The Astarion Iceberg - Baldur's Gate 3 Deep Dive

aarian the vampire Rogue from balers Gate 3 is a character who has become near and dear to so many today we're diving deep into this charming Rogue and I challenge you to watch this video and find something that you've never heard of before hello ladies men and non-binary friends I'm back from the grave with a Vengeance this video game has awoken me from my glorious Slumber and I can't get this pesky lad out of my head this video will essentially be an info dump of all the information I've binged on this character in the past few months let me know if I missed anything in the comments below for those that don't know an aarian ice sorry an iceberg video starts at the very top with common knowledge and gets more obscure the deeper we go so let's start at the [Music] top did you know that Asian's performance and mannerisms were inspired by a feral cat in an interview with Dan Allan gaming Neil nuban aarian actor explained that asarian mannerisms were inspired by a feral cat near his house use animal work he's a cat he's a black cat there's a stray that comes into my house called red we need name him red um he's a stray cat and he's quite feral it took me three years before I could pick him up and hold him he's totally cool with me now three [ __ ] years wow it took me to allow the Stray Cat to be cool with but he gave me a lot of inspiration about aarian aarian approves when you are affectionate to cats during the game so it makes sense that he would resemble a cat as [Music] well despite his charm being a signature aspect of his character asarian Charisma stats are quite low giving him a plus Z default score to Flat Charisma roles unless the player decides to change it during a level up every fandom has discourse about character sexuality but the conversation typically goes like this they're definitely gay they're definitely straight because of the nature of balers Gate 3 where any player can romance any of the companions as either a man woman or non-binary person none of the companion character characters are gay or straight they are canonically bisexual or pansexual or one of any other subcategories within these two larger categories a staran is canonically pansexual as disclosed by the actor who plays him Neil newbon during one of his live streams about it's really nice to see better representation in choices in roleplay games and things like that which they can have when you can custom build your character like um aarian pansexual man which I'm I really dig in this video you might notice that there is a lot of mention of aarian actor Neil Newan because because he's the man that brought aarian to life I did find it important to keep bringing him up his involvement in the creation of aaran and the love that Neil has for him is not only heartwarming to myself and so many but also reflects just how much of a fan he is of this character and this franchise just like us it wouldn't be an aarian video if we didn't talk about Garian Garian came to life during one of Neil nuan's twitch streams where his community manager blue Al medic asked Neil well I'm just going to insert the clip here I have a I have I like this question by Veronica out of all of your characters which character do you think would be a very chaotic Goose can you imagine Goose aarin Garin honk my name's Garian honk is that your sandwich not [Laughter] anymore it's pronounced and he's honk Garian became a vivid aspect within the fandom lore of the character I can't go more than a few days without seeing a new animatic from talented artists wow I got to show Tom something's happening I'm sh it is Tom [ __ ] Garian man it's [ __ ] Garian it's real oh my God this he's going to look 9 love you wow that's amazing so [Music] [ __ ] is behind me touch my back hello joh hello joh Neil nuban is a prolific actor in The Gaming Community and has played iconic characters like Carl Heisenberg in Resident Evil Village and Gavin Reed in Detroit become human he performed the voice and motion capture for aarian and also directed a number of other companion characters including our favorite Heartless tling from Hell carlac played by Samantha bayart he's currently doing a multiplayer playthrough with his friend Tom DeVille a script writer and they stream pretty regularly on Neil's twitch Link in the description Neil has incorporated some of Asian's chaos into his playthroughs which makes them incredibly entertaining to watch he also does signings where he performs lines in a Stan's voice and he will often share anecdotes about his work on balers Gate 3 and the character character assarian it's refreshing to see an actor who is not only passionate about their work and invested in the franchise it's from but also Embraces the fandom response as [Music] well if you've made it to act two of balers Gate 3 hopefully you've been able to come across a bar called the waning moon just outside of moonrise Towers inside there is a band list including a number of people who are no longer allowed at that bar one of which is described as an unknown elf with pale skin and a sned mouth referring to the master distiller as the POR sign Publican the writers have confirmed that this is indeed our favorite pale elf aaran you might be aware that aarian underwear is embroidered with a cheeky phrase befitting of the elf's humor embroidered into the cloth if you're