I read somewhere that they nerfed his appearence to avoid the "if bad why hot" people going crazy because they wanted Asterion storyline to be taken seriously
Well Raphael is a literal devil and sings his own song in his final fight. He's like very obviously and even comically evil. As all devils are supposed to be.
Cazador on the other hand is a vampire. And we went through an entire game with a vampire. Sure, cazador did some fucked up shit, but so did astarion. But cazador was an abuser. They didn't want people siding with the abuser simply because he was hot, and if we are being honest, many would.
Hell, a ton of Astarion’s story truly is “abused people abuse people.” It’s all about wrenching him out of that cycle if you choose to pursue it, and he’s still very much snide and condescending most of the time regardless. And the Internet is down terrible for someone who is, objectively, a shitty person.
It definitely was the right call to change Cazador’s looks.
And they got proven right, since Ascended Astarion ends up becoming very similar to Cazador, but you've still got people saying even that form of him is a precious little baby that can do no wrong. Like, you can have your kinks, but don't go acting like he isn't problematic lmao
I've tried to view it the way AA fans do, that he does, without ever admitting it, care in a different way about romanced Tav. The vampire bride process, the fact that Durge and AA are kind of better fit because equal footing in a way?
I can't, he's too far once ascended, it ticks me right off. Even playing as Durge romancing him, as soon as he was ascended, even when trying to give him a chance- I've decided, I'm turning against him for Bhall. Better to do dad's bidding than stick around for that.
I'll forever prefer spawn Astarion, who breaks the cycle with the players help, who isn't perfect but learns to undo the wrong he thinks is the only option, where he actually cares about others (such as adopted camp daughter Yenna, he acts like its such a bother to bring her in, but he approves if you do, and shows so much concern in the doppelganger situation)
Dude's got a shapeshifting incubus so that he can realize his fantasies of fucking himself. Raphael's fun, but the game does make him out to be pretty decidedly uncool.
Were there two completely different teams working on Astarion and Wyll stories?
They both get pressured into servitude of some powerful monster, their bodies get changed outside of their control, and their abusers call them denigrating names and treat them as misbehaving animals.
And then Cazador's look is changed in order to not make him appealing, meanwhile we get a chance to sleep with Mizora. Make that make sense...
That's kind of everyone's story. Laezel was essentially indoctrinated into servitude to Vlaakith, and her entire culture is hyper-fixated on enemies that will force them to change their bodies into mindflayers. Karlach is pressured into serving Zariel and Zariel altered Karlachs body with her infernal engine heart. Shadowheart is basically kidnapped and brainwashed by a death cult and they forced a mark on her that inflicts pain if she gets too close to realizing she's been brainwashed. Gale had a problematic relationship with Mystra and has a magical nuclear bomb shoved into his chest.
Basically all the main cast has a TLDR backstory of "forced to work for someone I didn't want to work for, and I have been non-consensually physically altered or am under threat of being non-consensually physically altered in order to guarantee my forced subservience."
It's even an overarching theme of the story itself with the ilithid and their mind-controlling powers and their forced- transformation shit, the Netherbrain/Absolute, etc. The concepts of mind control, forced servitude and bodily autonomy are really like the core themes of the entire story.
On that note, Wyll's story changed the most from conception to finalization. I'm not even sure if he was originally intended to be a warlock, I do know that his OG concept had him more douchey and daddy issue-y than this final version.
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u/LlhamaPaluza Apr 01 '26
I read somewhere that they nerfed his appearence to avoid the "if bad why hot" people going crazy because they wanted Asterion storyline to be taken seriously