OP I'm afraid I don't feel your arguments are very convincing. There is a lot of personal opinion in there. Personal opinion is not fact.
The first point I'd like to make is this:
The Patch 6 Kisses removed Player Agency. The whole point of a RPG is that the player gets to decide how they want to play. You can be incredibly mean to every companion if you choose. You can even kill them.
With the Patch 6 kisses, agency was removed, because the
Player Character appeared frozen with terror after asking for a kiss.
He breaks up with you if you don't want to become a spawn, which I think if he truly cared for you, he wouldn't do.
This is opinion, not fact.
He literally thinks you're degrading yourself by staying with him as an Ascendant.
I don't see how this line fits in with the argument that A.Astarion is an abuser. The degredation is something he thinks the Player Character is doing to
themselves. At no point does A.Astarion say that he intends to degrade his partner.
If the player asks for freedom
Gods, not this again. I give you wealth, power, pleasure - every decadence that can be afforded to a person? But you'd rather - what - sleep in the dirt again? You are my consort, and I will see you living the very best life. Even if you don't appreciate it. Why don't you go and mingle? Have fun with your so-called friends. I'll be here when you're done.
I think the devs have left this open so you can RP as you wish. If you ask for freedom, A.A.'s a bit miffed at being told the Player Character wishes to be free of him. Most partners would be, lets face it. But note- the Player Character is at the party A.Astarion did not wish to attend, and they are not prevented from going and talking to their friends.
Is he tetchy, yes. Unequivocally abusive, no.
If the player asks if he wants to see their friends again
No, everything I want is standing right here. But you should go - mingle, chat, laugh. Have fun, my love. Until then, I'll be here. But don't fret, I will be watching. I will always be watching.
Personally, I thought the first part was rather sweet. As to 'Don't fret, I'll be watching, I'll always be watching.' You can interpret that statement several ways. It's not a threat, unless you want to HC that it is.
He's belittling the player
Belittling how? There are no put downs, there is no verbal abuse.
I'm not going through the rest of your paragraph because it is all opinion based on statements that can be interpreted in several ways.
N.B I am NOT saying your interpretations are invalid. I am simply saying there are other interpretations of the speeches you have quoted that are equally valid.
Ascended Astarion's original kisses were good because it shows the player how big of a mistake they made (if they ignored the several massive red flags along the way).
Again, removing player agency. What if the player does not think ascension was a mistake?
You personally think ascension is a mistake. Other players do not. The game should accommodate both views.
He sees the player as nothing more than a toy that he can use at his will.
citation needed.
Him forcing the player onto their knees and grabbing them by the throat was an excellent choice in my opinion.
Please note the last three words in that quote. This is simply your opinion.
For other players who had experienced a SA in real life, it was triggering (prompted flashbacks and panic attacks, not a little mild upset) to see their character terrified of their romanced companion after asking him for a kiss.
I'm sorry, OP. I don't think personal head-cannons should take priority over actual harm to real people.
The A.Astarion dialogue that you have picked also needs to be put into context. Unless the Player Character is deliberately mean to him eg kicking him, comparing him to Cazador etc. they will have a lot of positive interactions. For example:
'You are so beautiful... And you will be beautiful forever. Thank you for trusting me.'
'You need not fear anything.'
'You will be stronger, swifter, sharper, but you won't be different. You were already perfect before. It's hard to improve.
'I wish we could retreat into our palace already, and spend a decade in each other's arms.'
'We are sovereigns. My sole endeavour now is to make this world yours and mine, alone.'
Now, you are perfectly free to head-cannon all of the above as manipulation if you like, BUT other people will interpret those statements as declarations of love and affection and that is an equally valid interpretation. That's the beauty of an RPG, you can play it how you want. (All of the above are direct quotes from the game).
I think a good compromise would've been adjusting the reactivity based on how the player chose to be turned. If they wanted the rough option, they would've received the new kisses. If they wanted the gentle option, they would've received the old kisses.
Since Larian have gone to all the effort of changing the expressions, I think we will just have to accept that on reflection, they feel the new expressions introduced in Patch 7 more accurately reflect their vision for the game.
They are moving onto other projects. I think they have listened to both sides here, and come up with a compromise that should be acceptable to both and which takes into account that console players do not have access to mods.
With a neutral faced Tav, we can role-play as we wish.
It's also very frustrating that players who want to see their Tav happy with the relationship had a mod available; it would've been a great way for Larian to show off installing third party mods by using this mod as an example.
Alas, many many players are on console. They do not have access to mods, and the mods you mentioned may not be included when mods do become available on consoles.
However, I would like to point out that you DO have access to a mod that will restore the Patch 6 kisses.
Personally, I am grateful to Larian for putting in the time on the facial expressions (the kisses weren't the only things fixed), and I would much prefer it if they now devoted their efforts to fixing the remaining bugs in the game, rather than revisiting this issue.
