Just a quick reminder, Welch uses they/them pronouns.
I'm skimming over the forum messages because I find that I agree with a lot of points Welch talked about so I'm not super interested in discussion, but, to clarify a few things I've seen: The transcriber transcribed it as "no lollies" but they said "no lolis". Lolis (or lolicon) refers to a manga/anime archetype where characters who are or look like underage girls are sexualised. So yeah, it was pretty rational to say there shouldn't be any in a game.
The scene where Astarion sleeps with you in act 2 is pretty well described in the talk, basically you ignore what he's telling you and say you want to sleep with him, you do, and then he breaks up with you once he realises that was a horrible thing for him and that you made that terrible choice. If you have the heart for it and aren't triggered by that topic, it is a great poignant scene. It's very painful but I was in awe at the guts it took to write something like this in a videogame, or rather, a (soon-to-be-done) romance.
I'd also say I find analysing what Welch is saying in this talk to redirect it into AA discourse (which they didn't go into in this talk, at all) to be kind of in bad faith.
I haven't made it through the whole talk yet, so my internal questons might be answered by the rest. I, too, thought the described portion of the act 2 scene was handled well and a brave addition. What I find curious about both of the act 2 scenes though is that while the "bad" outcomes - the ones that lead to break-up one way or another - are treated with some depth, the one way through which you can progress the romance is incredibly shallow.
The only way you can keep the romance status is to tell Astarion that you care about him without any reservations. Especially in the Post-Araj scene this is jarring, since in this version his confession that he only used you, comes without remorse, worse he is making fun of you for having been so easy. If you keep the whole "circle of abuse" narrative in mind, this would have been the perfect moment to show how his exploitative behaviour while understandable, is also harmful and very much not ok. Yet the PC is not allowed to have conflicting feelings, to be torn between being in love with Astarion but also feeling hurt by him, to maybe even feel disgusted by themselves for involuntarily having added to Astarion's discomfort.
To write about relationships, especially difficult ones, you have to consider both participants and with the exception of Durge maybe, Astarion's romance does a horrible job envisioning the PC and the PC's feelings.
