omg that is such an honor. Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it 😭

I felt exactly the same. I literally thought "End the first part, right? The surface part?"

Please I just need 200 more hours of my hyperfixation

It's actually rather interesting. I have seen lots of people say that they're still off-put by Astarion. You either love him or find him creepy, which I think is part of the point.

Actually, I don't think be did. Astarion is *manipulative* not charismatic. He says what he thinks he wants you to hear, not charming you.

@@gilded_lady Deception is also Charisma based.

@@gilded_lady his character background is "Charlatan", which just happens to have deception as one of its proficiencies.

@@carlycrays2831 My first playthrough i told him to go kick rocks since he pulled a knife on me after speaking maybe one sentence

this is DEVASTATING

​@@skulliebytheseaI KNOW. It's canon in my heart now just because the ANGST of thinking about it gave me psychic damage.

A bright spot in all this is that, being an Elf, there's actually a very good chance his family is still around somewhere. I like to think maybe he and Tav try to find them in his good endings.

Holy fuck that made me cry a little bit. That's never happened to me before 😵‍💫😩

​@@scarymonsterzz DC 99

All of these things!! I'm so sorry that happened to you. I hope you're healing now. I felt the same way through his character journey. As an SA survivor myself, I had A LOT of feelings whenever a new Astarion scene came up. He's so incredibly well written and his portrayal of survivors is incredible. He's just the best ❤️❤️

@@skulliebythesea Thank you!!! And I hope you're healing also!!!💞💞💞

thank you so much

@@skulliebythesea Of course!!!💞💞💞

I’m glad you’re doing well! I’ve never been SA’d, but for some reason I identify most with Astarion as a demisexual who finds sexual advances upsetting. His desire to not be touched and his perceived need to perform in a certain manner for safety at first really struck a chord.

That full circle moment always makes me tear up too!!

But not when it comes to spawn vs ascended...

YESS! ME TOO! I felt so called out and lovingly seen at the same time. We love Neil in this house.

SAME he’s wonderful

i noticed his tattoo recently too and i was like "he knows...........;" and it's so sad

I wouldn't go around assuming anyone with a medusa tattoo has that background - I know a number of people with medusa inspired tattoos and have no idea about that correlation

Just an fyi to NEVER assume why someone has a Medusa tattoo. Several people practice Hellenistic religion still and in it Medusa was NEVER assulted or cursed, she is in fact BORN a Gorgon with her 2 sisters. She is a protector symbol but not SA symbol. The SA symbol comes from Ovid writing a version of myth as a Roman person bc he was kicked out of Athens and wanted to potray their goddess Athena as a shit person (+Romans had a beef with Poseidon/Neptune and went to war with the sea lol) and it was written 600 years!! after the recorded Greek mythos/religious scripts

​@@themikatoonwell, the joke is on Ovid then. Any woman would see Athena's "curse" as a protective shroud to give her beloved priestess the power to *make* a man understand what no means.

​@@tiph3802"any woman" bro what are you talking about women are not a monolith. we dont all think the same way. this person is saying stories in mythology and folklore are often told and interpreted based on the needs and feelings of the people in a given time and place. it doesnt make the version youre talking about less resonant, but its certainly not the only one. it feels rly ignorant and narrow minded to shove any of these stories or characters into one specific mold especially when it wasnt even the original intent. and dont do the same to women as a whole either lol

I'm the same way. I immediately give him the nicest clothes I can find because I feel so bad.

We know from the description of his outfit that Astarion was mending his outfit. And if you look at the velvet, it's actually quite worn and patchy. Even his perfume is made of ingredients he could have easily procured himself.

@carlycrays2831 everything about Astarion is so meticulously designed. All the companions are written amazing obviously, but I feel like there's something a little extra in how much detail they put into him. His tent isn't just a space I could see him occupy, it's a reflection of his character on a symbolic level. His clothes aren't simply clothes he might wear, they're a reflection of his circumstances. Its really incredible.

I dressed him to the nines before the Cazador fight because he deserved it.

