And very sweetly says, "You don't share!" with adorable animation And giggles after a sentence about watching you as an experiment.
Someone really needs to make a compilation of all of his laughs and giggles in the game. The dialogue that cracks me up is when he tells you 'if you continue to get between me and what I want, I will have to find a way through you'. I can't take him seriously when his threats sound so playful and seductive.
Originally Posted by Marielle
In BG3, the theme of self-sacrifice, I see, is presented from a much more realistic angle than we're usually used to seeing in games. You can get serious negative consequences, just like in life. As with Astarion, if he sacrifices himself for others, there is no "rosy fairy tale with a good ending". You have to think logically and do what is best and most beneficial for you. It seems that this makes the character "jump" back and forth from "good to evil", like a kind of "Jekyll and Hyde", but, damn it, it's much more like life, in which "justice" exists only in the form of an idea in people's imagination.
Very true. My chaotic neutral Tav was pretty "jumpy", haha. She ended up being neutral evil in the end, because Astarion was a bad, bad influence.
Originally Posted by Marielle
It's also interesting how the game managed to create a real image of the enemy (Cazador), which you really, really hate from the bottom of your heart, with all the resulting "bloody pictures in your head" in his address, really, the battle becomes a truly significant event.
Fortunately, we have a morbidly satisfying revenge scene with him.
What I find interesting is how different in tone the romance can be, depending on how you act. When you play as a good person, Astarion becomes more manipulative and tries to tug at your heart strings, speaks to your heroic, altruistic side, gets softer eventually. You often end up with longer conversations that turn into debates where he's defensive and emotional. When you're neutral, the dialogues have a smooth flow, he's at ease and shares his dark ideas more freely, but sometimes he's taking over the conversation, even sounding like he's talking to himself. And then when you're being evil you're both admiring each other's darkness, scheming together, he's making more provocative jokes, sounds sexier and more mischievous. He's very reactive and adjusts his behaviour to you.
In my game I didn't really see his soft side. In act 1 he was all about seduction, fun and manipulation. Then I had the post-Araj confession, which is more arrogant and spontaneous, and I was picking agreeable, supportive and neutral responses in general. In act 3 he got more agitated and aggressive before meeting Cazador, then ascension happened and he became even more insolent and hilariously savage. Frankly, when I first watched the spawn path outcomes I was surprised how gentle he was.
And giggles after a sentence about watching you as an experiment.
