amaya69

[amaya69]

Lately, I’ve been thinking about stars and Astarion. What if he is a Pale Star? Dim — from wounds, from the hunger that gnaws at him day and night — this is his suffering. That’s why his light is faint. He yearns for light — for the days when he was truly alive.

What if stars are vampire spawn? Their time is the night — always and only. He is one among a thousand stars in the night.

Dawn often symbolizes life, a new beginning. And when the sun rises, the stars vanish. The image of the color red in a ritual can resemble the rays of dawn. So who could be The Sun?

The colour of the ritual is of course red for a number of reasons. What other colour would an infernal ritual involving blood sacrifice be? Turquoise? Of course red.

And when you put it all together it looks curious.

Themes of "power and freedom" are central for Astarion. And I love finding additional symbols — when a character, say, draws attention to something. Like red dragons, for example. It's all part of the artistic detail and aesthetic.

Astarion mentions the stars in Act 1, when he starts his "simple plan" — but that line is much deeper than it seems. Only later do we understand why.

I can see the stars from Baldur's Gate, of course, but not with such clarity.

He associates with the star. His name fits. In the evil ending, he chooses the symbol of the sun. Astarion Original can do it at any point, if you take the power of the absolute. Well, the sun is also a star, \yellow dwarf XD\ but it's the only one that can be seen during the day.

I have several thoughts as to why Astarion chose the solar symbol. One — is because he was impressed by the concentrated power of the sun.

The sun — once something he fled from, yet longed for — now lies within his grasp, to revel in.

The overarching symbolism — dawn, rebirth of the heart, stars fading into sunlight — it's beautifully cohesive.

The sun's light eclipses all others.

[amaya69]

Orin the Red

[amaya69]

Ascended Astarion and his consort at the masquerade

[amaya69]

I often read that Astarion has two authors, Rooney and Welch. I'd be interested to know what influence Welch had on the AA story. Some also say that his story was "watered down" by Larian. Objectively, though, only Tav's facial expressions changed, so I don't know what else would have changed in his story. Thanks for your answer.

Baudelaire Welch, a former “the companion character designer lead” who has been working on Baldur's Gate 3 as “the romance feature lead”, in their own words, “wrote quite a few of the Astarian romance dialogues in the later period of production”. Unfortunately, this author's work, their views, and their personal perception of how game romances affect real-life romances have been largely a bad influence on the romance of Ascended Astarion. It was Welch's view that the Ascension was a “bad ending” for Astarion that was subsequently hyped by AA haters (Stephen Rooney, the author of Astarion, himself corrected this by saying that the Ascension was not Astarion's ‘bad’ ending, it was his “evil” ending). Their somewhat twisted understanding of romance and desire to make the players feel like failures was expressed in this one:

Article: "Baldur's Gate 3 writer's explanation of Astarion's 'bad' ending is a wake-up call for players lusting over RPG characters".

This kind of insult to the audience, the portrayal of players as sex-crazed (which was later used heavily against Astarion's fans) goes a long way towards explaining where this single mind-reading check in the game came from, which is impossible to react to, and provides no additional options for interaction. The author “wrote” a certain sex-crazed player, creating scenes without the possibility of any roleplay. Accordingly, the scene of dialog with the worst lines (“I want your body”, etc.) and the same impossibility of roleplay, also belongs to Welch's pen. As a player I can only reply: "I failed to see a good RPG in the third act. It's beyond my understanding of classic RPG games". These lines and this check have already been criticized and discussed many times, but the essence of the logic of this narrative is best conveyed here:

(Picture taken from Larian forum, author Ametris, was published on the forum during the period of active indignation of players after patch 6)

How the author managed to ascribe such motivation to the players is, of course, a mystery, as is where the theme of sex is traced during the Ascension ritual, why Astarion can be helped without having romance with him, and why sex can be refused (the romance is preserved). And of course, for submitting to this imposed narrative, the player who leaves Astarion a spawn forever will be rewarded with sex. But without the cutscene. As for the post-Ascension sex scene itself, Welch claimed she didn't know it existed.

Thank you so much to Larian's animation team! You are the best! We can roughly conclude from this that the Welch's authorship of the scene of the night after the Ascension may only include the lines. I even suppose that the very notes of the developers for this scene could belong to Stephen Rooney himself (but this is only an assumption, it is impossible to find information about who wrote these notes).

These developer notes clearly describe how Astarion and Tav love each other and how Astarion is powerful and free. So, thanks for everything we love about this scene, to the animators and to Neil and his beautiful acting. And if you compare the lines for the player, you'll see a strong difference in the quality of writing compared to other scenes of Astarion's romance - Act 1 scene (this scene is written by Stephen Rooney and it's great) everything is fine with the roleplay, Act 3 is a scene of 4 bad lines, it's just impossible to make a choice while maintaining immersion. You can even just compare Tav's facial expression in act 1 scene (when you offer Astarion your neck and he bites you) - the facial expression is adequate to the situation, it's real, as it should be - a smile, you can see that Tav is enjoying it, and in act 3 they imposed a stupid frowning face, and the surprise is as if it's the first time Astarion bit you, and in general everything is bad and Tav just tolerates it. One is left to fantasize about how great the romance could have been if Stephen Rooney had written the entire story of Astarion and every line in it by himself. “A Gentle Line” would have been beautiful for sure. But these are dreams, and in reality, unfortunately, the post-Ascension scene was regularly made worse starting in patch 4:

(From Larian Forum, author Ametris)

Also in this interview with Welch and Schick: “Baldur's Gate 3 Writers Break Down the Craft of Video Game Sex and Romance” you can learn more about the writers' approach to romance. Interesting that:

“In contrast, romance was baked into Baldur’s Gate 3 from the beginning, and Larian developed its dynamic animation system to account for characters having to hug and kiss.” As a result, we have one hug in the Act 2 scene (and that in this scene for confession of feelings for me this action seems too weak, compared to the possibility to open the mind, which I find more serious and sincere). Except it's possible to regularly load a save just to hug Astarion, but within the story Astarion wasn't hugged once until the mod.

“It used to be set up so that the only way that romances could begin was this one night in the party, where you could only pick one character,” Welch says, “And then basically, that character would end up being your love interest for the whole rest of the game.”

This locked fans into dating the same character simply due to a few choices made toward the start of the game. As a fan before coming to work at Larian, though, Welch wished players could experience love triangles and multiple partners.”

It's unfortunate the resources went into this. I was honestly rather saddened to learn that BG3 was originally intended to be a good classic RPG with a romance with a single companion. I can imagine how rich the romance could have been, if all the resources wasted on bears, cheating, “choices between the two” and whatnot had been shared between the romances with LI. For Act 1 there's 2 hours of extra content created for all those triangles (including lines, scenes, and companion reactions), but a hug for Astarion - no, not even in the epilogue, just as there's no kiss in the epilogue, nor is there any opportunity for a “gentle” romance.

