Why does everybody love Astarion anyway?

A small character analysis

So, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an RPG that has been out for a while now. Everybody has played it, obsessed about it, and had a bit of time to move on from shiny object syndrome and appreciate it for the great game that it was. But even now that the hype has died down a bit, I still see a flood of Astarion fanart and fanfic. The love this character receives is so immense it made me wonder: why does everyone love Astarion?

Astarion is a vampire spawn elf that is the dream companion for everyone who had a Twilight phase back in 2008. He’s a charming, flirtatious boy with morally questionable actions — the type to call you his darling while joyfully murdering an entire goblin camp. A perfect match for the edgy enthusiasts out there.

But is that all it takes to have a massively popular character like Astarion? Just make them handsome, flirty, and morally gray? Well, yes and no.

Of course, having a pretty character showing the slightest hint of crazy will absolutely be enough to make a good number of people fall in love with them, but that’s not the only thing Astarion has going for him. I mean, Baldur’s Gate 3 has such an amazingly diverse and interesting cast of romanceable characters, from Golden Retriever girlfriends like Karlach, to romantic delights like Wyll, to loners like Lae’zel. Astarion wouldn’t be able to get the most following in the middle of such an incredible cast if being eye candy was the only thing he has going for him.

He’s popular because, at his core, Astarion is an exceptionally well-written character. Yeah, the snarky attitude may draw you in, but what makes you fall in love with him is the fact that he is an incredibly flawed and sad character. He’s a pathetic broken man who has been through unimaginable physical and psychological abuse at the hands of his former master, Cazador, developing a complex set of issues and trauma that makes him believe that there’s no such thing as real kindness.

And that’s interesting!

He’s a deep character, he’s profoundly traumatized and in desperate need of help and guidance. People are naturally drawn to characters like him — those in need of love, and that will blossom in response to finally getting it. He’s also a very good representation of abuse victims trying to overcome their past by becoming abusers themselves. Healing is a process, and Astarion shows that incredibly well.

We, as the player, are acutely aware that Astarion isn’t a saint. He didn’t really have a choice? Yeah, but he still was the one who brought so many victims to his vampire master; he’s still the one who sealed their demise. And he can’t escape from that, as we see with the Gur children, but he can get better, and that’s so, so important.

The culmination of his character arc is the scene where the player finally kills Cazador, and that one is one of my favorite character-driven moments of all time. After getting to know everything Astarion has been through — the torture, the abuse, the gaslighting, the blackmail, the lies — all the suffering Astarion went through and caused is finally over, and all the rage he built up through the years is finally being expressed. Once Cazador is dead, Astarion is finally free.

But then what?

Then he’s alone. He lacks real family ties with the other Cazador spawns, and everyone that he ever loved is long gone. Once Cazador is dead, Astarion is completely free to make his own choices, of course, but he’s also alone. Despite forming bonds with the party members and the player, they are people who can leave him, and he can leave them. After hundreds of years of being “less than a slave, a puppet” to someone else regaining the power to make choices without someone looming in the shadows is amazing but also frightening.

So it comes the sadness. And oh, it was some brilliant, brilliant sadness.

Astarion is undoubtedly eye candy. A snarky, flirty, morally gray character for all vampire lovers — an edgy boy with an obvious redemption arc in the making to honor the likes of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, he’s also a realistic, multifaceted character who can be dorky and genuinely sweet if given a chance. It’s no wonder he’s so popular; he earned it!

If you haven’t deep-dived into Astarion’s lore yet, or even if you for some reason never heard about Baldur’s Gate 3, I highly recommend it. Astarion is just one small example of the amazing cast and lore that the game has. Do not, for a second, believe that I spoiled too much in this analysis; there’s so much more to immerse yourself in that game.

And if you already played it but never romanced him, or even if you did romance him and know exactly what I’m talking about, why not use this as an excuse to revisit the game? Maybe try a Dark Urge run or experiment with a class you haven’t played.

Yeah, I should play the game again. It’s only my fourth run, right? That’s a normal amount of times to play a 300-hour game, sure.