And would propose, as an experiment, to try to see things more nicely.
In the dialogue control of the cult in Act 2. Astarion thinks of such a Tav (help Tiefeflins) as a goody-two-shoes. And naivety. If you keep talking about goodness, he'll say no ambition.
Honestly "seeing nicer things" isn't really for Astarion, and there's no need to justify it at all. Only to explore. Astarion needs balance, certainly, but not defang.
I think he's always had a Machiavellian, cynical mindset before slavery. Because Astarion is a evil character for the evil path. Like Minthara, only male one. By dnd evil is greed, selfishness, doing what I want even if it harms others.
Balance can be made with logic, practicality of the "evil" world picture and romance.
Astarion is nice, softer only in the romance. I think that was the idea - soft on those who really love him and who he really loves. Harsh on everyone else. This is usually the case for an evil character in fantasy romance.
But there are some confusing points.
Approval, for example. I was suggesting that a player's key actions evil or good, would sort of influence approvals and reactions.
Considering Astarion has abrupt (that's the impression we have) a transition and we can't explore his complex evil, and thus can't tie up the strings to his endings. I wrote
here that his past and playing with his past would help us understand this point better.