And to this:

“People often write fanfiction that is deeply about conflict, about angst, about actual challenges that are being overcome in a relationship,” Welch says. “There are quite a lot of really heartbreaking break-up scenes that happen in Baldur’s Gate 3. That’s the thing that people don’t necessarily consider being an important part of romance.”

I think there's a reason people don't consider breakups an important part of romance. Games are about escapism and fun after all. There's no way I'd pay $70 to get frustrated and get something as unpleasant as a relationship breakup in a game. Fine, let it be, if someone likes it, as an extra option that doesn't get in the way and doesn't take a lot of resources away from the main romance line. I believe that romance in the game and lines for the player should be made for those players, who love the character, and all this side stuff like breakups and fights can be added as an option for those, who want to break up the romantic relationship, but not in the amount of tons of nasty lines for Tav for more than half of the content with no possibility to say “I love you”, hug and kiss gently (which is unfortunately the case in the Ascended Astarion romance). The possibility of a breakup is a common sideline for romance, yes, it should exist in RPGs, but to give it so much importance, to define the romance by it, is ridiculous. But the haters really fucked up AA fans with their “you can't break up with him”. And it's worth pointing out the hypocrisy of praising “Endless Thirsty Fan Art” and sex speedruns on the one hand, and on the other - note the very title of the article, “Baldur's Gate 3 writer's explanation of Astarion's ‘bad’ ending is a wake-up call for players lusting over RPG characters.” Players are being insulted and called gooners for… Wanting to help their beloved character in a plot quest! Just to prevent a tragic outcome for him with “Astarion will remain a spawn forever” and a finale that looks and is essentially a poorly executed quest for an evil companion. And I'm not at all against the first one, I fully support diversity and providing different options in games so people can fulfill whatever sexual fantasies they want without any judgment, but just without this kind of hypocrisy and trying to insult and ruin the game for a portion of the audience who paid the same price for the game as everyone else.

In the game Baudelaire Welch seems to have decided to “shame” fans of vampire romance - in the dialog of non-romantic Astarion after meeting Oblodra in Act 2 we can hear his line: “There's nothing more desirable in the world than a vampire, is there?” and their favorite “degradation” (“It's degrading that people like her fall for it”). This gives haters the opportunity to compare fans of the Ascended Astarion to this very same Oblodra. In order to learn about Oblodra's attraction to Astarion one must play through the game without having a romance with him. Otherwise the meaning of the insult slips away (as it did for me the first time I saw such a comparison, thanks to Arachnomancer for commenting on my previous post with detailed lines). How unrealistic this line sounds in the world of Faerûn, where vampires are feared and clearly not “desired”, well, it's a pretty well known phenomenon that when the agenda comes to the forefront, the lore of the world, realism and other things of little importance to preach cease to matter. It's possible to imagine that Astarion might have encountered something similar in the past, but in the rest of the game, except for this place, attitudes towards vampires are shown differently. In the romantic dialog, Astarion can say, “People don't trust vampires - perhaps understandably - so I needed to get someone on my side. And seducing you was easy, frankly.” He needed protection, because people don't trust vampires, which sounds logical. And the motivation to seduce Tav for the sake of that protection made sense too. Astarion admits that Tav was his first (in terms of a bite, the first person to voluntarily give him their blood, and Astarion took it as a gift “This is a gift, you know. Thank you - I won't forget it.") And he definitely was hiding the fact that he was a vampire, when he was forced to seduce victims for Cazador. The Curse of the Vampyr book (the first of which is literally right in the first tomb) - also illustrates how vampires are treated in the world of Faerûn. Companion reactions after the bite scene. The girl in the sewers (whom Petras has invited, in order to drink her dry, celebrating what he thought would become his freedom), we can tell her that the guy she's waiting for is a vampire, and she'll be scared and completely unwilling to stay waiting for the most desirable lover. Astarion also didn't want to risk stirring our desire too quickly and hid the fact that he was a vampire, early in the adventure. What fans of vampire romance got was preachy, and RPG fans got degradation. The degradation of the genre, when in Act 3 you suddenly get an RPG novelization.

And it's funny how with one hand, bestiality is added to the game (Baudelaire Welch also authored the infamous bear scene, which they say was done for the sake of some “horny shitposting” fans who do it with their friends on Discord, you can see more about it in their “Romance Design in Video Games” lecture below, and game magazines have also written about it, “A sort of shit-eating grin was on my face when I was pitching it”), and the other hand is an accusation for players who like vampire romance. Well, okay, they don't accuse all vampire sexualizers (if you don't let Astarion Ascend, he won't stop being a vampire, but he is allowed to be sexualized), they only accuse players who like healthy vampire romance (when the vampire is healthy, not burning or starving), and try to claim that we're “experiencing the pleasure of degradation”.

But, the main thing is that Larian did not force players to finally break up with the game and changed Tav's facial expressions in the kisses to adequate ones. The animations of the D/s scenes for Ascended Astarion's kisses were filmed separately, and the words “scared, sad and pained”, (were discovered by the modders in the game's code) were used in order to draw the facial expressions of a rape victim on the faces of the player characters as a “Valentine's Day gift”. There is no confirmation that this was the entire studio's idea. Stephen Rooney, sadly, left Larian before patch 6 was released and he had nothing to do with these disgusting scenes. Patch 7 fixed this, and most likely led the kissing to the version of the content that was previously intended as fanservice. During Larian's appearance at PAX West 2024, when answering a question about sexuality in BG3, Adam Smith mentioned that they purposely added "kinky" sexual scenes into the game to make things more authentic, and that they consider that a good thing that they're proud of. He said, "We wanted it to feel authentic... I don't think sexuality should be controversial; different kinks, arousals, fetishes, whatever it might be... I think it's okay for things to be sexy.” Larian positioned the romance in BG3 as a dating simulator before, and by including BDSM romance, they chose Astarion for the dominant role because he's best suited for it. And the horrible faces for the player character is like Welch's attempt to “finish their novel” (as their fans used to threaten that “the novel must be finished”) at the expense of a wonderful character written by Stephen Rooney and at the expense of cheating players (patch 6 in regards to Astarion's fanservice was a fraud and consumer deception - given that the genre of the game purchased was RPG and the roleplay in the romance line was absent and replaced with low quality fanfic). Unfortunately, these scenes were also triggering and triggered PTSD in many people. (“New Astarion kisses in Baldur's Gate 3 have a disturbing effect on fans and here's why”).

