…Huh? Astarion will potentially sleep with Lae’zel at the Tiefling party. If that’s not proof enough of his canon interest in women, I don’t know what would be. He also flirts with both Lae’zel and Shadowheart multiple times in party banter.
No, that would be Wyll on both accounts.
Astarion has kind of an awkward banter with Gale about enjoying walking with him with Gale's answer "Yes, in silence".
No, Astarion flirts with both Shadowheart and Lae'zel too. The fact that Wyll also does this is irrelevant.
Well, because there is a clear pattern to it, it's all men that he mentions and not a single female. He clearly singled them out for a reason, these two are the ones that he remembers out of 1000 (handsome and shy, and never been kissed and a darling boy). And who's to say that it was compassion and nothing more? That's what it seems to you, but not to me.
Er, no, the point is that two out of one thousand is
not a pattern at all. And those are only the two he just so happens to mention. He said that there were others besides Sebastian who he felt extreme guilt over, and doesn't mention their sex, so for all anyone knows some of them were female too.
And regardless of what it seems to you, Astarion says flat-out that you're the first person he has ever truly cared about if you romance him. That's a pretty clear indication that what he felt for his past victims wasn't love. He likely never even knew them long enough to form a genuine connection. You don't need to be in love with someone in order to feel bad about destroying their life.
As for bringing men home being easier then women, well, let me give you an example from the game, as to apparently just how easy it is to lure a female as well. In the sewers you'll meet a girl who is waiting there for Petras to take her to a party. Well, that didn't seem hard for him to convince an unfamiliar female to go to the sewer and then to the party without asking many questions. So, clearly in a world of BG3 it is just that SIMPLE.
Yes, he flirts with everyone that is true, but is not a concrete indication for his preferences, its more that he does it instinctively.
You're arbitrarily giving major importance to trivial things that fit your narrative and ignoring things that don't. Why does his flirtation with women "not count?" Why does the woman in the cell "not count?" (She doesn't even look like a man at all??) Why does the fact that he will HAVE WILLING SEX WITH A WOMAN "not count?" He can turn you down at the party if your approval isn't high enough, so clearly he won't sleep with literally anyone just because they ask, there needs to be some level of attraction for him. Hell, if you sleep with Mizora he even says he's jealous you didn't invite him to sleep with her too.
I could maybe understand if he had somewhat of a preference for men, as not all bisexual people are an even 50/50, but he clearly has a demonstrated interest in women too. That's a fact evidenced by what we see in the game. You wanting to die on this really weird hill doesn't change that.
