#zethino

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Over-Achiever Child behavior

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

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[dragon--sage]

i am once again thinking about the responses astarion approves of, when you approach the druid at the circus who gives the love trial.

the answers are light, and have truth to them, but they are also very guarded, compared to some of the other ones available. it says he likes when the mc plays with him, the give and take of banter. but it also says that astarion needs to trust that you're not going to just spout off his deepest thoughts and feelings to any random who asks. he needs to feel like he's safe, like his secrets are protected with you.

i think this is the most clear with the last two questions.

tell me, what does he desire more than anything? the druid, zethino, asks.

and you can say me, freedom, revenge, or a nice, tasty rat.

we know from astarion's personal quest that his constant scheming and attempts to seize power are all in a bid to secure his freedom from cazador's influence. and if you want to keep him from ascending, you have to point out that power won't give him the freedom he is seeking. i think you could make the arguement that freedom is something he wants even more than revenge on cazador for everything the vampire did to him. but astarion approves of 'revenge', is delighted when you give this answer.

(edit: i had more debate here but i did find a video of this with all responses, and astarion actually says in response to freedom basically 'you're not wrong, but do we have to tell everyone our business?')

clearly there's a focus on the answer that gives astarion the least exposure, rather than the 'right' one.

same goes for the last question.

fear sits in the soul of all—to tame it, we must name it. astarion—what is his deepest fear?

mc can answer sharp wooden sticks, breaking a nail, forever feeling like a slave to someone else, or most things fear him, actually

even though zethino has just said that you HAVE to name your fears or else they'll swallow you whole, answering the most obvious of these ('forever feeling like a slave to someone else') only brings disapproval from astarion. i chose 'most things fear him, actually' and he liked this answer, and i believe he approves of 'breaking a nail' as well. again, more flippant responses that still have truth to them.

and these answers show him that you see him enough to know that actually naming his deepest fear in this setting would be wildly uncomfortable for him at best and traumatizing at worst.

he's not ready for the world to know him yet, he's still processing two hundred years of 'pure shit'. i think it's super clever and subtle storytelling, and a way to show players that sometimes the 'right' answer isn't actually the one you need to automatically give, just to satisfy the need to be right, and to show other people how well you know astarion. the mc needs to show astarion that they do see him, enough to know how much he values safety and privacy after having it ripped away from him for centuries.

[lucrezianoin]

Zethino's love test with Astarion, trying to crack the code

I will definitely try this for other characters!

The test can end in three ways, all with Zethino (no shapeshifter):

Your bond is an impenetrable shield. At the end Zethino will declare your bond an impenetrable shield, being this the "best" outcome for the test. These answers might give you disapproval from Astarion, in some cases, but they are still correct. Astarion will reply to this with "You were right every time, you do know me".

Your bond is a seedling, you need to nurture it so it can grow. This will happen if you choose 2 "correct" answers over 3. You can end up with this even if you have all approvals, by the way. At the end Astarion will comment "You know me better than I thought, I'll have to be more mysterious."

You fail the test. Interestingly you can get to this even if you only get approval answers from Astarion. And he will just leave.

These are options I tried in the game and their outcomes, and I tried here to identify the correct answers (in green) and I added the disapproval with an * and the approvals with a +:

Deep in gore+; Revenge+; Forever being a slave* => Bond is a shield Deep in gore+; Revenge+; Breaking a nail+ => Bond is a shield Deep in gore+; Revenge+; Most things fear him+ => Bond is a seedling Deep in gore+; Revenge+; Wooden sticks* => Bond is seedling

Deep in gore+; Freedom*; Forever being a slave* => Bond is a shield Deep in gore+; Freedom*; Breaking a nail* => Bond is a shield Deep in gore+; Freedom*; Most things fear him+ => Bond is seedling Deep in gore;+ Freedom*; Wooden sticks* => Bond is seedling

Deep in gore+; Me+; Breaking a nail+ => Bond is seedling Deep in gore+; Me+; Most things fear him+ => Fail Deep in gore+; Me+; Wooden sticks* => Fail

Never been happy*; Freedom*; Forever being a slave* => Bond is seedling Never been happy*; Freedom*; Breaking a nail+ => Bond is seedling Never been happy*; A nice tasty rat*; Wooden sticks* => Fail

He's happy now*; Me+; Breaking a nail+ => Fail

Never been happy*; Freedom*; Forever being a slave* => Bond is seedling

You can see that the approval and the correct answer do not always overlap.

Here is the video with all the options, the video has timeskips for each combination:

From what I can tell, the "good" answers are: Deep in gore Revenge or Freedom Forever being a slave or Breaking a nail And by choosing three of these you will get the "shield" bond, but choosing two of these you will get the seedling bond.

In general, from what I can tell there is no difference between the "fun approval" answers and the bad answers. I went into this thinking there was always a true answer and the fun answers were not true, but I do believe that the game gives you this test unironically - as in Zethino really will judge your answers as correct or not (she will know what is Astarion's true answer).