​@@KelwynAyla please share the look if you can

THIS EXACTLY! I couldn't have said it better myself

"playersexuality" is what it's commonly called. it's done that way so straight men don't have to see queer characters which is obviously really, really fucked up, and actually why when many of them play bg3 they just kill astarion off. but it's not ONLY straight men, imo i get really uncomfortable when people forget that astarion is inherently queer, and i'd say that it's a more important point for him than any other origin companion (except maybe shadowheart being poly, but there's only a line or two about that). of course if you're a straight woman you can still enjoy astarion but oh god, the sexuality discourse pisses me off. he's fucking queer. when someone says that he's gay, in a way they're right, in a world where bisexuals/pansexuals/etc get constantly erased and forgotten, i'd say gay is a word that describes our experiences way more accurately than straight (if you had to choose between these two words only). i call myself gay like 99% of time, i'm actually bi, that's just my preference. :RANT: going "AKShually, he's not gay, he's pan" just rubs me the wrong way because very often people drop it with really weird homophobic vibes... like they're saying there's hope for him yet because he also likes women..... yeah it seems like some people think he's pan because they want to be catered to, not that it's an important part of his character??? which, we just went full circle back to the first problem with playersexuality --- that it's there so that people don't get mad about gay (queer) people existing. well when they can't ignore them they just make mental gymnastics so that they can pretend that they're actually not that gay. (it'd be great if everyone acknowledged astarion as pan but i think most people would never get what that truly means - that you can have preferences but still be pan(/bi), that you can have NO preferences and still be pan, that you don't have to date anyone, that you face the same systematic oppression gay people do and that being in a seemingly straight relationship often does make it easier for you in that regard, but you can feel immense guilt because of it and face devaluation from other queer people for not being queer enough... it is often easier to just say you're gay/queer and move on.) :RANT END: real talk tho this is a problem that i have about trying to have a straight relationship with astarion (a queer person), NOT with being a woman and trying to romance astarion. i'll die on the hill of that being a man and a woman in a relationship doesn't make it straight, if either participant is queer, they're still queer(!!!)... and if both are, then the relationship is just 100% queer lol yall are literally gay as fuck (sorry if any queer women read this and felt hurt in any way, that was not my intention. also sorry to enbies/other if you felt like i didnt mention you, youre like always automatically gay so.... no point there /j) (how this got from the "serious" educative voice to just completely unhinged, i have no idea *edit - typo)

reminds me of how In karlachs origin playthrough if you camp alone before recruiting anyone she fantasizes about having a threesome with halfling woman and a huge ten foot tall barbarian man and she has tentacles in her fantasy (because shes worried about the tadpole)😂😂 theres also an untriggerable version of the scene where she fantasizes about dammon.

​@@retriwa5640kinda off topic but I totally agree. It sucks cause his character is really well written and avoids falling into stereotypes but he's either seen as one or the other.

@@retriwa5640 I still find it odd when people call him gay (as in only into men) especially when they bring up that he only talks about former male conquests. Minthara only ever brought up female former conquests/interests (some priestess and Orin to be specific) yet nobody is trying to argue she's written as lesbian like many people are oddly do with the idea that he is written as gay. I am the person who would point out "Well actually, he is pansexual" because I hate how simply because he is flamboyant and doesn't bring up female romantic conquests people want to believe he is gay. It's just perpetrating gay stereotypes once again. When I bring it up, I refer to the fact that you cannot tell someone's sexuality simply by former partners they bring up and even less so by how they behave. And I do not like to support bi/pan erasure.

Stars and Clouds is my girlfriend and I was with her when she first thought of the poem and wrote it, I am really and truly grateful to you all for the kind and supportive comments for her writing, she puts a lot of time and effort into the fanfics and other things she makes for the fandoms she loves, thank you all so much and well done Stars, I'm so proud of you!

​@@Draknoth1ahhhhhhhh 🙈 I am so grateful ;-; ❤

You're so welcome!! Thank you for the beautiful art you've created!! I had to re-record reading it a few times because I kept crying!! There was no question, the moment I read it, it had to be included and I hope it gives you all the exposure you deserve!!

