I mean both evil and bad. He's not a corrupt magistrate in full release and it's not how he wants to end up.
Have you not passed Ansur quest and not played Astarion's origin? He's still a corrupt magistrate. But without the upper city, we can't get information about it. The magistrate cannot live in the lower city. He wanted power from the very beginning and that's why he got involved with vampires. So getting power is literally his main goal. If you want to think about freedom, then look at Karlach. She is the best example of freedom and she never say that we need to capture a cult or manipulate people with tadpoles.