Perhaps Mx Welch thought this was some kind of uniquely innovative approach. In his lecture Romance Design in Video Games:

Welch presented a list of what they think will make romances in games more interesting for players (and what I would call “A Practical Guide: How to Make a Player Unhappy in Your Game with Romantic Relationships.”):

It seems like the disgusting “kisses” designed to victimize the player by stripping them of agency and painting horrible faces on their characters was a failed attempt at realizing point 6. And the haters “fandom” with their “Cazador 2.0”, “soul loss” and other nonsense that is based on nothing is a realized point 5. So seeing gaslighting in a BG3 game definitely succeeded, albeit not in the romance of the game, but in the fandom. In AA romance, there's an opportunity for a roleplay of a toxic partner, all the negativity goes through Tav - lines for Tav (like “You're like Cazador”), imposed facial expressions, no opportunity for roleplay there, where it might have elicited some particular deep emotional reaction from Astarion (you can see the potential of AA's romance in chatbots, even in hater's chatbots, how much he loves and reacts if the player has the opportunity to write their lines, but, in the game, alas, we have a scene of 4 negative lines). Plus “mind-reading” with “degradation” is an imposition on the writer's (Welch's) position. It's a tricky screenwriting move (but “tricky” in a bad way) - the line reflects Astarion's inner state, combined with his character, his inner pain and his self-esteem because of his trauma, and that's what Welch used. But combined with the inability to do anything about it, we get trapped. We have to validate this self-perception of his, while at the same time allowing the author to stigmatize ourselves and fit us to their narrative, as in the tale of the Little Mermaid, who gives her voice to the Witch to save the prince. Plus it gives an opportunity for someone to take that line as if Astarion sees Tav as inferior to himself, or twist it to favor their propaganda. The dialogue scene before this is also a deliberate violation of all laws of the RPG genre - it's purposely done this way, in order to make the player look like a “sexualizer” and give a “feel bad ending”. I believe Welch's contribution is primarily Tav and the lines for Tav (yes, and all those relationship-breaking lines). Of course, Welch did some good stuff ("Aeterna Amantes. Lovers forever, until the world falls down” is their line, according to their fans, the scene of Act 2 is also good and very touching). Exactly what other Ascended Astarion lines belong to their pen is probably unlikely to be known for sure. I've read that Stephen Rooney wrote the epilogue and Astarion at the party after the epilogue, but I have no confirmed evidence of that. But it seems true - the adorable animations of Astarion at the party - the bat, the costume, the way Astarion throws the cup, plays with daggers, etc. seem to me to match Rooney's writing. And the lack of hugs and kisses just for us, just for our fandom, just for our Astarion is more like Welch's solution. Although, considering that even after Welch left, even though they changed our faces, none of the other requests were fulfilled, perhaps the blame for the deterioration of Astarion's romance also lies with those who officially own the rights to the BG3 characters - Wizards of the Coast. Shortly before Patch 6, Wizards of the Coast had mass layoffs of people, many of whom had worked with Larian and interacted with them about the BG3 game. At the very least, don't blame it solely on Welch, there were probably other individuals willing to shove this trashy preaching to players in romance and label Astarion as an “abuser”.

I would also like to call attention to this quote from the Baudelaire Welch lecture:

“In this dialogue, I directly wanted to make the player feel bad for having learned the mentality of click-the-right-dialogue-options-to-get-sex-in-video-games, as that's kind of been baked into us as romance players of previous generations of RPGs. In this scene, it's you click the sex options and you'll further traumatize a traumatized person.”

Yes, this is referring not to the Ascended Astarion romance, but the heavy and rare scene where Tav can force Astarion to have sex with them during the act 2 confession scene. Yes, it's a hard scene, I watched it on video, Astarion is really painful to watch. But… Where has the esteemed author seen players with this “mentality,” who will actually click on lines with a hint of sex in any situation? Specifically this scene in BG3 is only experienced by game testers, with the desire to check all of Astarion's reactions, to watch maximum content, and they choose every possible option to get to know the game and the character from all sides. Well, or post a rare scene on their youtube channel. Even the very first line that leads to this scene, “I was hoping that as a reward for my support you'd throw yourself to me” is for a roleplay of an extremely weird character, to whom a headshot won't damage their brain. And even though the scene itself is strong, heavy and tough, but no one sees it, “roleplaying themselves” and choosing what they want to choose. Treating the players like idiots, that will actually choose this and wanting to “teach them something”? Again, there's no problem with that in this scene, it's not in the main playthrough, you can watch it from youtubers, you can play it yourself in “test mode” to analyze the character and learn more about Astarion. But, ahem, isn't the same attitude shown already in the main story scenes, like the dialog after the Ascension and the attempt to show/impose something through a check that you can only agree with? I really wish that authors of games in the RPG genre, where player agency and choice are supposed to be present, would realize that players are mostly adults and are not going to “learn” anything in games, much less dislike any kind of “preaching” towards them. And if you consider the audience to be idiots, it might produce bad writing, and the audience, in turn, will certainly judge the quality of such writing and criticize it. True wordsmiths may influence the audience, but they don't try to “teach” or “force”. They tell a story - logical, coherent, with room for roleplay and choice. You probably need to be a genius and a master of manipulation to introduce some ideas without being noticed, but it's very difficult, it's better to just write a good script.

Baudelaire Welch is also very fond of fanfics:

“The last part of how do we make our romance feel better for players? Wish fulfillment is forgettable. Players who go to write fanfiction are just as interested in hurt as they are in joy. Hurt is something to analyze. Hurt is a dilemma, and behind it is a moral choice.”

“I know because I was writing fan fiction about Baldur's Gate 3 before I worked on it”.

“It feels like a watershed moment in gaming history, where the fanfiction community felt like we were not a subculture within a fandom, but the majority audience that the game was catering to”.

Well, it doesn't take a statistical expert to realize that the main audience is still just playing the game and not writing fanfics. And those who do write, write completely diverse plots and completely varying quality. There are quite a few beautiful, strong and interesting works written about Ascended Astarion, but there are also some nausea-inducing “abuser” fantasies. Patch 6 was only suitable as a video insert for this, rather disgusting, mediocre and very far from the real image of Astarion category of fanfics. It's not the best option to take a small fraction of the total number of players (those who write fanfics at all), from them choose an even smaller fraction - those who write crappy fanfics, and make a romance for them, screwing up the story for the main consumer - those who bought the game according to its genre (RPG) and with faith in the already known Baldur's Gate setting.