reading this you managed to bed me or behead me either way you got lucky but you might not know what was previously embroidered on his shirt clearly no stranger to a needle and thread a starring has embroidered the words of a poem on his shirt it reads lamentable is the Autumn picker content with Plums it seems that this was removed from the game via updates much to the much to the despair of a God damn it I can't say it it seems that this was removed from the game via updates much to the despair of many asarian fans who felt the quote suited him plums are typically a summer fruit so if you're an Autumn fruit picker harvesting plums you're impatient and could be holding out for something much better if you give it a little time this quote is incredibly sad since the staran was waiting for 200 years before he was free from cador's grasp but he did get something better eventually stars and clouds on Tumblr finished the non-existent poem seemingly from a starian perspective and it's beautiful lamentable is the Autumn picker content with Plums lamentable are the humble who settle for breadcrumbs lamentable is the contentment of just surviving living is not the same as the refusal of dying lamentable is the satisfaction from Bare Necessities abundance is still less than Infinities lamentable are The Frugal who save every penny how dare you not have it all when most don't have any and lamentable am I most of all for being so weak for screaming the sweetest yet unable to speak for wanting more than what I was handed for having less than I demanded for wanting the stars and the warmth of the sun even if my flesh they may burn better to die of gluttony than to live on crumbs better to die picking poisoned apples than rotting plums God damn this fandom is talented Neil newbon made a playlist to get in the right mindset before his recording sessions for aarian it's over 10 hours long with 147 songs and almost 50,000 likes previously just called aarian now called Neil work a during the game you can gain a lot of approval points for aaran for killing the G or Monster Hunter that is tasked with bringing aarian back to balder's gate upon doing so he'll reveal to you that this isn't the first time he's had a runin with them before he was a vampire he was a magistrate in balder's gate and he handed down a ruling against a group of G who later ambushed him and beat him within an inch of his life kazador then offered to save asarian and give him the gift of eternal life or let him bleed out on the street asarian chose the former option became a vampire spawn and served kazador against his own will for 200 years on cazador's commands asarian was forced to capture the ger Camp's children and bring them back to the Palace they were turned into vampire spawn by Cazador and shortly after depending on your playthrough either destroyed or set free by asarian needless to say his relationship with G is complicated well I I mean kind of of it's a long story honestly aaran enjoys watching the player receive levar's blessing from the priest at the goblin camp in act one this condition has some incredible benefits but it's certainly not for the light-hearted your voice sounds so sweet dear one keep going asarian is incredibly encouraging when the opportunity presents itself to the player I must say this don't you dare say no oh Bravo on call my my who knew our friend had so much blood in them try not to lick your lips as you say that it was a fine strike excellent form getting a killer buff from a kinky priest and a staran approval what more can you ask for if you've made it this far and you want to support a queer Creator who actually cites her sources is Please Subscribe leave a comment if you learned something new and like the video to feed the algorithm Beast thank you the actors playing companion characters recorded the voice and motion capture for the majority of the content within balers Gate 3 save for a select few specifically the sex scenes yes some of the most sought-after scenes in balers Gate 3 were not actually performed by the original actors of our favorite characters those scenes were actually one of the eight Tav actors Josh Ward who per formed the voice of Tav one what's done is done we should check the corpses for valuables is responsible not only for asarian sex scenes but the Emperors the infamous bear scene and more this came out after a number of aarian fans fawned over quote aarian leg thing in the post un ascended asarian sex scene and he took to Tik Tok to give balers gate fans Insight on his work he's quite active on his Tik Tok Channel and streams regularly on Twitch as well while the high Roller's one shot may not be completely canonical the balers Gate 3 fandom has embraced it as such there are a few standout aarian moments that may or may not be Canon but are fun and well represented and appreciated in the fandom after a terrible opening roll from estaran a five on perception aaran becomes transfixed by Gail's boots instead of the task at hand I.E figuring out what's wrong with Tav this becomes a running joke throughout the rest of the one shot as asarian and other players admire Gail's magnificent boots on less than Stell rolls that's three that is five five total five total I have a thing for this yeah please yeah so I start looking ctitious round I noticed Gail's boots I cuz he's he's doing all this stuff so he's actually he's hked