That is such an interesting point. Although since the abuse with a romanced A. Astarion only happens if the player requests a kiss, I think it simply serves to show how disjointed Astarion's character became with Patch 6. He communicates with the player quite normally outside of those kisses.
Since looking at the interview with Mx Welch I think maybe there is an element of seeing the player as a thirsty person using the romance to satisfy their kinks, therefore the more kinks Larian put in the game, the better.
Regardless of whether my speculation is right, what Larian have done with Patch 6 is make A.Astarion completely inconsistent as a character. And at the same time, they are railroading the Player Character into being aligned to 'good' and suffering because of their love. Loss of player autonomy should not happen in an RPG and ruining a well-written character just to get another kink on the game's 'bingo card' is completely the wrong direction to go in, in my opinion.
Yes, Astarion seems so inconsistent that one can only logically explain such behavior by the presence of mental illness. And Tav has some kind of illness too, definitely. Yes, in other places they make sometimes sour faces too, but that can be explained by some sort of facial muscle control issues. Tav also “forgets”, doesn't try to discuss with Astarion his “bouts of sudden kissing sickness”, behaves normally in the rest of the plot and... asks for a kiss again. It turns out that the characters themselves don't suffer from this, they don't remember anything, and live in some special reality of their own, in which, perhaps, they are fine. Only the player who has to watch this psychiatry suffers, especially if they try to associate themselves with their Tav.
It feels like there's really an element of player perception here (perhaps a product of the thinking of the fandom in which the writer revolved), and even a peculiar example of “player inventing”. That is, not only is the game character prescribed, but also a player who fits the story. Oh, and this fictional sexualizer is supposedly not going to like it either. Well, from the looks of it, it should. The part of the fandom that treated Astarion with love and warmth suffered because of their love. They didn't understand the idea, didn't want to neutralize him and keep the world safe from him. You don't care about “the world's suffering” from the presence of a proud Ascended Vampire - suffer yourself. Maybe some part of the fanfiction audience likes the idea of suffering. And the “good way” at the same time began to seem like the only true solution against this background. I remember that when I got over the initial shock and pain after those kisses, my thought was, “Now how can I defend Astarion against all of this, there are no arguments left....” Literally that same day or the next, there was a wave of hate towards AA fans. But even the violence in this novel is so poorly spelled out that a trivial application of logic allows one to understand all these unsophisticated mechanisms for creating an “abusive history”.
I had it like this: I want the crown - yes, listen to Mistra, but don't talk about plans, take the crown - God's bottom line is Gale
I want the crown - no, listen to Mistra, but don't talk about plans, take the crown or give the crown to Mistra - Gail gives up the crown.
I may have missed some more dialog, but either way, agreeing is god, but, if you talk him out of it, it's just Gail.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this is not the case with Astarion. You can indulge him all the way through about the ritual and then just talk him out of it. Or vice versa, talk him out of it all the way and then help him. There is no player influence on Astarion.
Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly how I talked to him about the crown, there were too many other mind-filling events going on. I guess I tried to choose something as neutral as possible, so that he would decide for himself, but I could have started to talk him out of it, I wasn't disappointed in “goodness” back then, I don't remember exactly. I definitely suggested he talk to Mistra, but not tell her about the plans. I'll pay attention to that next time. With SH a similar story in act 3, I thought she wanted to let her parents go on her own, then I was told about the chain of events that need to be activated for her to want to save them on her own. Astarion concretely wants to perform the ritual, regardless of the player's actions. The only thing that depends on the player's actions and their relationship to Astarion, as far as I know, is the difficulty of rolling a persuasion check to dissuade him.
Edit: I just wanted to add, that while I love Astarion, I also occasionally want to strangle him or at least thunderwave him of a cliff into a camp of gnolls along with Shart and Wyll. But alas, evocation wizardry prevents such measures, so I have to pet him with one hand, while using the spray-bottle with the other.
And I will respectfully remind you, that nowhere did I say, I don't like Astarion, just that he is an insufferable brat in act 1 , which even a lot of hardcore Astarion fans agree upon.
I btw did his romance - as resisting Durge with spawn Astarion and that was a very fitting romance scenario. I started that romance, because I read, that there is a lot more content to his romance with resisting Durge and tbh,yes, it was really great, there were some really deep dialogue options. He is btw much nicer in act 1 if you are Durge and struggling, because he recognises the similarities between you two.
Okay, I take that back, it's not at all necessary to directly genuinely love and understand a character to have a romance with them. I've had “for interest” romances in some games too, including creating male Tavs to better reveal an interesting female character.
In the first act, Astarion begins to communicate with the world for the first time after two hundred years of slavery and torture. He understandably distrusts no one, including the player. The vivid manifestations of his character speak just to the strength of his personality, to the fact that he could not be broken. Much more logical and likely behavior for a person with PTSD in his shoes would be to be very quiet, to keep to themselves, not to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves, certainly not to argue, but to show more of a semblance of approval. Observe and keep a dagger behind his back or always have a plan in case of escape. Astarion is too lively and escpressive for that. That he regularly raises his voice is typical behavior for someone who has not been listened to before and subconsciously believes he is not being heard. The fact that he doesn't care about the people around him - no one has cared about him, and if they once did, he's forgotten, he doesn't know what it's like. He's trying to survive and get anything he can get his hands on.
At first I thought he was a bit “mean”, but it was quite cute, I thought it was because he was an evil companion, but after the bite scene I understood everything perfectly. In BG2, for example, evil companions also did not chew snot, and very well mocked not only the good members of the party, but also the player themselves, if you did good - stupid, in their opinion, actions. There, by the way, the behavior of companions was written more realistic, they could easily kill each other. And not only to leave the party, but also to ambush you at the moment when you will be weakened after the battle, to ambush you, attack and take revenge for something. In BG3, I didn't like the idea of companion slaves because of larvae from the start to be honest, I just turned a blind eye to it. The player is a king and god (and also a “teacher of life”) can do whatever they want, the companion can't leave, or else they will get into trouble, they can't even try to take revenge, they can only argue in vain. I have always liked companions with character, who do not suck up, obey unquestioningly and approve everything, but on the contrary argue and throw some challenges, the more interesting it becomes to earn friendship or love and trust. In particular, I like Lae'zel's behavior in Act 1, when she tries to dominate, bend the player, you prove leadership, and then over time because of your actions, she begins to respect you. And when you tell her the truth, she yells at you, yet approves. And I, as a hardcore fan of Astarion, well, including as a fan of classic RPGs, who has seen more than that (go with Viconia, especially a good hero, you will learn a lot of interesting things about yourself) will never agree that in the first act he is an “insufferable brat”.
