Baldur's Gate 3 Writer Made Astarion A "Giant Dumbass" On Purpose

thegamer.com:

Astarion is a bit of a himbo. Sure, he's an incredibly old vampire magistrate, but travel with him for more than five minutes in Baldur's Gate 3 and you'll quickly realise how easily he gets lost. It's no accident (even referenced in-game by the narrator), as senior writer Stephen Rooney says that he put some of himself into our favourite twinkling blood-sucker.

Narrator: *Astarion's sweet brain may be a bit less wrinkled than the rest, but you hunger for its teasing cells.*

One fan shared a screenshot of Astarion saying, "A pixie! An honest-to-goodness pixie" immediately after disapproving of Tav freeing said pixie. Memory loss is a side-effect of the tadpole, but given that the Absolute and our Guardian are suppressing its influence, I'm not sure he can wriggle out of this one with that excuse.

"It's important to put some of yourself into the characters you write," Rooney quote retweeted. "I never feel more seen than when Astarion is being a giant dumbass."

Case in point for Astarion's clumsiness - hiding that he's a vampire in Act 1. For starters, he has red eyes and fangs. But ignoring that glaringly obvious and literal red flag, there's his behaviour.

After camping, you may run into a boar bled dry, to which Astarion will sheepishly - and suspiciously - try and carter you away from. You don't usually stop us from looting dead critters along the road, what's different this time?

Then there's the vampire hunter, who he very inconspicuously murders for... reasons. He doesn't do a very good job of hiding his true nature, which all comes to a head when he tries to bite you in the night and wakes you up.

Another notch on Astarion's oh-so-smooth belt is his planning "skills", i.e. go in, kill the enemy, and run. You'd