#astarion: *says fucked up thing*

[invinciblerodent]

I've been thinking about what Iona might think/say about this line, and I think she would think differently from like... 90% of the people who heard this line, myself included lol.

Like, she disagrees, of course- were it up to her, she would have thought that letting the thief run free would have been the best choice, because, well, who cares, really. It was only a thing, and he was doing a job he was hired to do.

Like I'm not sure if it was in Mordenkainen's or another sourcebook, but I know it's mentioned at one point that elves typically don't care nearly as much for material possessions and theft as they care for sentimental items (it's got to do with being so long-lived and communal in general), they moreso pity one who would steal rather than blame them- and Iona herself already has a semi-questionable relationship with private property that's only tampered by her extensive time among humans. (In the trial, she just let Wyll "take the reins". She's not an idiot, she knows what hero-types expect the answer to be, even if she'd naturally disagree.)

But I feel like this line definitely would cause her to raise an eyebrow, because despite all that they have done to get here, and the talk they had over his grave about how the Magistrate he was is dead and buried, that... really sounds less like Astarion, the liar/thief/roguish scoundrel she loves, and more like Astarion, the Magistrate who ruled so cruelly that it cost him his life. So it kind of... slots into the empty space of the last missing puzzle piece in her head, which is the why of how he even got into his situation in the first place.

Like sure, he's said that he made an "unfavorable ruling" that the Gur didn't like, which is why he was beat and subsequently turned, but she had no idea what that could have been.... and at the same time, she didn't really care, about "Magistrate Ancunín". (It's been two centuries. She might not like this glimpse into who he once was, but as far as she's concerned, he's very clearly not the same person anymore- she saw it when they joined minds, she knows it because she knows the man he is now, and, at the same time, doesn't care much about the past. All that ruling is at this point in time is a line in an ancient record somewhere, and a stain on is his conscience- which, why'd it matter to her? Her own conscience is stained by far more immediate -and potentially more harmful- things, things that happened in a past that isn't even that far behind them, and he doesn't care, why should she?)

.... Though I do wonder what he'd say/think if later at rest, during their little nightly "together-time" when they're done with their trance but everyone is still asleep, she idly mentioned that she's been thinking about his words.

I think he'd get defensive, and insist that no, he does believe he's right, even as the seed that he actually doesn't now that he thinks about it, is planted. And knowing Iona, she wouldn't even try to correct/lecture him about it (not only is that not her style, telling him that he's wrong is also counterproductive as hell in getting Astarion specifically to see a dissenting point), but maybe she'd just coax him to lay back down onto her chest, and as the conversation winds down and he relaxes with his ear against her heartbeat once more, she'd just softly say something like "I hope the gods don't think the same, once our time comes".

And while her intention is not to change him or make him think like her, I think that's probably all he'd need to start questioning where that thought came from, realize what part of him was/is it that believes that on his own, and reach a conclusion that's more in line with the person he is now and the one he wants to be in the future.

(I love how she goes from being openly and intentionally manipulative, to now just... gently reminding her boyfriend once in a while that he can actually think before he speaks now, lol.)

Yeah, I...

I have absolutely zero doubt in my mind that there's a very good reason this man was beaten within an inch of his life based on a ruling he made as magistrate.

Astarion, darling, sweetie pie, love of my life, my sweetest, most darling little pookie bear with sugar and a cherry on top, what the ever-loving, super-sized, finger-lickin', country-fried McFuck is wrong with you (affectionate)

haven't you personally expressed feelings of guilt (their validity being subject for philosophical debate i don't have time to go into now) over dooming people in numbers upwards of a thousand to what you had thought was death, but later on it turned out to be a fate potentially worse than death. have you not personally yelled at the Gur leader because she got upset over us sparing the 7k spawn. have you learned absolutely fucking nothing, my sweet sweet angel boy.

god I love you and the odd turns your poor little brain takes sometimes as it reacquaints itself with the idea of being a person, rather than a survival-machine.

(it's also really fun how sometimes thoughts that could be attributed to the "living" Astarion pop up- because I'm guessing this is one of those, and he's kind of... well. He hasn't been allowed to use his own brain much since he became a vampire, so it's understandable why, now that he's free, his brain would sort of revert to the last thing it knows- which is punitive justice.)

(I definitely know that having Magistrate Ancunín pass judgement on you would have definitely been one of the less desirable outcomes of any legal squabble in Baldur's Gate two centuries ago. I know Iona is sort of letting these drift by her ear for now, putting the thought aside to be dissected later, lol. She'd rather more like to speak to the soft Astarion cuddling into her chest at night about this, please and thank you.)

[astarionlover]

astarion is so pro woman I love him. when lae'zel went against vlaakith astarion said "good for her" and when I told lorroakan I wouldnt hand over the nightsong astarion said "we should tell aylin that lorroakan is hunting her. she has a right to know. also, she'll want to cave his skull in and, honestly, I would not mind seeing that" I love him

[magicwithered]

I could go on a rant about how you don’t have to ignore Astarion to romance him you just have to respect his bodily autonomy but none of y’all will listen to me

[thebookworm0001]

I just think the fandom’s nastier responses to the bg3 men is wildly interesting

like. you have three men who are coming out of highly unhealthy relationships.

One of them gets super sexualized and infantilized at the exact same time. literally people put him in the bdsm harness while simultaneously misinterpreting elven cultural norms to say he’s mentally no more mature than a teenager despite having been a whole-ass local judge who died because he gave out corrupt rulings and got his ass jumped because of them.

the other gets treated like he’s an incel because he catches feelings quickly, despite being wildly respectful when you turn him down. Half the issues were due to a bug, the other is that this man is so starved for validation because his goddess - whom has paid special interest to him since he was a toddler - kept him constantly feeling lesser-than because despite calling him her Chosen, she gives him none of the power we see Chosens be given by other gods. Not to mention she sends her other ex - his mentor and friend - to tell him to off himself to earn her forgiveness. For some reason his attempts to gain god-like power are received worse than the borm-sexy-yesterday-vampire despite both of them having the goal of being safe from manipulation and control. I assume because the vampire gets a sex scene when you let him destroy his soul for power and the wizard does not.

