#also honorable mention goes to the continuing pan/biphobic “discourse”

[haldenlith]

*stares wearily into the void*

I don't see it super often, but I see it enough to be very tired of "Well actually Astarion doesn't like polyamory, and you should feel bad for forcing him into a polyamorous relationship."

He is literally incredibly supportive in the dialogue to initiate a polyamorous relationship with Halsin. It is right there in the game. In fact, even Astarion's "break-up" dialogues when you initiate a romance with another origin character admit that he's normally okay with polyamorous relationships, his sticking point is the particular person he'd be sharing Tav with. This also further goes against the argument I've seen of "Well actually when he says he's okay with Halsin he's pretending because he's afraid of losing Tav". Astarion is more than willing to break up with Tav if he's not okay with what's going on with the relationship. Stop taking away this man's agency.

I shouldn't be surprised, though. Fandoms love to infantilize their "favorite little meow meow".

Seriously, just say you don't like polyamory. Just say it. It's fine. You're allowed to not like things. You really don't need to create some moral high ground.

I just wish people would just, you know, stop stripping characters of certain traits to fit that. If you don't like the idea of a polyamorous character, Gale, Lae'zel, and Wyll are all right there. Karlach's pretty much the only grey area, given that her response could definitely be taken in a "I'm not super comfortable with the arrangement, but I'm also not comfortable denying you either" way, which is honestly an interesting and nice little show of how messy polyamory can be.

But seriously, I swear, I am so tired of the "you're ucky wucky for doing the poly with Astarion and Halsin" take.

#haldie rants #I've seen a lot of yikes vibes in the Astarion fandom honestly #I've never felt the need to use the block button so much #until now #because YIKES #also honorable mention goes to the continuing pan/biphobic “discourse” #of “Astarion isn't for the women” or “women don't deserve him” #getting real tired of seeing various permutations of that take pop up too