My next playthrough - Miya Soral, Mephistopheles Tiefling wizard - I like the Faust story (both from Goethe and the medieval story), so I wanted of course my Tiefling be a from the Mephistopheles line. I might try the Astarion romance with her, even though I'm not a fan of that companion. But he has a lot of fans, so I thought, I see, what all the fuss is about.
You should always check the health of any potential partner's teeth before getting involved with them, and Astarion's mouth is in excellent shape for a 200+ year old dude. Excellent choice.
Well, I'm not that excited - as I said, I'm not a fan of Astarion. My goto romance normally is Shadowheart, first was Wyll and with my githyanki Gale. The problem with Wyll and Gale is, that you have competition in form of a cambion and a goddess. SHadowhearts romance is quite sweet for such a queen of thorns. Astarion gets a bit on my nerves 'ooohhh - look, I'm a brooding vampire and I'm eeeviiil' . He has some funny lines sometimes though. And you can punch him a lot
You can also "leave wordlessly" whenever he spazzes out and he will react -- the other companions don't do that.
Astarion is half brooding revenge-fueled chaotic rogue and half gossipy grandmother. And who doesn't love a gossipy auntie with a grudge? Wyll has a lot of potential, but after hearing Myzora's datamined voicelines I think I like her better than him, she sounds super-fun, cunning and down-to-earth. Gale's romantic path gets on my nerves because of the way it's framed -- the man is clearly infatuated with a goddess and unlike Wyll is not very honest about how that is more dangerous for the party than the ticking time bomb he carries, and unlike Astarion he's not even honest about his dishonesty. However, the thing that turned me down the most was his holier-than-thou speech after Mayrina's quest.
His voice actor is excellent though; all of them are.
