There are reasons, why I kill Astarion outright nowadays. I don't want a knife on my throat and I don't want rapey vampire feeding scenes, so he dies.
And I do think, that most scenes involving Astarion are handled poorly. I mean who in their right mind want that psycho in their group? Even in an evil playthrough the guy is at best a liability. I mean literally the first thing he does is threaten you - not even standoffish Lae'zel is that stupid. I tried every route with Astarion, even did the romance once ( although I did puke a little in my mouth while doing that) and I really can' t see one redeeming quality or good reason for keeping him around.