The fairytale prince route, despite typically being very popular, is being called boring and dull and while, yes, he has less drama than some of the others, is still compelling and has high stakes for that character. He’s sold his soul but he thinks the price is worth it and he’s made his peace with the personal cost because he’s helping people. The only real difference between this character and others who are willing to sell their souls for the good of their lands is that this time around, he’s Black

[lathrine]

im 60 hours into BG3 and just now starting Act II, please enjoy this collection of my favorite companion chatter (+ lae'zel ripping on mammals)

[fragglerockopinions]

white man experiences racism for the first time. sad!

[honestlyitsjustsam]

to get Minthara i butchered the groove, i feel like shit bro!! i made Wyll and Karlach leave my party… i mean she bounced on durge’s dick and the scene was insane but she left in the morning 😭😭😭😭

At least she didnt pull a Halsin and stayed at my camp on her ass doing nothing!!

[helpimstuckinafandom]

Me starting another bg3 run where I will make virtually all the same decisions in mostly the same order as if there isn't different branching paths

[girlmadeofclockwork]

I do find the, well maybe not historical revisionism, but perhaps profoundly misremembering and or just changes in tastes that has gone down when it comes to Zevran and dragon age: origins to be quite interesting, like now that he’s very openly being compared to the newest hotness of Astarion, people talk about him as if he is/was the most popular because people love broody elves (even though Zev is the farthest from broody in his demeanor, and which kinda go hand in hand with people comparing him to Fenris, which isn’t new mind mind you, but it was fucking rare I saw anyone make that comparison 9 years ago) but I was there mind you, I was there 8-9 years ago. I remember clearly Zevran being the least popular romance option in origins when it came to the fandom.

[chantryexplosion]

ppl really can’t say shit without others crying and making it into something it’s not like when ppl complain about the amount of female tav/astarion there is in comparison to. everything else theyre literally not saying astarion isn’t into women and that he can’t date women were saying that it’s tiring only seeing skinny cis white women shipped with him like not even beefy woman ???? not even a milf ???? not even a dwarf ??? god forbid its a (gasp) trans woman ???? youre all so boring

[invinciblerodent]

and another very small, very minor entry on the list of Things I'm Getting Just a Tiny Little Bit Miffy About Seeing Repeated (Not Angry Just Ever So Slightly Annoyed)TM:

dnd elves do, in fact, mature at the same rate humans do. they're not "like children" or "not considered full adults" until they hit 100- not to anyone other than other, older elves.

like I get where the thought comes from, I fully understand it, I've read many of the source materials myself, I've read Mordenkainen's and see where the misunderstanding comes from, but... to a human, or a tiefling, or anyone else shorter-lived than an elf, a 50-, 60-, 90-year-old elf is just like a 50-, 60-, 90-year-old of their own race would be. they just look much younger than their age, and act in accordance with their personality, which is.... much less tied to someone's age than many may think. (I mean, have you never met a 50-year-old who seems just staggeringly immature? a 20-year-old who is wiser than their years would allow? have you never been to a retail establishment???????)

it's only the other elves who view a younger one as emotionally immature, and that's mainly because they have yet to bury their first generation of friends and loved ones: something a shorter-lived person only has to do once, while elves may very well go through several cycles of that in one lifetime. They have also not yet had their Drawing of the Veil, when they stop being able to access primal memories, memories of their soul's previous lives, but it's mainly the "all my once-powerful and vibrant friends are now frail and dying from old age, and yet here I remain, as young, strong, and beautiful as the day they met me, untouched by the inexorable crawl of time, what is mortality, what is death" thing.

if the people of Faerun in general thought of a 40-year-old elf as immature, as if they were a child, Astarion would have just patently not been an appointed civil administrator and judicial officer (which is what a magistrate is) 200 years ago. like he could have of course been lying when he said that that's what he was, but taking it as the once-truth, nobody would have let someone they see as a child fill such a position of responsibility. It was, however, a perfectly mundane thing for a learned adult man, such as he was, to do. (what he may or may not have done with the power he allegedly had, the kind of person he was, and whether letting him have power was the right move overall, is pretty much completely irrelevant at this juncture. corrupt officials exist regardless of age, just look at the judicial system of any country today.)

an older elf like Halsin, their maturity is not just on a different level, it's measured by a different metric than that of a shorter-lived character.

it's hard to accurately roleplay or grasp something like this with our human minds, none of us have ever spoken to a 300-year-old after all, but.... a 100-year-old elf is not a "young adult", unless you're an elf yourself. If you're a human, they're just... an adult.

[deimcs]

I have to admit, the media literacy abilities I see some people displaying all around social media when it comes to Baldur’s Gate 3 is so irrevocably in the negatives it’s almost jarring.

[danielnelsen]

so if you romance and ascend astarion you can kick him in the balls when he tries to turn you and it’s just very funny, he’s so pissy about it. so much for the most powerful vampire of all time or whatever, he stamps around like a toddler and then leaves forever

[realian]

bro...

[astarionlover]

what the FUCK do you MEAN there are only 3 FICS on ao3 with the ASEXUAL ASTARION TAG

[gravedirtandbriarthorns]

I wish the Astarion that exists in fanon existed in game, he sounds fun. Instead he's just mean and whiny and I don't like him enough to dig into his apparently hidden depths because that requires speaking to him and I find Astarion insufferable.