I find it kind of funny how many people compare Astarion to the Twilight/True Blood vampires, when he always reminded me more of the Interview with the Vampire ones... he's just too flamboyant and not nearly broody enough to be in any way similar to Edward Cullen or whatever. In my opinion at least.
Anyway, I find Astarion as an NPC just fine. I've talked to him a lot more in my latest playthrough and I don't know if it's connected to the latest patch or just me being out of the loop, but he has gotten a lot of good and interesting dialogue that better characterize him. Like the whole mirror conversation is kind of funny if you decide not to take the flirty route, and the fact that you can actually kill him outright when he tries to nibble on you is pretty great.
