I'm a huge Astarion fan whose sick of hearing about Astarion.
1. Whether or not he is queer-coded means nothing to who he actually is. Trying to correlate his flamboyant nature to being queer is a little bit of a stereotype and at the end of the day, Astarion is Pan. He romanced both men and women and his victims are also both.
2. Trying to tie him being "queer-coded" to his vampirism in a very stretch-worthy attempt to say Larian is trying to say being queer is evil is one of the most insane reaches I've ever heard. If they are so hell-bent on shaming queerness, why hasn't this come up with any other character? They can all be queer. I mean, hell, you have Aylin and Isobel who are downright celebrated so I don't know where you're getting that.
3. The AA path, in my opinion, is supposed to bother people. But not because "queer is bad" (because it isn't and I'd bet money Larian doesn't think so) but because the sacrifices made to true power are painted in evil sacrifice with erases good nature. It's about power corrupting completely. After Astarion ascends, if you romance him, he sees you as his property rather than an equal. He becomes paranoid, domineering, and lacking all self-awareness he had about doing what he could to not be like Cazador. That's the point.
I am a little tired with people pretending AA is a good guy underneath it all; I'm sure you've all seen the justifications. "If you really want Astarion to be happy, then Ascend him." But then he becomes power-hungry to the point that he wants to bleed the world dry, I mean...
Either way, this is why people are bothered by the kisses. Tav has a victim's face when Astarion replicates the night he turns you by making you get on your knees. It's cause she has no choice anymore. She's his spawn. But everyone wantes AA to remain their dark romance which I understand.
I think they should change the victim face she gets. No one should be comfortable with non-consensual behavior. But at the end of the day, I wouldn't put it past AA. He really really really isn't a good person.
