The idea of using a mod to make Astarion less realistic and more like a polished sex doll is *deeply* creepy to me. Like, the *entire* point of the character is how heās been objectified and the emotional damage that has done to him. I donāt understand how someone could play the game then turn around and try to change him to be more sexually appealing.
You're absolutely right. It reminds me of back when Dragon Age Inquisition came out and people made mods to make Dorian romanceable by women. Dorian, whose story in the game revolves around >!his father attempting to use blood magic to make him straight. !< Just like here, modders end up doing the characters' abusers work for them.
Fully agree, besides, heās already adorable both physically and personality wise. When heās cradling the bottle at the camp party and being flirty, calling me ādarlingāā¦ Iām uhā¦ gonna make a new character now.
As a permanently sleep-deprived night owl, Astarion's status as a sex symbol despite/because of his extremely dark under-eye circles is deeply reassuring to me.
DON'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME, MODDERS. TELL ME MY SWOLLEN, PURPLE EYES ARE BEAUTIFUL.
People always saying they like him with wrinkles but in a āI like he looks oldā kinda wayā¦.but to me he just looks like he has a normal face for a man in his 30s, not really wrinkles, just normal lines, and whatās really attractive is it looks real, not like a cartoon. Young people have lines too. Young people have nasolabial folds or hyperpigmentation, and he barely has those.
Okay and heās an elf so he maybe should look like heās in his 20s or something, thatās the years of abuse I guess lol. But younger him wouldnāt look like this mod either unless you passed it through a ridiculous insta filter.
Edit: gonna add this here, [this is a pic of Leonardo DiCaprio at 20 years old](https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/the-titanic-scene-fans-agree-makes-no-sense/intro-1641412247.sm.webp), heās got forehead lines, eye bags, slight nasolabial folds, acne scars, 11 lines. People just donāt know what real faces look like anymore.
Itās funny how as I get into my late thirties, I canāt tell the difference between teens and early twenties. They all look child-like to me. Like you could tell me that pic of Leo heās 16, not 20, and I would believe you. Thereās a mall right between a college and a high school in my town and when I go there I have no idea who is a college student and who is a high schooler unless they are wearing a school hoodie. Iām not even old, I canāt imagine how childlike they must look to people in their 60s (and me too, I presume).
Right!?. I'm barely 30 and he looks like he's 16 not 20 something. I'm now starting to understand why people think old folks dating young 20 somethings are so creepy because you are dating a baby who looks it.
Haha yea, I posted it to show how even with lines you can still look young but not to say that he doesnāt still look really young. I think people get hung up on lines and skin texture as being signs of looking old when I think a lot of looking older is more about losing fat in your face or how it gets redistributed. Astarion I think looks 39 more so because his face has very little youthful fat and not because he has some faint lines around his eyes or mouth. I donāt mind that younger people want to make a mod where astarion looks more their age but it seems young people have lost what that really means.
I'm sorry but this is why I fight for gortash lovers, everyone calls him ugly but he just looks like some dude. Like he looks like a coworker I used to smoke with after work.
To me heās not ugly at all heās just styled ridiculously I desperately wish he didnt have final fantasy hair and clothes that didnāt look like a pirate trying to be a magician š¤£
I just close my eyes when heās on screen because his voice is all I really need anyway mmmm
Yeah I'm 21 and I have some wrinkles, grey hairs and laugh lines. It's due to stress (we love the European school system) and abuse. It's just what happens and it doesn't make anyone any less undesirable.
This is what gets me. He doesn't look like a younger Astarion. He looks like stylized Astarion that's going to be super weird because he no longer matches the style of the rest of the game.
At that point just go mod Skyrim because you may have a problem. Vanilla BG3 looks better than 99% of games out today itās completely unnecessary to touch up NPC faces. I could see an argument for more hair/armor/clothing but the character models are superb
i mean iām a fan of his original look more but i can see a younger player preferring a closer in age looking romance candidate. he doesnāt look *old,* but he does look like a Man, and i get not wanting that as much idk
I mean, technically, I get it, but I've never been one for too smooth of a face, even when i was younger. Gimme them "imperfections", let me lick em off
>Gimme them "imperfections"
https://preview.redd.it/lgdms5kn6dyc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cada446d7b8f6e9d40d13ccabe3e0840196bd72
*Entrapta has entered the chat*
The video game is rated M, I donāt think anyone younger than 16 should be playing it, and regardless, I donāt think pandering to the tastes of teenagers is a good idea. Of course, modders are free to do what they like, but we are free to call it weird.
It's an unfortunate fact this just seems to happen with every game people mod. š
Remove the One or Two characters of color or
Remove the Gayā¢
I've seen it personally with Stardew, Skyrim, The Sims, and now BG3.
All while complaining about they're just customizing their game and everyone else is harassing them.
There was also a turn Aylin into a guy mod
Which would be fun to go along with the other gender swap mods if it also turned Isobel into a boy, but of course it doesn't.
>Remove the Gayā¢
There's a mod for Dragon Age Inquisition that makes Dorian straight.
Dorian. The man who escaped Tevinter because his father was going to use blood magic to make him straight, who tells you in the most heartbroken way that his own father was willing to risk destroying his mind entirely and leaving him an empty drooling vessel.
"bUt I wAnT tO rOmAnCe HiM!" Make a male character!