up his clothes a little bit and I realized they're really nice they're very nice I get a little transfixed with his boots to the point where I can't quite look away from them the the stitching is exquisite you know it's double double stit cost a fortune it cost a forunate Neil has disclosed that he's a huge fan of DN D and was able to recognize the hints that the captured Dr Adventurer in the high rollers campaign was actually driz deran driz deran is a male Dr Ranger originally from the underdark and became a legendary hero of the north his weapons of choice are two scimitars nicknamed twinkle and icing death he also has a black panther companion Gwen Gwen hu Gwen huar Gwen Gwen huar Neil was incredibly excited at this inclusion inadvertently making aarian into a drizz deran fanboy Rune system and then you see the Dome with the Dr elf I'm going to shriek as loudly as I can and point and go oh my God you're D and then you see the Dome with the Dr elf ins I'm going to shriek as loudly as I can and point and go oh my God you're D sorry big fan when when need to I'm going to proceed to ask him as many fan person questions about adventures and all that stuff as possible until somebody interrupts me yeah he not now staran he has the patience of a saint he answers everyone he asks all about you it's very back and forth you know it's very you're like we're best friends I'm convinced now he's my best ab and then [Music] yes after the release of balers Gate 3 the popularity of aarian and subsequently Neil newon skyrocketed leading to an influx of users to Neil new's Discord server so many in fact that they actually had to close the server to get more mods to accommodate for the amount of new members Neil nuan's Discord called the Vagabonds is sitting at over 17,000 members at the filming of this [Music] video stream is a site where fans can order signed prints from their favorite performers as a as a Christmas present I decided to order an aarian print signed by Neil newbond for my sister and the minute it was announced in the Discord that they were open again I jumped to streamly to place an order and there were so many people trying to get assigned print that the site literally crashed the first four times I got on it Neil new Bond's Community manager blue owls medic made an announcement in the vagabon Discord we may have broken the site GG chat Neil will very likely be doing more in the future as well so please don't fret if this time you're unable to get one for those wondering my order did in fact go through just barely before everything else sold out so [Music] yay after reaching Rivington in act three and entering fgo's Flop House you'll come across asarian siblings and fellow spawn of Cazador Zar Petrus one of his siblings has been deemed by the fandom as The Bargain Bin asarian this is due to his less charismatic delivery of Asian's own lines that the player will find familiar if they have romanced him thank you to larer on Tik Tok for making this back-to-back comparison well hello beautiful God you're beautiful well thank goodness we're such good friends then thank goodness we're all such good trusting friends then it'll be a once in a lifetime experience I promise I promise you a night you'll never forget more than 2 months after the initial game release laran Studios is still releasing new content updates and patches to further enhance the playability of the game for its players including an epilog after comments from players requesting some sort of get together to check in with your companions after the game's story has concluded if you choose to ascend aarian he can appear during the epilog as his vampire lord self but can also transform into a cute little bat the fandom has deemed him bat starian and naturally the art has been plentiful and adorable it has been speculated by fans that despite his sardonic demeanor if you befriend Andor romance aarian he actually says thank you more than any other companion in the game with comparable approval levels I personally have played through balers gate six times with different romance options almost every time the only other companion I could see rivaling that number of thank yous would be carlac but with a game this large that has hundreds of hours of content for each individual character until there is a thank you compilation for every companion character we may never know who says it the most but thank you to P Julie art for this compilation thank you thank you thank you by the way H thank you for helping me it was very kind thank you all right uh thank you for what it's worth thank you thank you I I uh I want to thank you thank you yes this will all be over soon this is a gift you know thank you I won't forget it thank you I appreciated that good morning thank you for not killing me the other night well thank you darling you saved me back there I may not have appreciated it at the time but I do now now thank [Music] you many fans have said that dark urge and estaran were made for each other this comes partly from aarian similarly dark SL morally gray bordering on villainous background to durge as well as the numerous interactions that aaran gets if you romance him as durge more so than the other companions one of Lan's writers spoke on this in a Discord server boder Welch is Lan's senior narrative designer and was the headwriter of the dark urge they provided ins sight on why aarian