Відео

It's always a pleasure reading you Marielle.❤ I admire you for your fight for Astarion and for never stopping raising your voice despite all the hate. I'd rather be a "Stan Delulu" than someone who thinks he has morality on his side and then wishes others to become victims of violence IRL because of a few pixels.

@@Sini533 Thank you, Sini! ❤There's another beautiful story associated with Astarion's story - it's the story of the entire AA fandom. I truly admire everyone who have been writing Larian letters, posts, reviews, making videos and art, being friends, socializing, supporting each other all this time. I haven't seen so many intelligent, interesting, empathic and simply pleasant people in any gaming community! 💞 I guess hardship is a bonding experience. And “morality”... It's worth just going back a few centuries and seeing on whose side was the so-called “morality” throughout human history, from slave-holding Egypt, Greece and Rome to the Spanish Inquisition. Love is far more powerful than all that “morality”. Ascended Astarion loves you, just get in the game and look into his eyes! 💖

Thank you very much 😍

"...heal the way I would like to" 🤡 are you even hearing yourself? You're the one who's abusive here.

МЧ вышел в эфир, потыкал видос, не понял в чем суть видоса, не поленился настрочить километровый комм о том, как одни фанатки Астариона гонят на других. Держите ласты при себе, сейчас вас зацапают, зря вы в это болото...🤣🫦 пошла возьму попкорн, чтоль

Похоже, вы промотали слишком много, и смысл видео ускользнул от вас

сбегай мужу своему борщ свари, убежище найк про пикми босс художки 🥰 думать не для тебя, твоё место на кухне с друзяшками ныть о том, какие все глупенькие и какой ты умный и всё понимаешь. размышления оставь для акта мужской дружбы - там тебя захотят послушать охотнее.

It is interesting that this “individual”, as well as his brothers in mind, those who recently stirred up a shitstorm on the Larian forum, demanding the return of terrible faces in the game for their “roleplay” (there is no way to understand, who of them really jerks off to it, and who just wants to harm other players), has one characteristic common trait - the inability to perceive large amounts of information. Can't watch a video, can't read a long post... But a “valuable opinion” is certainly available. Only the price of this opinion is oats passed through a horse.

@@ddvp9782 очередной ущемился, зависть берёт, что девушкам нравятся умный, верный и красивый, а не "Вася" с пивным животиком и 1000 требований, но не к себе, любимому.

Yes yes yes... well said <33

Thank you 🌸🌸🌸

Спасибо большое 😘❤️

Спасибо тебе большое, Викочка 😘

@@antagonistlover because they didn't watch the video and are just being reactive to the title xD just like they don't play the route and are just being reactive to the breakup scenes they watch shorts of.

Pretending you can't see that the developers were writing a fantasy vampire love story 1:46:03 1:50:09 and not your ode to irl abuse, and starting with ‘I CaN fix HIM’ hah interesting to see how it would be with morals and standards about modern couple relationships that you like to use ‘all I've sacrificed, I hope you die screaming’ no pitfalls UwU pookie. Good luck on the dice roll, if you care at all about Spawn Astarion and not AA hate.

Your comment comes off very judgey tbh. People should be allowed to enjoy this romance path however they want to roleplay it. This entire debate that you have to ‘accept it’s bad IRL’ is silly too. It’s a roleplaying game where we are dating a vampire that threatened us at knife point. No one is dating a vampire IRL here lol. Just let people have fun - even if it’s *gasp* differently than how you are playing the game.

When I first ascended him, I thought the quest and story finished in the dungeon, and that is still my favourite part of ascension.....assuming people only ascend him for kinks is a little kinkshaming for a start...and in 50 hours of gameplay....I ascend him because....I like a 2 minute scene that I could just have a save of like lots of anti-aa people do?

@@spookybookey Like, what happens if we dont accept it is bad IRL...are they gonna tell on us to someone?

@@spookybookey You can play the game however you like and there is nothing wrong with enjoying AA arc per se, to each their own. What's weird is when people take his development arc in which he is written to be a villain AND abusive, it's just in your face during every interaction, and then start twisting the narative to make him into a babygirl and try to convince the others that this is healing for him. That becoming the same monster that tortured him for centuries is his good ending. It's just about media literacy. Like just admit you like dark fiction, nothing wrong with that.