​@@skulliebythesea ahhhhh, that is so touching 😭😭 thank you once again ❤️ I loved hearing it in your voice. You gave it so much more depth. Thank you for bringing my words to life.

@@stars-and-clouds Wow thats so cool! That poem is really awesome! Very well done i love it!

YES YES EXACTLY! This is the first survivor story that I've personally seen in media that deals with survivor stories in a respectful and honest way. It felt real. I felt represented. Like I mention in the video, too often writers will include SA in their stories to be "edgy" and it's handled without any knowledge of the topic or what that experience really carries. It's for this reason (and so many others) why I love Astarion so much. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video.

This is how I see it too. You basically teach him that his every cynical idea about the world is right, might makes right, there are no good people, he is worthless without power, etc. It's a good story still, but a tragedy where his spawn endings are triumphs.

Idk evil has its own practical understandable logic. Dark Fantasy is a world in which that logic has a point. Literally the genre is an atmosphere of horror and dread

​​@@alexandradel9712This isn't dark fantasy. This is a world in which evil is evil. Although you CAN go the evil route, it's depicted as horrible and not romanticized all the way through. Yes, there are fantasies that do try their best to make a morally grey world in which evil has its own practical argument, but Baldur's Gate 3 isn't it. We're not arguing about fantasy worlds being a good outlet for evil vs good discussions, we're talking about Astarion's fantasy story being parallel to real life in terms of the trauma and cycles of abuse SA survivors may find themselves trapped in.

@@ettaetta439 Whether it's dark fantasy or not is perhaps debatable, in general BG is a dark world, dangerous, where every other person suffers. Nah. I CAN go the evil path and say it's romance too and it's okay and it's canon. It's not "horrible and not romanticized" - it's a popular crowd's intrapration that is not "unbreakable dogma". Or your personal interpretation. Thanks to the purity cult. Because all I see is Dark Romance, i.e. abnormal, weird, vampire romance. How about that? Because to me it's Dark Romance, kind of like Minthara. There should be at least one male character in the game for evil and evil romance, like Minthara, what a dark romance is and why some people need them, for the survivors, too you can find for yourself. Astarion is more about gray morality than not, I'd say complex evil. But without his past we don't see the full picture, because EA players remember that Astarion was a corrupt magistrate who sold criminals as cattle for the vampire clan, and then started selling them to slave traders for more profit. And then he got a hell of a punishment. He's still a magistrate in the game, and probably the key-idea is still there, since it's literally the first lines about him in the artbook, but the game prefers to keep quiet and leave it up to the player's imagination. Or\and the Upper City content has been cut out. Since you wrote to me, I guess you wanted my opinion, so here we go. It's obvious to me that we're not going to come to an agreement, so let's agree to disagree and end it here.

So basically its quite low

@@ZeallustImmortal nope, as I said in clear and plain English it’s average. Unless you’re illiterate & don’t know what that word means

It's impossible to take seriously 😂

But, unfortunately, his comments regarding Will are more frank and straightforward, understandable to the average person. Therefore, people have dissonance and thoughts that by nature he is attracted to men, but he rather tolerates or studies women, but does not want them. It would be nice to add a couple of remarks that are just as openly sweet towards the girls for balance. It's a shame that Will gets all the flattery)

@@salviadivinorum6619 He calls Shadowheart a “beautiful flower” and constantly flirts with her throughout the game. Plus she is not immune either, though acts as if she is. For example she’s the only one out of all companions who says she’ll miss him if you put a stake trough his heart when he first bites you (the others, including Wyll,are happy he’s gone), and also, the most touching thing, she tells you to choose him if you romance both because he needs you more than she does. In that same scene she’s also the only one who sees right trough him and says that despite appearances, he would not like sharing a partner. To me it was quite obvious, but indeed his reactions to her are direct and not trough Tav and people might miss them if they’re not paying attention or don’t have them both in the same party. Also he hooks up with Lae if at the tiefling party Tav doesn’t choose one of them. In the end all of these things, even the Wyll comments are conditioned by certain things u have to do, but people exclusively fixate on the Wyll prince comment, that isn’t even said in a romantic context. He’s angry when he says it. I received that comment too cause I messed with both.lol Maybe Larian should indeed make them more obvious.