and dark urge seem to have many more interactions than the other origin characters it was me so thank you I am the dark urge writer but I worked on writing for aarian for several months during the crunch because I had the opportunity to I added a lot of extra interactions between the two characters that's why aaran gets a bunch of dialogues for the dark urge and none of the other characters do I'm sure we would have liked to have every character repeatedly check in on dark urge but there wasn't really time or budget for it I just was working on the two characters at the same time and wanted to squeak it and him being super supportive and worried about you throughout the game Neil absolutely killed it though I'd totally forgotten I'd added that scene where you try to break up with aarian because you're worried about endangering him and he absolutely doesn't let [Music] you oh [ __ ] I did I do something wrong why what's changed I may be guilty of a bit of embellishment here and there but but I'm no liar when I vowed we'd save you we will save you this little adventure of ours has taught me that we can't let our lives be ruled by fear or else we never really live I'm Not Afraid not of you not of your darkness and not of our future Cazador used his tortures to strike Terror into me but I've rarely been more afraid than on the night when I feared Bal had claimed you for good but I trust you won't kill me and if you do then I've gotten sloppy and probably have it coming I am and beautiful none of people mention that I'm not going anywhere but the Neo delivery of those lines have now totally burned that moment into my brain enduringly he's just so sweet and anxious for you there early on in Asian's Journey if you have medium or high approval asaran will let you know that he's forgotten what color his eyes were before his vampiric transition this is a tender and sad moment especially for Romancing him because asarian describes it as quote another thing he's lost in an effort to get that back to him the Phantom has made numerous artist Renditions of aarian pre vampire and there's been slight discourse we'll say about what color they actually were Neil nuban aarian actor and Steven Rooney aarian head writer have both said that they have never decided on a color for aarian eyes pre-transition but people have been asking over and over again what color were Asian's eyes before he turned into a vampire and I don't know if we need to have an answer I kind of feel it's better served if people have their head Cannon yeah no it's very much very much head Cannon like there we go that's the official answer folks stop asking yeah and it should be whatever the player has decided as their own personal head Cannon Neil has spoken about how one of the many things about aaran that has stayed with him is his cheeky little giggle part of his I've actually assimilated part of his laugh by yeah I do I do like a high pitched giggle when I feel incredibly mischievous I've done something particularly naughty that in a good way I have his high pitch his high pitched giggle I have now I did it I started doing it and it's it's a part of me unfortunately yeah I don't think I'll ever quite let go of [Music] him in a scene only available if you romance and don't Ascend aarian he will take you to the Grave where he was buried before his full vampire transition and subsequent enslavement by kazador his first and last name as well as his original quote death date are written on the gravestone revealing that asan's last name is en Cunin and he was only 39 at the time time of his death extremely young especially for a high elf who can live as long as 700 years the gravestone in its entirety reads aarian enun 229 to 268d during this scene he adds the current date implying that he now has a chance to start his new life again Deluxe trash Queen on Tumblr was kind enough to provide this translation so thank you I've been dead on the ground for long enough it's time to try living again with everything that life has to offer there was an overwhelmingly positive response to aarian during the Early Access era of balers Gate 3 before the game's main launch fan artists put out all kinds of incredible content and laran Studios apparently by popular demand released a video on April 1st announcing asarian only fangs which is exactly what it sounds like oh hello my don't you look good enough to eat you know I've always been an admirer of the physical form necks ribs thighs don't make me choose a favorite and speaking of forms I gather You're Something of an expert in mine oh yes I've seen your art it's imaginative but not exactly lifelike you can do better Darlings and I think with the right inspiration you will that's why I've decided to launch only fangs your number one source for exclusive unrated vampire spawn content come into my world and invite me into yours I won't buy it if you don't only fangs coming soon uh don't forget to like And subscribe whatever that means if you don't recruit aarian into your party in act one he comes back later in act three during the Cazador fight as a zombie meaning Cazador found him killed him resurrected him as a zombie and used him for the ritual by recruiting aarin you literally save his life and from a fate worse than death I took a poll on my personal tumbler to find the most popular ships for aarian I acquired over 400 votes which isn't a ton