Despite being flirty, he doesn't throw himself at you, and from what I've heard, and the statistics Larian gave out, people actually get rejected by him very often.
So I was just about to comment that people on the steam forums now think his use of Darling is also 'sexual assault', as well as the misconception that it is 'flirting'.
Based on the accent and words, we can clearly tell that Astarion speaks British English from 100-200 years ago in the real world.
Back then and even today, it is common place in Britain to be referred to and call others 'love, honey, sugar or darling'.
This might come as a culture shock to Americans, but no one is flirting with or coming onto you when they use these words, it is as common as 'how are you?' except in the UK it will very often be 'how are you my love?'.
So one time I overheard my dad on the phone, not sure who with, but it could have been his doctors surgery to a random telemarketer. All of his responses were 'Yes love. No love. Yes love. Yes love'. Etc.
A past interview I went to, I had a female interviewer casually referring to me as 'Yes my lovely'. Darling is much more older English but still commonly used, as are sugar and honey. Even when stopped on the street by a random stranger and asked for directions, you will very likely hear 'Its this / that way my love / darling / honey / sugar'.
I guess most Americans would be traumatized and have to phone the police to claim they have just been sexually abused if exposed to such language lol.
I have in fact heard 3 times from men who are new or recent to Yorkshire 'I was surprised that I was called love by another man, like is that gay? Was that person gay? Why did they say that?' Like no, they say it to everyone they meet, sorry but you're not that special and that person will not retain any memory of having met or spoken to you lol.
