Originally Posted by Silver/
Astarion is a vampire, and therefore literally evil.

In Larian's setting, this obviously isn't true, since Astarion is an Origin character and can therefore be anything the player wants him to be. Jaheira even sort of lampshades this at one point.

There is a plot hole which niggles at me in Astarion's story, but it's not the one mentioned above.

Is Astarion essential to the ritual or not essential to the ritual? The game seemingly tries to have it both ways.