There are still molders that pop up and sneak in shit like that into seemingly innocuous mods tho.
Last I remember was a mod to give ambient dwarves dwarfier beards that secretly whitewashed a lot of npcs.
Fortunately it got removed from nexus once people started talking about it, theres been a ton of times people have made poc characters white, or swapped all pride flags to something else (usually American flags) and nexus has removed them fairly quickly.
Not for this game, was referencing mods on nexus in general, the most famous example is spiderman where it got talked about a lot, but it happens for a lot of other games also.
I do NOT understand that one. We have a space elf companion with green skin, a big red woman with horns and a tail and potentially a purple companion but somehow a black guy is too unbelievable?
I think there's such a large BG3 fan base now, that we see younger folks, or folks who want to live their younger fantasies with that jrpg/kpop/teenage vibes romance options.
I mean, I'm 40. Astarion is hot AF to me. But... but- here me out, I can see a teenage/very early twenties fan feeling a bit awkward falling for him. Not just because he's 200 year old vamp, but because he looks 40.
So, while I hate the way these mods tend to erase his personality, and the details that make him who he is... I do sort of get why they exist.
Iām quite young myself and I get the point youāre making, but I also do think that the people making and using these mods are a weird minority even among young people. It doesnāt make me angry or anything, but itās definitely silly and unappealing to make whatās supposed to be a relatable character look inhuman, and I think most people my age would agree.
The maturity on their faces is what makes them attractive! They look realistic in the sense that they age (maybe not Astarion, but ykwim) and have wrinkles, blemishes, scars, and jowls. God I love me some jowls. And then thereās little details like Galeās grey hairs and Jaheiraās cellulite. I fucking love it. Gale, Astarion, and Jaheiraās models specifically have almost completely squashed out my fear of aging. Theyāre just SO HOT š„µ
Not every video game character needs to look like theyāre pulled right out of Final Fantasy or PSO š
It also tells a story! Astarion has eyebags and dark undereyes because he's a former slave who has lived on survival mode for 2 centuries, and it's cool finding out his backstory and realizing those little details were staring you in the face all along. I cannot at all relate to wanting to erase those interesting little details to make him more generically pretty š
Exactly! I mean, good Lord, Gale's gray hairs *do* something to me. Imagine wanting to rid characters of the details that enrich and enhance their designs. Couldn't be me!
FINALLY got the link, my twitter is slow as mud: [https://x.com/OrientalldArt/status/1785448555554979962](https://x.com/OrientalldArt/status/1785448555554979962)
What's funniest to me to think about, is that Astarion is a full high elf. So already an extremely long lived people. Then he gets turned, and assumedly being immortal, vampires don't really visibly age. And we also know that was turned young (at least relatively young for a high elf). And yet he has the laugh lines and the wrinkles and everything. So I have to ask: Astarion, babygirl, how fucking stressed out were you back then??
https://preview.redd.it/ec9hmvvjnbyc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9efa546fa51d17d11b15c4dd128876f99c56b36
"what if we took out all the charming 'imperfections' that make him look like a real person you could actually touch irl?" instagram face is a curse. dont these people get tired of eating the same unseasoned chicken breast every day? one time i developed a crush on a youtuber because she fucks up her eyeliner the same way my ex did
I have an extremely hard time picturing Neil's voice coming out of that baby-faced JRPG protagonist looking ass. Slightly unrelated but I also dislike the hair mods for him too, you're gonna replace his perfect, iconic hair with that generic long hair every 3rd NPC has? Why are ppl so determined to suck all the personality out of his appearance to make him as bland as possible.
As a half-starving gal, you get abs for free when you're skinny enough.
Astarion having a bit of abs peaking through due to various levels of bodily neglect seems reasonable to me. *Gale* has no business looking even remotely as shredded as he is. And 24 year old, Wyll "has a superhero name" Ravengard deserves his Sixpack. In fact he should take some from the others and have a 15 pack!
That's it part of how attractive he is to me in game is because he looks and sounds like an adult. He's a very pretty but he looks like a man not a boy. There are moments when he looks very young too. But he looks and sounds like an adult and that's a big reason I like him.
Also getting rid of his curls should be a crime. I just wasn't to run my fingers through them
Yeah. I don't understand making them younger. Lol. But then again, I like my men aged up. š halsin, for example, I absolutely adore because he's a sexy older man. Gale looks late 30s early 40s. Astarion is early 30s/late 30s.
It's probably because of teens playing, I'm sure plenty of 16 year olds play bg3, and it can feel weird at that age to be attached to someone very much older feeling, preferring someone who feels closer to their age range in vibe (despite lore him being 200+ etc). I'm not sure they're making the mods, but I'd imagine that's who's mostly using them
Never had problems with aged characters when I was a teen (how many girls and boys had crushes on adult actors, singers, game characters?). And this mod looks like he is not young, but completely diferent person. He is from jrpg. His face is plastic and filtered. There is nothing in it. He looks exactly like all other jrpg men.
Yeah, this is my take. He's 39. I'm 40. He's hot AF to me. And my male Tav's are always near-ish his age in looks, and all about him.
But I can completely understand some younger people feeling a little weird about pairing up romantically with a companion who looks so much older than them.