I made a save file right before the choice and the 2 scences after Ascension gave me the ick. I met a person like this in real life and stayed far away after seeing enough cracks in the mask. Getting told what the other person thinks is what you want to hear, contradicting themselves and then gaslighting you for 'misrembering' is not fun. I love the growth Astarion go trough, if he stays a spawn. On top of things to add I read what people have against him as spawn. Just to put it here and not my opinion: He has to life in the underdark and has to look after 7000 spawns. He is whiny and not confident enough. Not everyone needs to be good.

He doesn't HAVE to stay in the underdark and look after the thousands of spawn. That's purely just an option the player can take. He's free to travel the world with Tav (by night until they find that item/spell, but still). Personally I kill the trapped spawn because loosing thousands of vampire spawn that have been trapped and starving for that long with no experience on controlling their hunger seems a disaster waiting to happen. @@kademelien9363

My main gripe about keeping him a spawn is the ending with all the companions gathered on the dock. How they react to him burning up and being forced to run away really drives home that the player was the only one who truly cared about him if they had a good relationship. Yet they aren't allowed to chase after him in that moment because there are still other cutscenes to get through. Everyone is so quick to turn on him if the player allows him to ascend while also thinking that the player is blameless even though they literally helped him do it. I do like most of the other companions but the way they and the game itself treats Astarion just bugs me. Even Karlach who is my second favorite and the only other character I've romanced has a line where she threatens to stake Astarion if he treats the player badly even though, again, they helped him become what he is and willingly agreed to let him turn them into a vampire. I personally like both routes for Astarion for different playthroughs but neither are perfect. Also apparently Spawn Astarion is the one who still wears a mask instead of Ascended hence the slight voice change. I've never experienced abuse to the extent of what Astarion went through of course but I know what it's like to feel the need to hide my true self even from the people I love most. That little reveal about how the actor differentiated between both Astarion routes really hits home for me.

@@britt6184 I didn't see this at all when my game ended. Both Shadowheart and Wyll had something to say as Astarion was running away, saying something like "I guess that's the last we'll be seeing of him for a while... This must be so hard on him" with a sad look in their eye. And their dialogue when you finish the Cazador mission and choose not to Ascend him is so uplifting; everyone just keeps gushing about how proud they are of him and how relieved they are that he chose the "right" thing. Also, if you long rest before the Cazador mission in Act 3, vampire spawns can come to your camp to try and kidnap him-- if they succeed, EVERYONE gets pissed and talks about getting "our boy" back. They love him so much. It's one of my favorite things about this game, honestly. The journey starts off as this "friends of convenience" vibe, and by the end, you can see how much they all care about each other.

He literally becomes Cazador 2.0 after ascending and absolutely malds and seethes whenever you try to bring that up. It proves that ascended Astarion still is a slave deep down and isn't truly free

I love this interpretation as well ! Thank you for sharing.

Or they will be prunes. Not just leftovers but dried out preserved ones that few people enjoy and are generally made fun of. I also always felt that The Unquiet Grave suited Astarion as well. Particularly when we meet Sébastien. Or maybe I've just rewatched Penny Dreadul too many times.

Ascended Astarion really is just becoming his abuser. While he has (yet) to do things as vile as Cazador the potential is certainly there. It's all his worst traits amplified. Choosing Spawn Astarion is about redemption and recovery, chosing his humanity (elf-manity?) turning to a new chapter of his life. He will still always be a vampire, still always have his scars but his life is his own to live again. Ascended Astarion seems like he's getting a better bargain but he's more trapped than ever, truly losing himself into a monsterous form. IIRC DnD rules say something about Vampire's becoming more monsterous.. especially one that can sire other vampires and not just a spawn.

