Why is it that you think I'm saying that there IS something wrong with the opinions of anyone on this thread? See. That's part of the problem. I'm just trying to provide a difference of opinion, but people seem to think I'm being absolutist, as if I'm saying I'm absolutely right and they are absolutely wrong. On the other hand, I find it ironic that I'm the one getting attacked, being told that I have no basis or foundation for my opinions and that I should just accept that Astarion, and the other characters, are all what they appear to be in the first 20% of the game; especially that Astarion is just some Twilight reject and nothing more.
THIS is why I asked what the point of the whole thread was. If everyone on this thread is really just here to vent about their negative feelings about Astarion, and they aren't willing to have a different opinion expressed, then I'll just exit the thread and leave you all to your Astarion-bashing.
You realise that we only have that 20% to look at and respond to at the moment, right? And while it certainly is possible that Larian is writing something deep and twisty, would you not agree that it is also quite imaginable that Larian's plot and character development would be, ahem, a tiny bit more linear?
Also, you're not getting attacked, but you did say that the guy with zero vampire spawn abilities save a weird biting attack and no vampire spawn transformation, the guy who literally just lets himself gets murdered to death without doing anything vampiry, is actually a badass pretending to be weak. You must have expected some pushback on such a claim.
I do agree, however, that in order for things to begin making sense then there's going to have to be some serious plot twists and some serious tadpole shenanigans going on, but I am just not positively convinced that the company that couldn't be bothered with half-decent movement mechanics, that couldn't be bothered with non-garbage inventory management, that couldn't be bothered with a day/night cycle, that couldn't be bothered implementing ranged weapons in a non-silly way, that couldn't be bothered making a big enough game world that ordinary D&D ranges make sense, and which initially brought DOS2 barrelmancy surface fun straight into BG3 is suddenly giving a maximum effort on the story. I fear, and this is of course very subjective, that Larian will cut as many corners on the story as they appear to have everywhere else.
But gods above, do I hope that I'm wrong about that. Regardless, think of my ranting in this topic as a conditional evaluation. IF we're seeing the full extent of their idea of Astarion the Vampire Spawn, THEN I am not pleased at all. And IF it turns out, as you predict, that he's much deeper and meaner and predatorious and maybe even a full vampire that goes total Mannfred on us, THEN there really isn't a complaint.
Frankly, I think we all want the same thing, for Astarion to be revealed as a mean psychopathic murder-machine that radiates danger, but you're confident that it will come and a lot of the rest of us are not quite as confident.
