been playing bg3 again lately and my in-game justification for playing origin Astarion way nicer than he actually is, is that throughout Act 1 his only companion was Wyll. so Astarion basically went
"well, shit, I need him for protection but he's such a goody-two-shoes that he'll run for the hills if I act too much like me an arsehole. gotta pretend to be at least a decent person"
...and somewhere along the way he accidentally fell in love with Wyll which did not improve his situation
then in Act 2 Halsin joins which elicited the reaction of
"oh fuck another one and this one comes with a dash of protecting nature on top"
and then Jaheira joins and he gets to be all
"thank the gods finally someone who appreciates me being a little bitch at them"
which at this point is almost as good as all the horrible shit he would have liked to be doing all along
