Likewise, Astarion's mannerisms remind me of Frank'N'Further from the Rocky Horror show, which prevents me from taking him the least bit seriously. This is mostly a voice acting issue, not so much a writing one, but I still hope the writers will tone down those personalities a bit.
I quite like him! He reminds me of the male elves from Oblivion, who drove a lot of players nuts because the dunmer in particular weren't the suspicious, gravel-voiced hard-arses from Morrowind but quite the opposite.
In DOS2 Ifan got a complete makeover between EA and the final release (he was a whiny, drug-addled washout in the first iteration), so it may just happen.
That was quite the transformation. The Mk II version was IMHO a big improvement on the grungy drudanae-obsessed emo he was originally; that's not to say that character didn't have some potential, but I guess that wasn't a direction that was working for them.
