Originally Posted by LiryFire
The last thing I understand in this world is - Why does Astarion fear Tav, after choosing the goblin side?
I chose the "path of evil", with a man for the "path of evil" and now Astarion is afraid of evil? Nonsense.
That can't be, ince would need to be rewrite the whole character from 0, since he has lines about "massacre" even in act 3.
He approves too much in Act 1 to be afraid of Tav, for a little terror in the grove. Which he himself wants and calls it fun.

It's just... incredible.

Astarion does NOT approve of you taking the side of the grove, Astarion is initially in favor of getting inside the cult (i.e. going for the "evil" version of the walkthrough). He approves of so much "fun" bloody, evil, and even violent action in the first chapter that it's just incredibly stupid and a concrete "breaking" of character.

Originally Posted by LiryFire
I love that duality, he's a fancy and he's an absolute predator.

Exactly. The duality and multifariousness of the image and makes the character of Astarion unique. The developers themselves presented BG3 as a game in which, among other things, there will be a full-fledged opportunity to "play for evil", and without a real "evil" romance this opportunity cannot be called full-fledged.

Originally Posted by LiryFire
It takes too much rewriting to make it sound like Astarion is afraid of Tav, who does what he "approves" of meta, and dialog. Seriously, just bring back the release or explain it, and that he's afraid of Tav I won't believe, that he's afraid of the drow I will believe... barely.

Astarion does not like cowards, he always approves of brave and decisive actions, such behavior is completely uncharacteristic of him.

Originally Posted by LiryFire
Act 1 and Astarion in it � is a complete masterpiece, if anything should be rewritten it's Act 3.

Totally agree. The second act is also very good, all the flaws in the storyline that could have been fixed are solely in the third act.

Originally Posted by LiryFire
Astarion is an "evil" character, I love exploring complex "evil", complex, logical motivation for "evil" - and Astarion has it. Not popular, yes, "the evil path", but if Astarion wasn't like he was in the first act... Who knows if he'd be popular.

It's the fact that Astarion is evil that makes it possible to create that inimitable "wow effect" of suddenly starting a romance with him for someone who started out playing a good character. When he first floods you with disapproval, you don't count on any romance, you just think about how to make a deal with him so that he at least doesn't go into the "red zone of disapproval", doesn't quarrel with you and doesn't leave your camp sooner or later. Like after the bite, you start to understand him, think about him, and then - a whirlwind of events and ... bang! Astarion himself comes to you at night and starts a romantic relationship. This "exploding bomb effect" is only possible with Astarion's character, not with any other.

Originally Posted by LiryFire
There is a belief that the game will be different in 2 years thanks to patches and guessing definitive.

Damn, I'm afraid of patches now.... How can you "work on the game" so much that the player starts to fear patches?

I can't get out of my head all these "alarm bells" and facts of Astarion's deteriorating image that regularly pop up here and there. I hope I'm just being paranoid as hell, but I'm afraid of how the Larians are planning to make Astarion's image "comical". The kind of "funny aggressive loser" that you can "piss off" and "laugh" at his reactions. And that disgusting "good ending scene" fits into that too. I hope this doesn't happen, because it would be very painful, and I won't be able to buy any more games by this studio after this, no matter what graphics and story they promise there. I hope it's just paranoia....

Regarding creating a separate thread on this topic - maybe you have any suggestions for a thread title? (I can suggest "Fix the problems - don't fix the perfection. Dear Larian, please no need to make Astarion "less evil"). And how to move posts from one thread to another? (I'm very new to the forum and don't fully understand all the technicalities).

One life, one love - until the world falls down.