Astarion/Tav

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Pairing
Pairing: Astarion/Tav
Alternative name(s):
Gender category: Slash, Het, Non-binary
Fandom: Baldur's Gate III
Canonical?: player determinant
Prevalence: the most popular
Archives:
Other:
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Astarion/Tav is the popular canonical pairing of Astarion and the player character Tav in Baldur's Gate III fandom. Its category depends on whether the player created a female, male or non-binary Tav.

Canon

Fandom

Statistics

Astarion/Tav is currently the most popular overall Baldur's Gate pairing on the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own.[1] Writers often cross-tag Astarion/Tav fics as Astarion/OC to indicate Tav's gender.[2][3] This is because AO3 currently lacks canonical tags for the female, male, and non-binary versions of the ship. Based on cross-tagging, the het version of the ship appears more popular (2,311 OFC fics) than the slash version (1,666 OMC fics).[2][3] The ship placed 10th in centreoftheselights' 2023 end-of-year review of the most popular pairings on AO3 by new works posted.[4] It did not rank in the top 100 in an August 2023 review, the same month as Baldur's Gate III's official release.[5] Fanart of the ship is common on Twitter, Tumblr, and DeviantArt, with the het version having an apparent edge.

Larian released statistics in December 2023 showing that the most popular in-game romances in BG3 are (in order) Shadowheart, Karlach, and Lae'zel.[6] It is uncertain whether Astarion took fourth place. This revelation provoked surprise and discourse among fans who regard him as the fandom's breakout character. The statistics likely reflect a global player base composed primarily of heterosexual cis men, in contrast to the queer-friendly, woman-centered fannish communities that generally produce fanfiction. Larian also counted only players who completed a romance arc.[6] Thus, the statistics did not include players still progressing through the game at the time, nor instances of players initiating an Astarion romance but not finishing it (typically due to an in-game break up).

Examples of Fanwork

Fanfic

Fanart

Fan Vids

Wikis

Gallery

External Links

References