Astarion: First impression - funny, interesting, “Mr. Disapproval”. The knife scene made an impression - I love such surprise plot moves and “non-standard“ variants of getting to know future companions. But then Astarion entered my heart like no other character in any other game before. His story shook me to the core, became much more important than the main storyline or anything else. Astarion is so alive thanks to Neil's wonderful acting, his emotions, his voice, his facial expressions - no fictional character has ever evoked such feelings before. My all time favorite character, just for him I keep logging into the game until now, simply because I start to miss him if I don't see him for a long time. The big disappointment was the writing of his romance (act 3). Not Astarion himself - he's lovely, he has great lines and his gaze alone, the way he looks at Tav, is worth a lot. But extremely, in my opinion, a meager choice of lines for the player, very few not only decent, but at least any acceptable lines for roleplay, rails in the story, imposed mimicry, such novelization I have not yet met in any RPG-game. It changed my opinion a lot, but not of the character, but of the quality of the game as a whole. Fortunately, modders have fixed a great many of his romance's shortcomings, and it's possible to have a much better gaming experience with mods. Still, Astarion's own personality is far more appealing than even a well-written romance in any other game, so it's a truly unique experience.
Minthara: My first impression was wrong. I mistook her for an evil boss only when I found her wearing camp clothes, I thought there was something wrong, but the knockout method didn't work then. On the second playthrough I already knew too much about her to get a fresh first impression, but my overall impression is a wonderful companion, the most intelligent companion in the group. My favorite character #2. Disappointing that she has so little content, and that she's been unfairly neglected.
Lae'zel - first impression is good, liked the fact that she challenges me and argues. Interesting character. To Lae'zel I have no complaints - very interesting personal quest, bright and well revealed and realized character. Plus she's very useful - not a single boss fight was without Lae'zel.
Shadowhart - no complaints either. Her story is moving and she is quite intelligent and observant.
Gale - there are some good interesting lines, funny moments with him. My first impression of him was better than the subsequent ones. But no particular complaints, either. And neither is there any specific sympathy.
Wyll - the first impression is neutral, after negative. Pretty stupid character, I have no sympathy for him, in the first playthrough I completed his quest and uncovered his story, further sits in the camp forever. All I found interesting about him was his personal quest, which is well written and engaging. The character himself, not so much.
Karlach is a character-disappointment. The biggest difference between the first impression (I liked her a lot at first) and the subsequent one. Her intelligence does not shine, in Act 3 her engine problems and constant talk about how she is going to die are already perceived as whining. The quest itself looks unfinished and underdeveloped, in my first playthrough I always try to complete all companion's quests in as much detail as possible, and Karlach looked like the only companion with an underdeveloped quest. But speaking of her, I don't really care.
Minsc, Jaheira are my least favorite companions. Minsc is much more in line with the original than Jaheira, but I don't have the patience to see them around for longer than it took to complete their quests in the first playthrough. I liked them better in previous games in the BG series, though I was never a big fan of them. If Larian had paid more attention to their own characters instead, the game would have been better in my opinion.
Halsin - stands apart. The character, in my opinion, could have been realized much better. He had much more interesting potential in EA. In the first playthrough I had an extremely negative attitude towards him. Later - I decided to be open-minded, skipping with the help of the “space” key his “offer”, simply refusing him and not paying attention to his obsession. In everything else - a good, adequate companion, more pleasant than many other “good” companions, like the same Wyll. He doesn't have many lines, but I didn't find anything repulsive or silly. It was a character with a good idea, but not the best realization.
