You're right about the Ketheric comments and the Durge conversation- I remember I've used that line as a counter-argument to Astarion being that young before, but I also wasn't sure if he was doing elf humor or vampire humor. It at least sounds like elf humor though, and it is implying he was 100+ after death. I can't say for certain though.
It sounded more like elf humor to me too. That makes more sense to me here that he's implying he's over the age of 100 when he became a spawn.
The disparity might come from different writers, since I'm very confident the durge scene we're talking about was written by Welch. But Rooney has also been seemingly inconsistent about Astarion's age. Perhaps it was truly meant as an easter egg for Newbon's age when he started? A mystery for the ages.
The thing about the date on the tombstone is that it was written quite plainly on the devnotes, so it wasn't the tombstone artists' mistake or something- but IDK if they just very quickly wrote it. The tombstone reflects everything written on the devnote except a small difference in the surname- The devnotes say Ancunín, while the tombstone reads Ancunin. This is because the alphabet they used doesn't account for accents like that.
Yes, that sounds very possible -- maybe it was originally meant to be a little easter egg that they thought most people wouldn't even pay much attention to (I probably wouldn't have noticed the age on the tombstone myself or known how to translate it honestly). I really like the idea that they could have done this as a nod to Neil Newbon.:)
Ah, if was in the devnotes too, it probably wouldn't just be a random mistake. But then again, I guess they also got the current date (the year when the events of the game took place) wrong on there. So if the devnote was a mistake then the artist would have easily just copied it onto there, too.
The current game does seem to point at him having the same role as the other spawn except he was the most hated, but EA seemed much more extreme. I also got the idea Astarion was out of all the spawn the only or one of the only ones that hunted people, but he didn't talk about his siblings much so idk, I just found it weird he specified his role as a spawn back then.
There are things I prefer about full release and things I prefer about how I imagined the EA version would play out (which I of course can't know because I haven't seen what they were planning, I'm just trying to solve the puzzle here). I think the father/son abuse angle is better and more narratively cohesive, and that the siblings also being tortured is better, because it's silly to think they'd be content in those circumstances. However, I was very interested by the possibility of Cazador thinking he was doing a twisted version of justice by punishing Astarion- a whole "abuser becomes victim" kind of plot for Astarion. It would have made a lot of people heavily dislike Astarion, though. I also think Astarion's arc could've been more complete if his past evils had been addressed, like the OG version seemed to plan on doing. I have more complex thoughts on what I liked about the whole thing and how I imagined it'd play out, but I don't feel super coherent or articulate right now.
Hmm, I'm wondering too if that's why they kind of leaned away from pushing the backstory that he was a corrupt member of the elite in the past who had a hunger for eternal life and so on, in favor of him being a more sympathetic character to most players, perhaps. But like you said, it could have been interesting story-wise if Astarion himself had done evil things before, and then having it all be turned around on him when he becomes a slave to Cazador. Things like that could have added more layers to his story and yes it could have been interesting for him to look back and address his past in regards to that. I was personally interested in knowing if he had family before he became a spawn and what kind of relationship he had with them. As far as I know, throughout the game we don't meet any relatives of his or anyone who knew him before he got bitten. Although if he can't remember things like his old eye color, maybe previous family ties or his old life are fuzzy to him.
Thank you again for sharing those interesting facts!
