Ascended Astarion With My Dark Urge Having A Cherry Jam Party

Ascended Astarion with my Dark Urge having a cherry jam party 🩸

I remember this post, it cheers me up every time. Thank you.

AA fans are suffering harder than Jesus.

You wanna have fun with your elven dracula but all that you see on the internet are:

1. Toxic variant of spawn fans who look down upon you

2. Crazy people who accuse you of rape and abuse apologism

3. The 'I like Ascended!Astarion but not like other girls who are delusional' fans

4. The 'Gortash/Orin/Raphael etc are better than cringelord ascended vampire' smug-ass crowd

AA fans y'all are so strong 🫡

Vampy possessive cat, decadent, cute and fun. Love him. Brushie

As a life long villain-fucker I just don’t relate to all the hand wringing over Ascended Astarion. Sorry but he’s not even the evilest or most deeply pathetic man I’ve ever wanted to peg.

vampire lord of avernus

gonna get back to this comic after i finish my durge run

Please, people, Astarion wasn't even written as a complete victim. Digital Artbook As far as I know it's " inactual", but it's go with the xbox in physical form. And I want to reason in a different vector. Astarion Decadent and Dangerous Two hundred years ago, Astarion was a corrupt elite of Baldur’s Gate with a taste for power and a hunger for eternal life.

Swen said 3 years ago about Astarion: „A disgraced nobleman who used his position as a local magistrate to serve a vampire clan by feeding them prisoners, he was eventually too corrupt even for them and was effectively sent to serve as the personal slave of a powerful vampire.” Let's omit it, because there's not much about it. But it happened once Artbook only. When a character you have a taste for eternal life - it's already a signal that he's not very heroic. Eternal life - more often than not has a big cost. Astarion was no fool not to realize that. And since he was corrupted - I'm sure he understood it perfectly well. That's why he contacted the vampire clan. And fell very painfully. The game is silent about his past now. (Maybe because Astarion as a magistrate couldn't get realized in the game without the Upper City) But if you start questioning the little vampire you suddenly become… "victim blaming" Heavens, no, not this again. The man is literally immoral, which is what Neil was talking about, too. He sold prisoners in the middle ages of fantasy, they either rotted in prison or awaited execution. But this act is not the kindest thing in the world. It's a dark gray character. You act like a bastard, but there's an even bigger bastard on top of you. And you either 1 - learn the "morally correct" lesson, or 2 - you seek to gain even more power, reinforcing your beliefs that power and strength will allow you to do whatever you want, and no one will dare to make a peep in your way. And 2 does make sense, because to me that's literally the meaning of Dark Fantasy - the dangerous world, the genre itself: an atmosphere of horror and dread. I guess you must to swear on blood that you are considering a character with this information - to say anything other than dogma. If the player wants his castle and power - Astarion approves this in Act 3 successfully too. He's a fictional vampire, you can say about him however you want and from whatever point of view you want.

Astarion was well aware always that power was a fun tool to have. That's why he was a Magistrate, it's still in the game.

We must have ONE evil male character for the "evil path" in this game, who is truly "Evil" in himself (among other things), deep inside, meaning he wants to take power, pleasure and kill on his own. That's Astarion.

Thinking about how Astarion constantly blames Cazador for taking things away (the eye color he forgot, the reflection he doesn't have, for turning him into a vampire) but it's like... it was his own choice to become a spawn. He makes it out to be as if he was given no choice - not true. Vampire lore is known in Baldur's Gate and I will assume here (and build on this) that it was known 200 years ago as well. With that logic - Astarion knew perfectly well what becoming a vampire will entail if not what will being a spawn to a vampire lord will.

So no, Cazador didn't take things from Astarion, he gave them up willingly for immortality and then didn't like that Cazador didn't pamper him like a spoiled brat. Vampires are evil aligned in dnd, it's a fact, Astarion must've known that it's not going to be wine and roses if he signs up and yet he still did. What that says about who he was before becoming a spawn? Quite a bit but that's not what I'm talking about here.

Point is - Astarion rarely takes any accountability for being a vampire, for choosing to be a vampire and blames everyone and everything for his own choices. Cazador didn't take away things, Astarion surrendered them. How Astarion is presented to Tav is through a very human lens and that's why he succeeds making people hate Cazador. But I have been fan of vampires since I was a little kid, my perspective is simply this - he is pathetic as a spawn, he rebels after he doesn't like what he himself signed up for and when he gets punished for it he again blames Cazador for doing what a vampire lord just... simply does - manages his spawn to keep them in toe. Yes, Cazador is awful even by vampiric standards but it just shows that he's not a great leader of his coven lol. Maybe he's only this much sadistic because he has no other way to control the spawn. But I digress.

My point is - whole sob story Astarion presents and that so many fans eat right out of his palm is him refusing to take accountability for his own choices. And that's why ascension is something he desires and will achieve if not talked out of by Tav (with a dice roll when helping him right away requires none of that iirc). He wants power and he wants freedom and again, by vampire standards he's just getting what every vampire desires, there's no amorality involved because morals are already shady at best for vampires as a whole. The whole discourse about Astarion ascending or not literally only comes from human houlier-than-thou attitudes and ignoring that yes, Astarion is an awful person from the very beginning. I mean who attacks you with a fucking knife when you have your back turned? Even Lae'zel faces you upfront. Who attacks you in the night for blood instead of talking? His excuse is lame too "oh you would've staked me" and finding him bent over tav's sleeping form with horrible intentions would not lead to that? You even have an option to stake him several times during the whole scene. He's deceptive, manipulative and he will weasel and lie in every interaction to protect himself. He's not your little meow meow or whatever, he's a vampire. And Astarion himself says that he would trust a devil over a vampire any day.

So all the girlies who think Astarion is this cuddly prince that suddenly becomes a monster the moment he's allowed to become who he always was meant to be just get a reality check. He isn't changed, he's just showing his true colors and finally coming into power that he craved for so long (not ascension per se, just power in general and ascension gives him ultimate power). Does he deserve it - that's another matter. But he craves it and needs it. To quote Astarion himself: "Because those with power can do whatever the Hells they want."

And he's right.

Twat-Soul my beloved <3 Nere things