Welch is also known to have worked on Dark Urge and on Astarion's dialog for Dark Urge:

The post with this message has been removed from Reddit. An Imgur link with a screenshot of the post was saved by one of the commenters. The quality is poor, so here's a reprint:

"It was me! So thank you! I am the Dark Urge writer, but I worked on writing for Astarion for several months during crunch. Because I had the opportunity to, I added a lot of extra interactions between the two characters. That’s why Astarion gets a bunch of I dialogues for the Dark Urge, and none of the other characters do. I'm sure we would have liked to have every character repeatedly check in on the dark urge, but there wasn't really time/budget for it. I just was working on the two characters at the same time and wanted to squeak in him being super supportive and worried about you throughout the game.

Neil absolutely killed it, though. I'd totally forgotten I'd added the scene where you try to break up with Astarion because you're worried about endangering him, and he absolutely doesn't let you.

But the Neil delivery of those lines have now totally burned that moment into my brain endurindly, he's just so sweet and anxious for you there".

Baudelaire Welch was selected for the role by Swen Vincke himself because their "mother worked partially on the script for Silence of the Lambs, the movie". (source: "The lead writer of Baldur's Gate 3's Dark Urge was extremely squeamish at first, which shows you can do just about anything if you set your mind to it.")

In general, that's the major of what I know about Baudelaire Welch's contribution to AA history (I apologize for the occasional digression in the form of my own assessments of this or that aspect, but it affected me a lot as a player at the one time). And about what you said about “the story was watered down” even though it was really only the expression on Tav's face that changed - the player character (!), a character that in RPGs has always belonged to the player and the job of a good writer is to provide enough choices and reactions for the roleplay so that the player can find a suitable option and make their own choices - that's a good point. Haters constantly claim that we were demanding a “rewrite of AA”, whereas we were demanding a return of agency, actually, something that has always been there in the same wonderful old games that Mx Welch criticized for supposedly superficial romance. These games didn't have such superb motion capture as BG3, thanks to that and Neil Newbon's superb play Astarion and his romance was so beautiful and clingy, and of course thanks to Stephen Rooney for creating Astarion (a character like Astarion hasn't been in any game before either). But the romance in these old games was written perfectly. I never had such problems with roleplaying as in BG3, in any RPG game I've played, I always had enough lines and reactions, so it can't be called some kind of picky or inflated requirements, if all other games of this genre were fine with it. In interactive novels, where you play as some ready-made character with their own prescribed personality, who act independently in some scenes, and somewhere you can choose options/replies for them and these options are limited - this approach is perceived normally and will not be an imposition, you may not like the character, but it happens. But for an RPG, having the player create their own character/self is just bad writing. As if you “have to” feel, perceive events the way the author demands. No, it's authors who have to write in such a way that immersion is not interrupted. And those whining about “rewriting AA” basically wanted the PCs to be part of their “story” and Astarion had nothing to do with it. By the way, Astarion himself is really great in the romance, I love all his lines, so for the lines of Astarion that were written by Baudelaire Welch, I can only thank them. But not for “Tav.” In general, the very idea of forcing a reaction and trying to fit the PC to “their own vision” is a big mistake. I'll make my decision to buy the next Larian game based on whether they'll treat Tav as a “storytelling tool” or make an RPG with enough roleplay and choices. And whether they'll listen to some next bunch of haters who want other players' beloved character to “not have a happy ending”. After patch 6, Astarion's “romance” looked like this:

(From Larian Forum, by Ametris)

Fortunately, this “novel” was not completed, and player agency is now present in the game, at least for those players who are fans of D/s romance. Modders have returned agency to the rest of us (at least PC players).

And yes, if someone starts “accusing” me and other people who gave negative criticism of Welch's work of “hating”, I would ask them to first find out the difference between “hating” and evaluating the author's work. Well, and evaluating the author's attitude towards the audience, based on their statements (it's pretty weird to spit at an audience and expect the audience to take it enthusiastically). Baudelaire Welch is currently no longer at Larian, and I wish them every success in their future endeavors.

[amaya69]

Fault. Downbreaker Zayne

[amaya69]

Astarion's facial expressions during his recruitment have changed! Patch 8.

The video shows Astarion's recruitment scene (dialog) in Act 1. Comparison of facial animation changes between patch 7 and patch 8:

Astarion seems to be hiding his fangs a little better now. Astarion now looks more scared and less cocky. And he's crouching less.

[amaya69]

Changes in Astarion's facial expressions during his recruitment (photo).

In continuation of the previous post (Astarion's facial expressions during his recruitment have changed! Patch 8) about the changes in Astarion's facial expressions during our first meeting. A photo selection of the most obvious differences:

Astarion looks at you more often (more eye contact). And this is a good change, besides, it looks more realistic - taking a fighting stance with a dagger you will definitely look directly at a possible opponent, not at the ground:

He's keeping straighter, whereas he used to crouch more:

With that, his cocky smirk gone, Astarion looks more scared and unsure:

His fangs are now less often seen when he opens his mouth (but it's hard to tell if he does this on purpose or if it's just a coincidence due to a general change in facial expression, though it looks like Astarion is hiding his fangs):

But in some places the smirk, fortunately, still remained, even became even more predatory:

Here's an interesting difference too (Astarion looks more serious when he's thinking, in patch 7 he had a funnier facial expression):

More insecurity about the situation and sadness:

Cute fangs are definitely shown less often:

At the conclusion of the dialog, Astarion was smiling before. Now only with one corner of his mouth and he has a strained look. Anxiety:

But… He really doesn't have a reason to trust yet, he doesn't know what's in store for him next, in front of him is a stranger before whom he needs to hide his fangs. He doesn't know what the future holds.

[amaya69]

Air kisses for the most adorable vampire!

With the new mod “Kisses" Mod By Cerberry and Moxi we can send Astarion an air kiss!

You’ll Melt at Astarion’s Air Kiss! 💋 | BG3:

[amaya69]

[amaya69]

I'm sharing a fun story with others about a villain family and everyone can tell their part of the story. In our story, Lord Astarion has a son who is almost always in his bat form. Sceleritas is the little boy's nanny and is basically to blame for everything. The little bat is very bright, cheeky, clever and adventurous.

Folding his wings almost killed me. ️😀 To all the happy consorts Lord Astarion has, you are the best. I hope we write many more stories, create pictures and videos. Have fun, darlings. 💕 To @avelveteenrose & @marielle555 💝

[amaya69]

Dawnbreaker is my roman empire.

[amaya69]

A quick painted landscape with the Ascended Vampire and his consort for header pictures

[amaya69]

some Downbreaker wip

[amaya69]

Ascended Astarion as DnD Vampire Lord

[amaya69]

“The sexualization of vampires” and what does Oblodra have to do with it?

