And same the toher way around. So far I have four completed playthroughs, each one of them as Durge, and I've always started them thinking I would do a evil run, like really dark urge evil, but no, the moment I meet Karlach is the moment all my plans falls apart, she's just too much of a golden retriever and I can't let her down. Astarion is my go to romance, love that guy with durge, they fit perfectly, but I don't mind going evil with him cause well, he can be pretty evil when he wants too, but it really shows how good of a story every companion has when even the ones I don't keep in my party still matters to me, like Lae'zel and Wyll. Someone once said that the companions are also rolling the dice to persuarde the player from doing bad things, and they are 100% right, and my companions always rolls nat 20!
I like to imagine that a good aligned Tav was a therapist during their life in Baldur's Gate, with the party hitting a lucky jackpot with Tav's tadpoling since otherwise all of them would self-destruct (literally and figuratively...at the same time) horribly from their severe personal issues.
Fair to say, all the companions are sealed to a sour fate if you don't recruit them. That alone, the lack of protection from the Artifact either makes them a slave to the Absolute, or fall to their fate. Lae'zel is killed by her people in search of a creche. Gale explodes, dying with nobody to remember him by. Astarion is captured and sacrificed to Cazador's ritual. Shadowheart falls short of her mission and cannot return to Baldur's Gate. Likely condemned to her doom. Karlach and Wyll continue this game of cat and mouse, either one of them will die or will kill the other. If the elements don't claim them first.
@@TheMentalStateZero I didn’t recruit her after the cage in my first playthrough and I was still able to recruit her when I encountered other githyanki for the first time (I waited until Voss left.). It was just a lot harder because I had to keep a level 1 Lae’zel alive through the fight with her brethren (or revived by the end), without her counting as a companion yet.
Somewhere in the fandom, I truly hope someone has clumsily pasted Astarion's face onto a lapdog in some Victorian-looking portrait. After reading this comment, that image is just burned into my brain.
There were some notes in the kennels saying that Cazador got pissed because he couldn’t control Astarion, so he flayed Astarion alive over and over again until Astarion couldn’t be put together in human form anymore. It gives you more perspective on why Astarion is so terrified of Cazador, considering what happened to him when he got caught.
He was also Cazador‘s favorite toy. In one conversation where Astarion drops a hint to this, you can call Cazador his „master in the bedroom“ and OH BOY. He is NOT amused by that. As with any „favorite“ victim, their supposed privileges come at a steep price. The other six spawn were only envious of Astarion because they don’t fully know what that meant, and only ever saw his preferential treatment by their master.
@@alisapizza4776 Yup. There are bits and pieces about his story you‘ll only hear if you’re mean to him. I recommend looking them up here, there are tons of clips and compilations.
Intro: 'You there, come here. I need help.' Mid act 2 when asked why he didnt ask for help: 'Im not exactly used to asking for help and being met with... well... help' Oh god this is so dark in so many ways.
I checked upon him almost every hour just to get a look at him. Never played the game without him. Killed a couple of goblins then heading out to see how's my pale Elf faring and each time hearing him asking for help was too much to bear. I'm glad my next playthrough isn't going to be without him.
That "please come help me" on the beach is just heartbreaking 😭He hasn't had his own agency or freedom in two centuries, and without Tav appearing, he's alone on a beach with only his clothes and a knife. There's no way I can not recruit him, even if he does draw the knife on me. After the nautiloid and the crash no one's at their best, and the guy's hiding how terrified of everything is I'll give him a break. It's so tragic that without Tav, no matter what else happened to him, he'd meet a horrific end.
@@Ailieorz The guy's been conditioned and tortured into using himself as bait for two centuries, with no worth or use outside of that. He's also scared, and yeah he pulls a knife but he threatens to kill me and doesn't actually knife me straight out. Again I'll forgive it, he's using all he knows and has to fall back on after being abducted a second time and having his world upended. No one's at their best in those circumstances. If he'd tried it a bit later, I might have been mad, but at this point he doesn't know our intentions either and sees everyone as a potential threat.
@@Ailieorz He traps you not to kill you, but to find out if you are a friend or an enemy, because if you turn out to be an enemy, then this is probably the only chance for him to protect himself. Moreover, he saw you walking freely around the nautiloid, so he has reason to assume that you are one of the illithids.
@@Madeleinewith3EsWhich doesn't change the fact that his cry for help is manipulation. I hate that he is forgiven for everything just because he is beautiful. On top of that he justifies it by saying he was a victim lol.
The game's depiction of Astarion is quite realistic: being a victim of prolonged brutality and abuse does tend to turn one apathetic, sadistic and insecure, which is basically the impression Astarion leaves me for the first 2 Acts.
I could NEVER not recruit him, ever. He's always in my party, I never even send him back to camp, he needs to be by my side all the time. I have to be sure, he's okay, safe, well fed, geared up, properly dressed, clean, and happy.
SAME ! i love him so much 😭 the first thing i ever do in all my games is : recruit him, talk to him all the time and CHANGE HIS SPAWN OUTFIT. my boy is free, he doesn't need to wear that shit anymore
I have over 600 hours in this game, and not once has he left my party. I always recruit him second, cause Shadowheart is literally right there and it would be silly to just skip an unconscious person lol Point of the matter is, without Astarion, I wouldn't have been introduced to BG3. I wouldn't have taken the chance to play DND, and I wouldn't have met all of the people, friends, that I know now because of our campaign. Astarion's only a bunch of pixels but I love him so freaking much. And yes, this is a normal amount lol
I only left him at camp once in my second playthrough (I wanted to see other companions' situation specific dialogue) and it felt so, so wrong without him.