in the grand scheme of survey uh but these were the final results asarian and Tav was the most popular ship at 39.4% followed by asarian and durge at 34.9% the next highest was aarian and will at 7.9% estaran in Gail 7.4% aarian in carlac 5.7 staran in hson 3.7 a staring in shadowart 0.7 and a starring in LEL at 0.2 while aarian has a certain appreciation for every member of the party he seems to have a special love for will the blade of Frontiers seeing him in a slightly more romantic type of way than the other companions this canonical attraction to will is why I believe the asarian will ship is the most popular companion ship in my previous poll if only by a slight margin Will's the sort of Prince type I would have once dreamed of marrying when I was about 13 oh will gave you the benefit of the doubt and it earned him a set of horns not that they don't look flattering on him almost everything does they do honestly that [Music] man it's possible to download the developer notes for the performers and read the context behind the writing of the scripts these notes allow performers to know the exact Vibes feel and meaning behind each line even if a certain aspect of their character story had not been revealed to them at the time of filming there were a few Dev notes for Neil that requested him be only slightly horny implying that perhaps he had been too horny with his line readings in the past there are multiple signs throughout the game that illustrate just how little aarian has in terms of personal belongings we've already discussed his shirt and how quote well-loved it is his outerwear is also described as being continuously and carefully repaired upon further inspection but with the free cam mod you can actually see inside Asian's tent this unfortunately reveals that aarian doesn't even sleep on a bed roll he sleeps on a slab of wood presumably because that's all he has there is also a singular rag for a blanket and a ripped graying pillow there are a few jars of blood next to him as well but that's pretty much it the outside is slightly more presentable with more colorful pillows the infamous mirror Etc but aarian campsite is significantly less furnished than the other companions which seems purposeful the polished outer look of his campsite contrasting with the dark messy interior mirrors Asian's own character he appears composed charming and charismatic to all those around him but on the inside there's a Darkness a sadness and longing for something better this continues throughout the game and in the lower City campsite you can see your companions laundry hanging overhead their camps once again we see weathered ripped old rags hanging overhead aaran whilst gaale has beautiful pigmented Fabrics these same Rags can be found if you check into the elf song Tavern with one thrown over Asian's bed the fandom has deemed this single blanket that follows him throughout the game as aarian safety blanket Steven Rooney the head writer for aarian has been playing D and D for years and was asked his preferred class in an interview with idle insights Rooney said that he naturally gravitates towards the Rogue which coincidentally is the same class that aarian is when you do play just the regular tabletop game do you have a preferred uh lineage a preferred class my my natural instinct is always to gravitate towards the Rogue if I do that too much I just end up play the same person again and again so I'd like to challenge myself a little bit and try and go for something drastically different from whatever the last character that I was I'm normally not very good at at being spellcasters so I do I do enjoy picking picking a wizard or a sorcerer or normally something that's a bit more chaotic warlock is always good now I find it interesting that we're about to talk a lot about asarian who I believe is a rogue no they mentioned it I think I believe he is actually yeah funny that Rooney said that he had a Clear Vision for where Asian's Journey would start and end very early G and then it quote got a little bit muddy in the middle but he further explained that working his way through that middle was the most challenging but led to some of the coolest ideas I always had a fair sense of what I wanted his story to look like kind of knowing okay he's going to start here he's going to end here those were always pretty clear and then it got a bit kind of a bit muddy in the middle working our way through that stuff in the middle was sometimes very challenging but it was often kind of where we got our best [Music] ideas stepen Rooney stated that there are two very important tenets that need to be represented when writing aaran the very core of his char character boils down to his appreciation for violence in the darker side of humanity as well as being really fun and Charming this balance is imperative because too much to one side or another would make a staran wildly unlikable or too flat and Hollow as a character what was like one or two of the core things that were the most important about his character that needed to be represented it's not really a spoiler to to say that when you meet a staran the first thing that he does in the game is is pull a knife on you he has a certain appreciation for violence I guess a bit of a murdery streak he's a vampire he's all about blood and he's all about kind of Darker sides of humanity so it's important that that's that