Oona [Radiant Hopeful] YT

One of my favorite things about Astarion’s story is that there is absolutely no push for Astarion to forgive or understand his abuser. 

It’s true that we get a small glimpse into Cazador’s past, where we learn that he was once a victim in the centuries-old cycle of vampirism and abuse, but that’s all. It serves it’s purpose as showing that vampirism is a trap and warning of what can happen to Astarion if he goes through with the ritual, but does not excuse Cazador’s actions or go out of the way to make us feel sorry for him. The player may feel some sympathy for Cazador or they may not. None of the companions express any sympathy for him, Astarion doesn’t waver in his resolve to destroy Cazador despite learning of his past, and there are no options from the player to push any understanding or forgiveness on him.

Honestly, I find this refreshing. Getting a little personal here, but experiencing generational trauma both in my family and with my partner’s own horribly abusive dad, we’ve been told “oh, they didn’t know any better”, “they were abused too”, “you have to forgive them”, etc., more times than I can count, but the fact remains that even though our “Cazadors” were victims, they’ve moved on to causing pain themselves and have shown no genuine remorse. The game accurately shows that there is a point where a victim becomes a perpetrator and can become beyond redemption. I love that Astarion’s end of breaking the cycle does not include him forgiving or feeling sorry for Cazador, but with catharsis and closure that many survivors don’t get in real life.

I’ll end this little ramble with a screenshot from an interview with Neil in which I appreciate his take on this topic. Link to full interview here (try to overlook the typos in Astarion's name, lol).  And with a GIF of one of my favorite moments in any media, ever.

I thought I'd pin this so people can find the starting points of each of my comics in order.

The main arcs follow my OC Ishta and her chaotic relationship with Astarion. Other posts are random ideas that have been floating around in my brain. All comics are made using BG3's in-game photomode with a ton of pose and expression mods, then overlaid with non-AI art filters in photoshop.

BG3 Comics and Posts in Chronological Order:

Sunlight

First Impressions

Suspicions

Busted

Presentation is Key

How to Tame Your Vampire

Oh my Gith!

Open Tadpole

Well, This Is Awkward

Night Revelries

Touch

Flashback Animatic

Gale's New Clothes

The Road Not Taken

Light in the Dark

OC profiles: (coming soon)

Ishta Dawnstar

Ashara Windrose

full interview here

Ilya: Since we are there, I'am curious what it was like writing so many different romance arcs?(...)

Stephen: With Astarion, how you go about romancing him is difficult kind of itself. He's such a flirt, he has such kind of energy of someone who's trying to seduce you. Basically it is what he's doing all the time to everybody. So how you take that and then how you flip it to a genuine romance was fairly challenging, because you had such a strong mask that he would wear the entire time. And, as you romance Astarion, you can romance the more good version, the more good ending of his story, where he stays a vampire spawn. Spoilers, if anyone hasn't played the game in the last two or three years, the more evil ending where he gets greedy, he's power hungry, he becomes essentially a vampire lord, he kind of replaces Cazador, and I definitely perfer the first one.

Like it has that bittersweet energy that I love so much. Because it has that sense of he's learned how to care about someone who's gone on this adventure with you. He had all of this because he reverts to kind of a normal vampire spawn at the end of it, he loses his ability to walk in the sun. He loses a lot of the cool stuff that has made him an unusual for a vampire spawn. There's a tragedy that I really love, but it feels kind of emotionally satisfying, emotionally true.

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