I remember with sweet nostalgia how in the first playthrough my hands itched on the hilt of the blade, when my sunshine expressed this wish, and I thought that Oblodra had already played her role in the story, and I didn't bother, and just chose the “Attack” button. How the city guards actively expressed their weighty “ay-yay-yay, bad girl” until I managed to do it more or less neatly without upsetting the officers of the law. How I dragged her corpse around looking for a suitable ditch and found a good place for that drow in the sewers of the city. And how Astarion and I kissed (this was in patch 5) afterward, standing knee-deep in mud… Romantic. Really, things can be easier if you just have a little patience (and see how Astarion protects you):

Oblodra attacks on her own as part of the plot and the fight is calmer. Of course, this character has her own importance in the story, the scene of Astarion's confession in Act 2 after meeting her is deeply touching and leaves a mark on the soul in the first playthrough. The only unpleasant surprise is the lack of opportunity for “evil” roleplay when meeting her, when you have to refuse too, just impossible too politely (while the game has plenty of opportunities to outright insult and intimidate other NPCs, even in cases where these unfortunate NPCs do not give the slightest reason for it), but this is leveled in Act 3 by the opportunity to destroy her life's work and kill her. But the fact that Oblodra manages to “surprise” and wonder even after playing through the game is something I didn't expect from her. No, the character herself has nothing to do with it, but the perception of this character… It turns out that haters think that fans of Ascended Astarion are just like Oblodra.

What surprised me in this comparison was not so much the attempt to insult by comparing me to one of the most vile (to me) NPCs in the game, but the lack of any semblance of logic in this comparison. What is this nonsense even based on? Any, even the most insane inferences should, in theory, have at least some basis. The clue, as it turns out, lies in the “sexualization of vampires” and Welch's “message” (from the perspective of their fans, I can't say anything about the author). It turns out that Araj is not just a brazen bitch, who humiliates Astarion, behaves with him as if he were a slave and someone's property, and you see this vulnerability on his face, the change in the tone of his voice and you can't, categorically can't smash her face or at least say who she is, what she is, and what is about to happen to her… That's how this scene is perceived the first time playing through, to then be struck by the evening scene of Astarion's confession, when after his first line at first you really don't understand what he's going to thank you for, and then…

Yeah, the confession scene is brought to tears and you realize it's about PTSD, how much it depressed him, how much abuse he endured. And why that even a little support from Tav at that moment (really, just a little support, just to confirm that “He said it all,” just to show that you, well, you're not a shit, that's all, you didn't take advantage of his vulnerability and his PTSD for some f**king potion) meant so much to him and was so important in prompting such a revelation. But no, the fans of Welch's work (who is the author of Oblodra and the Act 2 confession scene), “decode the message” of the author in such a way, that no critics would never have thought that it is so bad. For there is no hint in the game itself, in the story and in the script that Oblodra is such a “symbol of the sexualization of vampires”, except that her manner of speech and voice are somewhat lecherous (well, or “sexy”, if one considers this manner as such). But some feel that Astarion's line to Oblodra, “I'm sorry? You want to be bitten?” sounds like the character, along with the writers, are ‘’throwing in the face‘’ something unkind to those with a ‘’fetish for vampire power‘’. Because of the word WANT. In a world where vampires are hated and feared, where all the companions are terribly unwilling to be bitten by Astarion, where the general attitude towards vampire bites is far from positive, to be surprised that someone wants to be bitten? Is that strange? Astarion, at the very beginning of the dialog, utters: “Don't worry, we're all friends under the Absolute. I won't bite.” To avoid unnecessary paranoia and suspicion from someone who recognized him as a vampire. Yes, Oblodra's blood is vile and Astarion can smell it, but it is logical to be surprised that she wants to be bitten. It must be hard to perceive any works and play any games, and to communicate with people in general, if the word want in any sentence is perceived as a hint of sexualization or a reproach for the presence of such urges. Do you want to drink a cup of coffee or tea while you read, by the way, hmm?

In order to realize their “sins and vices”, uninformed and unsophisticated in all kinds of nonsense that still exists in various corners of the Internet, fans of the Ascended Astarion must realize two things. First, there are a few people in the world who are piously convinced that vampires cannot be sexualized.

Well, we'll keep that in mind, but something tells me that in the global perspective, fanged handsome men are not in danger of lonely existence and lack of loving fans. Though in general, this “they want a hot vampire” story would probably work in some other game, where there would be some elf with a tragic fate (not a vampire spawn, by no means, well, you can remember the story of Fenris from DA2 or Sebille from DOS 2). And this elf would be persuaded to suddenly become a “hot vampire” through some violent and bloody ritual, making him the unquestioned fanged deity of all vampire sexualizers. And without the ritual, he would never have known the taste of his lover's blood, or the taste of anyone else's blood, nothing of this vampire existence. So he would have remained a good elf and a hero, and not a gram of intimacy. And he would have expressed his harsh “ew” to any elf sexualizer, who would have tried to induce him to debauch over the graves of the dead.

It's also worth knowing that Baudelaire Welch, author of Oblodra and the idea that anyone who wishes to see their beloved character in the game healthy and well and (oh, horror!) has no problem with annihilating 7,000 NPCs, can so wish solely due to a very high degree of sexual arousal, is also the author of a game in which you can't sexualize a vampire. “Don't Wake Me Up.”

The character, who is a vampire - Len, and there are sexualization scores in the game, which, when certain actions and dialogues are chosen, lead the player to “good” and “bad” endings. There's also the character Asterius, who is in love with you, and any romance with Asterius is bad. To get the good ending the game requires you to have an romance specifically with Len. Len was created as a character who cannot experience positive emotions, he was constantly tortured to make him the perfect villain, and he was sexualized so that players would want to have romance with him and he was forced to have sex with players against his will. The game has a hidden point system that calculates how much you objectify Len rather than show attention to him. Essentially, any romantic or sexual feelings from the player towards Len are objectification. Well, okay, it's an author's game with its own elaborate plot and story (although my inner skeptic can't find any logical explanation for how it's possible for such a world to exist where, with such technology available, some evil creators or programmers would actually torture some character in some romance game, making him a “villain,” instead of just prescribing a core AI with the character traits desired by the public). Author's game with any unusual plot is good, for those who like such things, but attempts to fulfill their fantasies using an already existing, written by another author character - not so good. Especially with the attitude to the audience, when players, on the one hand, are perceived as fools, who need to be “taught,” and who perform companion quests solely for the sake of sleeping with them and do not know what RPGs and roleplaying is at all, and on the other hand - as some “enlightened connoisseurs” of all sermons and messages, who in no way want to dive into the magical world from the inside and play with pleasure, and consider the game as some kind of literary work, in no way sympathizing with the “pixel man”. Well, if Oblodra is a kind of symbol of sexualization of vampires at Welch's, then I don't mind at all if such “messages for their own” will be in games, when they are invisible and don't interfere in any way with the play of common players. As in the case of Raphael's House of Hope and Haarlep - a knowledgeable person explained to me that this location is written largely for those who like the non-con genre. In ordinary perception, it doesn't interfere in any way - if someone wants to rape their Tav with Haarlep, “give themselves up for a key” or whatever, it doesn't make the fight with an unusually brash mini-boss any worse, nor does it prevent you from taking off his boots to collect a set of armor. It's just pretty funny, when a certain small party of “sexualization” fans start globally perceiving everyone around them through the prism of their own perception.

