I have anxiety and love horror. It's a good way to deal with it. That's why act 2 is my favourite part of the game, you are basically in Lovecrafts wet dream. And yes, it is good and healthy to separate fantasy and reality, but stories can help people to deal with quite a bit.
Stories is a good way to deal with it, I heartily agree.
That said, I prefer to play good in BG3,since I just like too many NPCs. But imo, if you want, you can call Astarion out quite a lot. He will not always acknowledge it or react like a toddler, but he is changing. His conversations are more friendly and he starts approving, if you help people, has different banter and is generally more open minded. He is an evil character, but he can go one way or the other, depending on what he takes from the group. If I'd ever do an evil playthrough ( maybe after patch 7), I would use Astarion for that for sure.
I think I do see what you mean,
thinking about my latest playthrough I got spawn dialog from him after accepting Bhaal and it really did not suit him as ascended. Huge difference. But I think it is a bit up to interpetation from the player if he is "unhappy spawn", pretending to be good or "corrupted ascended", any trace of goodness destroyed forever. I can see how both can be true for different players headcannons. And is generally why I'm not that keen on discussing what is true of those two, because I think it wholly depends on the player.
