There's a massive difference between evil, and jerk. Evil characters don't have to be snarky moustache twirling villains. They are people too, they can have friends, and laugh, and have fun. Crazy I know. Adding conflicting personality traits to characters is what makes them feel more real and relatable.
Most of the companions act like they are not 1st level characters. They most likely accomplished more in their adventuring career hanging with the PC than ever before. Laezel is acting like killing a camp full of goblins is just another day at work. Nothing special. She most likely haven't done anything close to it in her life, and still every time I approach her I get this "SPEAK! QUICKLY!" like I am working for her or something. The same goes for the rest, they all act like they are some accomplished adventurers, their stupid attitude is not reflecting their actual in-game power.
There may be a massive difference between the two, but they aren't mutually exclusive either. I'm frankly liking that the companions aren't automatically Player-centric. I appreciate how they react, each to their own beliefs instead of attaching to the PC and doing whatever with no objection. As far as banter goes, I've had some that wasn't just running each other down, with Shadowheart and Lae'zal in the party. Someone mentioned Alistair and Morrigan above, and I'd have loved to read the comments about that pair by some of the people posting here. I absolutely despised Alistair as a person, but loved him as a character, because he could generate that level of animosity from me. Tip of the hat to David Gaider on that one.
