#Also I find it annoying that some people think Astarion is only popular thanks to other popular vampire characters

[berrywinkle]

«You like Astarion because you were a Twilight girlie.» *LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER* (I thought Twilight was boring)

«You like Astarion because of Spike from Buffy.» *LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER* (I have never watched Buffy)

«You like Astarion because-» All wrong, my friend.

I like him because he’s the best Orzhov lifegain vampire card in Magic: the gathering!

I didn’t even know he was from a videogame before I saw edits of him on Tiktok! I thought he was just another cool vampire card!

And since he’s helped me win so many times, of course I fell for him immediately.

[thranduel]

Hello! I really enjoy reading your posts and thoughts. They're very thoughtful and correct.Therefore, I would like to know specifically from you, why do you think so many men don't like Astarion? They are ready to kill him even at the start or betray after meeting with the monster hunter. Is it some kind of inner jealousy? What do you think?

hello! first of all, thank you SO much!! that’s so sweet of you 🥺 i love making posts about characters i love so it makes me happy when people enjoy them too :’)

and secondly, i feel like there are a couple of different reasons why many men don’t like astarion, and i think it mostly comes down to homophobia, a bit of jealousy because of his popularity, and also the fact that they’re threatened by any characters who are bold enough to make moves against them

and just to be clear, this doesn’t apply to EVERY single person; not everyone is going to like him and that’s fine! he’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. but unfortunately many people dislike/hate him for silly reasons like this and i just don’t know how any of these things is enough to make you hate a character you didn’t even ATTEMPT to get to know. he is one of the most well-written and complex characters with such an incredible backstory and the potential to redeem himself and become an even better person (if you help him and show him love) and it’s so sad that so many people miss out on that because they immediately judge him :/

anyways, the first thing: homophobia. astarion has one of the most unique and distinctive voices, and he can be quite dramatic and sassy. his mannerisms can also be seen as flamboyant. many men don’t like this (i wonder why lol). he comes across as very confident and even a bit cocky at first, and eventually if you slowly gain approval with him, he will start flirting with tav… this has literally made some people have a meltdown 😳 obviously astarion’s sudden flirting makes sense from a story perspective, because we know he only attempted to get close to tav to seduce them and gain their protection at first. but they don’t know that, and i don’t think they care because they’re too busy being uncomfortable about it and think they’re being personally harassed. the moment men see a male character that likes men, they automatically freak out. even if they’re fine with the character otherwise, that’s enough to make them hate them (homophobia sucks!!)

in regards to jealousy, i notice this tends to happen a lot when a character becomes really popular, especially if they’re physically attractive like astarion. it’s like they feel… threatened? bitter? in fandoms, a lot of people are women too, and i think misogyny comes into play here. people simply don’t like when women enjoy things, and astarion has a lot of female fans, so men don’t like that. it’s very weird. women enjoying themselves and loving a fictional man makes them very angry for some reason

i also think some of them just get easily annoyed when a character is very bold and willing to defend themselves. they don’t think about other perspectives except for their own, and they feel threatened when another character is tough and willing to challenge them to the point where their first thought is to just get rid of them before even trying to get to know them

i’ve seen people say they killed astarion because he put a knife to their throat at the start (he literally thinks that YOU are a threat to him. of course he’s going to threaten you and ask questions?!) and/or because he tried biting them in the middle of the night. and look, i understand how bad that second one looks, but you immediately find out why he was so desperate and made that decision because it’s revealed in that exact moment that he’s a starving vampire. that doesn’t excuse it, but it explains it. obviously it would’ve been nice if he asked first, but again, he literally tells you why he was scared and why he couldn’t trust you. he was doing it for his own survival. sometimes you need to take two seconds to put yourself in these character’s shoes before immediately losing your temper. and yes, i understand pretty much any of us would immediately remove that threat if we were actually in the situation, but it’s a FICTIONAL FANTASY ROLEPLAYING GAME. unless you’ve specifically made a character who would make those decisions in the game (which is fine and understandable because you’re supposed to roleplay as your character), i don’t understand why people would let their actual feelings get in the way and get rid of one of the most well-written and complex companions just because he did some things they don’t agree with. like, you’re supposed to stop and think: “who is this guy? what are his motives? there must be a reason for this” rather than just immediately crying about it and going straight to reddit to complain about how horrible he is as a character when you don’t even know him

but anyways yeah that’s personally why i think a lot of men don’t like astarion and why they choose to get rid of him. this is mostly based on things i’ve seen on reddit and the way they go on about how much they hate him while being extremely dramatic about it lol