Is A Pacifier Better Than A Blood Bag?

Is a pacifier better than a blood bag?

Patch 6 has me feeling things. these are just my opinions and random thoughts.

Consort is just Ascended Astarion’s pacifier: an object he uses to feel safe, loved, to comfort him when he needs it. I don’t think Astarion, in his evil route, would likely ever open himself up to anyone again.

He loves Tav, he tells you as much during his Act 2 confession. That he’s fallen for you. A!A will also tell you “You’re the one I want, the one that I love.” (this is different than his “I love you, that’s what you’ve been waiting to hear? that’s what you want?”) And idk i just think it’s interesting he will say that to you.

Also - Astarion tells you that he going to do the ritual so that you’ll both be safe- forever, for good. (He tells you this right after his siblings attack) You can’t tell me that man wasn’t already planning on eternity with Tav at that point. I think it’s very likely he’s already thinking he will make Tav a vampire if he can.

I think it’s interesting how Larian just added to Astarion’s objectification of Tav, and now it’s very obvious WHY Astarion won’t let you go if you break up with him post tadpole.

If Tav leaves him, his ending is essentially the same in the epilogue, so he doesn’t need Tav for protection or help planning or anything like that.

Tav is his pacifier!!!

The kiss of the Ascended Astarion is coming, folks. That means a new batch of fixers poison scrolls.

About the kiss itself, the new movements and phrases afterward if any are to be made.

In repertory:

- He's cringe and gross, ew - His kiss is creepy - He's abjusively kissing - He's manipulatively kissing - It's the honeymoon phase of the abusive cycle - He fakes feelings because Mephistopheles took his soul\all good - Kiss with Cazador 2.0. - It's not Astarion's kiss, it’s a husk's kiss - He not himself anymore - He's mimics feelings because he's stuck in trauma - He's like a True Vampire obsessively kissing, it's not love - He has no feelings, he's incapable of love. - Tav is humiliated in his eyes, he doesn't love - He despises Tav and considers Tav a degenerate pet-property, he doesn't love, the kiss isn't real love - It's an act of possession, not a love-kiss - It's a power play, not a love-kiss - He's kissing misogynistic\plain hateful - *Something passive-aggressive, provocative, snide* - Hot, BUT I love Spawn, his kiss is genuine, true and better wuw - It's sad to see that. Heartbreaking - Pathetic - He closes his eyes, he doesn't love - He opens his eyes, he doesn't love - He has eyes, he doesn't love etc.

This tasteless song is sung about everything the Ascended Astarion does. Generally from those who hate the "romanticization" of dark romances with the vampire-decadent who is Astarion. So it's anything, but one single nice romance with the "evil" man for the "path of evil" (like Minthara) in the game and a sincere kiss of Dark Love.

It's funny if Spawn and Lord kiss is no different. And it's not fair if one of them gets a kiss and one of them doesn't. I hope I didn't miss anything. Post will be edited if so

Tav is not Tav, lost yourself, after the Ascension. Lol yeah. It's really like that, gosh.

Ascension is running through my head and I think the dialogue should have been handled better for Tav that reflects the character throughout their journey, i.e. not "horny", "dick", "patronizing", and "power-hungry". Feels like I'm listing off an adult seven dwarves -_-

If we cared for Astarion up until Ascension, understood he needed blood, accepted that he was a vampire and that he wasn't a good guy, backed him up with Araj, helped him find out what his scars meant, and wanted to end Cazador for what he did to Astarion, we should be worried for his well-being after too. We shouldn't be taking him seriously as he went through something no one else has. After being told what it entailed by Raphael, it would imply that Astarion would be overstimulated as hell after 200 years of feeling nothing but hunger and pain as a vampire.

At the end of the ritual, he's a bit off his rocker and acts light-headed when he starts talking about hearing things. Wouldn't that be something that Tav, regardless of the reasoning for ascension or alignment of their character, would be concerned over due to being new because they care so much about Astarion? Shouldn't they be concerned that Astarion could hurt himself with this overflow of feelings and emotions?

Compare how Tav acts toward Spawn Astarion to Ascended Astarion post-ritual. Spawn Tav acts the same as they did throughout the game. Ascended Tav does not. They don't match. They should match. Tav should not have changed ANYTHING about themselves just because they ascended Astarion. And yeah, I absolutely hate it.

Why the fuck would Tav resort to calling Astarion Cazador when they know what he's been through with the guy just because Astarion is drunk on power? The fact it's used where it's at makes Tav look ten times worse as a partner because Astarion dropped the "Charming Theatrics" and is acting the way he wants to because he feels he can. There's no gentle warning to ask him to stop acting like a jerk, either. It goes straight to aggressive because he called them "Pet" in a way that some people may not like.

While Ascended Astarion is still Astarion, pre-ascension Tav is not post-ascension Tav and points to being the one who lost themselves.

Astarion, man who has done wrong, done evil things for his own gain. At the same time found his love, though is not equal, cannot leave when the choice is made and the bond is unbreakable - but his love is protected, important, loved and cared. Literally the Middle Ages. But this man is bound to become a horrible, disrespectful, cruel to his love, heartless abuser, because: evil, truma (no, vendetta is a dark cure) and power? For this, Sven suffered for 4 hours on GOTY in gold medieval armor?

THIS. Lol, it's literally true.

i'm just gonna say it.

a lot of the criticism of ascended astarion fans absolutely reeks of misogyny.

it's giving "women are too stupid to understand that abuse is bad" and it makes me want to wring necks.

"you can't romanticise AA's behavior because that can lead to harmful ideas in the real world!!!"

a few hundred women finding AA's abusive behaviour sexy isn't why men are abusive, and adult women are intelligent enough to understand the difference between fiction and reality. ironically, this demonstrates that you don't understand the difference between fiction and reality.

where is that tweet that says "stanning reylo is misogynistic, but what do you expect from stupid fucking women" because that's what you lot sound like.

I seriously can't with people who paint Astarion as a "good guy who does nothing wrong." Joking, yes, it's funny, I would partake in that as well especially to troll someone who hates Astarion as a whole, but when someone is legit comparing him to his Ascended form and pretending he wasn't a homicidal sociopath in the beginning... it's like...

Why are you even an Astarion fan? Is it only because he's hot? If you strip him of his personality and who he is, he just has his looks left. You want Wyll's personality with Astarion's looks.

He takes pleasure in hurting and killing people, even as a spawn in post game. He's happy to find out murder is okay when "it's the right people". He even talks about impaling someone in his spawn group if they killed another gnome. He is cunty, mean, power hungry, tramatized, hurt, will insult you to your face and imply that you're stupid and easy. THIS is who Astarion is, straight out of the box. Yeah, he can be sweet to ONE person, but that does not negate the rest of him. He. Is. A. Glorious. Bastard.

Now, it has me wondering about the legitimacy of some Astarion lovers because are they loving him as a character or just his looks? It would explain a couple of things I've seen in the fandom if it's the latter.

Some of the stuff I read just demolishes Neil's performance and the writing for Astarion's character.

If this was AU stuff, fine, but he's being compared to canon Ascended as if it drastically altered him when it amplified him instead. I just can't as an antagonist/anti-hero/villain lover. It makes me want to scream into a pillow and bite down full force.