Great Points!Astarion Only Follows The Rules Of Astarion.How Ascended Astarion "taken" Autonomy Away

Great Points! Astarion only follows the rules of Astarion. How Ascended Astarion "taken" autonomy away from Tav when my Tav pressed "Yes" with all her might to "Be His Forever". It was pretty clear. He was given everything. Their dynamic is completely different - true. Even if playing drama-angst-Tav their dynamic is different. And there are answers for Tav "power couple villains"

Vellioth left Cazador impaled for eleven years. I bet Cazador felt he was being very kind by only leaving Astarion in the tomb for one year. and I bet Ascended Astarion believes he’s being very kind, giving Tav everything and letting them sit by his side, even if he’s taken away their autonomy.

Beautiful. An interesting and refreshing point of view. Thank you. The romance with the Ascended Astarion is a complex nice dynamic and can be played very differently. My Tav will be sad if Astarion isn't watching. My Tav is probably pretty obsessed as well. It really depends on Tav.

I'm always watching - Ascended Astarion

Acended Astarion seems like a complex relationship dynamic between the characters him and Tav, especially when Astarion has ascended. In this state, he exhibits a certain obsession towards Tav. He watches her/him, stays close, and loves her intensely. Although he still seems to be himself, there's a hint of increased ambition or power hunger. Nevertheless, his primary desire is Tav, and the obsession and scrutiny provide him with a sense of security. The toxicity of this behavior depends on Tav's character.

Even after a breakup, Astarion continues to love and miss Tav. He appears to be internally conflicted, and his thoughts might sound something like:

"Keep you close to me. I long to for you. I need you. I can give you everything you need."

These lines express a mix of longing, love, and the acknowledgment of the need to give Tav the choice, reflecting the potential for the relationship to be perceived as toxic or not, depending on Tav's response.

Like he said Karlach "And I eat you heart, fire girl"

King of Hearts 🩸

I agree, I love the dark side of all Astarions so much. Asc Astarion is good. I'll say this. Asc A is one of the best characters I've seen. Asc is not an evil-sphere. He can even do something good. Because it was like that from Act 1.

Already the writers have said that his evil side has intensified, and it always has. Reinforced why? 1 - Devil magic voodoo-hoodoo. 2 - The rules of a true vampire (how it works with Ascension?) 3 - Astarion got what he wanted and doesn't hold back at all. Probably playing the Lord and Master he wanted to be and how he saw himself. Honestly, that's the way noble behaves, many of them.

If it's 2. He's a true vampire - a horrible monster with no feelings, no soul. That's how Faerun sees all spawn. Need I say what a romance with a vampire is and why people are interested in it. Because it's never pure, it's dangerous and it's always complicated. And the fact that he was a magistrate. (probably not the best in BG) He ruled as he wished and now the world is judging him for his vampirism. So, in the ascension, he (we) chose "evil power". The way the fandom reacts furiously to this…. When they were already with him. Character can only be a "gooder" but if you don't fix yourself we'll kill you at the party and laugh. Ironic. Some people don't want to see something complicated just that they failed to fix. Who sees is delulu, of course. And if someone don't die and get the "evil power" they suffer endlessly, will be miserable and eventually the lightning of justice will kill them. Purity culture. Mikimaus' ears in the moon spots. Honestly for me Dark Fantasy is where evil can take triumph. For me, the whole point of the character is "evil" can also be complex, just like "good".

If you attack ascended Astarion at the epilogue party as a mindflayer, all the rest of the companions will join in the attack with you. Which doesn't make a ton of sense from my perspective because frankly, they should all be just as scared of mindflayer Tav as they are of ascended Astarion, if not even more so. Let's just be real and admit that Astarion, as "mean" as he is when he breaks up with mindflayer Tav, is 100% correct. Tav is not Tav anymore. Ilithids don't have souls. They're not a person anymore. And Tav can prove it by attacking him out of the blue at a peaceful-ass gathering. Even Astarion with how cruel and egotistical he becomes when ascended is still more "human" than a mindflayer because he at least retains his soul and personality, as warped as it becomes. That's all besides the point, though.

