Speaking of the very OP here, I gotta say, I was quite saddened that Astarion's days as a magistrate weren't really fleshed out in the game itself. Like he mentions it once and that's it.

Same like you I do truly believe that there would be more to sink our teeth into in the Upper City had it not been cut.

One would argue that there are some leftovers of that in the game still, if you talk to the Magic Mirror in Bighted Village as Astarion, you get very very interesting dialogue options.

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His home, his real home was in the Upper City as far as I am aware. Imagine if we'd be able to visit it had Upper City not been cut. what would we find there?

But then again, Astarion went through a crapload of changes in the game... in EA his background originally was a noble, then if you look at the character sheets for Astarion (from the pdf Larian has provided together with the digital artbook) his background is listed as 'courtesan' which is very, very interesting. And obviously in the game itself there is no courtesan, so they gave him charlatan. It's almost as if Larian was quite conflicted on what to do with Astarion. But I quite agree, they mellowed him out a bit too much, I loved seeing 'Astarion disapproves' every 5min back in EA. Getting on his good side used to be really damn hard, in comparison to release.

Heck, I used to speculate that if someone, even romanced, was likely to betray our Tav, it'd be Astarion, especially if we kept on fully committing to 'good-two-shoe' decisions in the game. And imagine my surprise that the only way to truly turn someone against us on release is to support Minthara against Karlach and Wyll. That, and well, being Durge'iest of Durge's in act 3 (making Jaheira and Minsc really unhappy). Oh and the multitude of ways the game really wants to kill Lae'zel off.

But aside from all that Astarion couldn't be happier? Why? I really miss the old EA Astarion not gonna lie. Just like I miss the old Shadowheart. But that ain't the subject of this topic. wink

And when it comes to the entire Ascended vs Spawn debate, I am truly torn, cause I see both sides and like both sides too.

On one hand, if you take Astarion's word for it, he truly becomes an objectively better person if he doesn't go through the ritual, but on the other there's is that whole vampire dark fantasy if he does. Does he become a better, kinder person post Ascension? No. Would I trust him irl with such power? No. Should I apply my irl morals to a video game character that can swing both ways? No.

This entire debacle is really reminiscent of Twilight's Edward vs Jacob, and yes, I will admit, I like Twilight, it's trash but I like it for what it is. Or, The Vampire Diaries': Stefan vs Damon. Or True Blood's: Bill vs Eric. Or Buffy's: Angel vs Spike.

And now BG3 joins that entire dilemma with Spawn vs Ascendant, at least we don't have 2 separate characters fighting for our hearts, just one character with entirely 2 different character arcs he can go down.

And yeah, I believe these types of discussions will continue. It's in our human nature to pick sides, tribalism and all that. Us vs Them.

Just my 5 cents.