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Astarion/Cinematics
Overview | Approval | Disapproval | Banter | Location Remarks | Romance | Cinematics |
This page contains a collection of cinematic scripts found in Astarion's scenes.
Overview[edit | edit source]
These cinematic scripts for the cutscenes, which are more akin to written storyboards combined with developers' notes, are included under the "Expand" buttons below. They are all part of the game files.[1]
Information about scene creation involving the character writers, mocap actors and cinematic artists, along with its significance for storytelling, can be found in the Development section.
Conclusion of the romance with Astarion[edit | edit source]
The following full internal script of the conclusion of the Romance with Astarion can be found in the file: CAMP_Astarion_SD_ROM_BlackMassAftermath.lsj
It is divided into several sections:
Ascended Astarion[edit | edit source]
General


“ | Fade to black and fade in as Astarion takes TAV into another section of the camp/a quiet secluded place. The player character is naked and vulnerable before him. |
„ |
Rough

“ | Astarion clutches the player character's neck in his hand and grins, squeezing before biting them. Astarion's right hand shoots up quickly, grabbing the player character's neck. Locking eyes with them, he starts to squeeze their neck; the player character squirms a bit, gasping for breath. They're enjoying it. Astarion then releases the player character's neck, leaning over to bare his fangs and bite into the player character's neck. After a while, he stops and raises his head. (Note: Astarion is still on top of the player character, his body shifted slightly to the side (the player character's right) so he has room to take their neck and do all the bloodsucking). |
„ |
Gentle

“ | Astarion takes the player character's hand, kisses the top of it, then turns it over and starts to bite their wrist. Astarion reaches down, takes their hand with his right hand. He brings the hand up to his lips. He kisses it gently, tenderly. Then looking at the player character, he turns their hand over to expose the wrist. He takes a bite. The player character stares at Astarion while feasting, enjoying the sensation. After a while, he stops and raises his head. (Note: Astarion is still lying on top of the player character) (Show camera up top angle shot of the player character's face to hide the fact that Astarion could either be feeding from their wrist or neck) |
„ |
Spawn Astarion[edit | edit source]




“ | Shot of the graveyard to set the scene. |
„ |
Evil Endings[edit | edit source]
The following full internal scripts for the evil endings are found in two game files:
- The ending where the player character chooses to [2] can be found in
END_BrainBattle_FinalDecision_Nested_EvilAvatar.lsj
.
and is in a romance with Astarion - Astarion's evil ending as an Origin, in which he plunges the city into darkness and gives it over to his vampire spawn[3] can be found in:
END_BrainBattle_FinalDecision_Nested_EvilAstarion.lsj
.
Romanced Astarion[edit | edit source]




“ | The player is seated on their throne atop the Netherbrain after having seized control. Their companions, if present, stand nearby, enthralled/dominated. |
„ |
Astarion as an Origin[edit | edit source]




“ | Astarion stands proud with arms raised by side, taking a deep breath before becoming engulfed in light. He walks forward amongst the kneeling crowd. |
„ |
Development[edit | edit source]
Stephen Rooney, the main writer for Astarion, discussed the process of writing scenes for BG3 in several interviews.“ | (...) You write the line, (...) it gets recorded, it gets mocapped. You have to kind of give people instructions for mocap. It comes back, you're talking to the cinematic artist because they need to know how the scene is meant to play out. Sometimes stuff is sent back (...) for re-records. [4] |
„ |
“ | It definitely changes how you go about approaching writing dialogue and (...) how you approach (...) crafting any scene. Because you have to be so much more aware of "okay, these are the things that can happen in cinematics and these are things that can't realistically happen in cinematics". And you have to be (...) much more aware of like, okay if the character is going to pick something up here, that is going to make this scene X times more expensive rather than if they just [waving his arms] (...) You narrow your focus basically, you become a bit more restricted in the things that you feel that you can do and you can’t do. But it also means that when you’re crafting the scene and you’re thinking, okay I’m actually going to able to show this, this isn’t just going to be something that’s going to be told... The audience is going to see this look, this expression on their face or whatever... It very literally brings the camera from way up here (...) and it gives you that an intimacy that you could never otherwise craft.[5] |
„ |
“ | When we're writing the scenes, we have an amount of cinematic direction that we can give as well. First of all, when we're coming up with scenes, if there isn't already a very clear brief on what the scene is going to look like, we can always suggest things. (...) We can give this direction a lot of the time, and we will get feedback - that's a very polite request of like "could we do this other thing that isn't impossible to film", which we are (...) happy to accommodate. Again, it's very collaborative and it's very iterative. So, a lot of the time we will go to cinematic artists and say: "can we do this?" And they'll say: "yes, or no, but you can do this other thing". We go back, we write the dialogue that way, and then it gets filmed that way. Then they implement it, and it looks better than we ever could have imagined - that tends to be the way it goes. (...) I will say, under the cinematic kind of front as well, we have to give tremendous credit to the actors themselves, who are actually there in the suits, who are there doing the scenes, reading the lines, and they'll add so many little flashes and little touches and stuff themselves. Because everything is mocapped, that all gets translated fairly directly into the game. So it's a collaboration on 4D chess kind of levels (...) [6] |
„ |
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
- ↑ These cinematic scripts can be extracted from the game with the help of the BG3 Modders Multitool or a Parser.
- ↑ This scene can only trigger as shown if Astarion has ascended or his quest has not been completed.
- ↑ Story Artist Dave Stokes has also shared his storyboard for this scene.
- ↑ Aunty Sochelle Scribbles with Stephen Rooney
- ↑ Astarion's Dark Origins: Baldur’s Gate 3 Vampire Secrets Revealed - Larian Writer Exclusive
- ↑ Interview with Astarion's writer Stephen Rooney