By the way, when we meet Z'rell after Oblodra and try to hide our true intentions from her by thinking of something more important than those true intentions - I always think about Astarion in that situation. Who else can push any other intentions out of my mind? Astarion gives his approval. The game describes Tav's thoughts as “To think of your attraction to Astarion.” You can think about attraction, you can't think about pure platonic love. Astarion approves of this attraction. Does he like that Tav sexualizes him or what?

Putting aside the whole “hot vampire daddy” bullshit (why they call him “daddy” I'm not aware of, but it's a regular thing), and looking at the really serious aspect - the fact that Astarion was a victim of sexual abuse - even then, understanding how helping him through the ritual could make the Tav looks like Oblodra is all the more impossible. In this case, only the dialog after the ritual with the line “I want your body” deserves to be placed in screenwriting textbooks as an example of the worst lines writing for a player in the game. Larian themselves have unfortunately treated such a heavy and sensitive topic without proper respect and understanding - using Astarion for dirty promotion of disgusting “bear sex”. And all the opportunities that are in the game for “good” Tav (the video from the brothel with UA in a “threesome” with Halsin is just painful to watch, if you have a heart, but this kind of shitty behavior by Tav using a traumatized person for their own perverted pleasure is acceptable and quite “good” here and doesn't even result in “lecturing” the player).

If we talk about what the developers wanted to show that Astarion cannot be sexualized, then it is extremely strange not to give at the same time the opportunity for platonic love, and it is not in the game. There is an option to refuse sex after the Ascension, but that's a line about nothing, it's just a scene refusal, and that line doesn't affect anything at all and is present in the game just “for the sake of being”. Well, okay, not “just to be”, but for the unique, rare opportunity to be a “sexualizer” without having sex. It's truly groundbreaking, it's never been done before.

Of course, deep romantic relationships can be without sex, but in that case the authors should have implemented the possibility for deep platonic love if they introduced such trauma to Astarion. I really want to apologize to him in the act 2 scene if he felt bad around me before, even though I knew nothing. And tell him that I love him and will always be there for him, that I don't need any sex, that I care much more about how he feels. Nothing prevents in this case these two people from having a deep and strong connection, perhaps stronger than many couples who have sex but are superficial about the relationship itself. It doesn't prevent love. Of course, the same will be true after his Ascension. That's what love is, sex is not necessary, it's just that the possibility doesn't exist in the scenario.

But at the same time after Ascension Astarion himself offers to resume intimacy, all his facial expressions and active leading behavior during the scene of the night with him, indicate that he enjoys it. And the scene itself is beautiful, not for nothing, probably some of the “morally enlightened” personas in the UA camp, go through this scene separately and then restart to avoid getting down on their knees. Astarion is perfectly fine with intimacy after the ritual, not a single, even the slightest hint of feeling bad. Deep serious gaze, sincere gratitude, “You have given me everything. Thank you.” And the tenderness with which he kisses Tav's hand. This is confirmed by the developers' notes:

“Player and Astarion standing facing each other.

They gaze lovingly at one another”

“Tav kneels before Astarion. This should be covered by the kneeling attitude, Astarion stands proud before the Player.

He is powerful. He is free.”

“He gazes down at Player. He is savouring the moment.”   

No one uses anyone in an AA romance. It's a story of deep strong love and trust. Though, of course, I'm curious, if Welch really wrote Oblodra as some sort of symbol of the sexualization of vampires, or if this is already the fantasies of individual “sexualization fans”. How does this thinking work? It's a curious question, it's impossible to say for sure, but two factors seem to play a role here: the obsession with all sorts of intimacy in some individuals, and most prudes, funnily enough, are these very “gooners,” which they like to call players who want romantic fanservice. Second - perhaps they really attach such a high value to their own “sermons”, “messages” and believe that being on the side of some conditional game “good” (no matter what kind of harm is offered under the sauce of this “good”) is so valuable that only another “great pillar” of motivation - sex - can induce someone to reject their “preachings” and help their beloved character to get the opportunity for a happy life. It's true that the worst ending, when you can see with your own eyes how much worse that ending is, will never become good from being called that. No matter how many times it's called that. And it doesn't matter what the people who talk about how bad this finale is are called. And going back to the image of Oblodra and whoever resembles her - there can be completely opposite associations with that image. Oblodra is a bitch. If you give her character a brief characterization, you can fit into that word. What word can you call Astarion's haters, who claim that “kick” him is the right thing to do, that to bring him to his knees in an evil ending is also the right thing to do, and they ascended him for that purpose? Bitches. Well, here we are, finding where the Oblodras are in the fandom.

[amaya69]

Air kisses for the most adorable vampire!

With the new mod “Kisses" Mod By Cerberry and Moxi we can send Astarion an air kiss!

You’ll Melt at Astarion’s Air Kiss! 💋 | BG3:

[amaya69]

Astarion is a strong character. In any case and regardless of what happened to him.

I've seen statements online like “AA fans call UA is weak” (maybe you've seen that too). Of course, this source will never run dry. They always invent something new, twist the story, distort the meaning of their opponents' statements to the point of impossibility, in general, you can't get bored. If earlier I naively thought that their “arguments” were based on lies about “Cazador 2.0”, “loss of soul” and trying to prove that “AA doesn't love Tav” (this nonsense, of course, is alive and will live forever, as long as there are those who desperately need “right messages” sent to them in the form of a sexually attractive vampire boy, but in such a way as to say that “he is happy” with the torments of hunger and in eternal darkness). Well, one must, I guess, somehow justify “I don't let him ascend” as the only right way and still remain “white-glove” at the same time.

So one should start claiming that those who help Astarion Ascend are supposedly calling UA weak. And prove that UA is strong. Well, yes, Astarion is a strong person. There's nothing to prove, he has an iron rod. The fact that he was able to survive and preserve himself, keep his mind, his personality after 200 years of slavery and torture, an internally weak person is not capable of that. How long did it take for Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones to be broken by Ramsay? Velioth broke Cazador, but Cazador couldn't break Astarion. Astarion survived in conditions in which a person, who has always lived in increased comfort and does not understand what reality is (who may consider Astarion's rational desire to ascend and be able to live a full life and protect himself and his beloved as “moral weakness” or “fear”) simply could not have survived. Or would have wised up quickly.

