I'm sorry but calling these faces "ecstatic" is a huge dramatization of what they are.
I don't think it is. They look ridiculously ecstatic to me, and I'm not the only one. How else would you call a face with closed eyes and a wide grin that many people who saw it have described as looking "orgasmic"?
And yet plenty of people who read AA as an ab*ser do not have an issue with the smile. There were smiles in patch 6. People also say AA screams at Karlach in the epilogue, and slaps the player. Again, the reading is niche and an extreme. And most on both sides of the isle are able to RP with neutral faces with one or two random "smiles". Some even read them as flinching/grimaces. You don't have to like it. Thats cool. But asking for a toggle does not make sense unless they add a toggle for everyone.
I know people who select those options for fun, but don't believe AA is an abuser. Why should they be forced to now have that RP ruined by domestic violence, for a handful of niche players?
I could ask why we should have our rp ruined for a handful of niche players too. In any bg3 fan space that is not moderated and/or dominated by fans of non-tragic AA interpretations, the old faces were generally liked and accepted as true to the character.
The majority of non-AA exclusive fandom spaces are dominated by spawn fans (see the polls). Who are very vitriolic against the ascended path, and believe we are "delusional" and AA is a soulless monster. That is the majority pleased by patch 6 faces. As identified by actual data. People who have outwardly stated it's Larian "teaching us a lesson", and we're just "stupid, delusional, abuse apologists, who are illiterate" (actual quotes, and the mildest I've seen). Are there AA fans who think that too? Sure. This is not me saying you or anyone with ab*se RP is a "fake fan". It's an acknowledgement that the "majority" you're referencing are *self identified spawn fans*. And no, I don't think Larian should cater the AA path to spawn fans who hate the path. Even if it pleases a handful of AA fans who share the same ideas as them.
As I have said once already, but again, will reiterate:
The expressions were dead dove. They implied severe things that the new neutral faces do not, such as non-consent, SA, and physical violence. Leaving it in the game still leaves the possibly for people to stumble onto it unwittingly. **To me, this is not a question of RP. It is a matter of leaving dead dove content out of a gen audience game, where players do not go into it knowing what they're getting into.
