I want you to know I love your Astarion posts - they're so thoughtful and well written but still succinct, and I'm having a great time reading them right before I start a replay. But I also adore how organized they are and how easy it is to find the master post, so thank you for that!
Wow thank you so much! š„ŗāØ Iām really glad to hear the link system is working well - I hoped it would make the navigation easier.
And it means so much that you (and everyone, really!) are following along! Honestly, I wasnāt sure what to expect when I started posting bg3 content here, since I wasnāt very active and definitely arrived late to the party, but itās been such a welcoming and thoughtful community, with so many great, thought-provoking posts too.
Why walk around if you can make your own way?
And guess what song is keep playing in my head every time I do this?..
Let it go~
Let it go~
Canāt hold it back anymore~
*studying at Japanese language school*
*after a weekend of watching PokƩmon*
*spacing out*
Sensei: nandaka...
Me: !
Inner voice + bg music + lights:
Nanda kanda iwaretara
Kotaete ageru ga yo no nasake
I guess many couldnāt resist the temptation š
The funniest thing tho is that his expression looks even better than when your answer is correct... x)
Iām so happy about that little stool Astarion has in his tent :3
Btw Shadowheart also has one!
Shadowheart: Given our groupās nature, I donāt see much harm. We are each monsters in the making, after all.
Astarion: No, I wonāt kill them! Well, maybe Shadowheartā¦
Coincidence?.. š«¢
Haha yes thatās what Iām trying to do now:
I made sure to check everything with my 2nd Tav, the drow sorcerer Thalyn. We finished Act 1 & 2 and found the Gur camp and she agreed to help. Astarion is not in her party, so he wasnāt very thrilled to hear that she signed them up to something very risky yet again - and whatās worse, the deal was with monster hunters! She is not very close to him, so the conversation didn't go very well.
After reaching Wyrmās Crossing, I really missed my first team badly, so I just impulsively started replaying my first campaign from the very beginning. That's why I still haven't experienced these events in the game.
And, yes, even after finishing Act 1 for the third time, I was still able to find something new. I clearly underestimated BG3!
It is very interesting, indeed! I want to reach Act 3 again with my first team and see how they will handle this.
But you reminded me of this interaction between Astarion and Gandrel. Fortunately, I took the screenshots:
Astarion: You're a monster hunter? I'm surprised - I thought all Gur were vagrant cut-throats. Roanael's face: "here we go againā¦" xD
Gandrel: And more! We steal chickens, curse your crops, seduce your daughters - the list goes on.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't see any hatred in him. On the contrary, Astarion seems quite pleased.
What I saw here: yes, Astarion expresses some kind of passive aggression, or at least demonstrates he is not quite fond of Gurs. But keeps the tone lighthearted.
Gandrel generously takes the joke and answers in the same key, but at the same time saying: "Yes, there are many rumors and stereotypes, but it doesn't necessarily make them true."
I think, Gandrel won approval here and some respect. Astarion even seems pleased with this interaction. Maybe it's my wishful thinking, but he is too intelligent to seriously hold all Gurs responsible for what happened to him - yes, they will always be associated with his death for him, and I think it's fair. But it doesn't mean he will hate every Gur he meets from now on.
The other thing is how Gandren responded to his humor: for Astarion, I'd say, it's quite a big deal and there are several places in the game when you can trigger his approval or disapproval depending on how you react to his jokes, sometimes quite sarcastic, or how you make jokes yourself. So when someone can take a joke and react positively, he certainly feels pleased with the exchange.
(9/? part of āAstarion: In Search of True Selfā ā [masterpost here])
Maybe itās just my headcanon, but I like to think thereās another side to Astarion, one he tries to hide: the part of him that genuinely likes children.
Of course, I haven't played his Origin run yet, so this is just the feeling I had during my first playthrough.
Take Arabella, the tiefling girl who stole the idol from the druids to stop the ritual. Astarion was all grumpy about getting involved, but there was something like admiration in his tone, even then. And later, when we ran into her again in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, he actually sounded excited to see her: āOh, youāre that little idol thief!ā - he said it almost with a kind of fond recognition. When we found her again in the Baldurās Gate sewers, surrounded by corpses, listening to the Weave, Astarion whispered her name so quietly, like he was truly worried.
Then there was Yenna, the girl in Rivington whose mother disappeared. When we gave her some gold to buy food, Astarion didnāt say anything, but quietly approved along with the other companions. Later, when she turned up at camp asking to stay, he teased her, but it sounded more playful than mean. And when Orin kidnapped her, he was visibly shaken. He insisted we go after her and grew defensive about it, muttering that too many children had gone missing lately, and it had to stop.
For me, itās one of those signs that no matter how much he tries to appear cold or indifferent, thatās not who he really is. Thereās always been a warm heart under all that cruelty he was forced to learn.
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<next post> - to be continued
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Finding good angles is so difficult there but itās still so fun~
Just some stuff about games and anime. Because "otome game", yeah. Maybe some doodles sometimes. Currently obsessed with BG3 and Astarion.
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