#when astarion uses sex to manipulate you (and he admits that! whether you romance him and he falls for you

[not-so-lost-after-all]

Hi. I have been struggling if I should let my romanced Asterion ascended or not, which has been a huge dilemma that many of us so stressed about. But after 2 days of serious consideration, I decide to let him ascended, because I know how much Asterion loves to be in sunlight.

See how he enjoyed bathed under the sun after he shared a night with my Tav after the goblin camp victory. The scene is too beautiful. All I want is that he can walk in sunlight freely and without the eternal hunger as a spawn after the tadpole removed. So, even thought of the “personality change” after ascension, I still want to support him ascend.

So my point of view is, even thought after his ascension, he has the absolute power (he claims) to take everything, do whatever he pleases and has nothing to fear about now.

But hey, deep down he is still the little boy who is so scared of not being loved or wanted. So scared that he is willing to enforce himself to join the disgusting, degrading sex, just to make Tav happy. Or by his word, to make his prime consort happy.

​

Sounds so familiar? It's the same scenario in the Moonrise Tower. He could not help be enforced himself to something he doesn't want to if Tav, the one he loves so much asks of it

His interior doesn't change. He is still that vulnerable and loving Asterion who is so reliant to Tav.

Just that he is now ascended, well…. a lord has to act like a lord.

And from my point of view, he is just like a boy who is firstly given a huge piles of money and allowed to buy whatever he wants in mall. His head spins in happiness that his childish cockiness spilled out. "Muahahahaha I am the Lord of the World!!! Kneel to me!!! Bow to me!!! YEAH!!!!" And… well… it makes me happy to see that he can finally has some childish happiness. Too long he has been denied that. So my Tav will play along to let him has his joy. "If just kneeling before you can makes you happy, then why not?" :)

And in concern of whether he will truly turn Tav into a true Vampire, my guess is very optimistic.

And OK, maybe~ he will let Tav stay a spawn so "he can manipulate her" "become Cazardor himself" but hey whats good for him to makes Tav unhappy? If he only wants spawns and power, he can create as much as he wants

I am still so far away from reaching the ending. But i have already taste the sweetness in this route. Ascended Asterion romance has to be chewed carefully to taste the little sweetness hidden within. And it's also a trial of faith for Tav.

Does she believe Asterion's love and confession before his ascension be true and valid?

Does she always thinks that Asterion will love power over her despite all the soul talk and times spent together?

Does she has no faith in their relationship or the one she loves and choose to be with?

There's so much for Tav to answer too. If the faith is strong, from my point of view, there should be no fear to take the leap.

​

On the surface it seems that Tav is the weak and manipulated party. But well…. my point of view is, the one truly holds the power is the one who goes deeper into another's heart. And from this case, it's Tav who holds more power.

​

Nonnie, I've been thinking about how to answer that. You're not even asking anything, you're explaining something I did not judge you for. Anyway, I disagree. Larian explained that we shouldn't do whatever our love interest wants - this is exactly it. If Tav loves him, they should be the voice of reason when Astarion was not able to think clearly. Now he's forever defined by his trauma.

I suppose you didn't hear what he had to say when you break up with him for good? He doesn't love Tav, he's playing a game and admits he would ruin them. He thus had no intention to make them his equal. He likes Tav as a cherished property but even those are replacable and he gets over it quickly. You can't stay with him unless you're his spawn - he doesn't take no for an answer. It was carefuly crafted to mimic the worst case IRL scenario where the abused becomes the abuser in a new relationship.

I'm going to let him ascend when he's not my character's romance to see for myself what it's like. But as a romance, I cannot stand his evil self, he's like in Act 1 except now he became the mask. I even hated how he acted in a video where Tav cheated on him with Mizora - "how delightful, more depravity, wanna join next time".

Of course you can headcanon there's still something to be fixed in him but the game doesn't exactly support it.

#astarion #bg3 astarion #astarion spoilers