In an least one alternate universe where Astarion is ignored by the party, Gandrel the Monster Hunter stumbled upon Astarion asking for help and was tricked into helping him. They wrestled around fighting for a bit before calling a truce and becoming close pals, but Astarion uses a fake name, of course. One day after already having gone on numerous adventures together, Gandrel learned the truth, but ultimately decided to side with his new BFF, Astarion, and together, they destroy Cazador and his cult and live happily ever after chasing skirts and drinking copious amounts of cheap wine like total bros.
I was considering to recruit Astarion later on in the game to see the different outcome, and now… this guy is not even real but I choked thinking of all he went through before the chapel… nope. I shan’t do it. Astarion is coming with me always. I will not let him out of my sight. Thank you for the vid.
Man, I've seen this on Tiktok way before I played the game myself, and it broke my fucking heart. He can't even be dead in peace as a zombie.... I can't believe how people refuse to look deeper into the characters, because Astarions whole life was filled with abuse and humiliation, and it doesnt end if you dont help him.... This poor baby boy just needs a Tav friend. He is severely misunderstood. :(
In general, being with the MC (doesn't matter which origin it is) is the only way to survive for the most of our main companions. Just think about it: Astarion is captured by Cazador, Lae'zel is killed by another githyanki, Karlach… well, you know, Gale is exploding. Probably Wyll is the exception but he'd be doomed in his own way and SH as she's almost impossible not to recruit.
I think Shadowheart would be the only person alive, but she would have been a Shar worshipper to the end, and would never have met her parents. She would have done all she can to get to Baldur's Gate, and there's a BIG chance she could have been killed by the Gith because of the prism. Wyll has a chance of surviving I guess, but there's also a big chance of him dying in the shadow-cursed lands trying to save his father, infiltrating moonrise alone.
@@IneffableChild Поправочка: без главного героя, Уилл бы умер защищая рощу, возможно ещё в первый раз, когда мы только подходим к роще. Если бы Сердцетени не умерла там же, а прошла дальше, то она не смогла бы сама убить Песнь ночи, если в той сцене не вмешиваться, она всегда выкидывает копьё. И как следствие её убили бы либо гиты, либо свои же.
Crowd: And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... (...)
I always recruit Astarion, even in campaigns where I don't intend to have him as a regular party member, because his fate is just too horrible otherwise. He can stay safe in my camp as long as he likes!
Imagine how interesting it could be, if you, for example, leave him on the beach, and later he sides with the goblins and you meet him in the goblin camp or already in the Moonrise towers, and then you would have an option to side with him, maybe to persuade him join you. There could be so many interesting options for his plot development....
Dude this is the worst fate possible for him. Cazador literally flayed him alive over and over again. I’d sooner kill Astarion myself, just off him the second I meet him, than let him be taken in as Cazador’s slave again. A fate worse than death, one that Astarion could never have deserved.
Tell me why i am playing a durge run where i ate Gale's hand and doomed him to the equivalent of exploding while stuck on an elevator, and THIS is the line i refuse to cross
Some things are sometimes beyond rational explanation. Love Astarion or hate him, He's one of the most interesting characters with a massive dose of human emotions. I'd never leave him alone at the ravaged beach.
You can only really torment Astarion if you keep him around. Top it off by letting him begin the ritual (because seeing Cazador brutalized is just cathartic), and then interrupt it. He‘ll attack you for that, permanently ending your affiliation. It’s a game, have fun. Astarion was the devs‘ favorite as well, that’s why he has so much variety.
This is very sad, but it's still somewhat funny that he doesn't even try to do anything if you don't help him. I understand that this option of his plotline is just not written, because developers don't consider you will play without anyone of the companions. But it still feels hilariously out of character. I'm sure Astarion would do everything he could and fight with or without Tav.
Astarion is a proactive character, but there's no way of telling what kind of challenges he's faced without the safety of the group and Emperor's protection from tadpole's influence. Clearly, no matter WHAT he does, the game wants to communicate to us that joining and remaining in our group is the only way he survives all this.
Cazador mentions something about Astarion taking part in the ritual regardless if hes dead or alive, i cant remember if its in a journal or in the middle of the fight but he does say it somewhere
@@wolflithay6380 In the middle of the fight - if we release Astarion from his ritual beam, Cazador usually goes after him with hard-hitting attacks meant to knock him down/kill him (and may succeed locking him in the beam again) and screams that he doesn't need him alive to complete the ritual.
Astarion has no plans or real ideas. He would try and run, but the Gur will track him down eventually. Gandrel isn’t the only one looking for him. If you want Astarion to get a redemption arc, ask Gandrel distracting questions so he doesn’t grow suspicious, and Astarion doesn’t feel the need to kill him. You‘ll meet him again in BG, and he won’t be angry. The Gur will charge Astarion with saving their children. When you’re in the dungeons, opposite Sebastian‘s cell is another containing the children. Talk to them. After the fight, release the spawn. You‘ll find Gandrel with the children on your way out. It’s really rewarding - and a complete accident for my playthrough. I originally wanted to trigger Astarion‘s attack on Gandrel, for the funneh. But this is better. Even though I‘m on an evil run. =) When I go Durge, this is going to play out a whole lot differently. 😂
@@ArDeeMee that's what I keep saying to myself, that next time I play durge (I always play durge) it will be an evil run. Let me tell you something: the moment you even think about doing something bad, Karlach will be there and the "My companion, I adore you" will play in your head on repeat and you won't be able to do a thing beside becoming a holy paladin of kindness.
Ignoring him is just plain cruelty. So sorry you had to go through this just to show us what could happen. I literally melted when he had to say please twice in a row, my poor heart :((((((
@@SzaraSzarancza wtf? Cazador broke him, I mean literally broke him because he can no longer do something important to elves - which is to be able to see their past selves when they do their meditation (their version of sleep), which is why he can not remember what he looked like beforehand (because elves can see their past selves and old memories when they meditate, so the only time they lose that ability is through a lot of trauma)
it took me about 3 playthroughs when I realized I'd never seen his 'dismissed to camp' line. I've memorized every sentence by now but I still can't remember that one..
