Originally Posted by Marielle
Oh, thank you! Astarion is fascinating in his rivalry, very curious to see some of his lines on that. It's unlikely I'll ever get them in-game, I'll definitely always have Gale in a secondary role and the rivalry doesn't make much sense to Astarion, but the way he acts while doing so is just gorgeous! <3 The video where Tav picks Gale is sad... But Astarion gave a good characterization of Gale. smile And by the way, in Act 1, Astarion talks about having standards, he refuses to have any kind of “threesome”.

Astarion is definitely the most savage when talking about romanced Gale, the utter contempt in his voice when he pronounces Gale's name and calls him a limp passion is particularly memorable. When he's involved in a love triangle with every other companion he's somewhat understanding and can see then appeal, but with Gale there is nothing but pure disdain.

Originally Posted by jessiemeows
In my personal headcannon and what I've written in my fanfic is that Astarion is actually a very jealous person. He probably never knew that about himself until he met my OC/Durge Eris. Basically he got extremely jealous every time one of the companions flirted with her. It wasn't until Eris & Astarion got together at the tiefling party was when everyone sort of stopped trying to bang Eris lmao except for Gale. He would keep flirting with her, mainly because he never really got the hint that Eris and Astarion were basically together. Mainly because they would hide their kisses from everyone and although Astarion pretty much ends up living in her tent after the tiefling party he would leave her tent early in the morning bc Eris didn't want to upset Gale and his explosive in his chest lmfao. But that's basically why I can see my Astarion hating on Gale every chance he gets.

Sorry for my little tangent about Eris and Astarion they low-key live rent free in my head.

I agree that he's in fact a very jealous person. I don't think it's a coincidence that there are multiple options in the game to question him about that. He just loves the attention and doesn't like being someone's second best, there's also the matter of his insecurity and being new to experiencing love himself. In the dialogue where you ask him about Halsin and say you're surprised about Halsin's proposition, Astarion admits to have seen the druid being horny for Tav since the grove itself, and therefore low-key having agonised over the fact that the offer was bound to be brought up eventually.
I also really like him being so proud and triumphant during the epilogue party when he says that it's good the others (including potential previous lovers) are seeing him and Tav together side by side. smile

It's a real shame they removed the option where Gale tries to steal Tav. This and Larian moving Gale's romance scene to act 2 makes him pretty blind to the affair, while everyone else can clearly see there's something going on. In my playthrough during the grove party, Lae'zel was salty my Tav's bedroll was already occupied, and Karlach wanted to gossip about her and Astarion. SH can also have lines where she clearly notices the romance. Then Gale pronounced his love in act 2, completely ignoring the fact my Tav was with Astarion. Then at the dock, he also invited her to the heavens to be with him (ignoring her vampiric marriage), and in the epilogue told her she could still ascend and perhaps wield the new type of magic of his eventually. He also acknowledged Tav's immortality, saying they have an eternity to chat (and making Astarion even more jealous). wink

I also think Astarion is not hiding the romance from the others, after all he gloats over the fact the rest must have heard them the morning after the first night together and never shows any hint of embarrassment when flirting with Tav in public. They also finally debugged these banters:



I HC'd Gale knowing about Tav and Astarion, but naively thinking he could ignore it and downplay it as something not serious and that Tav would still choose him. Then he got a bit more confident at the end of the game and wouldn't mind annoying Astarion from time to time, especially if Tav decided to pray to him. Heck, he could even make Tav his Chosen if they were particularly close. shadowheartgiggle

If Tav got killed one day, I believe he'd want to snatch their soul before any devil could (because I'm sure after seeing Astarion's hellish interests, he and Tav would get an offer from one of them). All in all, God Gale gives a lot of interesting prospects for the future.