Astarion who kills Cazador but doesn't ascend doesn't want to take over the Absolute, that was fixed. I believe he still does if you never do his quest though.

@@JessicaJohnson-vp9mt If you're argumentative and insulting to him, he's snippy to you. The first bite is on Tav's shoulder during the sex scene. As a good rule of thumb, if you don't want someone to be rude to you, the way you say AA is, then it would be suggested not to be rude to him first. Throughout the game he can call the PC pet, the line you're referencing is after Tav out of the blue suddenly becomes accusatory of him for it, despite it being an established pet name for his partner. If you get snippy, he gets snippy. If you want a companion that won't stand up for themselves and lie down and take whatever Tav gives him, there are other routes for that. But it isn't this one :) You've made five comments on this video so far. If you want people to take you in good faith, spamming is not the way to achieve that. **Ascended will love Tav in the way evil vampires love. If you don't like that, no one is saying you have to. Nor forcing you to be here. Some enjoy the way an evil vampire would love. But none who do owe you an argument as to why to justify their like.

@@wolficer-66 i am never snippy against Astarion, I am trying to help him, so if TAV says I am not a pet and AA calls you a humorless little wretche so for standing up for myself is being rude to you? Saying what I said is not rude or snippy, dont accuse me off putting him down, I am not putting him in situations he doesnt want to! Stop assuming what I do to him

@@JessicaJohnson-vp9mt If you want to call "randomly getting accusatory towards your partner over a nickname he's called out plenty before with no issue" as "standing up for yourself" go for it. But this probably isn't the place for you. I am curious, then, why your PC never wanted to "stand up for themselves" when spawn called them pet. Only when AA does it.

@@wolficer-66 spawn astarion doesnt say pet in a condesending way, the way he says it when he ascends is very much different to spawn Astarion, AA just says its nothing but a joke to call someone a pet is very much a negative thing, remember how Mizora says about wyll she sees wyll as someone beneath her and the way she yanks him forth for not killing Karlach! She looks down on him and the way she treats him is very bad! Its the same case with AA he sees you very much like Mizora sees Wyll.

@@wolficer-66 No AA doesnt deserve love! Maybe from AA fans but dont talk a Spawn fan into thinking AA deserve love

Asking someone to kneel doesn't inherently mean you're viewed as lesser than. People kneel during knighthood rituals, which is generally viewed as an honor. This isn't to suggest you have to enjoy that dynamic or that request, but simply being asked to kneel doesn't necessarily have to mean that someone does not view you as their equal.

@@RPG_NoMeDiga Yeah knights kneel for the Queen or king that is true! But the person that does that already know to respect the royalty, ascended Astarion tells you to kneel

@@RPG_NoMeDiga Alucard would never do that and he is the son of dracula

@@JessicaJohnson-vp9mt AA asks you to kneel, yes, and the player can say no to this request without negative consequences. To me, the turning scene can be viewed as ritualistic, similarly to the knighthood rituals. He asks you to kneel before giving you two gifts: the gift of immortality and sharing his power as the ascendant with the player. [Notice how the player doesn't burn in the sun at the end of the game the way spawn astarion does?] To AA, it's quite possible that he feels as if what he is offering the player is a position of prestige - an honor. [again, the player doesn't have to view it this way, but I think it can be argued that AA views it this way]. Respecting royalty, you're exactly right, the only thing you're missing is that royalty is how Ascended Astarion sees the two of you in the game: "we are sovereigns, my sole endeavor now is to make this world yours and mine, alone," "my consort, we are so close to victory". So, circling back to your main point, what you've written would suggest that the player [through their character] doesn't respect Astarion enough to kneel, it's the player who doesn't view AA and Tav/Durge as equals, not AA as written.