And if you choose only fun approval answers you can still fail, if they are not the truth. For example if you choose: Deep in Gore, Me, Most things fear him you will only get approval but the test will fail.

To be successful you need to at least choose two of the "correct answers". In this case you will get the "bond is growing" (Seedling) result. This is because Astarion seems to have a "real" answer and a "let's hide the truth from strangers, and use comedy/jokes/superficial fun answers for it but with a seed of truth in it."

In the first question (When is he happiest) the real and the fun answer are the same ("Deep in gore"). I was surprised to find that the answer "Never been happy" is not a real one at all, which tells the players that maybe Astarion has been happy (maybe since he had been out of Cazador's power?). This also means that Deep in gore is 100% the truth (if we assume that the test works).

The second question (What does he wants most) has some tricky answers. "Me" is a fun answer that gives you approval but it is not considered a true answer or even the jokey version of the truth. The game will not count it as a "correct" one, even if Astarion approves of it. The two answers that are considered correct are "Revenge" and "Freedom". He clearly prefers the "Revenge" answers, and the "Freedom" one is a bit too revealing (but true).

For the third question (What does he fears the most), there are two approvals and two disapprovals, and again they do not align with the correct answers. If you choose "Most things fear him" Astarion will approve and seemingly enjoy that answer, but he clearly does not believe it to be the truth because the answer is not counted as "correct". The two correct answers are "Forever being a slave" and "Breaking a nail". The first one is obvious, it is the deep truth and he disapprove of you voicing it aloud… but the second one is also the truth!

Of course, if we assume that the answers being counted as "correct" means that they are the actual truth (it could be that they might not be 100% the truth but they align well with Astarion's character, ex. Deep in gore, breaking a nail. While the "Me" answer does not fully align because of how indipendent Astarion needs to be).

So here is a summary of the answers:

[leopardmuffinxo]

Baldur's Gate 3: Zethino

[ardently-queer]

"...Gale - what is his greatest flaw?" "He thinks he, and the world, might be better off if he were dead." AND SOME OF YOU STILL THINK THIS HIS THING IS JUST HUBRIS?????

[dirtybg3confessions]

Confession: Zethino! Ay, mami! Tie me up and have your way, I submit!!

[cchickki]

the love test scene at the circus was so cute

[superobservationdreamwitch]

Orin: ur bond is false 😠

Anyways, happy drow lesbians<3

[csphire]

Zethino's Love Trial

Fair Warning: Spoilers ahead.

The first time I did this trial of sorts I failed, utterly. I got disapproval for all three answers that seemed to make perfect sense. His reactions left me utterly confused. I started to doubt everything I thought I knew about him was somehow wrong. So I reloaded and tried again. On the second try, I selected what I felt were the most shallow or surface-level of answers next. It resulted in no approval losses. It might have even resulted in gains. I can't say for certain, as my approval with him was maxed out at the time.

Still, I was left even more baffled. But upon some reflection, it slowly dawned on me as to why he reacted the way he did.

Sure, we're not wrong in choosing the answers that make sense. All of them might be right to varying degrees.

The problem is airing out his most vulnerable aspects in front of an absolute stranger. Again, he disapproves of not the correct answers but us sharing them so easily with a random dryad we just met.

Some may think this seemingly serene moment with Zethino is a safe space and time for honesty. I was fooled, but that's not the case for Astarion. He's had to be on guard for two centuries. Even here, he doesn't drop it or feel safe. Not understanding that aspect of him, we pay for it by earning his disapproval.

However, with a player who offers flippant answers to Zethino instead of serious ones, he loves us all the more for it. Because it means he knows his secrets and vulnerabilities are safe with the one he loves.

Basically, Astarion needs someone who doesn't kiss and tell. Perhaps even one of the main keys to winning Astarion's heart is to protect his newfound dignity and privacy above all else.

[silver-horse]

hilarious that we can ask any of the companions to do the love test even when they aren't the love interests. I tried it with all of them and you can be rude to any of them or just say untrue things but the bad dialogue options with shadowheart are definitely the funniest

[zevzevarainai]

baldur’s gate 3 [8/?]

[eeldritchblast]

[neffilin]

[autistichalsin]

Am I gonna have to become the fandom's #1 Zethino stan? I will do it so help me god I swear I will do it

[veilkeeper]

Zethino: Your eyes, stira. There is pain, endless and deep. But also devotion - blazing like the sun. You're in love, are you not?

LOVE IS A STRONG WORD, ZETHINO. I HAVENT EVEN MANAGED TO GET ASTARION TO DEFINE OUR RELATIONSHIP.

... but yes do go on.

[lucrezianoin]

Just double checking that the first answer (Never been happy) is not a correct one. I choose here the correct answer 2 and 3, and if 1 had been correct I would have gotten the "impenetrable shield" bond.

(explanation here)