It’s no secret that Baldur’s Gate 3 contains its fair share of dark themes and cutscenes, but one especially questionable moment between Astarion and Shadowheart was cut from the final game – and fans aren’t sure how to feel about it.
Warning: the contents of this article touch on particularly violent scenes that readers might find distressing.
The scene in question resurfaced recently following players’ datamining of the game, with a Reddit post highlighting its content. An attached clip shows the scene play out between the two beloved Baldur’s Gate 3 companions, and admittedly, it’s pretty brutal.
In it, Astarion sneaks up on Shadowheart to bite her, much like he still does in the RPG’s first act – except this time, when his unsuspecting victim wakes up and notices, his reaction is different.
After a surprised Shadowheart gets up, Astarion tackles her to the ground and strangles her as she struggles, leaving her dead. It’s an animation I never expected to see as a hardened stan of the game (and the two companions) myself, and judging by the comments, it seems I’m not alone.
“If this actually had happened in the game,” speculates a fellow fan under the video, “then I imagine 75% of the playerbase would be killing Astarion immediately.”
More Datamined Animations between Astarion and Shadowheart from r/BaldursGate3
Another simply exclaims that the scene is “actually really dark,” with more players agreeing underneath their response.
“Well,” writes someone, “I can see why they cut it.” Fans also take to the replies with possible reasons why Larian Studios was cooking the scene up in the first place, with many guessing that it would fit well into an Origin playthrough featuring Astarion instead of the user-created Tav: “This animation is probably from an Origin Astarion PoV.”
In that case, the scene would make sense as a reaction from Astarion during the “bite night” moment in which he tries to drink a camp member’s blood. Regardless, it’s undeniably a heavy scene, and it’s not difficult to understand why Larian chose to axe it from the game’s final cut.
“This made me uncomfortable,” as one fan puts in a comment. “Glad they removed it” – and honestly, despite the RPG’s other dark themes, so am I.
