I hate it when people are like, “Astarion’s scared of this guy? THIS GUY?? [gesturing to Cazador] He’s so lame and unimpressive! What a little bitch!” I hate that. Cazador is unimpressive to us, because we just met him and he has no power over us. He’s had Astarion under his heel for TWO HUNDRED YEARS, and the best days with him that Astarion could hope for was to not be noticed. It’s not Cazador’s mannerisms, appearance or demeanor that inspired those feelings in Astarion—it’s everything that was done to him. We, the players, the Tavs, don’t have any of that, just second-hand knowledge. That and the fact that we learn so much about Cazador (before finally meeting the guy) builds him up in our minds as this nightmarish force that could rival, if not outdo, the denizens of the hells. So then, in actually meeting Caz, it’s quite the comedown. AND I LOVE THAT. That contrast. I met him and was completely unimpressed with his demeanor, but that didn’t matter because I had no actual history with him. (He’s no walk in the park to fight either.)
“Astarion’s such a little baby about this.” Spoken like someone who can’t comprehend being starved, flayed, prostituted, tortured, verbally abused by someone who “rescued” you from dying … all with the fear that you have nowhere else to go, and if you try (which is futile), it’ll only get worse. Like, put yourself in that spot. Really think about it.
Also, a person being scared of someone isn’t a sign of general weakness. There’s no one in the world that’s universally scary; it always comes down to each person’s perception in the end. It doesn’t make someone a weak person for them to be scared of someone that you hold contempt for.
