But Astarion does have things to atone for, because... he starts out the game as a horrible person who believes horrible things and will do horrible things given the chance. He had no agency under Cazador, but he uses that to hide from responsibility now that he does have agency
I vibe with him being a corrupt magistrate who only cared about himself and fucked people over with his rulings, but when you have him wanting to be a vampire from the outset, and intentionally trafficking prisoners/using the courts to condemn innocents Cazador wants to get his hands on? That turns what happened to him into a twisted form of karma. And I personally find that very uncomfortable to imply given the scope of what he went through. I like the story of a shitty person becoming less shitty through the power of empathy, I don't like human trafficking from the outset.
Here is the fundamental difference in our opinions. I went to the game for this story.
For me, it's a story of poetic justice, but a punishment so evil and twisted that you sympathize and generally "join the dark side".
A brilliant idea.
I prefer to explore antagonists, evil characters, but with very complex morals.
Astarion, Lord Astarion are a perfect fit.
He thinks he's too far, but the developers notes also say it's to hold a ritual his "plan", and if you kill one spawn he'll scream that everything is ruined. A plan has to be planned, Astarion realizes it's a bloody price, goes far, but it's a price that must be paid, he had a plan to do it.
He also has the phrase "The only problem with Cazador is that he did this to me".
I don't like the idea of redeeming a complex evil character. (especially so abruptly)
That doesn't seem worthy of the theme of "redemption" to me, call it a "new path".
Redemption of his own character, meh, no.
And if Tav also wants power and continues to play the evil drow along with the spawn of Astarion and wreak havoc - this "redeeming bad qualities" makes no sense at all.
I'm pretty sure a detail like enjoying killing can't be fixed and redeemed - it's either vampirism or just Astarion.
The themes of the cycle of violence don't fit well with everything in general, in Faerun. It's impossible to leave this violence in a coterie as long as it's medieval Faerun, my opinion.
Especially for Astarion - Faerun hates the undead.