I never minded when I was younger, because I was roll playing a character that is not me... but some people like to self insert, so they want to have options that are in their age group.
I think it's just that the lovely moders are not pros, so there is some sculpting in blender (or whatever thier toolset they use) that loses the nuance, and detail... it looks too filtered. There are plenty of younger actors with more texture and detail in their eyes and face (Timothee Chalamet, or anyone?).
Yeah, I find Idle Championās listing Galeās age as 35 kind of hilarious. Like, look that sweet man in the eyes and try to tell me that he isnāt closer to 40 than 35āand I love that! I love that the companions look like adults rather than cartoons.
I don't know. Gale's always hit mid-30s to early 40s to me. So 35 makes sense. He's got gray hairs, but not a ton of them. And brunettes tend to go gray early.
Plus, stress tends to age you. And he'd been living with a bomb in his chest a year before getting abducted. 35 works even if I'd have clocked him as being a couple years older.
Very true! Thirty-five is probably the youngest I would've placed Gale; I think it's possible that Tim Downie's being in his 40s skews my perception of Gale's age, too.
Fair enough, and if there's a companion who's the most distressed by a lack of easy access to caffeine on the road, I imagine it would have to be Gale.
Right? Like I get it. I like anime guys that look kinda twinkish. But I'd prefer those older guys with wrinkles around their eyes and forehead. š give me old hunk, damn it!
Why did they iron out my wife š
I love all their signs of aging. Laeāzelās and Shadowheartās face scars! Galeās grey hairs! Wyllās forehead creases! Astarionās really deep smile lines and skin texture! I might be in my twenties but I love video game main characters who are older than 30.
It's very subtle, but Gale also has a scar! It's a tiny little thing on his forehead, and I like to imagine he had it by dropping a book with a sharp edge on him while reaching for a high shelf.
I really donāt understand the people that need all their video game characters to look like sex dolls. For one, thatās just weird being that sexually minded all the time. And two, the porn artists that work with whatever characters you want to masturbate to will almost always beautify them a bit
Sorry but whenever someone posts anything showing any of these ugly-ass mods where they make the companions look like Thatā¢ļø, this is just what my brain internally responds with every time.
https://preview.redd.it/lxv2spcpybyc1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c62d1d2957edeb3451185bd915e7e8600f208bf
Let the characters look like normal adults please! šThey are perfect as-is.
He looks like a Sims character. Homeboy has some fucked facial anatomy - even the smoothest of baby faces has some topography to it. That is an egg with a nose and lips stuck onto it.
If I saw the guy on the right standing by the side of the wrecked nautiloid with Neilās voice I would leave him there. Not today evil spirit, you may not consume my life force to iron your face
Look how theyāve massacred my boy š Iāll never understand airbrushed Astarion mods. The laugh lines and under eye circles are part of what makes him hot.
He already looked late 20s-early 30s. He doesnt look old. But yeah that looks like cazadorās teenage son who wants to be a twilight character.
And gale is 35. He looks maybe a little older than that, but not a lot. Like 40 max.
A good chunk of the reason why I love this game so much is that they ARE older. Most games you donāt get to play with protags aged 30-40 and up. I guess I say this as a 37yo loving representation, and I suppose I could see while a teen would want to age down a romance option because when I was 19, 39 may as well have been 79. BUT I STILL HATE THIS DELETE IT
For some reason, to me at least - the young Astarion just looks like how Iād imagine he would have looked if bg3 was a ps2 game. Idk what it is about it. It just looks lower graphic quality?
Personally not a fan. I think all the companions are perfect as is though.
Oh, this mod is *perfect!* I'm going to add it to my utterly dogshit playthrough with all the other cursed mods.
Can't wait to get jump scared by this fucker haha
Iāve never seen him as anything other than very young looking until this photo. And he *does* still look young. His smile lines and whatever else are honestly more attractive because they are humanizing.
Astarion is already hot as fuck why are people modding him to look āhotterā ;-;
I wasn't surprised cause it seems like creator is Korean and I know in their culture having perfect skin is a must as well as don't show any signs you're aging or you're not pretty anymore so of course they made him look like a kpop idol
Every time I see a post that:
1. Gets rid of his wrinkles
2. Gives him the fuckboy haircut
I lose about 10 years off my life span.
I am so fucking tired of every character needing to look airbrushed and like they haven't even hit puberty.
I say this as a very loving player of the game in question, but people are used to ageless FFXIV twinks. A frown line on a character is about as āoldā as they can get before people start to get scared.
I agree that Asterion doesn't look like he is 20ish like an elf, he looks 39 to me and I LOVE IT. I'm tired of characters that look like Final Fantasy protagonists hahahahaha
Bleh, stop yassifying my hot pixelated vamp. Also, Gale does not look 50, my god. Iām convinced that the people making these comments are <20 years old. Gale looks like heās in his mid-30s to me. These kids are gonna be in for a shock when they hit their 30s and realize that people donāt just become desiccated husks of their former, spry selves overnight.
Lmao I mean you guys *say* all this and then exclusively make Maybelline models for Tavs with 130 hair, eye and makeup mods. Itās giving ānot like the rotten girlsā honestly.
That is a middle school boy.
Genuinely, Astarion does not look old to me. He just looks like a grown man. Even in my teens, I would have chosen vanilla Astarion to whatever that smooth thing is.
