Good Boy

Good boy

a!astarion palace opium den real

like the french back in 18th century, VERSAILLES STINK so bad because there's not enough plumbing and bath, also people thought that water carries disease perfume was basically a mandatory

But if ascended then astarion would no longer stink of the undead

friendly reminder that vampires are undead and probably stink really bad and astarion covers his stench with a butt load of perfumes

W Astarion and consort keep taking W!

it seems ascended astarion fans won again <3

mmmh not bad!

The gravebird armor makes Dane's footwork stronger so it's kind of mandatory? I'm glad it looks so good on Shia.

People really don't get why the kisses are being changed to a more neutral state and it shows. It's the same reason the reactions from the companions to Spawn Astarion being burned by the sun are being tweaked: It breaks immersion and doesn't vibe with the stories being told.

For the burning reactions: These people have been traveling with Astarion the entire time. They would have warmed up to him enough to not want to see him in pain. He fought beside them, slept at the same fire, kept his word about not attacking them, and was with them through their own trials with his own commentary, just like the rest of the companions were for him. He's an ally, not some prick who just walked off the street at the end of the game. He's their prick. Larian wants a connection between the companions due to epilogue stories so, of course, they're going to change it to better match those situations.

For the kiss reactions: Might I remind you that Astarion has done absolutely nothing to earn fearful gazes from his consort, you know, the person who actually had a hand in his ascension? The person who enabled him up until that decision was to be made and strung him along so they could keep his approval up through his manipulation? His ACCOMPLICE?! How can you say changing it goes against the story Larian is trying to tell when they haven't given a single canon reason for Tav to fear him? That's like giving Tav a fearful gaze when they kiss Spawn Astarion. You NEED a reason for your character to look or feel a certain way when you are telling a story. This is as basic as basic gets when it comes to creative writing. You need the WHY and it needs to be coherent to the situation. You need CONTEXT. Hell, I learned this back in elementary school!

It may fit the way some may personally feel about Ascended, but it does not fit any narrative that Larian has put out and these people will have to move past that to see that there's no real connection there. Ascended needs to actually DO something horrible TO Tav to earn those facial expressions for them to track. It's not like Tav just suddenly decided not to trust him for no reason. The elf is practically a Saturday Morning cartoon villain when he ascends with no intentions of repeating what Cazador did to him to Tav. He doesn't even do anything to Tav in the epilogue past "wanting to make sure they live the best life", you know, one of the reasons people choose to Ascend him for? The dark romance with a vampire lord-husband? Because fantasy RPG that people use to escape real life for a short time? You know there are multiple paths and takes with this game, right? Not just one?

You know, if Larian WANTED to make Ascended into more of a monster toward Tav, they definitely would have written him more on par with Cazador instead of making him a dark, doting husband for them. They aren't incapable of dark-as-hell stories with fucked up situations. LOOK AT ORIN AND BHAAL IN GENERAL. ASTARION HIMSELF. That should be where people's focus should lie if they want to play the "story Larian intended" card and actually pay attention to it, not to their own biases. I've seen three people today try to pull that one and I just face-palmed. It's just... wow.