Bigots of every variety are not only unwelcome here but also I hope you rot.
This is my Astarion thirst quarantine blog and also sometimes I post/reblog my own (often depraved) art. Also sometimes I reblog not-Astarion BG3 stuff. I also reblog many a Neil Newbon.
I rarely shy away from incredibly grisly and dark themes, also I am a monster fucker. This is your warning before following!!
Every Baldur's Gate 3 companion is bi/pansexual and every ship is canon. That is the beauty of this fandom and this game. If you have a problem with these facts, it might just be best to block the me.
My tastes don't invalidate yours, but I have my tastes. That is all.
Viewers of a weak disposition may want to turn away now.
“I wrote a lot of Cazador stuff... I would have loved to spend more time with Cazador. He's kind of a big bad the entire way through. He's someone that looms over Astarion’s character. You only get to see him a couple of times, and it would have been fun to dig into that relationship more. But the sense of this weird mongrel family of vampires living in Boulders Gate in the middle of a city with this awful abusive kind of patriarch. And then the weird brotherly sisterly kind of dynamics that all the other vampires develop with each other. Some of them, like Astarion with Petras, have quite an aggressive sibling rivalry. Some of the others are more sympathetic, so there's a lot of fun stories there, I think, to be told.” — Steven Rooney
so tragic when you're an enjoyer of characters who are toxic destructive messes and then the majority of the fics are like "what if they communicated healthily and were nice to each other :)"
like if i wanted to read about wholesome well-adjusted relationships i would NOT be looking for stories about these freaks in particular i promise you!!!
There is an interpretation that Neil Newbon's comments about Spawn Astarion's "freedom and joy" are merely a concession to a certain part of the audience, and that the actor himself is ironically mocking the "good" ending.
Supporters of this theory point to Astarion's dance in his Origin ending. Neil's statement that this movement symbolizes "the joy that he's now finally in control of his life" is reinterpreted to frame the scene solely as a display of bloodlust and predatory triumph. It is a clear example of how the broader narrative context can be pushed aside in favor of reinforcing the idea that the character never truly changes.
But if we look at the available interviews from Neil Newbon and the animation director, Greg Lidstone, the intent behind the scene is more nuanced than that.
Larian tells us how actor Neil Newbon influenced Astarion's Origin ending, giving it a more positive spin.
Lidstone explicitly states that they originally recorded Astarion walking off "like a predator," and Neil himself rejected it. He insisted that "it doesn't feel right" and that "it's not the character."
"I thought, well, that seems weirdly contrary to his experience over the whole of the game," Neil says.
The Spawn route is framed as a path of freedom and joy, with the dance representing Astarion finally being in control of his body and his choices. It's the emotional lightness that comes when 200 years of terror no longer define every aspect of his existence. Rather than framing the scene as a simple predator's victory dance, Neil describes it in terms of liberation and agency. The dance becomes less about predatory anticipation and more about the emotional release of someone who no longer lives entirely through fear.
Yes, Astarion approaches a bound victim in this scene, but his words from the epilogue offer a clearer picture of how he chooses to direct his predatory nature. He isn't framed as hunting purely out of predatory thrill or a desire to dominate; he has adopted the cynical but practical ethics of an adventurer. As he puts it:
"I've taken a turn as an adventurer and hero. It turns out no one actually cares about murder, as long as you murder the right people. And apparently I'm rather good at it."
When Neil adds with a laugh that he's "still a predatory vampire, but a nice one," that's not him mocking fans. He's highlighting the irony of a creature built for killing who has reclaimed his autonomy enough to choose a "positive way" to exist. The dance isn't primarily about feeding; it's framed as the joy of someone who is finally in control of his own life.
It is also interesting to observe how Neil's "shades of gray" thesis is sometimes used to justify the claim that Astarion remains static regardless of the ending. References to "realistic acting" and the absence of a "black and white" morality are often presented as proof that there is no moral distance between Ascension and the path of recovery.
However, when Neil speaks of "every conceivable combination of situations" and "shades of gray," he is emphasizing the complexity of Astarion's nature, not a lack of growth.
Baldur's Gate 3 Interview: Neil Newbon Talks Astarion and the Art of Performance Capture
Astarion isn't a monolithic, static character. Neil describes him as:
"Every conceivable possible combination of every situation that the character can face. It wasn't just Ascended or quote-unquote 'good,' better, or whatever Astarion. It was all the different shades of gray in between."
In both Ascension and the Spawn path, Astarion remains a "trauma sufferer" and a "survivor." The difference isn't that he "healed and forgot," but in how he processes that trauma: through perpetuating the cycle of pain (Ascension) or attempting to heal (Spawn).
Reducing Astarion to a static archetype risks flattening not only the writing, but also the performance work that gives those different paths their emotional texture. Neil doesn't have a "preferred" canon, but he also described the routes as "two different characters," emphasizing how differently players respond to them:
"To see people's reactions to these two different characters… if you find him scary when he has ascended, you should. He's terrifying. But other people might really like that ending for the character and feel, 'Actually, I saw Astarion always going that route,' whereas others might want to help him redeem himself, or help him not only survive, but thrive in a positive way."
Neil consistently frames the Ascended path as something meant to be unsettling, not as an aspirational or "correct" ending for "real gamers." He consistently speaks about Astarion through the framework of trauma and survival. Reducing the entire depth of his performance to "he's just a predator and everything else is nonsense" flattens the complexity of the performance to a single angle.
One important distinction often overlooked in these interpretations is that choosing the Spawn path isn't about trying to turn Astarion into a "saint" or a "cuddle-bug."
The transformation in this ending isn't about him suddenly becoming "good." It's about him becoming self-aware enough to consciously direct his predatory instincts rather than being governed entirely by fear and survival conditioning.
He stops being a victim who projects violence simply because he knows no other way. He gains maturity. His predatory nature hasn't vanished—it is now governed by his own will. As Neil puts it: "He's still a predatory vampire, but a nice one." This is a predator who can choose where that violence is directed, rather than being driven purely by fear or conditioning.
No one is arguing that Astarion can't be evil. He can, and that's part of what makes the character compelling. The issue is treating fundamentally different narrative outcomes as interchangeable "interpretations." The two paths aren't framed the same. That difference matters. He doesn't become a saint as a Spawn, but he does change. That change is the point of the arc. You're free to enjoy any version of the character. But enjoyment doesn't redefine what the story is doing.
