#his approval is fucking annoying in act 1. im trying to bump it up but he keeps disapproving of everything i do LOL

[newvegascowboy]

Very interesting to me that being outwardly anti-slavery nets you disapproval from Astarion, despite the fact that he's pretty straightforward about his past as a slave. Gives me big "if I suffered, so does everyone else" vibes, which is annoying gameplay wise, but narratively makes sense.

Especially because (and here gets a bit spoilery) I think his approval softens up into acts 2 and 3. There are hints of him being "nice" in act 1, when he approves of you saving the owlbear cub, but if you get his approval decently high going into acts 2 and 3, a lot of the things that (I think) would have netted negative approval in act 1 are now positive -- like sympathizing with that child and giving him some food and money, or freeing the vampire spawn.

If you dont follow through with the black mass and you free the vampire spawn, I think that's kind of the culmination of his arc in which hes like "hehe oops, looks like I was perpetuating cycles of trauma". He even gains approval for defending Wyll and the others, and even as early as act 1 says something about how it would be a shame to lose lae'zel.

Astarion you can't trick me into thinking you don't care. I have eyes. I see you.