What I See When I Look At Ascended Astarion:

What I see when I look at Ascended Astarion:

What other people see when they look at ascended Astarion:

What I see when I look at ascended Astarion:

Ascended Astarion holding his Consort's cute face! :3

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1855819

All cheeked up! From littlekittenamy on twitter <3

Aeterna Amantes. Lovers forever, until the world falls down. ♡

"For one, DnD vampires completely lose their humanity and themselves."

SPAWN ARE VAMPIRES. You cannot use the classic dnd rule of all vampires have no humanity for bg3 because otherwise spawn astarion wll be a heartless monster too, i feel like people who insist that spawns are not vampires are the people who cannot admit they like a bastard out of fear fandom might judge their moral

I don't care if you prefer ascended Astarion but to say that's his happy ending is ridiculous!

For one, DnD vampires completely lose their humanity and themselves. The thing they desired in life (or even as a spawn) will always become an unhealthy obsession that they can never satisfy. Astarion desired safety over anything else, if he ascends he will chase after safety for the rest of his existence and nothing he does will ever actually make him feel safe. He's also genuinely incapable of love.

Also, the game makes it so painfully clear that it's his bad ending when he's actually ascended:

You can READ HIS MIND and hear that he thinks tav is desperate and stupid for loving him because he will never return that love; he sees them as a possession

He is constantly talking about owning tav and showing them off in ways that are, quite frankly, really creepy and gross

He also talks about how he wants tav to be completely obedient to him

THERE WAS A WHOLE UPDATE WITH NEW KISSES ADDED TO SHOW THE WEIRD POWER DYNAMIC HE CREATES, HE'S ABUSIVE AND POSSESSIVE AF

If you don't ascend him he thanks you for not letting him go through with it because he was just caught up in the moment and that is not what he actually wants

Of course, play the game however you want and enjoy what you enjoy. But if you think for a single minute that ascending Astarion is his ideal ending and he won't just become the next Cazador and tav the next Astarion, you're missing the entire point of his story. If you're going to play a tragedy, enjoy it for being tragic instead of pretending its a quirky dArK rOmAnCe story. Romanticizing abuse ain't cute

Vampire Ascendant Astarion x Astaroth (Tav)

picrew.me/en/image_maker/2317684