This whole game is all about guilt tripping and manipulating the player by controlling his reactions, decisions and judgement through some twisted emotional "carrot and a stick" system. Toxic, psycho manipulative, unsafe to play without taking the risk of being brainwashed.
@@SzaraSzarancza At least it lets you kill them all. I never had a chance to learn his TragicBackstoryTM, he wasn't walking away alive after threatening my character with that knife.
I completely in love for Astarion. While I play BG3, he will never come back to Cazador and will be protected. That will never happen to him, love you Astarion ♥️
I know he’s fictional but this made me so sad to think that he died alone, without anyone caring for him. 😢 I’m a Gale girlie but I always bring him along too because I want him to feel loved.
Funny enough when i played as karlach i just couldnt for the life of me get astarion to spawn in his start location (idk why)😅.The only time i saw him in game was as a zombie in Cazadors ritual 😔
I didn't even know of that vampire hunter dude since I just searched high and low for anything and everything on that beach I even found Gale whereas my friend had no idea who or even where he was 😅
Not necessarily, not every True Soul (ppl with tadpoles) gets immediately turned into a mindflayer. In fact the whole plot of the game is based on ppl getting infected but not immediately going through ceremorphosis as the Absolute builds its own army Plus if you have any companions not yet recruited when you get the first Guardian scene, they haven't transformed one you finally do pick them up.
I’m so happy I was able to see past Astorian as just another gay character. Easily one of the best companions in the game, I will always have him by my side. He’s a home dog now
This almost happened to me on my first run because I only found him 65 hours into my play through when I was cleaning up the parts of the map I haven’t been to yet.
This makes no sense to methough, since in DnD lore Zombies(like most undead) no longer have souls. And Astarion's soul is one of the 7,000 needed for the Rite. Sooooo, Cazador now has 6,999 souls and just screwed himself hahaha. Unless he like, captured his soul off-screen or some read between the lines nonsense lol
The scars bind him to the ritual, so maybe the way the contract with Mephistopheles is that he has to provide 7k spawn with the contracts carved into their backs and the fact that Astarion is dead is basically a loophole in the contract. Like "I gave them all the scars and performed the ritual, you didn't say they all had to be alive." Cazador even says during the fight if Astarion is present that Astarion will be part of the ritual 'dead or alive' or 'your corpse will participate in this ritual' or something. Which is presumably also why when Astarion went missing, Cazador couldn't just turn someone else into a spawn and carve the contract on them. The fact that Astarion had the contract carved on him already meant that he had to be be part of the ritual, no takebacksies since once a devil contract is written/signed it can't be undone unless the devil themselves agrees to it
@@destinygalearies7382 Probably not even a loophole. The contract was already written and signed, so Astarion's soul was already bound and probably yeeted straight to hell when he died. I doubt Mephistopheles cares whether the whole payment arrives simultaneously. The body with its brands just had to be present for the ritual even if the first instalment had already been sent, as it were. Though I don't really see the purpose of making him a zombie, since his corpse would probably work just fine. Except maybe just for the sake of inflicting more torture on "him" even after death. 😬
I always take Astarion with me, not only because I love his personality and his lines but also because rogues have the capability to do so many things and do a crap ton of damage.
My first game, he never left my party, so I decided to not even recruit him the second go, so I could free up more time for the others. But now I'm going back to pick him up anyway. I'm about to enter Shar's Gauntlet, so i just barely have enough time. The guy held a knife to my throat and generally disapproves of anything good I do, but I don't want him to die. Even though I'm a Rogue/Ranger and thus have no room for him in my party. He can hang around the camp.
Omg it's like youtube read my thoughts. The other day i thought about not recruiting him just to try and romance someone else (most likely couldn't do it if he was present so it was a way to remove the temptation haha😅) and well now i will NEVER do that 💀
my first play after release I killed him when he tried to feed on me... even though I had his body in my chest at camp, he is still somehow a zombie there too... same as that.
Poor thing can’t fight for himself. I once played as only Astarion, I skipped talking to shadowheart after the crash and he died immediately in the first fight with the intellect devourers
i've always hated cazador. but learning that he *flays* astarion repeatedly before you find him as a zombie in the ritual (which is already heartbreaking enough) i wish there was a long, graphic cutscene where you and astarion tear the mfer to pieces.
Interestingly if you bring zombie Astarion to your camp he walks over to where Astarion would usually be in your camp and starts reading a book😭 You can’t interact with him though
I wish they would have made a second encounter with him. Maybe when you meet the gur with a captive Astarion in either act 1 or 2. Most of the other characters have a second encounter.
Not gonna finish the video because of act 3 spoilers, ill find out anyways since on most of my playthroughs i never go recruit him, hes just so evil I hate it. Thats why in one of my playthroughs I am origin Astarion so he can be good for a change with the broken happy buff he has.
en realidad cuando jugas con astarion y elegis no llevarlos al castillo de cazador tambien te pone un zombie que dice q es astarion, pero no es astarion. Es un zombie que usa en lugar de astarion, para completar el ritual. Asi que tecnicamente astarion sigue en el primer acto vivo y coleando .
I should show this video to my ascended astarion to constantly remind him that he is where he is because of me and only me. Say "i can take on anything" one more time.
I actually knew this.. during my first play through I found Astarion but he killed me because I didn't stop him when he was feeding on me.. so I was mad and reloaded and didn't get him.. I didnt kill the hunter though and he still ended up at Cazador's.. I felt bad.. now I'm doing his play through
It seems Astarion forgot one of Cazador's commandments - Thou shall not drink blood of humans (I don't remember the exact words). At least you're doing his playthrough .