Not just a cat -- a feral cat. The "feral" part is significant. Befriending Astarion is exactly like the process of convincing a feral cat you're worth the trouble it will take them to domesticate you. It sounds like a joke on the surface, but really. If you're trying to rescue a truly feral cat, not a stray or abandoned cat, you absolutely must allow the cat to make most of the decisions and set their own pace deciding to trust you. The ideal end result, of course, is a critter who can no more get by without you than you could without them -- a reciprocal interdependence -- but the cat must at all times think they're the one in charge and you're the one being tamed, right up until the day they decide it's easier for them to just leave certain things up to you. Feral cats must decide to domesticate themselves.

​@@cassandrasimplex7544 Oh I do agree!!! I wrote the comment when I saw the title card, hence my utter confusion 😂

​@@adrasthe314 Fair, fair! I didn't even think about the title card. I guess I read that, thought "Yes, of course the first thing everyone knows about Astarion is that he's a cat," and immediately forgot it was there. That almost certainly says something about me and I'm not sure I want to know what. 😅

Really? Why nobody talks about this ending?

One of my favorite companion ships ever

I like that ship too. I am also a fan of AstarionxGale aka Bloodweave because they share a similar story about wanting power for different reasons and because Gale is very reserved about the flirting and sexual stuff at the beginning which I think could be good for Astarion who needs someone real. They also share a history of being treated badly by a powerful being and seeking power to escape that. Also considering Astarion likes cats, Tara as a Tressym also fits :D.

Hm idduno tbh. I'm no victim but touch bit for me is jarring...would hug Karlach irl tho

I'm sure she would respect his boundaries, but that sucks for her big time. She can't touch until you fix her, but she very badly misses it. She craves it because she's been deprived of affectionate touch for ten years.

DRAGON AGE MENTIONED🗣️🗣️🗣️

Thank you so much! I did my best to keep it balanced and I'm glad you learned something!

I KNOWWW :'(

I'm so glad to hear that!! You're very welcome.

I don't like that he's always disapproving of helping people, in a game where picking up quests means progression. That he hated helping the tieflings when you know that was the correct way to play, it's a bit jarring.

Trust me I was barely keeping it together 😭

omg you're so sweet! Yesss! I'm always happy to teach about my favorite vampire boy :)

THANK YOU 😭 this is such a lovely comment. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

@@skulliebythesea of course, honestly I was beyond shocked that you don't have a couple hundred thousand subs The overall quality and research of your vids are damn near professional

thank you :) hopefully we'll get there one day@@bluebird8677

just curious, was it his past explaining his behavior that helped you like him? or was it his character development? why did you dislike him initially? Thanks!

@@DeadAugur well when i disliked him i only knew the broad strokes of his personality and goals and such. honestly just saw this manipulative, cruel liar but then as i began learning more i saw that behavior for what it was, a way to protect himself and the fact hes never been showed another way he used to be a magistrate which tells he was likely highborn so even for the years he was alive he was most likely only around people where you needed to be selfish and cut throat then after that he had his body taken from him so he almost began thinking that if he always said yes and was the one to offer himself that would give him some power back throughout the game you start off with this incomplete and hurt person who, with some guidance can actually blossom into a kinder person plus him being an sa survivor and a survivor in general was executed to perfection

Don't forget, he also approves when you offer to look for Yennas mother, give her food , and invite Yenna to stay at your camp! I got approval for all of those interactions from him 💕 I absolutely think there's something there.

@@skulliebythesea Yeah, same here. I admit, at first he annoyed me, he was a bit of an asshole. I was like "dude, you were relieved that I did not drive a stake through your ribs, I might actually drive one of the campfire logs through your heart". Of course he grew on me, because I realised that underneath that overly sarcastic demeanor there is a deeply traumatised soul. I read somewhere that Astarion is the easiest character to romance/befriend and that might be true in an evil playthrough, but in a good-aligned playthrough it's very tricky. Of course I realise that he is not a real person, but he is so well-written and acted that it's hard not to feel a genuine compassion for him. I guess the mark of a good character (film, literature, game) is the fact that they make you forget that they are, in fact, not real. I think he does share some similar traits with Roy Mustang: they both have their share of trauma and guilt, they both (seem) to have a strong sex drive, they both want to usurp the power of the leader of their respective circles.

