As much as I know people will go "you can't compare reality to fiction!", I'll say it anyway: people also tend to come up with all sorts of reasons to justify criminals of any degree, so leaping to Astarion's defense isn't that surprising. Whether we think he's evil, morally grey or just a poor unfortunate victim of circumstance though, these viewpoints tend to be very static. I think we can agree that he's not Good?
