Ascension should be the bad ending, Astarion has to kill several thousands of innocents in order to become stronger. Such a sacrifice should and did take its toll on his mental state, further worsening his urge to control both his fate and the fates of others.
However. Not ascending him does leave a bad taste in your mouth for two reasons at least:
1. Him remaining a vampire spawn comes with its downsides, one of which is the inability to stay under the sun. Through the course of the game Astarion has a chance to bask in the sun, has other privileges he'd been missing for many decades, and now that the tadpole is gone, everything is ripped away from him again. He has to come to terms with the consequences of his decision, and instead of focusing on that, the game ending plays it off as a joke. It would be great if that scene was somehow balanced.
2. Him not ascending means we have 7k+ vampire spawns going to the Underdark. These are not self-sufficient, strong-willed creatures, we're talking 7k+ tormented souls without any training or experience whatsoever wandering freely somewhere out there. There are numerous ways to get to the surface in Act 1 alone, imagine how many of those 7k+ will eventually climb up and succumb to their hunger. It's an entire evil army we can't even control... Releasing them is considered a good action, but it's stupid as hell, I can't understand why everyone just agrees with it and never brings it up again. Make it not 7k+ at least, that's way too much xd
Last edited by Dotsat; 02/09/23 04:36 PM.