@@RPG_NoMeDiga he doesnt see you both as Royalty he sees himself as royalty, he talks very much about he can do and what He will do! ascended Astarion confuses the heck out of me I really do not know what to make of him. AA even calls you a spawn, he says my most beloved spawn, and when you ask if you can kiss him he then says but of cource you are my favorite afterall The love here is one sided, he does say when you break up with him that he would have used your love against you until you are nothing

Just the way his “work” worked he could hold the knife to the side of the victim and lead them down dark alleys to the lair. Or knock them out. Seduction just to get them out of the tavern and into the house even. That's just foreplay maybe. Of course that would also affect to him “any perfomance about intimacy was to lure the victim.” To me what EA was just angry that it was even hinted at. Like the vampire made him a slave and you're hinting about it when he opens up to you. Of course he's angry. So the father/son vampire style in EA was also, quite. Like he could try to be comforted, and he growled at Tav - he hated being weak and someone to be pitied. Tbh I don't like this idea of - of a vampire fantasy story it's more like some kind of noir realism with r!pe with some hint of family. It's a Patrick Melrose style of book. I don't think that was the plan. I much prefer the “a little bit more strict Asian father vampire” type. “I've known you for 200 years, haven't I suffered enough” - such dark vamp humor would be even more impossible even a little to be funny. Imo the release did a better job of revealing loss of status and trauma of slavery in general.

@@ArCh-q5l There's a bit of a language barrier here I feel like, but honestly, the main impression I got from EA was that he was indeed using seduction as his main way to get victims, and that's also part of the script for his romance scene in act 1. That comes with its own set of implications. I also strongly feel, having been there during EA and remembering my thoughts, that trauma informed his personality quite a lot. This is not to detract from his evilness, as that was still there, but well, traumatized evil people exist. I don't understand the rest too well, but I also agreed that I prefer them being more of a parallel to a father and son relationship (if that's what you meant). I don't think "abusive partner" worked very well for what the narrative wanted. EDIT: Oh, now I'm not sure we're referring to the same thing when you said he's angry at you hinting it. I'm talking about a scene where you read his mind and you see Cazador leading him by the chin to come closer. I thought the implications were quite obvious.

@@RandomGamefriends Yes, I'm using a translator. So yeah hard to understand each other, especially on such a delicate subject. I think the trauma wasn't the main thing about the character anyway, it was layered. Imo it could have been about evil law\power, something more philosophical, kind of “above the character”, from the bold dark view. Given the story of the Magistrate and that Cazador may have been an ally in the Upper City based on the datamine. "Newbon and Larian Studios writer Stephen Rooney didn’t want Astarion to be interpreted as simply the “traumatized” character, Newbon said. They wanted him to be as complex and layered as a real person. Trauma was simply one part of his story, yet it informed many of his behaviors".

@@ArCh-q5l Huh, I don't know if my comment got deleted or if I just never sent it, but earlier I had replied to this. Weird. I'm going to assume it never sent since the author said she wasn't going to delete any comments. What I remember replying was that yes, from the datamines, when we were still in EA, I imagined that in act 3 Cazador would expose Astarion's past so that we'd join his side. The way I perceived Astarion's story at the time, from the info we had (some of it not officially in the game) was that it was about an abuser or tyrant (Astarion when he was alive) then going through becoming a victim under Cazador, and what results afterwards once he's free again. I believe the Upper City is unrelated, and that, from everything I've seen, the way it would've been implemented has been misunderstood. I think the content cuts related to Cazador are more related to general content cuts than reliant on the Upper City existing itself. The other thing I remember saying is that I don't like the use of somewhat vague quotes that are blanket statements about the character as proof of a point, as I feel we often just project our opinions onto them (what's usually known as confirmation bias) as I don't feel that quote negates what I said. (To be fair, this happens from all sides, like when people who hate AA will use quotes that are very blanket statements against him, such as Neil saying he plays Astarion as many different facets, including a "terrible person", when Neil doesn't really specify that much more. But people will use it as proof of their own opinion, when it isn't necessarily proof of anything.) Yes, he's not just "the traumatized character" and I feel they succeeded at what they explain in the quote: he's layered, he's got much more going on. He's not just that. But it also quite undeniably informs much of his character, motivations and arc, and my point was that that was felt even in Early Access, and that I don't see how it detracts or ever detracted from that quote about the balance of "dark and fun" (which I often feel is also used to project opinions into it, when it's quite a general statement). A character can be dark, fun, and traumatised, and I don't really see how that meddles with the balance, because it never did, at least I know I did not feel that when I was playing EA, even though that seemed to me an obvious part of the character, which is what made me bring attention to that detail here, that I didn't feel that was new to the character or an inconsistency. I'd agree with you had Rooney said "In Early Access, I didn't write him with trauma in mind as an aspect of his character", instead. Although I'd still argue that that was still something I felt was obvious when playing it, but at least I'd have to concede that yes, Rooney admitted to that.