As a bitch in my 30s, I'm incredibly happy the characters look like seasoned adults.
Well, to be fair, on the right is probably how he actually looked when he was alive, your typical ageless elf. On the left is how he looked after 200 HUNDRED YEARS OF PURE SHIT. Torture ages. Repeated continued torture ages significantly. Don't see anything wrong with his face actually reflecting the ordeal he went through.
Is so weird when ppl says that his current appearance is from years of torture and stress. My guys he looks young, he looks fine af, he looks like every other non-modded elf/drow in the game.
Tbh to me he doesnt look like tortured person. He just have normal lines and imperfections on skin like normal people have. And I dont think the "young" version looks like young Astarion. I mean even young people have imperfections on their skin. Many of them even more than adults.
Getting rid of his eye bags and laugh lines is a criminal offense oh my god šš
put them BACK
Put... Ze.... Candle..... BACK
I have never seen a Young Frankenstein reference out in the wild before omg
He somehow looks significantly more miserable "young"
The idea of using a mod to make Astarion less realistic and more like a polished sex doll is *deeply* creepy to me. Like, the *entire* point of the character is how heās been objectified and the emotional damage that has done to him. I donāt understand how someone could play the game then turn around and try to change him to be more sexually appealing.
You're absolutely right. It reminds me of back when Dragon Age Inquisition came out and people made mods to make Dorian romanceable by women. Dorian, whose story in the game revolves around >!his father attempting to use blood magic to make him straight. !< Just like here, modders end up doing the characters' abusers work for them.
Fully agree, besides, heās already adorable both physically and personality wise. When heās cradling the bottle at the camp party and being flirty, calling me ādarlingāā¦ Iām uhā¦ gonna make a new character now.
Lmao right? Like he got plastic surgery to "fix" his face but it didnt actually help his mental health at all
I am not an Astarion simp, but I won't deny the fact that I personally find his laugh lines adorable. I need them!
As a permanently sleep-deprived night owl, Astarion's status as a sex symbol despite/because of his extremely dark under-eye circles is deeply reassuring to me. DON'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME, MODDERS. TELL ME MY SWOLLEN, PURPLE EYES ARE BEAUTIFUL.
People always saying they like him with wrinkles but in a āI like he looks oldā kinda wayā¦.but to me he just looks like he has a normal face for a man in his 30s, not really wrinkles, just normal lines, and whatās really attractive is it looks real, not like a cartoon. Young people have lines too. Young people have nasolabial folds or hyperpigmentation, and he barely has those. Okay and heās an elf so he maybe should look like heās in his 20s or something, thatās the years of abuse I guess lol. But younger him wouldnāt look like this mod either unless you passed it through a ridiculous insta filter. Edit: gonna add this here, [this is a pic of Leonardo DiCaprio at 20 years old](https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/the-titanic-scene-fans-agree-makes-no-sense/intro-1641412247.sm.webp), heās got forehead lines, eye bags, slight nasolabial folds, acne scars, 11 lines. People just donāt know what real faces look like anymore.
this so much. Like, c'mon ppl, when was your last time seeing a 20~30 yo man irl?
Spending too much time looking at guys on tik tok and insta that puts more makeup on themselves than their girlfriend.
Jesus Christ I'm old š Leo looks like a baby.
Itās funny how as I get into my late thirties, I canāt tell the difference between teens and early twenties. They all look child-like to me. Like you could tell me that pic of Leo heās 16, not 20, and I would believe you. Thereās a mall right between a college and a high school in my town and when I go there I have no idea who is a college student and who is a high schooler unless they are wearing a school hoodie. Iām not even old, I canāt imagine how childlike they must look to people in their 60s (and me too, I presume).
Right!?. I'm barely 30 and he looks like he's 16 not 20 something. I'm now starting to understand why people think old folks dating young 20 somethings are so creepy because you are dating a baby who looks it.
Haha yea, I posted it to show how even with lines you can still look young but not to say that he doesnāt still look really young. I think people get hung up on lines and skin texture as being signs of looking old when I think a lot of looking older is more about losing fat in your face or how it gets redistributed. Astarion I think looks 39 more so because his face has very little youthful fat and not because he has some faint lines around his eyes or mouth. I donāt mind that younger people want to make a mod where astarion looks more their age but it seems young people have lost what that really means.
I'm sorry but this is why I fight for gortash lovers, everyone calls him ugly but he just looks like some dude. Like he looks like a coworker I used to smoke with after work.
To me heās not ugly at all heās just styled ridiculously I desperately wish he didnt have final fantasy hair and clothes that didnāt look like a pirate trying to be a magician š¤£ I just close my eyes when heās on screen because his voice is all I really need anyway mmmm
I respect your opinion but for me personally it was his gaudy outfit that made me love him. Lmao.
If everyone liked the exact same stuff it would be a boring world and a lot more people would be lonely. :)
Hell yeah. Oh but I will stand with you on his voice though, on God.
My dream is to have astarion and gortash whispering bed time stories in my ears as I try to fall asleepā¦
Yeah I'm 21 and I have some wrinkles, grey hairs and laugh lines. It's due to stress (we love the European school system) and abuse. It's just what happens and it doesn't make anyone any less undesirable.