And the fact that Astarion didn't have someone around to help him see his scars during the ritual doesn't “make him weak” or change his character. It's just that after the Ascension, Astarion starts to show off that strong character of his openly, and if denied, Astarion is too depressed. “I just feel numb.” “I'll have to. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.” - Even from this line you can understand how hard it is for him, in addition to having to accept that he will never get what he longed for, that he will no longer have a full life, but instead will have to live “some half existence, hiding in the shadows for the rest of eternity”, he also has to play a role, thank Tav and make up stuff about “breaking the cycle of power and terror”. Because “I am - well, not ‘happy’ with how things turned out. But this does feel right.” Astarion has a much harder time in the UA situation than AA, but he doesn't lose his fortitude and in the epilogue he talks about looking for an opportunity to walk in the sun again. And when he finds it, there will be nothing stopping him anymore, no “heroes” around. Unless he's in a romance with Tav, because his love for Tav is really his weakness and vulnerability. Either way, Ascended or not.

It would be better for them to try to prove where Astarion's consorts are calling HIM weak. It's impossible not to see that he's feeling bad in UA's route. The inability to read (or, as usual, the intentional misrepresentation of their opponents' words) probably equates the fact that the Ascension ritual frees Astarion from physical ailments and weaknesses, the fact that Astarion is certainly made stronger (physically and magically) by the ritual, and the fact that those who help him along the way consider his “version” of the UA to be a weak and insufficiently “toxically masculine” man. As well as the “ah, they're talking bad about UA”, they “don't give UA a chance”, as if, holy shit, there really are a couple of “hot vampires” in the game, one of whom is perfectly “toxically masculine” in order to sexualize him, and the other not so much, and here's this poor sensitive guy getting berated and not given a chance. I should probably get used to this type of thinking though, I mean, they hate Astarion, if he's Ascend, and yet call themselves fans of him. When a person has a split inside into “two different people,” it's called dissociative identity disorder, and what do you call that case where they “split” the other person? I guess with such a syndrome of “Astarion's dissociative disorder” it must surely seem that those who hate Redemption Arch (as a playable feature, as a path, as a choice, just hate playing it) must dislike Astarion himself along the way and consider him weak.

Yes, Astarion himself (not his consorts) on the UA route considers himself "I'm still nothing, aren't I? Just an expandable frail spawn who will burn to a crisp soon enough", he hates what Casador did to him. "Unmaking what you made me" (Astarion's response when Casador asks him what he's doing).

Without the ritual, Astarion will forever be what Cazador did to him, it will be incorrigible, he will forever be a spawn. And says this line to Astarion then when Tav asks: “All right, what do you need?” Astarion: “I need your eyes. In a manner of speaking.” Before the ritual itself, without any attempt at persuasion, Astarion believes that Tav will help him.

And to say that we think Astarion is weak because of it - well, that's like me saying about a person with a disability, who was not allowed to be healed (for example, in a cyberpunk setting, they were not allowed to install an implant for “ethical reasons”, which not only would have healed them, but made them stronger than a healthy person) that they feel bad about their illness and with the implant they would be stronger, and a devout believer against cybernetization would claim that I was insulting that person by calling them sick and weak. I wonder who would be “sexualized” by fans of such a character, helping them heal and get an “unethical implant”? Cyborg? Why I hate the UA route, I wrote here. But Astarion himself is a beautiful and strong character, he copes even with it. And handles it the way a strong man handles it, a strong man who “just feels numb”. The only weak character I have contempt for in this version of the game playthrough is Tav, not Astarion in any way.

Astarion, who “heroically” rejects the ritual and sympathizes with those 7000 spawns, can only exist in Astarion Origins, where the player creates “their Astarion” by shaping the character's personality as they wish. There is no such Astarion in a game with Tav/DU, there is an Astarion who was denied help in a ritual. Astarion can only make one choice - wish such a Tav to die screaming (as he wishes every companion who doesn't help him) or accept it. Astarion's Choice.

Here's what Astarion thinks of these spawns he's “supposed” to sympathize with:

“These people died years ago, trust me on that. All that's left are feral spawn, desperate for blood.

If we release them, how many people will they kill? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?”

Astarion without Tav, who no one helped Ascend, won't let the caged spawns go free:

“As for those wretches in the cells - if I don't get my freedom, neither do they.”

Astarion breaks the staff and dooms the spawns in the cages out of anger, out of the pain of anger at his not being allowed true freedom, and let them suffer as well.

“But if they die and I ascend, I won't have to rely on the parasite to walk in the sun. I'll be free - truly, completely free. Isn't that what you want?”

And… The pain and doubt in his voice when he asks: “Isn't that what you want?” Astarion has one major weakness and vulnerability, and that's Tav. And not just because he really needs Tav's eyes right now and their connection through the tadpole to see his scars. Tav is the only person he loves. Tav is the best thing that has happened to him after two hundred years of torture, pain and humiliation. Perhaps this love of his, how much he loves, and how much he is attached to Tav, and how much he needs love and acceptance from Tav, is a consequence of his trauma. And his approval of that persuasion is not an approval of Tav keeping him from Ascension. It's an approval that he believed Tav's motives, he understood, why his loved one wouldn't help him. Why the one he loves so much won't let him become truly, completely free, won't help him start living a real, full life. Tav convinces him of their motives, and if he believes that they are not doing this out of malice, that it is really in their heads, in their value system, what they say is true and they believe it, then Astarion agrees to become what they believe in. With pain in his eyes and a full understanding of what he will have to sacrifice for that love and that belief. He doesn't know what a real relationship is or what true love looks like. He doesn't think he deserves better. He was used as a tool, he was tortured, no one ever cared about him, and he could only learn to survive - Astarion begins to connect with the world for the first time after two hundred years of slavery and torture. AA has a heartbreaking line, “I was trying with you, you know. In the only way I can try.” (if you reject his proposal, in a dialog three days after that, and such pain in his eyes and such an expression on his face, it's just impossible to watch).

UA has a bitter line, “I will endeavor to please” in response to Tav's cruel line, “Then don't mess it up” in the graveyard scene - he will still try to earn even the love of someone who is incapable of love.

Because he doesn't think he deserves better. He even gives some fake theatrical approval, when Tav wants to “add” Halsin to their relationship, when Astarion himself certainly doesn't need any Halsin. And he clearly feels bad about that relationship. And he agrees to have sex in a brothel because of Tav, he's experiencing PTSD, but he won't even rebuke Tav for it afterward with a single word. He'll forgive the cheating with Mizora. He will never even think about the fact that such a Tav doesn't deserve him. He thinks himself unworthy of Tav's love, he idealizes them. He won't think about the fact that the very desire for “payback” or “redemption” for a loved one is not love. That the desire to “fix” someone and “make them better” at the cost of their suffering is not love. Anti AAs very rarely mention the most important thing in their posts, much more important of course is the topic of “power”, where what “message” and how much “masculinity” is needed for their favorite “toxicity”. Hunger, sunshine, feelings “the arousals and appetites of man”, even his own reflection to see, after all, these are usually either unworthy of mention or presented as something like “challenges,” which Astarion, of course, heroically wants to take on.

