Aye don't worry, I understood what you meant. And I agree, they could've put a little less emphasis on who he bedded. Though since it's sort of necessary for his story right now, it could've simply been more diverse like you asked for, to avoid the need for that much suspension of disbelief if you roleplay a female character.
I think it's fine as-is, and makes the most sense.
To me, Astarion has always come off as someone primarily attracted to men over women - but, given how his life has been for the past 200 years under Cazador's thumb, he likely wasn't allowed much of a choice in the matter of who he was allowed to bed/who he had to bring back for Cazador.
To give a personal example as to why he reads this way to me: I'm
technically bisexual, and have only really dated men in my life (however sparsely I dated at all). That said, I consider myself a lesbian in practice - I prefer women both on a physical and emotional scale, and while I'm in the asexual spectrum, I still know I've rarely ever looked at my past male partners and felt physical attraction to them. It was purely emotional attraction, while we were together. And at this point in my life, if I ever do date anyone again, it'd be a woman. I just don't want nor care for a relationship with a man anymore.
That doesn't really mean I can't find men attractive
at all... but, for the most part, I've only ever seemed to find fictional men physically attractive.
I kind of view Astarion as being similar to myself, just flipped; he likely only feels both physical and emotional attraction to men, but over the 200 years he was having to bring people back to Cazador and essentially sell his body out to do so, he can likely at least manage an emotional attraction to a woman, even if it may not fully extend to physical attraction. I think if you put a male and female Tav with him, and they both tried to romance him, he would be more partial to a male Tav over a female Tav. That doesn't mean he can't feel anything for a female Tav
at all... just, that preferences would still create a bias.
Which, while we can go into the depiction of pansexuality as a result of trauma being potentially harmful to write... at the end of the day, you can still romance him as a female Tav and, from what I've seen, his relationship isn't any different than if it's a male Tav. Me, personally? I just romance him with a male Tav because it makes the most sense in my mind.
(I may come back and rewrite some of this later after work, when I have more time and my brain has actually had time to wake up properly. This post feels messy, sorry about that!)
