I do not see Astarion as necessarily a bad person, as his actions are mostly driven out of fear of Cazador rather than his ambitions. His search for power, not liking wasting time on helping peasantry and such are all the result of his fears because he under no circumstances wants to return to him as a slave again. It's why he is so jumpy all the time and has outbursts.
He did afterall spend the last 200 years being tortured and starved on a daily basis. That kind of mental and physical torture would mentally break people, so if anything I admire Astarion for keeping his sanity and remaining semi-decent. No denying he is changed slightly for the worse and self-centered, but realistically that kind of torture would create a murder hobo who would never trust anyone again. Like a badly mishandled dog that bares its teeth at anyone who tries to approach it with love and care because it no longer trusts humans. Yet with time they grow to trust once again.
So I see him just as I saw Sebille. An innocent elf taken against their own will through clever machinations and enslaved to be used as a tool to do inhumane things. Who naturally end up broken, jumpy and untrustful because of it, but they slowly start to open up more and get to show their true selves to the world eventually once the emotional wounds are healed. Sebille went from cold and distanced deadly assassin to an affectionate good-willed puppy by the end of the story.
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I also do not see Lae'zel as bad either. Considering her teachings and culture, she is actually doing splendidly all things considering. Like her remarks about her cutting our tongue out for interrupting her or skewering Zorru. People might think of these as shallow jokes or threats or think it is her personality speaking, but they in fact show her morals by breaking protocol and Githyanki customs. By Githyanki standards she is quite merciful, respectful and nice and gives us leniency when it comes to not understanding her. She even grows to like us and admire us as time goes by, especially if we take interest into her culture. Not to mention she already in Act 1 starts seeing Faerun slightly different than when she first arrives.
That's how I view things as well. Well put (although, I wouldn't compare people to animals but at the end of the day, the comparison works 😅).
I do like to have my Tavs being inspired by Astarion, for the reasons that you've pointed out. You can even find an agreement with him after the infamous bite scene. So, he's not without reason. After that, he stays on his best behavior (unless the player controls him to not to do that, of course). That, and, I find him fun to have around. I really like this type of eccentric characters ^^
Plus, DAO and DA2 taught me to give a pass or two to murderous elf boys. Their stories are worth it 😅 (I guess the same could be said about Sebille in DOS2 but I haven't finished the game yet).
Same for Laez'el. Her beliefs are rooted in her culture but she's not that monochrome either. I wholeheartedly love how she's perplexed/confused when she finds herself agreeing with us. And I will always respect honest/truthful characters. Evil or not, at the end of the day, you know what's she's thinking and where she stands because she's very blunt about it.
So yeah I honestly do not think any companion so far is evil or bad. Neutral at best, but they are so misunderstood and judged way too quickly.
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What I am trying to say is; people can change and it's too early to judge them. In Larian games some start as douchebags and slowly become fantastic likeable people that are like family by the end of the game.
This. A 100% this!
We've deviated from the original topic, yet still, the whole discussion is quite interesting.
Agree, but also, technically we are talking about the potential fates of the companions, which is something being kept secret by Larian 😈
