Originally Posted by Ametris
They've turned it into rainbows and unicorns, without mentioning any of the inconveniences Astarion has to deal with after losing the tadpole - in the romanced version that is. At least the Underdark and Ascended endings have more realism. I agree, he becomes too nice and loses his snarkiness.

I agree he's too nice (moreso in the final battle than in the epilogues, where I think they've toned it down) but regarding the loss of the tadpole in the Spawn ending I do quite like what they've done with the vampirism metaphor. The way he talks about it in his adventurer (and I think in the underdark ending as well? I can't remember if he also talks about it) it struck me as they're making vampirism be a metaphor for trauma/being a trauma survivor in the way Astarion worded it. He says doesn't want to obsess over the choices people have made for him but isn't also disavowing the sun, and if the opportunity arises, he will take it. So basically, much like trauma survivors, he can't "erase" the pain that's been inflicted to him, but he can grow around it. I found that interesting.

I will say something about the Underdark ending rubbed me the wrong way, but I just honestly don't think Astarion should be anyone's leader especially at this point of his life lol. Him making "brutal examples" of people attempting to overthrow him and that he can't "afford to show weakness" struck me as a bit contradicting of everything else he says throughout the spawn route. Since the spawn ending makes him so (overly) wholesome at times it was kind of jarring for him to employ abusive displays of power like that. I'm not against him being capable of or employing cruelty at all, my favorite Astarion moments are when he stabs Gandrel and strangles Petras, but the spawn arc making him too sweet at times made those lines seem inconsistent/OOC. I guess it does open up the opportunity for another arc for him to develop, but I think the adventurer ending is more fitting for him since he's too selfish to chain himself to a colony of spawn.