that's represented in the game um but at the same time he is really fun he's really fun to to to to write he's really fun to have in your party those are those are kind of the two the the two sides it would be very very easy to write a character that was very unlikable in in aarian and we absolutely didn't want to do that he needs to be charming and he needs to be someone that you actually want to have around because you're going to be with this guy for hours and hours it's it's a long track through this game so you gotta you you got to make sure he's engaged you got to make sure he's fun in the four years that Neil newbon recorded for aarian Steven Rooney did not have the chance to speak to him face to face not even once however the two still remained in contact through writer's notes and email correspondence despite the lack of Face to-face Time Steven said that Neil's performance as a starian influenced his writing of the character and vice versa Neil was recording this for I think about four years and I never spoke directly to him once we actually had a very good relationship but everything was little bits of voice context just being like do do it like this do it like this and then Neil's recordings would come back and then I would listen to the recordings they like oh this is great he's doing something interesting with his voice as I get his voice in my head then that changes slightly how I write the character because now I can hear him and there was a really interesting kind of feedback loop we were both kind of giving each other this kind of energy and it was only about a week before the game came out that we're like this is ridiculous we need to just have a call and just say hi we did that a couple of a couple of weeks ago Rooney describes it as it's a really rewarding relationship in a very strange it's like the weirdest penal you've ever [Music] had Neil Incorporated a lot of techniques into his performance as a starian in an interview with James whitbrook Neil went in depth on the specific techniques and inspiration he took to build the character I also used other techniques such as Comedia Del art using arino as a character archetype in fact in the origin menu with aarian introduction I took his bow directly from that I also like to use music and real world references when exploring a character aspects of his voice and personality looks and habits and such are based on three of my dear friends his last was inspired by an actor I saw in Amadeus Tom hulls I believe that I remembered being fascinated by it as a kid I also referenced a lot of yach M grin's work on physical movement and Jung's theories for his personality Neil based aaring theatrical mannerisms on a dear friend of his Ruben K an Australian comedian whose work you can see here this next section includes a trigger warning because sexual assault will be discussed nothing graphic but the reality of survivors will be included and I will include this on screen whenever it's discussed so you can skip past it if you [Music] want most if not all actors have an attachment to the characters they play with some hidden closer to home than others while aarian and Neil are quite different people they share a similar history as survivors the aspect of Asian's character in particular hit very close to home for Neil Harvey Randall interviewed Neil newon for PC Gamer and newon shared his experience playing a staran and how it related to his own trauma as a survivor of sexual assault there's a lot of stuff that came very close to home as a rule you have to be careful about where their story is and where your story is and not to blend the two things together you can use elements of your life as substitution or personalization that sort of thing but you have to avoid anything traumatic that you haven't dealt with and the method acting rule is quote at least 7 years in the past you also can't judge or protect a character you're stepping into their shoes you're holding them you're hugging the character through their Journey but you aren't there to stop them from fulfilling it so for me it was just asking myself what is the truth of this his moment survivors find a way to survive if you can get through things like that you find the joy in the things that you do have in your life you can create your own life in the way that you want I think there's something of a survivor in most people it's how we carry ourselves through that experience and how we treat people afterwards I think it's really a testament of how people can get through something like that sadly in the real world not everyone can some sadly succumb to their abuse in a myriad of ways I am a survivor something which is private and which I haven't actually shared beyond my closest friends the details are still and will remain private but I feel okay to acknowledge it despite the pain and suffering experienced over the years my experience drove me to want to find a better version of myself my life my craft and pass that on to help and Champion others as I have been championed by many amazing people it's made me incredibly grateful for every opportunity I've been given and I hope I do justice to the people who gave me generosity understanding and support when I needed it most it's not a gimmick he's not traumatized because it's quote just another idea for a character story this was a very fleshed out deep layered observation