My main point it I just find it weird how so many so-called Astarion "fans" revile in this scene and find it so funny how Astarion "gets his comeuppance" in this scene or whatever. And I don't know about anyone else, but I find this scene incredibly sad and tragic. Both Astarion and Tav have lost themselves completely (Tav even more so than Astarion, I would argue). And it kinda baffles me how so few fans of Astarion can see how much he's clearly hurting here as well?

He claims he hasn't thought about Tav in the past 6 months, and he delivers the line in a way that is clearly meant to sting as much as possible. People point to that moment as a "gotcha" moment that Astarion genuinely doesn't miss Tav. But he then immediately contradicts this a few sentences later when he says thinks all the time about what could have been if they had stayed his consort and never became a mindflayer. And that all his power is nothing without Tav by his side (paraphrasing).

"OH he's just manipulating Tav" why would he say anything that would make him look weak or vulnerable? If anything, he should be bragging about how GREAT he's doing without Tav. How awesome his life as a vampire lord is without them. And at first he does just that, the first half of the conversation is all bragging. But the longer he talks to them, the more the little hurtful truths slip out behind the hateful words. Like for as much as fans claim to understand that Astarion will often say one thing but mean another some of them sure are shit at being able to tell when he's clearly covering up his hurt with vitriol.

And again there's something weird about cheering on mindflayer Tav when their turn can be considered just as tragic as Astarion ascending. Like don't get me wrong I enjoy letting a monster do their thing. But it's like this weird double standard where mindflayer Tav's monstrosity is good and cool to idolize and joke about them wanting to eat the brains of their friends but the second someone has fantasies about being Astarion's consort they need to be psychoanalyzed.

And it's also ridiculous that if you even so much as suggest that hey, maybe there's more going on with ascended Astarion than meets the eye, maybe he actually is suffering in his isolation, ect. you get called a delusional idiot because people just really want to believe Astarion is truly a 100% different person from his ascended self when that's simply. not. true. Again the writers have confirmed the ritual didn't consume his soul. The ritual amplified all his worst personality traits that he already had.

I'm not saying you need to love ascended Astarion BUT if you love his character for what he is you should be able to at least appreciate him. You should be able to at least find him tragic and compelling. Kinda annoyed that many fans, who are seemingly uncomfortable with being confronted with this side of him, would rather turn him into a big joke or reduce his full spectrum of emotion to just "smug apathy."

This immediately reminds me of Taco Bell Point. These people come to Taco Bell and say burgers are better, remember that. And if you say the burgers suck, they go nuts.

i gotta rant about cringe tiktok stuff you guys dont mind me 🤸‍♂️

it is so hard out here being an evil astarion truther….. im trying to curate my tiktok so that i can watch silly bg3 memes and i went out of my way to like a bunch of stuff from the ascended astarion tag so tiktok knows where i stand, but instead of giving me videos of ppl who also like ascended astarion you know like the videos i went out of my way to like…. instead it recommends me a bunch of videos of teenagers trying to shame ppl for their “””bad media literacy skills””” bc choosing the bad ending for astarion cant be a roleplaying choice you make in this roleplaying game, it just means you suck at reading i guess, and then comparing ppl who made a choice in a video game to actual real life abusers and how spawn astarion is the Only True astarion ending and how you're kinda suspicious if you pick the evil route. if you scroll thru the ascended astarion tag thats all you see videos of on tiktok. like what the hell you guys, go to ur own fucking tag then wtf 😭 it's just so cringey to me. like seriously i have seen videos where girls insinuate that "it's fine if you like ascended astarion i GUESS, but just know that others will be uncomfortable with your decisions and you shouldn't be upset when they don't want to talk to you anymore." and then they post that shit IN THE ASCENDED ASTARION TAG......... like girl what else am i supposed to do then like i'm literally trying to curate my online experience and you aren't LETTING ME because you keep posting videos in the cringe vampire daddy dom tag talking about how badly you hate cringe vampire daddy doms. like what else am i supposed to do for you besides to just stop enjoying this route in the game. bc it truly seems like the only natural conclusion most of these tiktok weirdos want us to arrive at is to just... like... stop enjoying the route we enjoyed and enjoy the route they enjoyed more instead 🤒

Batstarion ❤