Personally, I really like Astarion's origin and choosing him as my avatar is my favourite way to play the game. For me his issues are mostly anxiety based and the game does a good job in giving you options to play/feel scared early on (The dream sequence about Cazador is excellent, though I wish there had been some more of the same impact.) while the companions do a good job in giving you confidence in yourself and telling you that you do not have to be scared and have friends who look out for you. So by the time the ritual rolls around, it is quite easy to step away from it - especially since the companions (the ones who do) do a much better job in talking you out of it than Tav does.
I feel that stepping away from the ritual with companion-Astarion, is a very lame scene. Yes, the crying is nice, but the decision making is boring because it solely hinges on the dice-roll, the dialogue that leads to this roll has no tension or drama. For Avatar-Astarion otoh it's an excellent scene because you can bully Cazador to the point of carving the runes and then at the last moment listen to your friends' pleas and break it off. Such a good scene.
As for romance, yes he does not have to seduce anyone, but that doesn't mean you can't approach it with the mindset that he feels that he has to. From this point of view I really enjoyed saying "no" to Lae'zel. For those who haven't romanced her, she is such a consent queen, that she asks you about three times if you really want to sleep with her and eventually picking the "No" option, feels like such a good replacement for the Araj scene because Lae'zel isn't even properly salty about it and her support doesn't hinge on sexual gratification. In the end, for me, Gale works best. The special Underdark ending Avatar-Astarion can have with human Gale is my favourite ending for the game in general and I just love the odd-couple energy the two of them have if Astarion is Avatar and Gale your slot 2 companion.
That's another point, Avatar-Astarion is slightly less on edge and concerned with being cool than companion-Astarion is. As Avatar he is much more excited about the world he gets to explore and him and Gale squabbling about loot, appreciating the efficiency of mushroom-zombies or coming up with stylish ways to kill themselves in case of starting ceremorphosis is just endlessly entertaining too listen to.
Edit: That is not to say that I don't have some issues with the origin, it has some narrative and pacing issues that don't work too well, for example you can fairly easily miss all of his unique scenes, by clicking the wrong option or biting someone too early. There'd be some things to iron out, but I didn't get the impression that's what this thread is about.
Last edited by Anska; 13/01/25 03:07 PM.
