Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion The romance with Astarion pulls you over to the "dark side".

I did one playthrough where I didn't romance Astarion, because it was my hot date achievement playthrough. Before doing this run, people made it seem like their platonic relationship with Astarion is so sweet after choosing the "maybe you need a friend" option during the confession, so I looked forward to seeing this evidence. And there was none. In fact, he seems indifferent towards you. He just needs you for Cazador and getting rid of the threat of becoming a mindflayer.

I think Araj in act 3 is kind of a fluke for people who don't romance Astarion, but it's there due to being a conclusion to the Araj encounter in act 2, despite the act 2 Araj encounter being tied to opening up his romantic partnering. It seems out of place for friend Astarion in act 3, where he's indifferent with everything else.

I noticed that as a friend... Astarion doesn't really care about you nearly as much as when romanced. Friend Astarion doesn't care if you become a mindflayer. Friend Astarion doesn't care if you take the Astral tadpole. Only when romanced does he try to keep you from transforming into a full or half mindflayer. When you get the choice to become a mindflayer, friend Astarion says "Oh darling I don't care, just flip a coin." For the most part, he'll consider for a moment others' plight, but then he'll dismiss it and move on. He only continues to care about himself and his romantic partner. I think during the game, Astarion always saw himself and the player as the smartest people in the group, which makes sense because vampire spawn have a superiority complex. He often thinks himself smarter than the player as well. When you mention to spawn Astarion at the epilogue party that your companions are doing terribly, he will momentarily express disappointment at that but then move on and become happy reflecting on how happy you and him are together. AA at the epilogue party further reveals that he believed the other companions were nothing without you two.