The line of Persuasion for Tav looks exactly like this. “I want you to live a life you're proud of” (how I wish Tav would burn in the sun afterward and Astarion would stand there and watch it). “You can't be proud of this.” Translated as: “I don't care how you feel or how you feel, be the way I want you to be, you can consider yourself a good person for that”.

If Tav betrays and abandons the UA in the finale, he tells them, “How dare you! After all I've done for you - after everything I've sacrificed!” And what else did Astarion sacrifice for Tav except one thing - the chance to find true freedom, sunshine, and feel alive again?

UA takes Tav's attitude for love and accepts the suffering he will have to go through because of it. And behaves the way his “fixer” wants him to. He doesn't fully trust and thinks Tav might leave him, he's afraid of losing Tav and he's not sure about this relationship. AA thinks “you are degrading yourself by staying with him,” but he is happy, if Tav agrees to be his Bride and after receiving this true confirmation of an eternal bond, he starts to trust, opens up. AA suffers greatly, when Tav rejects him and this bond. That said, he expected this… It confirms his opinion of himself, that he, as he is, is not worthy of love. This goes nowhere in the case of refusing the ritual, Astarion adjusts, hides the real himself. He's more honest and frank with Tav in the non-romantic epilogue, in the romance he's silent about how he really feels about having the sunlight taken away from him again. And about how he will do anything to get that opportunity again. AA in the romantic epilogue, after 6 months with a loving consort is calm, confident and happy.

Also a very interesting “argument” - all of Astarion's problems in the Spawn state are better than the “illusory” benefits of Ascension. And everything is bad for the Ascendant, for he is “morally weak”. In general, I wonder how it is - how can concrete physiological facts be illusory?

Hunger, the sun, the reflection in the mirror, the taste of food and wine, “the arousals and appetites of man will return to him”. The benefits of Ascension are illusory, just as the sun itself, air, water, the fact that the Earth is round and revolves around the sun is illusory, as are many other things that simply exist by themselves as fact. As exist all things that exist regardless of anyone's belief or disbelief, simply because they exist. “Moral weakness” is just that, an artificially created concept, it is illusory. The very concept of morality is illusory, morality has been different in different eras (sometimes even radically different). Morality is a social construct that applies specifically to the society that accepts this particular morality, morality is a tool of management, regulation of people's behavior. Morality is simply the notions of right and wrong, good and bad, and the set of norms of behavior derived from these notions that are accepted in a particular society and at a particular time. One cannot be “morally strong” or “morally weak”, one can accept/not accept this or that form of morality, conform or not conform to this or that notion of morality. “Astarion doesn't conform to your ideas of morality” would be true, but ''morally weak'' would not. Morality doesn't exist, it's just some conventional characteristic that serves to evaluate certain things in a particular society in a particular historical period. Releasing 7000 hungry spawns is so “moral” that in terms of realism in DnD, it should have resulted in bloody chaos throughout the city. A bloody night in Baldur right after defeating the Brain, when the city is already severely weakened by the massacre with the Illithids. Perhaps there would be no Baldur, just ruins, where anarchy reigns and gangs of spawns rule. “Moral lessons” and “messages” sometimes don't mix well with realism and logical calculation of the consequences of certain player actions.

Astarion is not a dummy or a toy, to be “personality changed” by Tav. He has his own personality and his own desires. Astarion does not become “good” or “chaotic-neutral” if he was not allowed to Ascend, Astarion remains “neutral-evil” (if we give value to such a concept as alignment). It is not alignment that makes a person happy. But alignment is a convenient system to describe a character's worldview, and there are certain rules that affect a character's alignment change in DnD. In order for your action to affect your alignment change, you must have freedom of choice and decision, there must be no insurmountable circumstances that prevent your character from doing what they would like to do. The fact that Astarion basically can't Ascend on his own, unless someone helps him see his scars, makes refusing to do the ritual (or helping him do the ritual) a choice that affects Tav's alignment change, not Astarion's. If Larian wanted to show Astarion's change of alignment, there would have been an option in the game for him to Ascend without Tav's help (drawing his scars on a piece of paper, for example), and then, if Tav had convinced Astarion to refuse, or he himself, like Shadowheart, could have done it, Astarion could have changed his alignment. It's especially funny to read the “arguments” that since Astarion didn't redraw his scars, when Tav drew them in the sand, that means he didn't want to Ascend. They would have made up their minds - whether they revitalize the character to such an extent, that he himself “off-screen” decides, what to do in the story, or whether the main thing is the “message” and what the authors wanted to say (I have only one opinion on this - it doesn't matter who “wanted to say” what, but what is important is what is really said and shown in the story of the game). In this case, Larian most likely wanted to make an “arch of redemption” for Astarion (which could be combined with his past as a corrupt magistrate from EA and possibly look like “payback” for his past sins). Whether by choice or due to the demands of those back in the EA, who wrote to them demanding they “fix Astarion”, it doesn't matter so much anymore. And as a romance bubblegum for players, who play just to have fun, and they need a sexy male companion for a romance, they won't pay too much attention to his well-being, emotions and will calmly eat up the “bittersweet” ending as a good one, if they're told so, this story arc also fits very well. That said, this storyline fits logically with the evil companion's poorly completed quest (for the world “good”, for him “bad but not fatal”) and doesn't break the character's IP. A logical commercial move - after all, the romance of Ascended Astarion is unique and unusual, it's not “mass-market”, and besides, whining about morality in games, “evil is wrong”, etc. has been in vogue lately, we all know that, and creating an evil character without “moral options” to “fix” him might not have been a very good decision in terms of taking into account the subsequent network hysterics about him. And in order to make the “redemption arc” possible and logically plot-wise fitting with Astarion's character without violating his IP, the best option was to take away his ability to make his own choices, leaving him with only the option to accept this “redemption” or leave the group. This blends with his story (his scars) and gives additional story beauty to the romance of the Ascended, when his beloved becomes his eyes and they go through this ritual together (“I did. We did”).

Astarion's ”strength of personality“ does not depend on whether he has undergone the ritual or not. Astarion always remains himself. It's just that in one case he is “with all the masks, lies and deception still included” and in the other “no masks, no lies, just the truth because he has the confidence to push his arrogance in your face without fear”. Helping him in the ritual or refusing to help him characterizes Tav, not Astarion.