Since I went through the romantic dialogue again yesterday to get to the party: I took his expressions and the lack of suggestions he makes as uncertainty about how to deal with the situation. He has tried to manipulate the player until the middle of Act2, then relapsed into this behaviour again early in Act3 when the ritual drew closer. I assumed that he didn't want to inadvertently push the pc into a direction again. I also saw his double and tripple checking if you really want to stay with him in this light. That is alright with me. I just hate that we can't equally be considerate and make suggestions instead of decisions.
I didn't see his dock-sequence because I was on Origin-Gale and Mystra is impatient, so Gale doesn't have to watch Astarion run away. But in Astarion's Origin, Gale has a line that suggests that they maybe should all look for shade together and I really liked that. It's both in more character for Gale and more caring about Astarion. I would prefer more statements of this kind - or just someone casting darkness, when it's on their spell-bar.