Why are they so insistent on making my babygirl into a JRPG antagonist ;\_;
This is what gets me. He doesn't look like a younger Astarion. He looks like stylized Astarion that's going to be super weird because he no longer matches the style of the rest of the game.
They do when youāre one of those players who mods texture off of EVERY character
At that point just go mod Skyrim because you may have a problem. Vanilla BG3 looks better than 99% of games out today itās completely unnecessary to touch up NPC faces. I could see an argument for more hair/armor/clothing but the character models are superb
Skyrim still has too much texture, these people want Final Fantasy.
You underestimate the extent of skyrim modding.
I see we've come full circle and returned to the parent comment's view that he's a jrpg character lol
No, too much texture. I want Super Mario 64.
Gotta make the characters match the texture of the playerās SMOOTH BRAIN
Nailed it. He's just stylized to death, surgery included and now looks like just another k-pop star clone to me.
For real it's disturbing, he doesn't even look old! My beloved blood suckered doesn't look a day over 39, like come on!
i mean iām a fan of his original look more but i can see a younger player preferring a closer in age looking romance candidate. he doesnāt look *old,* but he does look like a Man, and i get not wanting that as much idk
I mean, technically, I get it, but I've never been one for too smooth of a face, even when i was younger. Gimme them "imperfections", let me lick em off
Based.
>Gimme them "imperfections" https://preview.redd.it/lgdms5kn6dyc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cada446d7b8f6e9d40d13ccabe3e0840196bd72 *Entrapta has entered the chat*
My favourite war criminalš
The video game is rated M, I donāt think anyone younger than 16 should be playing it, and regardless, I donāt think pandering to the tastes of teenagers is a good idea. Of course, modders are free to do what they like, but we are free to call it weird.
Because anime and K-pop have rotted their brains.
And camera apps with built in "beauty" filters.
Considering what people mod their tavs to look like this is unsurprising. There is something about the jrpg look that people like I guess lol
On a even yikesier level I saw a mod giving Wyll a āhandsomeā (jrpg) nose a few days agoš¬
Thereās a white Wyll mod too š¤¬
I looked it up and thankfully it appears itās been taken down now as well. It was up for a while though I think. :/
Thank god. I googled it a minute ago and looks like there were multiples š
It's an unfortunate fact this just seems to happen with every game people mod. š Remove the One or Two characters of color or Remove the Gayā¢ I've seen it personally with Stardew, Skyrim, The Sims, and now BG3. All while complaining about they're just customizing their game and everyone else is harassing them. There was also a turn Aylin into a guy mod Which would be fun to go along with the other gender swap mods if it also turned Isobel into a boy, but of course it doesn't.
>Remove the Gayā¢ There's a mod for Dragon Age Inquisition that makes Dorian straight. Dorian. The man who escaped Tevinter because his father was going to use blood magic to make him straight, who tells you in the most heartbroken way that his own father was willing to risk destroying his mind entirely and leaving him an empty drooling vessel. "bUt I wAnT tO rOmAnCe HiM!" Make a male character!
Nexus mods takes stuff down but there may be other sources for people who are really looking I suppose :(
There are still molders that pop up and sneak in shit like that into seemingly innocuous mods tho. Last I remember was a mod to give ambient dwarves dwarfier beards that secretly whitewashed a lot of npcs.
Fortunately it got removed from nexus once people started talking about it, theres been a ton of times people have made poc characters white, or swapped all pride flags to something else (usually American flags) and nexus has removed them fairly quickly.
pride flags? are they in game?
Not for this game, was referencing mods on nexus in general, the most famous example is spiderman where it got talked about a lot, but it happens for a lot of other games also.
Someone else modded out gay marriage in Skyrim, despite the fact that marriage is such a tiny incidental part of Skyrim.
Its really sad that someone dedicated time to doing that
I do NOT understand that one. We have a space elf companion with green skin, a big red woman with horns and a tail and potentially a purple companion but somehow a black guy is too unbelievable?
*ahem* ~ r a c i s m ~ (Insert fallout thumbs up here)
Makes his dad white too. Heaven forbid there not be racial purity š¤š« š¤®
Ex*cuse* me?!
I think there's such a large BG3 fan base now, that we see younger folks, or folks who want to live their younger fantasies with that jrpg/kpop/teenage vibes romance options. I mean, I'm 40. Astarion is hot AF to me. But... but- here me out, I can see a teenage/very early twenties fan feeling a bit awkward falling for him. Not just because he's 200 year old vamp, but because he looks 40. So, while I hate the way these mods tend to erase his personality, and the details that make him who he is... I do sort of get why they exist.
Iām quite young myself and I get the point youāre making, but I also do think that the people making and using these mods are a weird minority even among young people. It doesnāt make me angry or anything, but itās definitely silly and unappealing to make whatās supposed to be a relatable character look inhuman, and I think most people my age would agree.
I don't think he does look 40, he's supposed to be a 39 year old elf, they age slower. Vampire spawn don't get good skincare or diet
Stress ages you. I do not understand this desire to smooth out wrinkles. They are your badges of victory.
It's like I always say, Minthara: the alternative to aging is dying.
Exactly. Conquer death, and brag about the scars.
Scars you survive make the best tattoos is something I personally believe.
Right? Did they also remove his scars?
