a few examples: They can express regret directly after Ascension ("Not sure I like the sound of that"/"You're starting to scare me"), apprehension at the way he talks to them afterwards ("I'm not your pet"/"It doesn't sound like a joke, it sounds like you mean it") and reluctance to accept the condition of becoming his spawn. In the scene where he turns them, Tav can initially refuse to kneel, after which the only way to continue the relationship is to "give in" to his demands (as stated in the dialogue choice). Even the morning after being turned, Tav can express regret ("I suppose it cannot be undone now"). They can be intimidated out of a breakup attempt ("Sorry! I didn't mean it"), and his response to that ("No, I thought not. I don't want to hear anything like that from you again, my pet. You know I adore you terribly") is even specified as sounding "slightly threatening/abusivey" in the script.
None of this is at all in accordance with Tav's new expressions.
Maybe more neutral looking expressions could have worked for everyone. But having Tav close their eyes in ecstasy, at having their throat grabbed out of nowhere, is not neutral. Neither is the grin after their face is shoved away. It forces a personality type and emotions onto the player's character that contradict many of the possible dialogue choices, as mentioned above.
Restricting roleplay like this is not an improvement. The original complaint about Patch 6 was exactly this too, that some players felt it contradicted their roleplay and changed what they had imagined Tav and their relationship with Ascended Astarion to be like before. They have something that suits them better now, but does that really have to come at the cost of taking the original away from others? Please consider adding the original expressions back, maybe as locked behind a new dialogue flag on one of the options above.
Please, for those of us who liked the story being told as it was, allow us an option to keep it. And our characters as we have played them before. I don't just speak for myself when I say they were important.
I will add, after some experiences with discussing this topic in other threads: Please do not assume malicious intentions or otherwise horrible motives on my part for requesting this change, or of anyone else who may feel the same way. I love this character and the story I experienced with him. It is incredibly important to me, and it would really hurt to lose it like this after a year.
