I agree, somehow the writers seem to have decided for us that if you choose to Ascend Astarion than your character can't possibly love him. The question of whether an Ascended Astarion can return that love is an entirely separate issue. I think it's perfectly legitimate for Tav to have fallen in love with the darker side of Astarion's character from the start, and to prefer that aspect of him. This is roleplay. Characters should be able to have any number of motives driving them, pure and otherwise.
I really hate it they decided this for us. It's also unfair since apparently Durge can properly express their feelings for him during their own story, but not Tav. There are enough examples in the game that he does in fact return the love. It's just not the same puppy love like in Spawn Astarion path, but something darker. This is exactly how I roleplayed my Seldarine chaotic neutral drow who was trying to get away from the stereotypical evil drow character and create a new life on the surface for herself away from Lolth fanatics, but she still had that darkness inside her (life in the Underdark took a toll on her) that Astarion reignited and kept progressively stoking, until the ritual happened and there was no going back anymore. In fact, she was into him even more when he ascended. The confidence he gains is amazing and very appealing! From that moment on it's always 'we' and 'us' and I love that detail. In the end they both embraced their dark desires. And corrupted Gale in the process too, who even admitted he learned to enjoy the chaos, haha.
Originally Posted by melgreg
Yes, it's clear that Tav will never be an equal in Ascended Astarion's eyes, and they will never be free from him. Neither of those things suggest to me that the relationship would be passionless. To the contrary, a lot of his comments suggest that there's a great deal of attraction.
There's definitely a lot of attraction there. The game shows multiple times that he really enjoys being in the dominant position, so I'd say that the power dynamic actually adds to the passion.
Originally Posted by Nyloth
I think writers in this case do not like to write evil at all, because even in Durge preview, the introduction is "I have to get rid of dark impulses", and not "I have to figure this out" or "accept dark impulses". That is, the game automatically directs you to "fix" something. I have a lot of problems with any evil and morally questionable action in the game. The fact that evil players were deprived of content and were not given variably evil endings (for example rule with Gortash) shows.
Yeah, that is really crappy and shows they have a clear preference and want to steer the narrative according to it. I went for rule with Gortash option and was very disappointed how it panned out. I really wanted to see more of him, more political drama and how it affected the city.
Originally Posted by Nyloth
In early access, I expected Astarion to be some kind of villain who would burn down cities for you. But they did everything completely differently and presented it as "not freedom." (...) Like, I don't want to fix villains and turn them into the likeness of heroes. I want my characters to be evil couples! When they burn the world down for each other. Is it really that difficult?
I'm sad they almost completely cut his magistrate background. I also don't want to fix them, because I often prefer villains in fiction. Goody-two-shoes characters just bore me these days. I wish we saw more of the evil couple dynamics.
Originally Posted by t1mekill3r
Astarion has an unfair amount of content that you only get if you play as Karlach, which in my case is never. That kiss really should be available for Tav/Durge. It's beautiful.
I second that. It's just wasteful that the companion for who it makes no sense to end up with him actually has the hottest kiss. I wouldn't mind if they changed it and kept the newly added kiss for Spawnstarion and gave this one to the Ascendant.
Originally Posted by t1mekill3r
I imagine if the upper city had made it into the game, both versions of Astarion would've been better. And could cause some actual chaos.