of a character in trouble and Jeopardy having gone through trauma and then what they do when they get out of that and what they can do with their Newfound sense of freedom and what that means to them what is it like you know the last time you do a session for this character after so many years how do you let go honestly it was yeah it was pretty heavy I haven't really let go I think is the thing the character is still very much with me when I say I put a lot of my you know a lot of my work into this a lot of my passion into this I'm not kidding this character's Journey has been absolutely extraordinary and I can't thank swen and LAN and pit stop and Josh Weeden and Jason Latino and all those kind and step Rooney the writer enough to say thank you so much for giving me this [ __ ] hell mate sorry for giving me this character it's allowed me the totality of an acting experience in a project sustained over four years I've made friendships I've had fun I've it's allowed me to sustain myself as an actor and um honestly man you're going to get am man for the first time sorry it's been one of the best Gamers gifts and characters I've ever play aarian is such an interesting companion in balers Gade because the player has such a profound influence on the person that he becomes by the end of the game when I say that I don't mean the things that happen to him I mean the player gets to decide who he fundamentally is based on how you interact with aarian journey when you first meet aaran there's two parts to him there's the mask the Charming witty feckless heeden who's a dagger happy self preservationist but there's also the deeply insecure scared man who can't remember what it feels like to be truly loved and thinks he's a monster as you romance him and learn more about his trauma and accept him for who he is rather than what he can provide his true confidence in himself grows and he relies Less on this facade that he has when you first meet him him many fans have speculated that asarian was purposefully made the most attractive character and one whose attractiveness you have to see past in order to get a deeper insight into the truth and the real beauty of his character asarian central conflict is his struggle with bodily autonomy desire for freedom and his trauma around being used and abused by Cazador as a player you can choose to ascend him exchanging his soul the very essence of who he is and yes his body for power and and sexual gratification but that's all you get you don't get the Sweet asarian Moments that came with falling in love with him in the first place he goes full mask even stronger than when you first met but every part of him that isn't powerful is seen as weak and shameful vulnerability selflessness kindness all shameful everyone is beneath him including you if you keep him as a spawn he delves further into his Humanity inviting that vulnerability showing you the grave he was buried in a place he's never returned since he became a vampire and shows that he wants to truly Start Life Again by your side as an equal he admits that you're the only person he's ever truly cared for this is perhaps why so many diard historian fans are so opposed to his ascended ending I personally think you should explore every aspect of this game that you can because the amount of work that went into the quote evil endings just as much work as the good endings and it's still incredible storytelling regardless I wasn't entirely sure how to close this video there are plenty of reasons to love asarian and really any of the companion characters in balers Skate 3 hell I just gave you almost 30 minutes worth of reasons to love him but I feel like for many aarian is so much more than a character he's a representation of their struggles with bodily autonomy narcissistic authority figures and and anger at the world it felt wrong to end this video on a typical outro telling people to subscribe and say something like thanks for watching this aarian Iceberg aarian Anin means a lot to people that's really all there is to it most stories that include survivors are honestly absolute [ __ ] garbage and are written by people who frankly don't know what the [ __ ] they're talking about I've never seen a Survivor story like aarian and I'm glad to have it so instead of ending on something that feels Hollow or salesy to feed the dreaded algorithm I'll just end on Neil but one thing I wanted to say is that this character has meant the world to me he is a Survivor he has gone through trauma and I've had so many people from the community reach out to me personally share they identify with many stories and characters in the game and people have come up to me um and said that they felt inspired to deal with their own trauma as a surviving myself I understand when they talk to me about it what they mean that they feel seen by the game they feel understood by the characters and that is a testament to this amazing beautiful Masterpiece that Lan s the writing team have all put together and created and to the amazing cast of 248 beautiful actors that put their heart and soul on a daily basis to this thank you so much to the community for embracing all of us and for me particularly thank you so much indeed I really appreciate it

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Id: Hfs1YgVWFzc

Length: 41min 31sec (2491 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2024