Totally different in the sense the narrator dialogue doesn't play in the background reminding you of Astarion. It's but natural you don't have to lie to Gandrel about whether you know or seen him.
Yikes..... So THAT'S what happens if you don't keep him around. Noted. Not that I was going to leave him out to dry anyways... But yikes!!! I had no idea Larian put that in as a possibile outcome
During my good character playthrough I didn't want a starion in my team but I also didn't want the sending, so I killed him and have had him stuffed in my pocket the entire game. Unfortunately the rig I was playing this game on could not keep up with part 3 so I never got to see this scene and how it would play out with dead astorian in my pocket. If anyone else has done this, please let me know how it turned out for you!
@@kapitainein even if I had his body in my pocket the entire time and never dropped it? I thought this ending only happened if you left his body somewhere or didn't physically have him with you in your party or camp.
Proof that Tav was destined to elevate their friends to being better or aiding in their destruction.
I like playing Tav as a god-sent therapist monk to help straighten out these traumatized runts, before they make an already bad situation way worse.
And same the toher way around. So far I have four completed playthroughs, each one of them as Durge, and I've always started them thinking I would do a evil run, like really dark urge evil, but no, the moment I meet Karlach is the moment all my plans falls apart, she's just too much of a golden retriever and I can't let her down. Astarion is my go to romance, love that guy with durge, they fit perfectly, but I don't mind going evil with him cause well, he can be pretty evil when he wants too, but it really shows how good of a story every companion has when even the ones I don't keep in my party still matters to me, like Lae'zel and Wyll. Someone once said that the companions are also rolling the dice to persuarde the player from doing bad things, and they are 100% right, and my companions always rolls nat 20!
The only true path is the path of necromancy.
H
I like to imagine that a good aligned Tav was a therapist during their life in Baldur's Gate, with the party hitting a lucky jackpot with Tav's tadpoling since otherwise all of them would self-destruct (literally and figuratively...at the same time) horribly from their severe personal issues.
Fair to say, all the companions are sealed to a sour fate if you don't recruit them. That alone, the lack of protection from the Artifact either makes them a slave to the Absolute, or fall to their fate.
Lae'zel is killed by her people in search of a creche.
Gale explodes, dying with nobody to remember him by.
Astarion is captured and sacrificed to Cazador's ritual.
Shadowheart falls short of her mission and cannot return to Baldur's Gate. Likely condemned to her doom.
Karlach and Wyll continue this game of cat and mouse, either one of them will die or will kill the other. If the elements don't claim them first.
To add, Wyll is gonna end up in hell unless you provide him this miraculous chance to break the contract.
Will will fail to break out Mizora in act2 and be sent to hell as lemure.
Karachi's will fail to fix engine heart and burn up.
I erm... was late to meet Lae'zel, found the thieflings dead, so I know that I'll find her dead eventually.. :/.
@@TheMentalStateZero you can actually still recruit her later in act 1. i also missed her in my playthrough and got her later. 🙂
@@TheMentalStateZero I didn’t recruit her after the cage in my first playthrough and I was still able to recruit her when I encountered other githyanki for the first time (I waited until Voss left.). It was just a lot harder because I had to keep a level 1 Lae’zel alive through the fight with her brethren (or revived by the end), without her counting as a companion yet.
Astarion is like a domesticated animal that doesn’t know how to survive in the wild and it’s just waiting for its owner to come pick him up
Someone or something picked him up alright 😞.
I feel like that is actually very true
Somewhere in the fandom, I truly hope someone has clumsily pasted Astarion's face onto a lapdog in some Victorian-looking portrait. After reading this comment, that image is just burned into my brain.
@@dayschange2 🤣 I hope so!
But that’s me though.
There were some notes in the kennels saying that Cazador got pissed because he couldn’t control Astarion, so he flayed Astarion alive over and over again until Astarion couldn’t be put together in human form anymore. It gives you more perspective on why Astarion is so terrified of Cazador, considering what happened to him when he got caught.
This is seriously so brutal in all levels.
He was also Cazador‘s favorite toy. In one conversation where Astarion drops a hint to this, you can call Cazador his „master in the bedroom“ and OH BOY. He is NOT amused by that.
As with any „favorite“ victim, their supposed privileges come at a steep price. The other six spawn were only envious of Astarion because they don’t fully know what that meant, and only ever saw his preferential treatment by their master.
@ArDeeMee wait did cazador actually do something to astarion in the bedroom? :o
@@alisapizza4776 Yup. There are bits and pieces about his story you‘ll only hear if you’re mean to him. I recommend looking them up here, there are tons of clips and compilations.
@@alisapizza4776 it was implied
Intro: 'You there, come here. I need help.'
Mid act 2 when asked why he didnt ask for help: 'Im not exactly used to asking for help and being met with... well... help'
Oh god this is so dark in so many ways.
Omg now that I recall his lines at the camp, it really hurts.
Thank you for your sacrifice, but this ending is beyond cruelty of what Casador did to him (not blaming you, just this scenario is unimaginable).
I checked upon him almost every hour just to get a look at him. Never played the game without him. Killed a couple of goblins then heading out to see how's my pale Elf faring and each time hearing him asking for help was too much to bear. I'm glad my next playthrough isn't going to be without him.
@@kapitaineinthe fact there is a way to get the hella dead looking Astarion at camp is just foul
@@angelicsailor1stwut
this is how my game looks lol i dodged him so bad
@@billy53784 😭
That "please come help me" on the beach is just heartbreaking 😭He hasn't had his own agency or freedom in two centuries, and without Tav appearing, he's alone on a beach with only his clothes and a knife. There's no way I can not recruit him, even if he does draw the knife on me. After the nautiloid and the crash no one's at their best, and the guy's hiding how terrified of everything is I'll give him a break. It's so tragic that without Tav, no matter what else happened to him, he'd meet a horrific end.