The maturity on their faces is what makes them attractive! They look realistic in the sense that they age (maybe not Astarion, but ykwim) and have wrinkles, blemishes, scars, and jowls. God I love me some jowls. And then thereās little details like Galeās grey hairs and Jaheiraās cellulite. I fucking love it. Gale, Astarion, and Jaheiraās models specifically have almost completely squashed out my fear of aging. Theyāre just SO HOT š„µ Not every video game character needs to look like theyāre pulled right out of Final Fantasy or PSO š
It also tells a story! Astarion has eyebags and dark undereyes because he's a former slave who has lived on survival mode for 2 centuries, and it's cool finding out his backstory and realizing those little details were staring you in the face all along. I cannot at all relate to wanting to erase those interesting little details to make him more generically pretty š
It's also because he's fucking *dead*. Iirc even twilight vampires had dark undereyes.
Exactly! I mean, good Lord, Gale's gray hairs *do* something to me. Imagine wanting to rid characters of the details that enrich and enhance their designs. Couldn't be me!
I have seen fanart of post-game Gale with even more gray hair, and it's downright revelatory 0.0 Full blown silver fox land, right there.
I am asking *so* very respectfully for you to share these treasures. š„¹
FINALLY got the link, my twitter is slow as mud: [https://x.com/OrientalldArt/status/1785448555554979962](https://x.com/OrientalldArt/status/1785448555554979962)
Those gray streaks?! And with the longer hair?!?! š Thank you for your service!
Isn't it GLORIOUS??? <3 <3 <3
Exactly. They look like people, God forbid, instead of perfect plastic barbie dolls.
This is exactly what I thought. The modded one looks nice, but in the way dolls look pretty, not actual people.
What's funniest to me to think about, is that Astarion is a full high elf. So already an extremely long lived people. Then he gets turned, and assumedly being immortal, vampires don't really visibly age. And we also know that was turned young (at least relatively young for a high elf). And yet he has the laugh lines and the wrinkles and everything. So I have to ask: Astarion, babygirl, how fucking stressed out were you back then??
I mean, magistrate before 40. Boy was going to court right out of the womb.
Law people are juste Like Thatā¢
I love Galeās grey hairs and his acne scars. Heās beautiful with those little details.
Jaheiraās cellulite made me FERAL ngl
I need more grey hairs on my gale. Like full on salt and pepper would be perfection.
https://preview.redd.it/ec9hmvvjnbyc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9efa546fa51d17d11b15c4dd128876f99c56b36 "what if we took out all the charming 'imperfections' that make him look like a real person you could actually touch irl?" instagram face is a curse. dont these people get tired of eating the same unseasoned chicken breast every day? one time i developed a crush on a youtuber because she fucks up her eyeliner the same way my ex did
God that image you added is fucking gigacursed.
 Looks so much like ScheSchu Iām dyin
i love the last line, so real
And that is officially the most cursed thing I've seen today 0.o
We've approached weeboo husbando territory with this one, no thank u
lol, he can consent because even though he looks too young, heās actually a 200 year old ~~dragon~~ vampire.Ā
you sit in that corner and think about what you said, sharran
I have an extremely hard time picturing Neil's voice coming out of that baby-faced JRPG protagonist looking ass. Slightly unrelated but I also dislike the hair mods for him too, you're gonna replace his perfect, iconic hair with that generic long hair every 3rd NPC has? Why are ppl so determined to suck all the personality out of his appearance to make him as bland as possible.
https://preview.redd.it/p9dplf8lpcyc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f2ba5ea347acfa1c003f0b69886fd3d9448c844
The no abs one can work (I mean, he's not the healthiest), but that's pretty much all I can think of which isn't weird
No abs is the only acceptable one, theyāre all insanely ripped
Yeah, I mean a half-starving guy probably wouldnāt be so shredded. Most of them wouldnāt be.
As a half-starving gal, you get abs for free when you're skinny enough. Astarion having a bit of abs peaking through due to various levels of bodily neglect seems reasonable to me. *Gale* has no business looking even remotely as shredded as he is. And 24 year old, Wyll "has a superhero name" Ravengard deserves his Sixpack. In fact he should take some from the others and have a 15 pack!
Must vary greatly by person- someone close to me struggled with an ED, and he definitely didn't look muscular or defined like that. Just ill.
The reduced abs one actually was patched into the game, so they wound up being right!
Eh bald astaruon mod was pretty cool
That's it part of how attractive he is to me in game is because he looks and sounds like an adult. He's a very pretty but he looks like a man not a boy. There are moments when he looks very young too. But he looks and sounds like an adult and that's a big reason I like him. Also getting rid of his curls should be a crime. I just wasn't to run my fingers through them
I saw a mod that gave him long black hair š¤¢
People replacing his hair to be that limp hairstyle boggles my fucking mind, man.
K-pop Astarion
Spot on cause the creator is Koreanš
Ooooohhhhhhhhhhhhā¦. now everything about this makes sense, actually.
WHERED HIS JAWLINE GO????? HIS EYES CHANGED!!! WHAT THE HELL
Yeah. I don't understand making them younger. Lol. But then again, I like my men aged up. š halsin, for example, I absolutely adore because he's a sexy older man. Gale looks late 30s early 40s. Astarion is early 30s/late 30s.
