[quote=Innateagle][quote=Dexai]
Midnight Mass made the vampire look more dark, giving it the bat/demon look. Whereas, Astarion has more of appealing vampire look. Dracula didn't look hideous when romancing Mina or even vampires from Anne Rice' s Vampire Chronicles, they have an attractive, seductive look. Also, why do you view Astarion as a "murder hobo" ? Is it because he attacks you when you first meet when he assumed that you were responsible for what happened in the ship? That doesn't make him a murder hobo, that was a one time deal. As for him trying to drink your blood, he does tell you that he never intended to hurt you. I can understand that for him being a vampire, it's a must for him.
Sorry, I have to pitch in again. Astarion is a murder hobo, because he likes to murder people, simple as that. He says it multiple times. And you get disapproval, if you try to choose a solution, that avoids bloodshed. I would say, that he is at leas a wannabe murder hobo (wannabe, because you will mostly block him, when you play a good character).
And about Dracula (a pet peeve of mine, since I like the book so much) and generally 'traditional vampires':
Dracula doesn't have a romance with Mina - she is food for him. I'm referring to the original novel by Bram Stoker, there is no romance other than between Jonathan and Mina and Lucy and her suitors (I don't remember atm, if she decides on one of them). Dracula is actually really hideous and looks only slightly better, when he drank enough blood - again original Bram Stoker not Coppola (I'm actually mostly ok with the movie apart from the fact of the stupid romance plot that doesn't make sense) and he stinks of death (that one never changes).
The real vampire stories mostly aren't about some sexy tropes, but about often hideous creatures. I blame Bela Lugosi, who forever made Dracula a gentleman, I don't think, there was ever a book faithful adaption of the count afterwards - if you know Friedrich Murnaus Nosferatu - that is one of the more faithful adaptions. And I think, they did a decent job in portraying Dracula in Penny Dreadful (and vampires in general).
I'm mostly ok with how vampires are portrayed in games like Vampire the Masquerade, because they tried to fit every kind in and it is up to the people playing it, to decide, if it will become a horror story or a romance.
Midnight Mass is one of the few newer examples of vampires btw, I can get behind again. Another one is the book and movie 'Let the right one in'.
I'd say since Bela Lugosi played Dracula as an elegant gentleman, the sexy vampire trope was born, but it is a relative new development.