LOL really? It's a ruse... he's literally trying to lure you into a trap to kill you...
@@Ailieorz The guy's been conditioned and tortured into using himself as bait for two centuries, with no worth or use outside of that. He's also scared, and yeah he pulls a knife but he threatens to kill me and doesn't actually knife me straight out. Again I'll forgive it, he's using all he knows and has to fall back on after being abducted a second time and having his world upended. No one's at their best in those circumstances. If he'd tried it a bit later, I might have been mad, but at this point he doesn't know our intentions either and sees everyone as a potential threat.
@@Ailieorz He traps you not to kill you, but to find out if you are a friend or an enemy, because if you turn out to be an enemy, then this is probably the only chance for him to protect himself.
Moreover, he saw you walking freely around the nautiloid, so he has reason to assume that you are one of the illithids.
@@Madeleinewith3EsWhich doesn't change the fact that his cry for help is manipulation. I hate that he is forgiven for everything just because he is beautiful. On top of that he justifies it by saying he was a victim lol.
@@rraven2670oh you're one of those people who think victims should be perfect
The game's depiction of Astarion is quite realistic: being a victim of prolonged brutality and abuse does tend to turn one apathetic, sadistic and insecure, which is basically the impression Astarion leaves me for the first 2 Acts.
He is more than traumatized :(
Is there study to back this? I don't doubt just would like to read and learn.
He is a precious baby boy who could never hurt anyone
there is also the moment where he instantly becomes mad with power. you have version where is truly loves you or where you became his favorite tool
@@rubenrodriguez3164yes i’ve been obsessed with human psychology and i cant find any studies
I could NEVER not recruit him, ever. He's always in my party, I never even send him back to camp, he needs to be by my side all the time. I have to be sure, he's okay, safe, well fed, geared up, properly dressed, clean, and happy.
Omg the way how you care for him sound so good ☺.
So you can leave him to Gandrel yourself
"well fed, geared up, properly dressed, clean, and happy" sounds like mom is describing a todler 😀
Astarian is a cat after all, it's only right you treat him like one :P
SAME ! i love him so much 😭 the first thing i ever do in all my games is : recruit him, talk to him all the time and CHANGE HIS SPAWN OUTFIT. my boy is free, he doesn't need to wear that shit anymore
Whelp. That settles it. I'm always going to recruit Astarion. No matter what.
☺
And I will alway let him die in the monastery and revive him. The reaction is too good
Okay, I didn't expect his fate to turn out so horrible... Never seen this outcome before!
Thanks for sharing 🙏🏻
I really had my hopes high and had my fingers crossed quite literally.
I have over 600 hours in this game, and not once has he left my party. I always recruit him second, cause Shadowheart is literally right there and it would be silly to just skip an unconscious person lol
Point of the matter is, without Astarion, I wouldn't have been introduced to BG3. I wouldn't have taken the chance to play DND, and I wouldn't have met all of the people, friends, that I know now because of our campaign. Astarion's only a bunch of pixels but I love him so freaking much. And yes, this is a normal amount lol
Bro, he is not a sprite.😅
Interesting that shadowheart is unconscious because for me on my first game play she is by the door
@@onyxraven3455 That happens when you don't save her on the ship.
I skip her some times. Cause why not. Interesting to see what happens.
I only left him at camp once in my second playthrough (I wanted to see other companions' situation specific dialogue) and it felt so, so wrong without him.
In an least one alternate universe where Astarion is ignored by the party, Gandrel the Monster Hunter stumbled upon Astarion asking for help and was tricked into helping him. They wrestled around fighting for a bit before calling a truce and becoming close pals, but Astarion uses a fake name, of course.
One day after already having gone on numerous adventures together, Gandrel learned the truth, but ultimately decided to side with his new BFF, Astarion, and together, they destroy Cazador and his cult and live happily ever after chasing skirts and drinking copious amounts of cheap wine like total bros.
This is so good. I love it ❤.
Like this a lot!
Best ending
like he'd be caught alive or dead drinking, ugh, cheap wine. lol
Until Astarion suddenly turns into a Mindflayer, since he isn’t under the protection of the artifact.
I was considering to recruit Astarion later on in the game to see the different outcome, and now… this guy is not even real but I choked thinking of all he went through before the chapel… nope. I shan’t do it. Astarion is coming with me always. I will not let him out of my sight. Thank you for the vid.
☺
This is actually perfect for advertising! Lol!
„Go! Only you can save him!“
Who's going to pay for my therapy after i watched this because holy moly im SOBBING
Man, I've seen this on Tiktok way before I played the game myself, and it broke my fucking heart. He can't even be dead in peace as a zombie.... I can't believe how people refuse to look deeper into the characters, because Astarions whole life was filled with abuse and humiliation, and it doesnt end if you dont help him.... This poor baby boy just needs a Tav friend. He is severely misunderstood. :(
This video is so heartbreaking, but I can’t help but laugh at the whole “only you can adopt this poor kitten and save it” commercial vibe lol
lol .
In general, being with the MC (doesn't matter which origin it is) is the only way to survive for the most of our main companions. Just think about it: Astarion is captured by Cazador, Lae'zel is killed by another githyanki, Karlach… well, you know, Gale is exploding. Probably Wyll is the exception but he'd be doomed in his own way and SH as she's almost impossible not to recruit.
I think Laezels fate is she dies and becomes a shadow creature in the shadowlands. She tried to cross it herself and you find her dead body there
Gale would be trapped in the portal which is arguably safer for everyone else than him being rescued.