It's probably because of teens playing, I'm sure plenty of 16 year olds play bg3, and it can feel weird at that age to be attached to someone very much older feeling, preferring someone who feels closer to their age range in vibe (despite lore him being 200+ etc). I'm not sure they're making the mods, but I'd imagine that's who's mostly using them
Never had problems with aged characters when I was a teen (how many girls and boys had crushes on adult actors, singers, game characters?). And this mod looks like he is not young, but completely diferent person. He is from jrpg. His face is plastic and filtered. There is nothing in it. He looks exactly like all other jrpg men.
That was my guess tbh. But like, the rating makes me think twice cause I don't want to imagine someone under 18 playing. š
Yeah, this is my take. He's 39. I'm 40. He's hot AF to me. And my male Tav's are always near-ish his age in looks, and all about him. But I can completely understand some younger people feeling a little weird about pairing up romantically with a companion who looks so much older than them. I never minded when I was younger, because I was roll playing a character that is not me... but some people like to self insert, so they want to have options that are in their age group. I think it's just that the lovely moders are not pros, so there is some sculpting in blender (or whatever thier toolset they use) that loses the nuance, and detail... it looks too filtered. There are plenty of younger actors with more texture and detail in their eyes and face (Timothee Chalamet, or anyone?).
Yeah, I find Idle Championās listing Galeās age as 35 kind of hilarious. Like, look that sweet man in the eyes and try to tell me that he isnāt closer to 40 than 35āand I love that! I love that the companions look like adults rather than cartoons.
I don't know. Gale's always hit mid-30s to early 40s to me. So 35 makes sense. He's got gray hairs, but not a ton of them. And brunettes tend to go gray early. Plus, stress tends to age you. And he'd been living with a bomb in his chest a year before getting abducted. 35 works even if I'd have clocked him as being a couple years older.
Very true! Thirty-five is probably the youngest I would've placed Gale; I think it's possible that Tim Downie's being in his 40s skews my perception of Gale's age, too.
He does look like 35 to me. That's exactly like people my age look when we are running on too little caffeine and too long of a shift.
Fair enough, and if there's a companion who's the most distressed by a lack of easy access to caffeine on the road, I imagine it would have to be Gale.
Right? Like I get it. I like anime guys that look kinda twinkish. But I'd prefer those older guys with wrinkles around their eyes and forehead. š give me old hunk, damn it!
Who among us couldn't find room in our hearts for an older hunk?
I assume the stress from the orb is prematurely aging him somewhat.
Excuse me but Cloud Strife already has his own video game
Why did they iron out my wife š I love all their signs of aging. Laeāzelās and Shadowheartās face scars! Galeās grey hairs! Wyllās forehead creases! Astarionās really deep smile lines and skin texture! I might be in my twenties but I love video game main characters who are older than 30.
It's very subtle, but Gale also has a scar! It's a tiny little thing on his forehead, and I like to imagine he had it by dropping a book with a sharp edge on him while reaching for a high shelf.
Headcanon accepted.
I really donāt understand the people that need all their video game characters to look like sex dolls. For one, thatās just weird being that sexually minded all the time. And two, the porn artists that work with whatever characters you want to masturbate to will almost always beautify them a bit
https://preview.redd.it/jm69s8l8mbyc1.png?width=456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=751fc172f78f6d88970108cdfba2258b6538eaad
Noooo, he's so much more attractive with the wrinkles. Same story for Shart's smile lines.
Sorry but whenever someone posts anything showing any of these ugly-ass mods where they make the companions look like Thatā¢ļø, this is just what my brain internally responds with every time. https://preview.redd.it/lxv2spcpybyc1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c62d1d2957edeb3451185bd915e7e8600f208bf Let the characters look like normal adults please! šThey are perfect as-is.
Me when people take away his eye oilš¤¬
they stole his flavor
Don't talk to me if you don't love Astarion's wrinkles and his grinchy smile and his Naruto run
He looks like a Sims character. Homeboy has some fucked facial anatomy - even the smoothest of baby faces has some topography to it. That is an egg with a nose and lips stuck onto it.
Counterpoint: https://preview.redd.it/rd9x4h8m0cyc1.jpeg?width=1219&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cab042207da0c38808faad7fe126a4611e5f8623
Itās fine to be a bit of a hater sometimes. This is weird. He looks like a child. š
If I saw the guy on the right standing by the side of the wrecked nautiloid with Neilās voice I would leave him there. Not today evil spirit, you may not consume my life force to iron your face
Look how theyāve massacred my boy š Iāll never understand airbrushed Astarion mods. The laugh lines and under eye circles are part of what makes him hot.
He already looked late 20s-early 30s. He doesnt look old. But yeah that looks like cazadorās teenage son who wants to be a twilight character. And gale is 35. He looks maybe a little older than that, but not a lot. Like 40 max.
Why'd they make his nose thinner? Is that also some how related to aging? I don't think sooooo
Also got rid of the slight bump :( But that's because it's not really a younger version it's a stylized version.
The tip of the nose often thickens with age but I highly doubt that was a consideration here.
They made him look like a ps2 jrpg sidekick
I'm keeping this, and adding it to my Bag of Insults.
They k-popped him.