​@@user-qj9en1kp1mI fully chose an affair with Astarion for four passes, two of which I played for the good Dark Urge, and never had any problems having an affair with him. You just have to remember that he doesn't really like knights without fear and reproach, so you need to be flexible. Although I managed to charm him even for a palladin. Still, the key moment for the romance with him is the refusal to force Astarion to drink drow blood from the Moon Towers. For him, this gesture is so important that he will buy his even if he does not have the highest level of affection for you.

@@user-dr3de8qq8x In my first playthrough I was a Tav and because I am not an experienced gamer I did not fully grasp how the game functioned and missed a lot of cool characteer interaction moments and cutscenes, not just with Astarion but with others too. I was also playing quests in the wrong order too (like finding Karlach only after the tieflings left the grove). I started a good Durge playthrough and I am correcting my mistakes, taking many long rests. Also in my first playthrough I ran head first into every "I will save you guys" moment. Then Astarion's personality started to rub off of my little wood elf cleric and started to value the power of persuasion and deception, especially when I got a ton of approval for talking enemies into killing themselves in the Shadow Cursed Land.

I would absolutely recommend his romance. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

definitely try romancing him(even better if you do it as the Dark Urge) even if you're not personally attracted to him. there is a lot you miss out on in terms of character during the platonic playthrough. there are just somethings the origin characters hold back from their friends but share with their partner that makes it easier to understand what it is exactly that he needs.

im so sorry, i relate to this exactly too, hes so special for this reason for me also

he really took that 10 Charisma as a suggestion lol

Right?!

Yes to all of this. I felt the same way. I've slowly been getting back into gaming over the years, but BG3 was a huge jump for me. I don't think I've ever been this invested in a game before (and I was a pokemon kid, so that's saying a lot haha). It's jumpstarted my creativity in this increasingly depressing time and it's gotten me excited about storytelling again. I was an absolute wreck at the end of the Cazador fight, completely inconsolable. I also needed to step away for a sec because I was just feeling SO MUCH for Astarion. I think people's hearts are in the right place, but especially with so many that are new to fandom, they really need to learn the etiquette and be able to distinguish fiction from reality. That's why I included that line in there about appreciating all the writing within the game. I know where they're coming from and why they're so protective of Astarion as a character, but as someone who has been deeply moved by all aspects of the storytelling in BG3, I want to show appreciation for ALL the hard work that was put in, including the stuff that might make me feel a little icky. But that's just me. Thank you so much for your lovely comment. :)

Exactly. Ascending Astarion is a bad choice in terms of his character, but not in terms of exploring an evil or morally grey story route. It's interesting. People fight over ascending Shadowheart or chewing off Gale's hand less than ascending Astarion, but to be honest--I hardly consider that a fault of the sane, normal Astarion enjoyers. It's the fault of specifically the dark romance girlies who have no emotional awareness, and the morality police. These women with no emotional awareness, compared to their intelligent counterparts, genuinely try to argue that ascending Astarion is a GOOD choice and that Tav is "manipulating" Astarion by convincing him not to ascend. Meanwhile, the morality police, instead of actually discussing anything meaningful about the impact of fiction on real life people, as usual just go after senseless things they really feel strongly about. They try to guilt trip the dark romance girlies with no awareness into feeling like bad people for preferring the toxic pixel man, and that's impossible because these women have already been trained to automatically say "it's fiction, who cares if the love interest has done *crime towards minors, barely-18 year olds, women, people or animals*". They're not going to start feeling shame NOW. And then even worse, they go after the normal people too, who just ascended Astarion for fun or because why not or because they're doing an evil route or because they enjoy a toxic man in their fictional games. Thus the conversation ends up being meaningless fighting. There is a space to be had, to talk about how dark romance romanticizes grooming, pdf files, and grape, and how its spread on social media has led to a lot of emotionally immature teens and young adults to excuse those types of crimes more readily... But that is only a conversation that can be had when in the space of media that romanticizes this topic, not Baldur's Gate 3, which doesn't romanticize Astarion at all! Hell, you even have an option to kick his balls after you ascend him! You can even attack him in camp in the epilogue, and all your companions will help beat his ass because they, too, hate him! He's toxic AF and the game knows it! So it's clearly not a problem with the game romanticizing it, just the minorities on two opposite ends fighting each other to the end and giving the rest of the normal, larger community a bad name.