I think Shadowheart would be the only person alive, but she would have been a Shar worshipper to the end, and would never have met her parents. She would have done all she can to get to Baldur's Gate, and there's a BIG chance she could have been killed by the Gith because of the prism. Wyll has a chance of surviving I guess, but there's also a big chance of him dying in the shadow-cursed lands trying to save his father, infiltrating moonrise alone.
@@IneffableChild Поправочка: без главного героя, Уилл бы умер защищая рощу, возможно ещё в первый раз, когда мы только подходим к роще. Если бы Сердцетени не умерла там же, а прошла дальше, то она не смогла бы сама убить Песнь ночи, если в той сцене не вмешиваться, она всегда выкидывает копьё. И как следствие её убили бы либо гиты, либо свои же.
I accidentally didn't recruit shadowheart in my first playthrough but then the brains killed me because I had to fight them alone so I reloaded :)
damn the zoomed in zombie looks brutal 💀
Astarion turned into zombie: Meeh...
Astarion while his ding-dong was taken away from him: Cazador, you foul monster, you will pay for this!!!
That made me so fucking sad :c I’m happy I’m always going for him first so he can finally live happily with me 🥰
Aww
Crowd: And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... And me... (...)
I always recruit Astarion, even in campaigns where I don't intend to have him as a regular party member, because his fate is just too horrible otherwise. He can stay safe in my camp as long as he likes!
Damn, didn't even think this was possible lol, Larian truly did a wonderful job.
Imagine how interesting it could be, if you, for example, leave him on the beach, and later he sides with the goblins and you meet him in the goblin camp or already in the Moonrise towers, and then you would have an option to side with him, maybe to persuade him join you. There could be so many interesting options for his plot development....
That turned way darker than I expected
Dude this is the worst fate possible for him. Cazador literally flayed him alive over and over again. I’d sooner kill Astarion myself, just off him the second I meet him, than let him be taken in as Cazador’s slave again. A fate worse than death, one that Astarion could never have deserved.
True.
Tell me why i am playing a durge run where i ate Gale's hand and doomed him to the equivalent of exploding while stuck on an elevator, and THIS is the line i refuse to cross
Some things are sometimes beyond rational explanation. Love Astarion or hate him, He's one of the most interesting characters with a massive dose of human emotions. I'd never leave him alone at the ravaged beach.
Well, at least exploding is a quick death...knowing Cazador, whatever exactly happened to Astarion WASN'T...
Bc funny cutscene
You can only really torment Astarion if you keep him around. Top it off by letting him begin the ritual (because seeing Cazador brutalized is just cathartic), and then interrupt it. He‘ll attack you for that, permanently ending your affiliation.
It’s a game, have fun. Astarion was the devs‘ favorite as well, that’s why he has so much variety.
At first glance Astarion seems to be made to be Durge’s BFF so that’s understandable.
This is why I always recruit him after recruiting Gale.
I can't do this to Astarion, I will never do it. 🥺
🥲
This is very sad, but it's still somewhat funny that he doesn't even try to do anything if you don't help him. I understand that this option of his plotline is just not written, because developers don't consider you will play without anyone of the companions. But it still feels hilariously out of character. I'm sure Astarion would do everything he could and fight with or without Tav.
Astarion is a proactive character, but there's no way of telling what kind of challenges he's faced without the safety of the group and Emperor's protection from tadpole's influence.
Clearly, no matter WHAT he does, the game wants to communicate to us that joining and remaining in our group is the only way he survives all this.
Cazador mentions something about Astarion taking part in the ritual regardless if hes dead or alive, i cant remember if its in a journal or in the middle of the fight but he does say it somewhere
@@wolflithay6380 In the middle of the fight - if we release Astarion from his ritual beam, Cazador usually goes after him with hard-hitting attacks meant to knock him down/kill him (and may succeed locking him in the beam again) and screams that he doesn't need him alive to complete the ritual.
Astarion has no plans or real ideas. He would try and run, but the Gur will track him down eventually. Gandrel isn’t the only one looking for him.
If you want Astarion to get a redemption arc, ask Gandrel distracting questions so he doesn’t grow suspicious, and Astarion doesn’t feel the need to kill him.
You‘ll meet him again in BG, and he won’t be angry. The Gur will charge Astarion with saving their children. When you’re in the dungeons, opposite Sebastian‘s cell is another containing the children. Talk to them. After the fight, release the spawn. You‘ll find Gandrel with the children on your way out.
It’s really rewarding - and a complete accident for my playthrough. I originally wanted to trigger Astarion‘s attack on Gandrel, for the funneh. But this is better. Even though I‘m on an evil run. =)
When I go Durge, this is going to play out a whole lot differently. 😂
@@ArDeeMee that's what I keep saying to myself, that next time I play durge (I always play durge) it will be an evil run. Let me tell you something: the moment you even think about doing something bad, Karlach will be there and the "My companion, I adore you" will play in your head on repeat and you won't be able to do a thing beside becoming a holy paladin of kindness.
Ignoring him is just plain cruelty. So sorry you had to go through this just to show us what could happen. I literally melted when he had to say please twice in a row, my poor heart :((((((
When I read Zombie Astarion I audibly gasped. My boy! My poor boy!
You're not the only one
I find this so deeply unsettling and I don't know why. It literally makes me feel dread. This was horrible😭
Look at those wounds on zombie Astarion, dude died slowly
It seems Cazador flayed him 😦
It kind of warms my heart that everyone in the comments agrees on one thing: Astarion staying in the group
At best, he is ignored in my camp.
At worst, he gets staked
@@Thomasnmi+1 he is one of worse xd
If someone fetishizes carrying around vampire corpses for good fortune, then why not.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@Thomasnmi Agreed
I disagree
You can fix him.
He doesn’t need fixing, just help and time for healing.
