#you can bet your ass that's 100% Astarion's doing

[rivilu]

I GOT THE EPILOGUE TO WORK ON MY OLD SAVE YESSSS

no magic mirror on the map to change my tav to his more recent iteration but what can you do

[avernusreject]

For the Horny Ask Game:

For Zinnia -

Do they prefer giving or receiving? 

What was the worst moment your Tav felt lust?

What part of their partner’s body does Tav like the most?

Thanks for the ask, anon!

Zinnia definitely prefers giving. When she’s into someone, she is 100% into spoiling her partner and that absolutely goes into the bedroom.

Worst moment, watching shadowheart going through the trials of Shar in act 2. A combination of watching Shadowheart being in her element as she passed each trial + Zinnia and her dynamic being increasingly hostile throughout that day. Her mind wondered to some very forbidden thoughts about screwing the cleric so blatantly under the gaze of Shar. Yeah, not the paladin of Selune’s finest moment.

Shadowheart’s lips. Their kiss in the beginning of the game wasn’t something Zinnia had planned, the wine emboldened her, perhaps a bit too much. After that though, the kiss is all she can think about. She thinks about how soft her lips were. How easy it would be to give into them once more. What they would be like finding their way down her body. Zinnia has never been subtle a moment in her life. Her gaze unconsciously lingers on them when they talk in the shadow cursed lands. Shadowheart pretends not to notice, but anyone with eyes could see the cleric’s face becoming bright red (you bet your ass Astarion notices and gives shadowheart so much shit about it)

[lingering-nomad]

Just reposting some thoughts on Ast/arion's alignment from yesterday. This was originally a comment on another post. I thought this take would be encouraging for ppl worrying that they can’t trust fang boy. Apparently not.

So as a disclaimer, I get that this is an unpopular opinion. However, I do think there's enough in the source material to make it at least as plausible as any other alignment headcanon. There's also the fact that Ast/arion is a vampire spawn, which have neutral evil as their default alignment. Astarion doesn’t stray far from this default in my opinion, but I think there are enough clues in his behaviour to make a case for lawful over neutral.

If you think I’m an idiot who doesn’t understand D&D alignment, good for you I guess? Like everyone else, my headcanons are based on my own play-throughs and my own Tav’s approach. I’m not trying to account for every single person’s interpretation based on every single interaction Tav is capable of having. These are just my thoughts on one possible outcome, posted on my blog for my followers who might find this interesting. If you think it’s nonsense, I urge you to keep scrolling.

With that out of the way, here’s the post again:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Ast/arion is the only male LI in any game I have ever played who you can point-blank say no to, even when his need is genuine and urgent, and have him accept it without arguments or loss of approval. This is of course dependent on succeeding the first persuasion roll, which requires a 3, aka not super difficult. The second roll is like 12, which is harder to make, but still not super high. If you missed the rolls and he kills you, is that your canon or did you reload? In 100+ hours of gameplay, I have let him kill my Tav deliberately to see what would happen and then I reloaded. If he does kill you, he’s very regretful. I choose to take this as sincere, partly because Larian is investing a lot into breaking stereotypes and giving their non-good characters some depth while also giving the typical “heroes” some flaws. In short, it makes for a better story than “evil character is evil and cannot be trusted.”

Ast/arion does get upset if you don’t trust him after he believes he’s proven himself. My take is that this response it a result of his valuing loyalty.

Being disloyal/unreliable are chaotic traits.

Ast/arion was a magistrate. He's a noble and his dialogue shows that tradition and hierarchy matter to him, even if he's very keen to get away from Caz. Listen to what he says if you fail the dice rolls to save Arabella and she dies. I play a rogue. If you choose the total bastard option and say she deserved it, you lose approval with him and he replies with “I thought one rogue would have empathy for another, I suppose I was mistaken.” When he asks how much blood you can tolerate on your hands, you’ll lose approval if you say you’re in it for unbridled slaughter. We see over and over that trust matters to him through his approval gains. You wouldn’t have to roll 15 persuasion to get him to open up to you if it was all just a game to him. He is the only companion to tell you his secret first. He will kill ppl for lols, but he’s pretty adamant about not killing someone while feeding. He has several lines about not being “a monster” and he repeatedly expresses a desire to remain in control of himself.

In short, the man is out to save his own ass and will stab a few tieflings for lols if you let him. He doesn’t like helping ppl, BUT he definitely has a code that he sticks to even when it’s to his detriment. That makes him lawful evil in my book.

Loyalty/trustworthiness are lawful traits. It’s early access. A lot can change and I may well be wrong, but with what we have so far, I don’t think trusting Ast/arion is the worst bet you can make.