​@@ettaetta439 you don't realise what you are saying with this comment, do you? Calling one group of people "dumb" and the other "smart" based on their opinions? I thought your comment, the way it started, would be free from bias and encourage fans to stay neutral and mind their own business. Astonishing, how you wrapped it up as a new form of moralism.

HAHAHA incredible yess. Never forget

Thank you ❤️❤️ I will absolutely do my best 🙏

Everyone keeps forgetting the setting is Faerûn. It's normal for an elf to be pale as moonlight. It's rare but not weird for them to have red eyes if they are - and the elves who are moon-pale and have red eyes might have weird teeth / bald patches / small disfigurements or sunlight sensitivity or both. If anything you'd think they have drow blood or were touched by the feywild (or don't think about it because it's elves). And it's easy to hide not eating. He's simply average amount of charismatic not the famous poster boy leader type, and he's using learnt behaviors and techniques (Persuasion) instead

@@xilj4002 sure but that's also a place where vampires actually exist though. Like I'd be a little suspicious of someone who looks like him irl and I don't even believe in vampires. Plus he's not actually very good at hiding the evidence, leaving exanguinated animals around and stuff. I think if you believed in vampires you'd definitely think one is around and then he'd be a very obvious suspect.

@@martianpudding9522 During the day, not at all, he's awake and not burning. During the night, maybe, but he was probably better at hiding evidence, for example he was starving so no animal carcasses left around, and he spent most of his time in places where the lack of light obscures details and playing around with some cups of wine and seduction takes care of the rest. When there's hoofbeats, most people think horses, even though zebras exist

@@xilj4002 that is true, although I would imagine his hiding skills would have been pretty similar before getting abducted. Maybe he did get cocky from being able to be in the daylight though. That said he did also use to frequent the same taverns and leave with patrons who would then go missing, but maybe baldur's gates crime rates are so bad that still didn't stand out lol idk. Still he was able to successfully lure people with him at night while looking like a vampire

@@martianpudding9522 Crime rates and being a big port and trading hub helps him a lot. The city has 40k-ish people, and up to 40k sailor, travelers, and traders, plus the Outer City and Rivington. He usually hunted in places like the Flophouse, so a vast majority of the patrons disappeared regardless. Also dead ex hookups don't really affect your CHA, they affect the DC and advantage.

Thank you! I'm honored :)

I'm so sorry my friend. Wishing you the best of luck. You can do it

@@skulliebythesea thank you I'm lucky to have lots of friends now that help me they are all online friends but they mean the world to me

🫂🫂🫂 hope you well pal

Completely understand that! I'm happy to lighten the load :)

Thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

lets goooo

Thank you! I made them on Canva :)

Thank you so much! It was honestly VERY emotional to make as well, lol :)

Thank youuu 😭😭

Thank you very much!

You're very welcome ❤️

Thank you! And welcome ❤️❤️

Thank you so much 😊🙏

You're very welcome ❤️ thank you for sharing your thoughts and story

Thank you very much 👍

I'm so glad to hear that 😊

AGHH ! You're so sweet ❤️

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

I love how complex and layered he is. The Astarion x Durge romance is excellent!

Yeah I found him annoying at first two, with the professional flirt persona. There were hints of depth as you go along, but I didn't think the writers and actor could be that good, that they could nail such a multilayered personality in a multilinear game. How glad I was to be proven wrong, Astarion is an excellent character. Makes you believe in art again.