@@RandomGamefriends > character can be dark, fun, and traumatised, and I don't really see how that meddles with the balance I agree. His wound adds a facet to his story very well too. I just prefer to look at his trauma as slavery in general and part of the whole story. Not as the main thing, one of the things. Either way, I can't help but feel like a lot was taken away from us with Upper City. It's not just Astarion's quest that's been damaged by it. Imagine what an Amanita Szarr meeting could have been like.

Thank you 🤩

Thank you ☺️

That's in part only from Neil's 53:32 Neil said he's not hiding himself now. So we literally didn't see behind his mask of theatre and survival - all that horrible stuff. ‘Look there, don't look there.’ ’Totally honest.’ Stephen Rooney said that for Astarion to be himself, his core ‘dark and fun, in balance’ So Astarion shows Dark, in full. Fun - lol, he flies around on the party like a lil white bat. How unprestigious for a man of Lord status. Show himself, lack of shadows, the eternally tormenting hunger, is the best way to find freedom, independence and harmony. Tav tells Spawn that he needs to be protected. So this world is dangerous for him. Hunger and shadows will torment him - I don't believe in that kind of therapy and that it should be therapy. It's his sacrifice and redemption for Tav and for the right thing, the ‘good’ altruistic way, but perhaps he will find a place in the world. You read this character in a way that seems to expose what you want to see and disregard or flip what doesn't fit into the ‘he's stuck in fear’ picture. Which has already been discussed in the video and with notes anyway. ‘He is free’ 1:47:00 Well what can I say - guess freedom and power is a horrible place for Astarion because he's evil and will do what he wants. According to Adam Smith. He was chained and now he is free. A free person is not a rock to be stuck somewhere. He seeks his place in the city he also ruled 200 years ago and chooses his path. Being evil and wanting to rule does not mean being in trauma.

He made similar statements not just about the AA ending, but about any evil path in the game in general. «So with Astarion, his evil ending is actually him...much of what he does is out of fear. And as a player, you can say to him, "You're right to be afraid." And that sends him to a really horrible place, and that I think is really powerful. I think one of the things that happens on the evil playthrough is I always see this thing where they're like, "Oh, there's no tieflings anymore because I killed the tieflings." It's intentional. Your world is a little emptier because of that, and you are playing a route which is much more selfish and much more, again, afraid. You end up isolated. SV: It's very hard to show lots of consequences in the evil playthrough that are actually happening. AS: Yeah, they become emptiness instead. SV: The emptiness is the issue...If you play the good playthrough, and then you play an evil playthrough, and then you realize how much the evil playthrough is affected by your choices, then you actually feel really evil. Which is why Dark Urge is such a good choice on the second playthrough. AS: The impact is often absent, but that's a reality, that's a true choice. If we just said, "Okay, you're just going to get reskin versions of these characters to jump in, it wouldn't be true." It's like there's this Gnome in the beginning, Barcus. And the impact of what you do with that guy runs all the way through the end of the story. It's so large. But if you just go evil, you never see any of that, right?» Smith's words essentially mean nothing. If you read his interview further, he claims that all evil routes in the game are supposedly built on fear and isolation because the player kills NPCs. But why even rely on such abstract moralizing reasoning? It sounds on the level of Karlach with her “he would lose his soul”, just empty phrases based on some subjective moral compass. What he's saying is mostly moral reasoning. In fact, instead of these excuses, Smith should have clearly and intelligently explained why they failed at creating a full-fledged “evil” route in the game, which they so heavily advertised in the initial stages of development. They initially promised a variety of choices, but in practice the evil route turned out to be underdeveloped and failed to meet players' expectations. > That does not seem the route of healing at all for him, especially given the player character is telling Astarion he's right to be afraid. The implication is that AA is stuck in that mindset of fear in spite of the additional power he's obtained while UA, who receives the opposite message (that he doesn't need to be afraid) is able to begin to let go of that fear despite remaining a spawn. I believe this dialog demonstrates that Astarion does have something to fear: Player: I promise I'll keep you safe always. You'll never need the powers of an Ascendant. Astarion: It would be nice not to have to rely on you as my great protector, but... well, I do appreciate the thought. Doesn't Tav literally say, “You're right to be afraid”? While Ascended Astarion says that he will protect Tav and that Tav will no longer have to fear anything. There are just tons of moments in the game where Spawn shows far more insecurity and fear than AA ever did, I could find a dozen such moments, some of them are even demonstrated in this video.