@@katiatall Exactly this 🙏
@@katiatall well you kinda have to “fix his fear” (ie kill Cazador) so that he can learn to heal his trauma and live a life or relative safety
Well, Cazador fixed him pretty well, there is nothing more to be fixed now.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@SzaraSzarancza wtf? Cazador broke him, I mean literally broke him because he can no longer do something important to elves - which is to be able to see their past selves when they do their meditation (their version of sleep), which is why he can not remember what he looked like beforehand (because elves can see their past selves and old memories when they meditate, so the only time they lose that ability is through a lot of trauma)
it took me about 3 playthroughs when I realized I'd never seen his 'dismissed to camp' line. I've memorized every sentence by now but I still can't remember that one..
3 playthroughs and still haven't dismissed him? Impressive.
@@kapitainein well, I do play with a mod that lets me have more people in my party 😅 but I had dismissed everyone at least once except Astarion.
In my latest run I avoided meeting everyone except Shadowheart and used hirelings instead. This video gave made me feel guilty. 😂
This whole game is all about guilt tripping and manipulating the player by controlling his reactions, decisions and judgement through some twisted emotional "carrot and a stick" system. Toxic, psycho manipulative, unsafe to play without taking the risk of being brainwashed.
@@SzaraSzarancza At least it lets you kill them all. I never had a chance to learn his TragicBackstoryTM, he wasn't walking away alive after threatening my character with that knife.
At least it sounds like you can go back and pick them up later up to a certain point. They'll just be kind of hanging out. . .
I completely in love for Astarion. While I play BG3, he will never come back to Cazador and will be protected. That will never happen to him, love you Astarion ♥️
Good for you . Astarion not in the party removes most of the banters and witty comments from the game.
I try to do this every playthrough, but I find myself always needing Astarion in my party because he's such a great character.
Yeah i recently did a "no boys allowed" playthrough and when I saw this I was just liike. HMMM
Ik it’s just an undead skin being used, but imagine what they did to him to make him look that way…this poor man..
I can't. This character has gotten entirely under my skin and I cannot hurt him, period.
@@jhod555 I refuse to treat him badly, but in that scenario..my heart broke when it crossed my mind
They probably just didn't allow him to drink blood for a long time.
Never meeting Astarion? Can't imagine
Astarion tried to bite my rogue during sleep. He died with a stick in the middle of the chest
The real magic was the friends we made along the way
Very true indeed ☺.
And this is why I could never leave him behind.
What a horrible ending for him. I have always picked him up in each run thru. I am in my 3rd now.
This happens to him if you've recruited him but he leaves camp as well
Don't even need to kill the hunter
Hell No we gotta wipe Cazador all over the fuckin place
I’m cryin in the club
my 1st play through i lonewolf the game and it was very peaceful. enjoyed it the most
my first playthrough i nearly missed him on the beach, thank god i found him before progressing to Act 2, this is so damn sad 😭
This genuinely broke my heart
I know he’s fictional but this made me so sad to think that he died alone, without anyone caring for him. 😢 I’m a Gale girlie but I always bring him along too because I want him to feel loved.
Aww that's so sweet .
This also happens if you stake him the first time he bites you.
Wonder what happens if you carry his body the whole game…
"ONLY YOU CAN FIX HIM" really made me wheeze. X'D
My first play through I was good dark urge and committed to no spoilers. I somehow missed him. His storyline help keep the 2nd run enjoyable.
Astarion is the reason why i keep playing this game .There's no way i would let him die.
He's the only one who approves me killing innocent people 😅
Hey now - Minthara ALSO approves of killing innocent people...most of the time anyway
True. Even Minthara will criticize you for going full murderhobo.
The first sensible argument in favor of Astarion that I saw in this comment section.😅
Jeeez I wasn't ready for this 😱😢
Funny enough when i played as karlach i just couldnt for the life of me get astarion to spawn in his start location (idk why)😅.The only time i saw him in game was as a zombie in Cazadors ritual 😔
That might have been a glitch where you couldn't find Astarion in the particular location.
@@kapitainein Yeah I think so too I looked everywhere but couldn't find him😭
Never recruited him, always killed him as soon as I met him. Same for the gith.
I couldnt find him in my first playthrough so i got to avt 3 without ever meeting him.
I didn't even know of that vampire hunter dude since I just searched high and low for anything and everything on that beach I even found Gale whereas my friend had no idea who or even where he was 😅
Shouldn't he turn into a Mind Flayer shortly after being out of range of the Prism?
Not necessarily, not every True Soul (ppl with tadpoles) gets immediately turned into a mindflayer. In fact the whole plot of the game is based on ppl getting infected but not immediately going through ceremorphosis as the Absolute builds its own army
Plus if you have any companions not yet recruited when you get the first Guardian scene, they haven't transformed one you finally do pick them up.
Only if the Absolute gives the order for their tadpole to activate.
Our love was in the little stars
I’m so happy I was able to see past Astorian as just another gay character. Easily one of the best companions in the game, I will always have him by my side. He’s a home dog now
My headcannon is that the boar gores him, lol
WHO THE HELL IS CUTTIN ONIONS IN HERE
My heart...😭💔
This almost happened to me on my first run because I only found him 65 hours into my play through when I was cleaning up the parts of the map I haven’t been to yet.
I had this happen cuz I thought he'd show up later. Got to act 3 thinking "huh I wonder where is"
I almost never met him until I spoke to the hunter and I recognised his name and was like THATS A COMPANION
This makes no sense to methough, since in DnD lore Zombies(like most undead) no longer have souls. And Astarion's soul is one of the 7,000 needed for the Rite. Sooooo, Cazador now has 6,999 souls and just screwed himself hahaha. Unless he like, captured his soul off-screen or some read between the lines nonsense lol
As I understand, Larian changed a lot of things regarding undead for their game
The scars bind him to the ritual, so maybe the way the contract with Mephistopheles is that he has to provide 7k spawn with the contracts carved into their backs and the fact that Astarion is dead is basically a loophole in the contract. Like "I gave them all the scars and performed the ritual, you didn't say they all had to be alive." Cazador even says during the fight if Astarion is present that Astarion will be part of the ritual 'dead or alive' or 'your corpse will participate in this ritual' or something.
