What's most appealing to me about the companions' stories in bg3 is abscence of a happy ending where everything is fixed.
Shadowheart has to reconcile with her lack of self upon loosing what so long defined her - Shar. She's either free of her, but has to live with knowledge of sacrificing her parents or is still burdened with the Lady of Sorrow, trying to find pieces of herself with her family. She cannot escape Shar fully - what's lost will remain lost, Shadowheart has to reinvent herself.
Karlach will always be without a heart - it is permanent. She either dies surrounded by the people who made her life worth living again or has to reenter Avernus, the place where everything went to shit. But while Zariel may have defined the place of the fight, now Karlach can define who she is fighting for.
And there's Astarion. He will not know the sun, he will always hunger, never to be free of what Cazador has done to him. But he is free of what Cazador tried to make of him. His body may be burdensome and a sorrow reminder, yet at last it is not a means to an end. Although he will always bear the markings on his back, the body is his own. He no longer has to fear, but he cannot deny that the fear defined what he was for so long.
I adore that. It is so realistic and refreshing. We cannot turn away from our traumas. We have to accept that it will always be there, influencing us in the tiniest ways.
Grief is often described as not something that is overcome, but something a person has to grow around. I think the same is true for any sort of abuse. You cannot overcome it - it happened and made its mark.
Ascended Astarion makes me emotional because of this. In this version of himself, he tried to fight whats happened to him. Forget it with the promise of safety and power over all. It no longer matters that he was a spawn, after all he is now the greatest vampire. Yet it still, the trauma holds him tight in its grip. He lashes out at the sheer mention of Cazador, wanting to forget. He takes any opprotunity to exert his power just to feel good about himself. This all powerful Astarion is more ruled by his trauma, than the Astarion which accepts what happened as a part of him.