@@ArCh-q5l Neil was not saying that Astarion took off a mask that hid his worst tendencies. He took off a mask that hid his hurt and damage and vulnerabilities because the power ascension gave him makes him feel as if he no longer needs it. Neil's exact line is 'look over here and don't see how I really feel' in regards to the mask. And his honesty is that he is now 'at his most terrible' which aligns with what Adam Smith said about the better and worst versions of the companions. All through the game we literally see Astarion's worst tendencies, this video points out many of them. Ascension merely makes those tendencies his main traits as it's the path that ends with the worst version of him which is exactly as the writers intended (for all the main companions, not just Astarion). There is a devnote in his Act 1 romance scene that specifically states Astarion is wearing the mask of the flippant libertine. Shadowheart, if romanced alongside Astarion initially, can tell you she thinks him being a carefree hedonist is a facade and that there's something fragile beneath. Astarion himself can admit he was 'playing the rake' for 200 years during his -Araj- Yurgir confession. That is how his mask presents, as a flippant libertine, a carefree hedonist, a rake. He is not wearing a mask that makes him come across as a better person than he actually is because, once again, according to Adam Smith, players can nudge companions toward their better tendencies meaning Astarion has to have those better tendencies from the start. Neither they nor his worst tendencies are hidden from us, but his hurt and vulnerability is and that part of him is only revealed as the story progresses, especially if you romance him. If you do not romance Astarion you can get a line of dialogue from him where he tells the player character he wants vengeance on a world that created Cazador and others like him. The devnote for that says he's 'scared, deep down'. So yes, AA is scared. Straight from the devnotes. All these things can be true about him, the good and the bad. It is not an attack on his character to point these things out as I've said, nor is it an attack on AA fans of which I am one (albeit for specific playthroughs). Also, for the record, I am not interested in a UA vs AA debate, I simply enjoy analyzing the character and getting other fans perspective on him.

@@Amy-uf8jg so many words just to justify Larian bending to the modern agenda, where communism is good and the power of the individual (esp male) is bad.

@@Amy-uf8jg I've read enough of these posts and analytics that prefer to see the “tragedy of being stuck” - keep thinking that, but it's complete hc and reasoning for what's to come. Shadows and living with tormenting hunger when you're the eternal goal of paladins is to me not the best foundation to be “healthy”, it's a tragedy in the name of sacrifice and burning in the sun shows that perfectly. I perfectly understand your point that he will become a better person and find friends, it will be health within. OK. A whole chapter on Trauma and in general with lots of arguments and notes that can't imply that Astarion is on the path of evil “stuck” somewhere. He's free and honest. And you say that “glossed over the fact” - it's been parsed from all sides, anyway. You truly have no interest in debate, you have an opinion that can't be changed - “He's stuck” whatever happens. I disagree, I have arguments from the game, from the developer's words and notes. He gains independence from everything: shadows, hunger (the pain he feels from it), power, money, a reborn heart and chooses how to go on is the most eloquent description of freedom. Just as the game script says.