Which is presumably also why when Astarion went missing, Cazador couldn't just turn someone else into a spawn and carve the contract on them. The fact that Astarion had the contract carved on him already meant that he had to be be part of the ritual, no takebacksies since once a devil contract is written/signed it can't be undone unless the devil themselves agrees to it
@@destinygalearies7382 Probably not even a loophole. The contract was already written and signed, so Astarion's soul was already bound and probably yeeted straight to hell when he died. I doubt Mephistopheles cares whether the whole payment arrives simultaneously.
The body with its brands just had to be present for the ritual even if the first instalment had already been sent, as it were.
Though I don't really see the purpose of making him a zombie, since his corpse would probably work just fine. Except maybe just for the sake of inflicting more torture on "him" even after death. 😬
I always take Astarion with me, not only because I love his personality and his lines but also because rogues have the capability to do so many things and do a crap ton of damage.
My first game, he never left my party, so I decided to not even recruit him the second go, so I could free up more time for the others. But now I'm going back to pick him up anyway. I'm about to enter Shar's Gauntlet, so i just barely have enough time.
The guy held a knife to my throat and generally disapproves of anything good I do, but I don't want him to die. Even though I'm a Rogue/Ranger and thus have no room for him in my party. He can hang around the camp.
😃
my heart always tears apart when i see many possible ways to leave or kill or smth about him lmao THANKS my curiosity is satisfied
I'm glad to have been able to provide some perspective on Astarion's fate to the viewers and thanks a lot for being in here .
I didn't even know Gale was a thing for my first 30hour playthrough... then I saw the video of the halfling barbarians.
Omg it's like youtube read my thoughts. The other day i thought about not recruiting him just to try and romance someone else (most likely couldn't do it if he was present so it was a way to remove the temptation haha😅) and well now i will NEVER do that 💀
"Only you can fix him" lmaoooooo wow what an excellent video, thank you for your sacrifice
my first play after release I killed him when he tried to feed on me... even though I had his body in my chest at camp, he is still somehow a zombie there too... same as that.
Poor thing can’t fight for himself. I once played as only Astarion, I skipped talking to shadowheart after the crash and he died immediately in the first fight with the intellect devourers
i've always hated cazador. but learning that he *flays* astarion repeatedly before you find him as a zombie in the ritual (which is already heartbreaking enough) i wish there was a long, graphic cutscene where you and astarion tear the mfer to pieces.
Interestingly if you bring zombie Astarion to your camp he walks over to where Astarion would usually be in your camp and starts reading a book😭 You can’t interact with him though
It needs that eyes of an angel song from the pet commercials
I wish they would have made a second encounter with him. Maybe when you meet the gur with a captive Astarion in either act 1 or 2. Most of the other characters have a second encounter.
It's awful how much he suffered
Bro, zombies are not capable of suffering, they are zombies.
@@SzaraSzarancza He's not a Zombie
Not gonna finish the video because of act 3 spoilers, ill find out anyways since on most of my playthroughs i never go recruit him, hes just so evil I hate it.
Thats why in one of my playthroughs I am origin Astarion so he can be good for a change with the broken happy buff he has.
en realidad cuando jugas con astarion y elegis no llevarlos al castillo de cazador tambien te pone un zombie que dice q es astarion, pero no es astarion. Es un zombie que usa en lugar de astarion, para completar el ritual. Asi que tecnicamente astarion sigue en el primer acto vivo y coleando .
Oh God, not the sad music!!!! Love me some Astarion!!!
I should show this video to my ascended astarion to constantly remind him that he is where he is because of me and only me. Say "i can take on anything" one more time.
Astarion: (gulp)😅
Oh my god. I could never do this to him :(
I actually knew this.. during my first play through I found Astarion but he killed me because I didn't stop him when he was feeding on me.. so I was mad and reloaded and didn't get him.. I didnt kill the hunter though and he still ended up at Cazador's.. I felt bad.. now I'm doing his play through
It seems Astarion forgot one of Cazador's commandments - Thou shall not drink blood of humans (I don't remember the exact words). At least you're doing his playthrough .
Goddamn, you got me with that reminder!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY POOR BABY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Is the dialog different when you kill the guy hunter before meeting Astarion? I mean with Astarion cause you already know he's a spawn
Totally different in the sense the narrator dialogue doesn't play in the background reminding you of Astarion. It's but natural you don't have to lie to Gandrel about whether you know or seen him.
He calls for help, just so he can pull a knife on you. Although that's quite the horrible fate if you don't let him join you.
Yikes..... So THAT'S what happens if you don't keep him around. Noted.
Not that I was going to leave him out to dry anyways... But yikes!!! I had no idea Larian put that in as a possibile outcome
Damn. No pressure.
I'm sure there's a special place in hell for people who just leave Astarion there 🥺
Thanks a lot for showing this🙏 I could never do this to him.
During my good character playthrough I didn't want a starion in my team but I also didn't want the sending, so I killed him and have had him stuffed in my pocket the entire game. Unfortunately the rig I was playing this game on could not keep up with part 3 so I never got to see this scene and how it would play out with dead astorian in my pocket.
If anyone else has done this, please let me know how it turned out for you!
Things go dark for Astarion with him turned into a zombie to be used in the ascension ritual. This is the BG3 game mechanics.
@@kapitainein even if I had his body in my pocket the entire time and never dropped it? I thought this ending only happened if you left his body somewhere or didn't physically have him with you in your party or camp.