enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2024
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I have anxiety and love horror. It's a good way to deal with it. That's why act 2 is my favourite part of the game, you are basically in Lovecrafts wet dream. And yes, it is good and healthy to separate fantasy and reality, but stories can help people to deal with quite a bit. Stories is a good way to deal with it, I heartily agree. That said, I prefer to play good in BG3,since I just like too many NPCs. But imo, if you want, you can call Astarion out quite a lot. He will not always acknowledge it or react like a toddler, but he is changing. His conversations are more friendly and he starts approving, if you help people, has different banter and is generally more open minded. He is an evil character, but he can go one way or the other, depending on what he takes from the group. If I'd ever do an evil playthrough ( maybe after patch 7), I would use Astarion for that for sure. I think I do see what you mean, thinking about my latest playthrough I got spawn dialog from him after accepting Bhaal and it really did not suit him as ascended. Huge difference. But I think it is a bit up to interpetation from the player if he is "unhappy spawn", pretending to be good or "corrupted ascended", any trace of goodness destroyed forever. I can see how both can be true for different players headcannons. And is generally why I'm not that keen on discussing what is true of those two, because I think it wholly depends on the player. Or after ascension when he is told that one tyrant replaces another, when he honestly admits it. (Which I do really like! It shows he is very self-confident and don't feel the urge to lie or to hide. Or he doesn't even take it as a critical comment). If he could have been called out on other occasions, he would have responded in the same way, I would assume.
Apart from the spawn route, which I don't like for certain reasons, I think Astarion's reactions are mostly pretty brilliantly made and, thank God, he doesn't lose his narcissistic traits in the ascending route. I agree with you, I really like that part too, he feel so honest to me at that point. But I've always been very mistrusting of overly good characters, less so of openly bad characters. Although I will say I never trusted Astarion once in my first playthrough, not until he said he gave Tav a drop of his own blood. I can imagine Astarion being a bit annoying if you are strictly playing a good Tav, much as Karlach is a bit annoying on a evil one. No, for me, not at all, but I have my own taste. The only thing, which sometimes was a bit annoying, when playing a good Tav, is, when he disapproves on your good choices. But he never said annoying things, on the contrary, he showed a great interest in my naive and shy Tav (even without much approval) and so he seduced him really early in the game, and before the party. I loved that. It was well done by Larian. I was mainly thinking of the constant disapproval. Everyone is so different, I would not want to downplay anyones choices in game. I can totally see the allure with having a good Tav falling for Astarion who "corrupts" them. Honestly it was kind of my first playthrough! Although my Tav lost much of their shy, naive nature by Act 3, hehe. As for gaslighting, never felt that. I think this word from the op is a strong one and probably has a negative connotation, I think what we see in the game is a stylistic device in making an evil character interesting and loveable. Like, the game or story doesn't focus or calls out so much on Astarion's evil behaviours, and it's surely not made in a negative, but in a positive way or thought: To create an evil character, which can be liked and romanced by players. Also in movies and other fiction, when the intention is to create a villain, people but should sympathize with them or should find them very interesting (sooner or later), they for example would probably not focus on the suffering of the victims. Because if the focus would be too much on the victims and you would feel empathy with them, you would not sympathize with the villain and start to disgust him, at least, the majority. But using this stylistic device doesn't mean, that people, who indeed like the villain, would not recognize this, most people know and understand, what's right and wrong. You say it very well. I agree if the focus was more on the victims without knowing him too much his part in the story would be very different. I still don't feel "gaslit" because the story makes it very clear he is evil or at least someone you should watch out for. It's why I found him so interesting on my first playthrough. "Why is he so shady? What is he hiding?"
Last edited by KiraMira; 14/07/24 05:44 PM.
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