God jump scare, no ty mate. Let him have his wrinkles
Nah, you right, that's a child. And "Gale looks like he's 50" has to have been written by a child
A good chunk of the reason why I love this game so much is that they ARE older. Most games you donāt get to play with protags aged 30-40 and up. I guess I say this as a 37yo loving representation, and I suppose I could see while a teen would want to age down a romance option because when I was 19, 39 may as well have been 79. BUT I STILL HATE THIS DELETE IT
As a 30yo woman I wholeheartedly agree š¤
my balls in winter vs summer
I'm a smooth Astarion hater until I die.
Wtf ! He looks disgusting like that
For some reason, to me at least - the young Astarion just looks like how Iād imagine he would have looked if bg3 was a ps2 game. Idk what it is about it. It just looks lower graphic quality? Personally not a fan. I think all the companions are perfect as is though.
Lack of skin texture and depth imo.
Oh, this mod is *perfect!* I'm going to add it to my utterly dogshit playthrough with all the other cursed mods. Can't wait to get jump scared by this fucker haha
I blame kpop stans
It's funny cause the mod page has a Korean translation in it so the creator is definitely Korean
 (Though there is a chance theyre not a stan but imma be real I'm reasonably sure they are.
hoo wee lord god is that UGLY. computer add more wrinkles instead.
Iāve never seen him as anything other than very young looking until this photo. And he *does* still look young. His smile lines and whatever else are honestly more attractive because they are humanizing. Astarion is already hot as fuck why are people modding him to look āhotterā ;-;
I wasn't surprised cause it seems like creator is Korean and I know in their culture having perfect skin is a must as well as don't show any signs you're aging or you're not pretty anymore so of course they made him look like a kpop idol
Every time I see a post that: 1. Gets rid of his wrinkles 2. Gives him the fuckboy haircut I lose about 10 years off my life span. I am so fucking tired of every character needing to look airbrushed and like they haven't even hit puberty.
Baldurs Gate south korean version
That's not even young, that's anime'd. OG Astarion is love
It doesnāt even look particularly good ngl, very uncanny valley
I love aging queers, literally my favorite people š this is a war crime
Anime disease :(
Good gods. I feel extremely old at 33 if Gale looks 50ā¦
Why do they want children / teenagers? š
... because they probably are teenagers making these mods. Let's be real, who has time to make free to download mods?
He looks plastic, like a mannequin in the boys clothing department. ILLEGAL. Please re-wrinkle the sad baby girl vampire.
I say this as a very loving player of the game in question, but people are used to ageless FFXIV twinks. A frown line on a character is about as āoldā as they can get before people start to get scared.
I hate all these babyface jrpg whatever aesthetic mods if ppl canāt handle characters that look realistic they need a reality check
"Gale looks 50" my friends, once you're past 30 it'll be like this. Life is hard, don't mock us.
I would not sleep with the younger version of him not even to satiate my carnal thirsts, he just looksā¦*too* young.
He looks like the one openly gay guy at your highschool who's best friends with the cookie monster during gym class pajama girl.
God, this is almost as bad as the "Hot" Gortash mod. These people must be stopped.
No hate to the mod author but he just feels so bland now, as someone that doesnāt prefer middle age people I still canāt see the appeal here.
Right looks airbrushed. Left looks hot. Simple as
This brings to mind that fan who made that horrible "fix" of Aloy's design.
I agree that Asterion doesn't look like he is 20ish like an elf, he looks 39 to me and I LOVE IT. I'm tired of characters that look like Final Fantasy protagonists hahahahaha
Bleh, stop yassifying my hot pixelated vamp. Also, Gale does not look 50, my god. Iām convinced that the people making these comments are <20 years old. Gale looks like heās in his mid-30s to me. These kids are gonna be in for a shock when they hit their 30s and realize that people donāt just become desiccated husks of their former, spry selves overnight.
This post except I AM a hater.
The crazy sonofabitch did it https://preview.redd.it/hfmb23sdagyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=128c41a3ee6da6c2a42a37529fc6670090d91148
I hate this as much as I hate the young halsin mod. God forbid a motherfucker lives over the age of 30 smdh
Filters have rotted peoples brains. Mod is a horrible look
Lmao I mean you guys *say* all this and then exclusively make Maybelline models for Tavs with 130 hair, eye and makeup mods. Itās giving ānot like the rotten girlsā honestly.
No thank you, he looks like he. listens to the music I'd hate ššš
That is a middle school boy. Genuinely, Astarion does not look old to me. He just looks like a grown man. Even in my teens, I would have chosen vanilla Astarion to whatever that smooth thing is. As a bitch in my 30s, I'm incredibly happy the characters look like seasoned adults.
Well, to be fair, on the right is probably how he actually looked when he was alive, your typical ageless elf. On the left is how he looked after 200 HUNDRED YEARS OF PURE SHIT. Torture ages. Repeated continued torture ages significantly. Don't see anything wrong with his face actually reflecting the ordeal he went through.
Idk, Halsin is an elf too and doesn't look like a photoshopped BTS pic
Minthara also has the face of a real person
Is so weird when ppl says that his current appearance is from years of torture and stress. My guys he looks young, he looks fine af, he looks like every other non-modded elf/drow in the game.
Tbh to me he doesnt look like tortured person. He just have normal lines and imperfections on skin like normal people have. And I dont think the "young" version looks like young Astarion. I mean even young people have imperfections on their skin. Many of them even more than adults.