I’m going to be an Astarion apologist on main for a minute, but here’s the thing:
Despite the most common interpretation, Astarion doesn’t disapprove of all good actions and approve of all evil actions. If you try to apply that logic there are a handful of moments where his approval and disapproval makes zero sense.
Take Glutt for example. The evil thing to do would be to agree to help Glutt slaughter the Sovereign, but Astarion approves if you turn down Glutt and kill him—because the alternative forces you to take on the entire myconid colony and be put in unnecessary danger. He usually approves of you going the persuasion/deception route to get out of conflict for the same reason. Despite his gleeful “let’s go hurt someone” line, Astarion’s primary goal is to never fight unless it’s either necessary or easy.
Astarion disapproves when you make decisions that puts him (and the whole party) at risk. He hates when you take on extra dangerous tasks for strangers out of the kindness of your heart, but not because he wants those people to suffer. It’s because he has one goal: survive. Astarion has been in survival mode for 200 years and that goes into hyperdrive with the tadpole. He didn’t come all this way and have his first taste of freedom in centuries to die just because you have a hero complex.
There’s still plenty to judge him and side eye him about for that, but i do think the subtle difference in motivation makes him a much more interesting character than “i like evil and hate helping people.”
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