Originally Posted by NoCTuRNa
Originally Posted by Maiandra
This is why it's too bad to hear Astarion is so obviously evil.

that is an opinion that is not shared by everyone. if you dig deeper into astarion there is a justification for a lot of his behavior. a lot of people confuse self-serving with evil, but as i said, once you dig deep enough, you understand all the motivations behind a lot of what he does or says, & he is by far the best romance option & the only one that even acts like a romance even happened after the fact. with the right options, there are chances to read his mind, dig much deeper, see how truly damaged, regretful & pained & just plain sad he really is, & to have him open up to you about the horrific things he has been through, had to do, or had done to him. he has many, many, many layers & definitely puts up a wall & acts a certain way to hide what is behind it all... & of course, he is hands down, the funniest character, with the best dialogue & an amazing voice, which easily makes him the most interesting companion & the one i sympathise/empathise with the most... so there's that lol (in other words, not everyone believes he is the most evil, & again, there's a difference between being evil & being more interested in your own freedom & survival than any other concerns).

It's not my opinion either, based on solely what I've seen in my one playthrough with him (I stated that in an earlier post--but that was further back in the thread). The statement above was based on what others had said, which is why I said "hear." smile I assumed they had seen further evidence of that in interactions I'd missed, since I was only playing a neutral character at the time.

I agree that pragmatic behaviour (or even sometimes selfish behaviour) isn't evil, and I haven't seen how he reacts to outright evil behaviour. If he reacts favourably to hurting others for (his own) enjoyment then that I would classify as evil. Although I often secretly (or not so secretly) hope that people can be swayed away from evil by helping them.

The most interesting thing isn't whether a character is good or evil, it's WHY they're good or evil. If they give them complex reasons for being how they are, then that's so much better than just "Mwahahaha! I want to take over the world for power (but no good reason other than that)."