aster is one of the characters of all time
look outside 2.0 spoilers, general spoilers for the game. i just really like this guy i think
For reading clarity shifting into writing in proper text, which feels weird to do on this blog, but whatever. To preface I don't claim for this to be a super perfect character analysis or anything, just things I like about this character that might get skipped over, since until 2.0.1 he was really annoying to recruit ingame. I'm writing this off the cuff because I really like the guy.
To begin, I think Aster is just... really, really lonely. He had a decent teaching position as a college professor and I assume some respect at some point, but in the present Visit he doesn't have many people to talk to and has to look for his offering, so he can't just hang out with his buddies the whole time. He always stresses to Sam he enjoys their time together or that he wants to help.
The way he talks here in the Mazes and Wizards campaign is especially funny because his other interactions aren't particularly in-character. Glastovald is very close to how he actually is, because he's a grown man with an academic background that probably doesn't have the full handle on a roleplaying game yet. He's being very sincere when he says he's having fun! It strikes me as particularly lonely that he's spending all this effort for someone he met less than 2 weeks ago, when there's more important things to be doing.
He is at the very least open to it, which is sweet.
Regarding the way that he comes to help you against the final boss if he gets Cursed, or even disrupts his own mechanic to warn you, I think he's a lot stronger mentally than he lets on, too. None of the other astronomers retain any sanity in their Cursed fights, and as far as I'm aware Aster warns you regardless of if you had him in the party.
Even as XIN-AMON's claws his priority is helping you. Jasper as the Eyes is judgemental and Aurelius as the Mouth has just completely lost it- Aster on the other hand wants to take you with them, if possible.
He's the first to apologize when the Exalted Four appears. In the Promise ending, if he was in your party at any point, this is his ending:
He's so sweet. Not that everybody in Look Outside was out to get Sam or anything, but it means even more in the apocalypse even now than ever to help your neighbors. You can see it throughout the entire game, not just him, but I really enjoy how even with the loftiest ambitions of anyone at the time he had the time just for Sam. Deeply lonely behavior but incredibly kind, like how Sam was, but in a different way.
Secondly, Aster is a huge dork. His entire moveset is so normal. Reminding the party of fire escape routes and a plan, and then pretending it's his birthday so enemies are less likely to hit him. Saying he doesn't believe in superstition but wearing an amulet a fortune teller gave him and immediately believing a dream he had has genuine importance to the fate of the world (and believing Morton, if he divines the dream).
Guy who asks you for a quiche lorraine in the apocalypse.
Guy who you fuck up letting out because it just has to be that 1% more awkward.
If you play Wizard's Hell too much he gets nervous you think of him as a wizard. He has cute little things to say about each Planet Disk when you get them too. He's so normal in comparison to other party members you get that it's funnier he's involved in the actual plot of the game compared to like, Sophie who is also relatively normal for who she is.
One thing I want to address before wrapping up is a little speculative, but bear with me.
Aster's cursed form always struck me as standing out against the other astronomers, and not just because of the obvious baku (a dream-eating tapir yokai) inspiration as opposed to everyone else's more general body horror. Francis Coulombe (frankiesmileshow) has said about it in an interview:
We have this and one other line about Aster's childhood (assuming the above quote wasn't like, a hypothetical.) In one of his post Mazes and Wizards session lines, he has this to say.
Based on this and his interactions with the Rat Child (initially being afraid of it but wanting to show it the stars and diagrams he drew while being excited to talk about them) I feel like this reflects his attitude about learning and life; The Cursed form is the full cross into absurdity that's difficult to accept, even if he's of an open mind. The uncontrollable urge to hurt others. You could probably say this about a lot of Cursed forms, but I think in particular the ability to maintain sanity is tied to it, considering other powerful/dangerous Cursed who are generally very kind and of sound mind, like Audrey, Jeanne, or even Sam in the Denial ending.
About the wizard and Rat Child part, I feel like this might show he had someone who nurtured his own interest in geology as a child (based on the interaction with the Rat) since despite initial apprehension he takes to it pretty fast and even lets the other kids join in. My point is, even if he's a college professor he's got some whimsy in his heart to both buy a wizard costume for use in this ritual and play Mazes and Wizard with you. A little bit of a sense of humor and self awareness.
He's a lonely dork who wants to use his knowledge to try and save the world, not for Sybil (though he probably does care, seeing her effects on the others) but just because he wants to. Pursuit of knowledge and also because people are being hurt. He just drives me up the wall I think. I really need to draw him more.
In conclusion, from my personal playthrough journal:
